July 14, 2006
Tshirts say: We put the fun back in Dysfunctional
Category Archives: Uncategorized
July 14, 2006
holes in my blog
The problem with letting a blog go into a holding pattern for a while is that life doesn’t have a hold button and so many astonishing things happen, it’s hard to know where to start to catch up.
Summer has been incredible. Vacation to Oak Island, NC with the whole family, I
June 18, 2006
Dodge Learning at the Fairgrounds
Perry, Georgia is about a 1.5 hour drive south from Atlanta. I’ve been to Perry before to visit schools and love the quaint downtown area. But this conference wasn’t downtown — it was at the fairgrounds. I know what county fairgrounds are about — this is where the prize winning apple pies
April 5, 2006
What’s the use in love poems?
After the sixth grade assembly a boy came up to me and asked, “Why do poets always write about love? Never did ME any good.”“How old are you?”“Eleven.”“Well, give it another chance, you’ve got time.”“Love is just a kick in the crotch.” And he walked off before I could get any more senseless words out
April 2, 2006
Memorial Junior High and beyond
It is rare that I visit a school and get to come home for lunch, but Memorial is right down the road from my house. I had a great time with the writing club and with an honors English class writing. In the afternoon, the two assemblies went well. But in between, I visited
March 28, 2006
Perseus House Charter School of Excellence
I drove home from a great visit to Perseus in Erie, PA today only to sit down to watch another expose about yet another teacher engaged in appropriate conduct with a student. Purportedly.
How come the teachers I met today in Erie never make the news? The ones who attend
March 25, 2006
Between a rock and a melting place
Ajax (the special needs dog) is eating a pencil under my desk. I’m dressed for the gym but stalled here at the computer. I read the news — or most of it. I’m afraid to look at the article about the melting polar cap and disappearing glaciers. I already struggled through
March 23, 2006
Don’t know how to feel about this
Let’s say some school district, a big district, is putting together scripted lesson plans for the third grade, a program that is destined to grow up through all the grades. It is organized into 10 minute segments so that every teacher in the district can be at the same point at the same time
March 23, 2006
Parkside Elementary School, Goshen, IN
Goshen is in prairie country, flat and windswept. Tuesday morning dawned clear and cold — extra cold. The reception at school however was warm and welcoming. The students from Parkside are camping out at a school called (appropriately) Praire Elementary while their own school is undergoing an extreme makeover. But before
March 23, 2006
Poem the poem — Parkside teacher Matt Cooper had his fifth graders rewrite some of my poems, to “poem the poem,” as he describes it. Here one student rewrote “Which Way to the Dragon” as Which Way to my Teddy Bear.”
