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…]
I had a completely different path for my writing journey this week, but something struck me on Saturday morning’s run: as I reflected on the past week, the word “flexibility” kept coming to mind. Flexibility, or lack thereof, is something that I battle with frequently. When I think about my October 17, 2021 post, I … [Read more…]
I’ve been receiving some pretty persistent nudges lately that have to do with finding clarity around where I place my priorities. Some of those nudges have been a bit in-my-face: Bill telling me that I need to “Quit working so much and learn to relax.” (This isn’t a new statement from Bill, but it came … [Read more…]
In January, I wrote two posts about choosing One Word for the year, per Jon Gordon‘s suggestion. It’s March – a great time to check in on how my One Word commitment is going. In choosing clarity as my One Word for 2022, I decided to identify three specific areas to focus on around clarity … [Read more…]
Staying Grounded in Research When I get fired up about structured literacy versus balanced literacy… and I often do… I make sure that what I say or write is grounded in research. I rely on the Science of Reading resources that are in great supply, I process their content through reading, writing (this blog!) and … [Read more…]