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Stretch and Grow
We started the school year by standing side-by-side in a circle and putting our hand over our heads and then slowly sweeping them to our toes. We stretched together. That’s what we are doing all year mentally: stretching. We’ll find a position we can stand in solidly,...
Powerful Professional Tools
Everything changes, so we need to stay current with best practices, new resources, and child-centered methodology. For those of us working with young children, joining professional organizations is a game-changer. They provide a wealth of resources, networking...
Preparation
Having a chance to prep for a new unit always sends me down a learning rabbit hole. I've spent the week exploring the continental shifts that divided Africa and South America and identifying the fundamental differences and the evolutionary changes that caused...
Neuroscience Debunked!
Crossing that midline debunked! Growing those myelin sheaths does or doesn't increase cognition! Talking to students in my class can be an exercise in neuroscience because we’re growing the connections in our brains every day. My students start the morning finding the...
Activate
There are many different things we do during the week or month. Some are actively chosen, some are happenstance when we go with the flow, and some are habit. Something else happens when you are acted upon. What about when another person's habit acts upon you, and you...
Happy, Happy 50th, Skylab
In my house, this is a holiday. We talk about 100 pound computers and the experiments that are hinted at, but only 80 of them listed. Talk about Pete Conrad's favorite foods or Robert Crippen's patch preference start. It was a beginning in our species attempt to live...
Vonda Fantana
Did you ever watch Star Trek? Do you still? When I was 10, I wanted to be DC Fontana, or Vonda N. McIntyre. They were both seminal in creating new ways to examine the heavy, important issues we face in society but may not agree upon the issues in our own lives....
Karen Joy Fowler’s Booth
A Civil War historical fiction about Lincoln's assassination told through a family saga lens, outlining the many Booth actors in the generation that made one brother infamous while resonating without naming the divides of our current political culture. Junius Brutus...
Montessori is a Social Justice Curriculum
With everything happening in the classroom and in the world, I’m reminded of the words of Maria Montessori: Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education (Educaiton For Peace, p. 24). History starts from a couple standpoints in...
Reading is the door to worlds where creativity and imagination can become reality.
