Michelle TeGrootenhuis's Blog – January 2010 Archive (8)

I adore "The 2 Sisters" Gail Boushey & Joan Moser of The Daily Five and the CAFE Book fame. (If you're not sure, ask an ELEMENTARY teacher--they'll fill you in!) This morning, in my Inbox, I was excited to see their "Tip of the Week" from their site http://www.thedailycafe.com. This week they were remembering something Regie Routman had once said at a… Continue

Just wanted to let you know that it IS possible to make pretzels at home from SCRATCH. We had our FIFTH, (yep, count 'em: 1, 2, 3, 4, FIVE), snow day of the year (and it's only January) and I finally mustered up the nerve to try that recipe from food network that had been hanging on my frig for months. For my first attempt at something with YEAST and completely… Continue

So, as I wrap up this experiment to specifically notice joyful moments in my teaching day, I just have to point out that honestly, the biggest reason I love my job, as corny as it sounds, is the kids. A mentor of mine (Mrs. Martha [Marty] Patton, Bless her soul) put this love of children so eloquently in a poem. This poem was printed along side her obituary and I have had it posted in my classroom ever since. It touches my heart every time I glance at it.



I am a… Continue

One summer I heard a speaker say, "Is it cute, or does it count?" Meaning, is that activity actually helping the kids LEARN something. Since then, I've cut back on the "artsy/craftsy" activities in my room. Posters, mobiles, dioramas, etc only get made IF they truly reflect actual LEARNING,



BUT,

once a year,

right after Christmas vacation… Continue

One of the best parts of my job is story time. Yep, story time. I love reading to these kids, making up voices for the characters, forgetting the "curriculum" for fifteen minutes and simply revelling in the joy of reading. I think some of the best literature conversations in my classroom have taken place during the story time part of the day. We are getting to the end of a LONG suspensful book and when I say, "and THAT'S where we have to stop for today," I hear groans and pleads to… Continue

Today I had an "okay" day. Might have been a good day, but honestly, grades and report cards are stressing me out.



Anyway, I decided that after school, while I am working on those grades, I'd pop in the DVD that just came from our local Area Education Agency. I have it on loan for two weeks. It's the video companion to a book that I have sitting in my PILE of books to read called What Great Teachers Do Differently by… Continue

Note: This week I'm on watch for joyful moments in teaching.

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Day 1:

Birthdays.

I LOVE celebrating a child's birthday in school. I let the… Continue

Today I read the following from one of my favorite e-newsletters from Brenda Power at Choice Literacy.



"So many of us are experiencing burnout these days, even when we're getting better or more efficient or more competent at our work. If the job is exhausting, you may be paying too much attention to what others expect, and not enough to the joyful aspects of teaching." -Big Fresh Newsletter, Jan 9,… Continue