Chocolate for the Teach

1.             1.   Children are important enough to invest in their social and physical well-being as much as their academic. Therefore, I believe in recess, and lots of it. I believe in playtime and group projects and using manners. 2.            2.   Just because something you do in the classroom isn’t measurable, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. On this I’ll elaborate: I’ve been stiffened by doubts recently about aspects of my practice that have been otherwise very natural to me. In a school environment that glorifies test results, standards checked off, and third-grade passing rates, it’s easy to buy into the lie that only what can be tested on paper (or computer, or iPad…) is worth doing. That’s just a simplistic and one-size-fits-all method of determining if a classroom is “effective”. As an example, I read fairytales to my class for about 10-15 minutes daily. I allow them to squish playdough and...

It is my aim to occasionally share with you readers some of my favorite lessons and projects. These become my favorite because they are interesting to both me and my students. For example, each winter, I like to read aloud “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” by Richard and Florence Atwater to my firsties. This book is a classic. Though it was published in the 1930s and includes some outdated terms, I take the time to explain those things, and the students wind up loving the story! I think it gives them a fuller picture of life through a different context than usual. Why would I want to limit them to only modern novels? I think it’s great exposure to some of the concepts, beliefs and troubles of the time. Reading aloud this book for about 10 minutes a day took about five weeks this year. I like to take it slow in order to check for understanding with the students. Along with this read-aloud, the last two weeks of the book, we dove into a full-fledged study on Antarctica! This is a...