Emmett Kruse’s 10 year wrestling “career” ended yesterday as he attempted, unsuccessfully, to punch his ticket to the state wrestling tournament. He wrestled his heart out, as every wrestler did, but to no avail. Emmett finished the day with two wins and two losses. Many of his teammates faired well: Fort Madison is sending SEVEN … [Read more…]
This has been one busy summer so far, and we’ve only just reached the halfway mark! In all of this business, I’ve taken an unplanned three-week hiatus from writing. The blog hasn’t been far from my mind by any means, I just haven’t set aside the time to finish this post that was started three … [Read more…]
When I sit down on Sunday mornings to write this blog, I often have lots of thoughts swirling around in my head about the direction my writing will take. Often, but not always, I have already started a draft earlier in the week. Sometimes, the writing goes in the direction I had been thinking a … [Read more…]
Experiments Several years ago, when I was teaching 6th grade, I began experimenting with standards-based grading. I was actually running two experiments simultaneously: by myself in my 6th grade reading classes, and with my 6th grade team in our English classes (yep, we identified reading and English as two separate classes – uggghhh!), under the … [Read more…]
Two weeks ago, I wrote about Celebrations, Joy, and Delights; one week ago, I wrote about the Letdown. Today, I find myself reflecting on this past week with an equal mixture of both celebrations and letdowns. In other words, hills and valleys. There continues to be much to celebrate in Fort Madison Community School District. … [Read more…]
In my role as a literacy instructional coach, I am fortunate to have access to more professional development than I did when I was teaching in the classroom. Some of that access is available during the school day; much is available outside the school day. When I was in the classroom, I rarely took advantage … [Read more…]
It’s been a week. My emotions have been all over the place, as we celebrated Owen’s trip to the IHSAA Wrestling Tournament, where he earned a place on the podium. His 8th place finish was not where he wanted to land, but we couldn’t be more proud! The weekend was filled with celebrations and frustrations, … [Read more…]
Some Background Recently, I have been a part of many conversations with teacher teams expressing concern about over-assessing our students. At times, they feel as if the only thing they do is assess, without ever being able to actually teach. This is a valid concern and one that can be alleviated when we make use … [Read more…]