One of the closing lines of a recent Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast addresses some angst that I have been carrying around supporting struggling middle and high school students. In episode # 237, phenom Jessica Toste says, “So if we do assessments [and] their fluency is not where we want it to be and … [Read more…]
Over the last several weeks, I have had the opportunity to support special education teachers and students at the 7th through 12th grade level. I have learned a ton, and have a ton more to learn! My colleague and dear friend, Rachella, is retiring soon – just four short school days from now. Yikes! Although … [Read more…]
There is value in identifying, analyzing, and holding close your values. I can’t remember what/who prompted me to do this several years ago, but my understanding of the process is this: begin with a list of 100 or so values (there are lots to choose from with a quick Google search.) Choose your top 20, … [Read more…]
In a situation that I was trying to understand and help problem-solve, I quickly became frustrated and ultimately felt incompetent. Upon further reflection, I recognized that this situation was a perfect illustration of a quote from Solution Tree’s Learning By Doing: Clarity precedes competence. It is difficult to display competence, much less feel competent when … [Read more…]
We are 15 days into 2023, and I’m finally “releasing” my first post and my One Word for the year. I took a planned two-week hiatus from writing, which ended up becoming a three-week hiatus, due to my mom’s ride on the cancer roller coaster, filled with lots of ups and downs. I am writing … [Read more…]
Last week, I indicated that the education world continues to present many challenges: “Our students are not the same students we had before 2020. They are displaying more frequent challenging behaviors. Despite this, we have educators at FMCSD (and everywhere!) who are working incredibly hard to meet the needs of our students.” As I continue … [Read more…]
As is often the case, George Couros serves as the inspiration for today’s post. Not only is he the reason I finally started writing this blog, but he is also the inspiration for many of my posts. In addition to writing blog posts, George writes weekly emails, is the author/coauthor of four books, is a … [Read more…]
This past week has allowed a peek into what our teachers are doing with students to set academic goals. In addition to our standing district beliefs, vision, mission, and goals, Fort Madison Community School District has identified the following goal for the 2022-2023 school year: “By May 2023, FMCSD will improve ELA and Math proficiency … [Read more…]
I get to write this post from the Iowa State Fair in a campground that goes on for miles (or seems to, anyway!). Those of us who camp at the Iowa State Fair are a community of people who choose to drag half of our homes to Des Moines where we pack our campers in … [Read more…]
I have been working on this post for about two weeks. As I’ve wrestled with it… and it has felt like a wrestling match, I’ve had to remind myself over and over again about the purpose of maintaining this blog: it is about my own learning. When I write, I am processing my own learning … [Read more…]