Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all of my fellow ed bloggers out there! I hope you take the time to rest, relax, and gear up to a great new beginning in January with your students!

Blog Block

So, I haven't been posting to this blog as much as I had hoped to, but isn't that the case with everything? Dear Ed blog, I am not ignoring you-- it's just that there is so much to do, and so little time!!!

I do not have blog block. I just wish that I had more time to reflect on my teaching. Remember in college when they taught you how important self-reflection was? How you should take the time to reflect after EVERY lesson? YEAH RIGHT!!?? Who has the time to do that? Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to be able to take 5 minutes after every lesson to jot down what went right and what went wrong. Maybe mentally I do-- but I can't do it as often as I'd like or as thoroughly as it should be done.

Do any other teachers have this same problem? What to do...

Art in the Classroom

Is it me, or does art just make learning so much more fun? I love to integrate art projects into my curriculum. Learning about Native Americans? Add an art project to spice up their learning! Today we were learning about the Sioux Indians and their home: the tipi. Sure, we can look at photographs of tipis. We can see them in movies. But let's make one!!

We made a huge tipi out of butcher paper, and each student painted their own symbol on the tipi. It brought Native American history to life for them. They were able to visualize how many people could live in a tipi. They were able to give meaning to the symbols they were painting. How fun!

Parents Helping Teachers

This is my first official "post" on this blog, and I want to start on a positive note. I want to talk about how parents are an integral part of the educational system. I make sure that parents play a huge part in my teaching. I am always inviting them into the classroom to help out with art projects, etc. And they are so happy to do it!! They love coming in to either help with the projects, hang projects, help with bulletin boards, or even photo copy.

Which makes me wonder why there are so many teachers out there who poo-poo the idea of not having parents in to volunteer?