Educational Blog

This year has been eye-opening in terms of my development as a teacher. Is it the 7-year itch? Or did the light bulb finally come on? I would consider myself an organized, type A teacher. When you enter my classroom, students are quiet and working productively. During workshop time, students are participating in centers as…

Many schools celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday Friday, March 1st. However; we had the opportunity for our local fire department to come read fire safety books to our students in honor of Read Across America day!  (some even squeezed in some Dr. Seuss!) She first read a book that outlined what to do if there is…

I am making a radical statement today: Taking notes is a lost art, but a life skill (at least in elementary school). It is important for numerous reasons and I am full of conviction to teach this strategy correctly to my kiddos. In order to learn new information a person has to gather it together…

Hip Hip Hooray!!  This is my 100th post since the conception of “Always A lesson” blog. I am so happy I have arrived at this milestone. I have learned a lot about blogging and teaching through this reflective hobby of mine. I can only hope my readers have benefited as well! In honor of my…

I have had the hardest time remembering my passwords to access all my educational resources. My administration team gave us the best present last year- a mini file folder for passwords! On an index card, I write the program name and the password. (Disclaimer: This is not for personal use. These programs and passwords are…

One of our most recent literacy objectives was to have students meet independently in a group to read the same book and have an enriching discussion. I broke up my students into 5 groups that would meet once a week with a book on their independent reading level (determined by running records).  I brought students…

The latest fad in my school district is providing teachers with a “Quarterly Planning” day. Substitutes take over the classroom for the day while the team of teachers meet together in a central location and plan for the quarter. The belief is that by allowing teachers time to plan effective lessons, students will become more…

Are you productive when your team comes together for planning or all-staff professional development meeting? For me, I generally am productive. However, there are particular times in a teacher’s schedule when everything comes to a close and you about lose your mind trying to tie all the loose ends together. This generally happens at the…

Wednesday, January 9th was one of those days where it was the best and the worst day rolled into one. I went from the lowest low to the highest high. Let me start at the beginning… I left teaching in a Title-One school after 5 years because I was ready for a change. I was…