Hi Mary Ellen,
I got both of your messages - thanks! I am new at this too so I don't know any better than you about where stuff gets posted. I just use any link that has my name on it and go from there! The theory about moving up with your kids sound good to me (although I can imagine there may be some people who might like to get away from a certain few rather than keep them). I will tell my principal about it and see what she thinks. My school is almost certainly moving into straight grades next year (at least through most of the school) so we are looking at lots of different alternatives at the moment. I love being a classroom teacher and most of my experience is in Grade 5 and 6 but I am working part time at the moment on my way back from maternity leave. I take Preps for music, grade 3 & 4s for art and do some literacy support work as well. That's my daughter Hannah in my pic (just turned 2) and at some point we want another one so it might be a while until I'm back in the classroom properly again. I'd love to stay in touch though. Cheers xK

All sounds great. We are mid-winter being Southern hemisphere of course. We only have 2 weeks off but it's starting this Friday and I can't wait - yay!!!! It's great to hear a few of the ins and out of 'looping'. If it's OK by you I'll take your thoughts to school and see what they think. I like the sound of it but unfortunately my voice doesn't carryy much weight at the moment because whether they change or not won't affect me. Enjoy your holidays and soak up some sun for me!!

Hi Mary Ellen -- I'd like to invite you to join a Classroom 2.0 group called Canadians Mashup. I'm trying to build a network of Canadian educators and bloggers. No discussions yet. I'm just starting out by trying to find where everyone lives and what they teach. If you're interested, please add me as a colleague as well.

I did my teacher training at McGill and my first 2 years out on the West Island at Beaconsfield High.