My Territories

I was first introduced to the idea of a writer’s notebook by my tenth grade English teacher, Mrs. Catamaro. I loved that notebook! My notebook helped me see who I was as a writer, and focus on the writer I wanted to become. It met my needs as a learner the way nothing before had. I was impulsive and unfocused, and in my writer’s notebook my ideas and Mrs. Catamaro’s feedback would wait for me. I could read and reread. I could process what I wanted, when I was ready. I’ve used the writer’s notebook with my own students and hope I provided them with opportunity to navigate their learning that Mrs. Catamaro did for me.

My Blogging Territories (Like in A Writer’s Notebook, these are ideas I want to remember so I can write about them later)

Common Frustrations & Pitfalls of New Teachers

• Curriculum- Where is it? How can I write it? I haven’t even learned their names yet!
• “I don’t want to be mean…” Let’s explore consistency and inconsistency. How can we lower students’ anxiety?  Which teacher actions actually model respect?
• Feedback, grading & that gigantic pile!!
• Top Ten myths to dispel around Home/ School Communication: No news is good news, right? In high school, parents are just more hands off… they want it that way…

Educational Issues that keep me up at night

• Meaningful Reporting Systems: A,B,C,D,F… but what about E? Why do we report? To whom are we reporting? What is the goal? Do all of our answers align?
• Creating Communities of Respect
• Effective Teacher Evaluation
• The push to privatize education, and the lack of honesty around the push
• Biased reporting
• Equity in Access to Education & ‘Soft bigotry’