After many years of blogging, I will finally be “putting away my blogging hat”. It has been such a great experience sharing things that I have done in my classroom which has helped me reflect on things that have and haven’t worked over the years. It is also such a great way to hopefully inspire other educators as many of us know re-inventing the wheel can be tiring and unnecessary. I have so enjoyed reading other bloggers’ posts and getting comments from educators. I will miss this experience so much and am so grateful for the opportunity. I wanted to take the opportunity to share my top five blogs that I enjoyed writing as many of them have been lost through the many pages of Heart and Art Blog Posts.
- ‘I like this math better than real math”
https://heartandart.ca/i-like-this-math-better-than-real-math/
This post was so much fun to write as I finally had success with helping my students realize that math is fun! I got the hang of teaching a specific program that I have now used for many years. An incorporation of games, whiteboards, student-led teaching and group activities has made math a much more enjoyable experience for my students. Starting the first month of school with exciting activities from websites such as: wodb.ca, Would You Rather Math – ASKING STUDENTS TO CHOOSE A PATH AND JUSTIFY IT WITH MATH, Estimation 180 – Building Number Sense has students feeling that this math can’t be real math because it is “too fun!”
4.”I have been forced to celebrate Valentine’s Day all my life!”
https://heartandart.ca/i-have-been-forced-to-celebrate-valentines-day-all-my-life/
This post was very important to write as I had my first experience when one of my grade eights felt that certain celebrations had always been forced upon her. We turned this comment into a class conversation about what we felt should be celebrated in our class. It was such an eye-opening experience as getting my class ready for each holiday had always been something I had never given a second thought to. After this, I paid closer attention to the importance of celebrations.
- “Curtis Carmichael, an inspiring teacher and activist”
https://heartandart.ca/curtis-carmichael-an-inspiring-teacher-and-activist/
This post I wrote after we had an incredible guest speaker come to our school to talk about how he had avoided a specific path in life by getting out of the “trenches”. He spoke about his book as well as his ride across Canada to help raise awareness to his cause. His connection to students and teaching was eye-opening and definitely worth a read. If you enjoy this blog post, check out his book “Butterflies in the Trenches”.
- Collaborative Inquiry Celebration:
https://heartandart.ca/collaborative-inquiry-celebration/
This post was about the school business my class started, selling smoothies and starting their own business with funds from a grant we received. If you are interested in doing a special project with your class, take a look at how my grade eights pulled off an incredible project on their own!
1.Ten Years Later…
https://heartandart.ca/10-years-later/
I wrote this post after realizing it was my tenth year teaching and that this year would be my final year blogging. I reflect on all the things I felt needed to be said and looked forward to my final year of blogging. I put my heart into this blog a bit more than the others as I really do believe that teaching is the greatest job on earth.
Thanks so much everyone for reading, writing, teaching and inspiring. I hope to blog again someday but for now this is farewell and thank you!
