Category: Mentorship

  • Connecting Area and Perimeter to Art-Piet Mondrian

    Whenever possible, I search for ways to integrate the curriculum to create deeper learning opportunities for students and connect to the world around them.  It has always been easy to make connections between geometry and art.  Measurement and art wasn’t something that I had integrated much before.  However, in working with my Teacher Candidate from the […]

  • Here’s your test

    The good old days are a product of a bad memory Sept 2009 – I remember entering the classroom like it was yesterday. For this new teacher, the night before my first day was understandably complete with a several concerns: Would I wake up on time? What if the staff weren’t nice? Am I prepared? Thankfully, I […]

  • Always a Mentee, Always a Mentor

      This year, I‘m in a new school, in a new role. This September, every school day, I’m trying to figure out where my class is suppose to be and what and how I need to teach my students with special education needs. I am gradually learning the names of my colleagues but it seems […]

  • Report Cards Are Coming: Professional Reporting

    Elementary Report Cards … the mere mention of report cards can send some teachers into anxious ridden days and sleepless nights. Even after 17 years of writing elementary report cards, I anticipated that my levels of anxiety would be non-existent but, no, for me, the thought of report card writing still stresses me out. I […]

  • Getting Past “The 5 Year Wall”

    As a new elementary teacher, I believed I would really know what I was doing after 5 years of practice. After 5 years in my previous careers, I could handle just about anything. I had 8 years experience as a student in elementary school. And, yes, I had watched my elementary teachers teach. I thought, […]

  • Pay It Forward

    As I reflect back on my teaching career I have come to understand how appreciative I am of the amazing teachers and administrators that have impacted and helped shape my life both as a teacher and a person. Everything I am as a teacher, everything I do as a teacher, everything I have is a […]

  • Rebound From Your Mistakes

    Perfectionism seems to be a common character trait of teachers in that they expect to be perfect at everything they do. They must have perfect lessons, they have to have perfect classroom displays, they expect perfect interviews and so on and so on. If this level of achievement has not been met they often feel […]

  • Tortoise Brained Learning

    “ Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better”. This quote from Maya Angelou holds true no matter what stage of  teaching  you are at. Too often teachers feel pressured to constantly be moving their best practice forward before the last component has been consolidated into their […]

  • You Never Know

    You Never Know

    This blog is based on a real life scenario that I was fortunate enough to be a part of both on a personal and professional basis. It truly reminded me just how important our teacher/student relationships are as you never know when your kind word, out of the ordinary effort or simply just being there […]

  • Classroom Advisors

    Classroom Advisors

    Wow, things have certainly changed since I was in school. When I went to school we __________ (fill in the blank with a change you have observed). When I look at the behaviours of my students, the choices they make and day-to-day social interactions in my classroom I filter it through the 54 year old […]