As a kid, Christmas parties were what we waited for. As a teacher, it is a lot of work!!! For the most part, it was the halfway point in the school year. It was all downhill from there. Now, I must say that benchmark testing has thrown a big fat, […]
Movie Review: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024)
The scene with the Herdman’s ham. I don’t know why it was that scene that really got me, but it did. It was originally a gift to the Herdman family, who rewrote the Nativity narrative just slightly to include it. They didn’t feel like gold, frankincense, and myrrh were appropriate […]
Moneyball and Daring to Change the System
I love movies. This is one of my favorites. As an educator, Moneyball brings to life two people who I would like to see rise to power in education – the innovator and person with money who can make it happen. When those two characters finally meet, we will then […]
Safety Protocol and Inclement Weather Decisions
Many years ago, I had the pleasure of speaking to a former superintendent. He was old, and he was wise. It was snowing outside. We started talking about whether schools should be open the next day. He shared this with me. He said, “Rob, I don’t send busses out in […]
Trump’s Roadmap for Removing Bureaucracy
At the local, state, and federal levels of education, we need to get rid of ineffective, un-elected government bureaucrats. I have seen newly elected governments fail to do this time and time again. Without exception, the incoming administration pays a heavy price when they fail to do this. I often […]
Kitchen Sink Post: Classroom Management, Negative Consequences, and Tough Love
I used to work for some folks who cringed at the word “negative consequences.” They worked only from the positive discipline side of things. Positive discipline works – sometimes. At other times, using only positive discipline sets us up to be butlers to our children (Maher…please ignore his last line). […]
Duck Dynasty: Folks, don’t be afraid if your life doesn’t fit the mold….
Yesterday, I was listening to a Podcast with Tucker Carlson and Willie Robertson. Willie was talking about his dad. In the process of listening to Willie, I remembered how much I really like that show. Phil Robertson had everything in front of him when he was young. A great athlete, […]
Kate DiCamillo: An Exceptional Resource for Classroom Literature
By far, the best children’s novel content that I can find for a classroom are the books by Kate DiCamillo. Her books are brilliantly written. The plot, characters, setting, and theme are exceptional. They are my “go to” for fourth grade read alouds. Her books are funny, deep, thought provoking, […]
Movie Review: The Monuments Men
To this blog, I plan on adding some book and movie reviews of all kinds which we can use in the classroom or as resources to help support education in our classroom. Today, I want discuss a movie which has an absolutely stellar cast and an excellent plot based on […]
Christmas Music – It’s Time
As a teacher, I really enjoyed playing music for my students as they worked. My architectural drafting teacher offered that (music while we worked) in high school. It made the learning process so much more enjoyable. I thought maybe we could explore some recent, contemporary music (to me anyway!) to […]