Lockport High School Teachers Lou Cercone and Joe Spero It’s been a busy week already, and it’s only Wednesday. I’m spending some time coaching in Lockport City Schools, and I’m hoping to share my reflections from this work here over the next few days. In the mean time, I wanted to introduce you to two of the talented WNY educators I’ve been working with this week: Lockport High School English Teachers Lou Cercone and…
“There’s a ghost in our classroom,” Ian informed me as I slid into the seat right next to him. “Really?” I asked, looking around his kindergarten classroom for clues. “How do you know?” And that was when the power went out. “Well, there’s some proof,” he suggested drily. “And the bathroom door keeps opening and closing.” “It’s really windy out,” I said. “We’ve got a ghost,” Ian said plainly, tiring of my antics. And that…
On my Kindle this week: The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly by Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan. Forward by Peter Senge. Highlights: “I believe there is no more telling indicator of the absence of collective wisdom that the inability to learn as we go. It is characterized by rigidness and dogma. It is characterized by low trust and the inability to talk about difficult subjects where…
Jessica Gentner, Fifth Grade Teacher at Lindbergh Elementary School in Kenmore, New York Parent-teacher conferences were different for our family this year, thanks to our school district’s recent decision to move toward standards-based grading and report cards at the elementary level and this very talented teacher’s thoughtful use of formative assessment processes. Jessica Gentner is our daughter Nina’s fifth grade teacher. Quite a few parents are more than impressed by the fact that she knows…
“Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.” CCR.W.6 Last week, I had the honor of visiting Molly Koelle’s classroom. Molly is a teacher at Roy B. Kelley Elementary School in Lockport, New York. I’ve been supporting teachers and administrators there for several years now, and when Molly invited me to drop in and observe her in action during her literacy block, I knew I would…
April is National Poetry Month! Ready to write? The Academy of American poets shares 30 ideas for doing so here. Scholastic provides a bounty of inspiration and lesson planning support on their site. Up for a poem-a-day challenge? Check out Poetic Asides, find yourself inspired by Bud Hunt’s daily photo prompts, and drop by local poet Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s blog to congratulate her on writing a poem a day…for an entire year. She weaves some…
Read this book. “Too often, people think the idea of letting students choose their own topic or text comes from the romantic notion that adults shouldn’t interfere with children’s development, that it should be allowed to unfold naturally. Letting kids “do what they want” sometimes strikes observers as quaintly soft and naive. This may be because some teachers express the principle of choice as a negative: ‘In writer’s workshop, you don’t assign the topic. Kids…
“Some of my former students came back to see me this year,” she said. “They graduated a couple of years ago. When they were here, they really struggled, but they wanted to do well, and they listened to me when I told them I could help them. I helped them read. I helped them write. I gave them strategies that got them through the tests. When they complained, I promised it would be worth it.…
Listen. You don’t get to teach the kids you prefer to teach. You don’t get to pick the ones who meet your ideal. That isn’t who you were hired to serve. You were hired to serve the kids who walk through your door each day. Want to help them? Watch them. Listen to them. Think about them. Create for them. Let them create for you and for others. Teach them, and quit comparing them to…
Here’s a quick shout-out to the fellows of the WNY Young Writers’ Studio who are participating in NaNoWriMo this year and posting updates in our ning each day! We’re at 13, 542 words as a group and on track to hit our target word counts for this month. What’s NaNoWriMo? How can you or your students participate? Drop by their home page for young writers and check it out. There are some great resources available…