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I had an amazing experience today. I presented at the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario’s conference via Skype. I was in my classroom, with my 8th grade students, presenting on “Collaboration: Learn it; Use it; Teach it.” While I was prepared, the experience was nothing like I expected. So here are some lessons learned, because, in a day and age of budget cuts, we may all be sharing our ideas through video presentations, rather than in person.

First let me start by thanking Cal Armstrong for coordinating the experience as well as the teachers who were willing to give this kind of a presentation a try. I think that we all learned a lot from it.

First of all, wifi will always be problematic! I had created a Google Presentation that I had shared with my students and with Cal Armstrong in Toronto, who was coordinating up there for me. My goal was to have my students share their thinking and responses in the sidebar, so that while the presentation was going on, my students could be sharing their experiences as well. Only, when it got to be time for the presentation, about a third of them weren’t allowed to join the session. They were panicking, because I had assigned them all jobs to do, many that included being part of the conversation. Thank Heavens for a Tech Team that is always there to support my efforts who managed to get all of the students on by the time it was time to begin.

Second lesson, when you are on a small computer screen in a room, you are not always heard. I had an activity organized where the teachers, after receiving a playing card at the door, were to get into groups by number. I gave the directions three times and then asked them to find their groups. All I heard through Skype was “Hearts over here!” “Clubs in the back!” When I tried to correct them, because I wanted them in groups of 4 at this point, no one heard or responded. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but mine. I had created an activity with too much complexity for the means of interaction. If I had been in the room, I have no doubt that the directions would have been heard and understood. I could have said, “Twos over here. Threes over there,” but through the computer screen, what they expected was what happened.  I should have taken more time to tell Cal ahead of time about what was going to happen, so that he could have been more of my feet on the ground. Or I could have been clearer to him on the spot, rather than trying to be heard. Lesson Learned!

I gave up on the groups of four and simply set them to their task, to develop together a definition of “collaboration.”

For me, the point of the presentation was to talk about collaboration while having the participants experience it. I am working hard when I present to move away from the “sage on the stage” which is criticized in so many presentations by people being “sages.” I want to model the kind of learning that we need to have happening in our classrooms. That is challenging when using Skype, because activities required action in the space that the presenter is not in. I think it can be done, but I need to figure out directions and preparation that have more clarity.

So, with the teachers in larger groups, organized by suit, I punted. I had been planning on having more shifting and having different groups working together, so that they experienced collaboration with a variety of ways and with a variety of people, but it was clearly more than Skype would make possible. It wasn’t really a problem, just a moment of shifting.

The other challenge came in using Skype effectively. While I skype all the time, I have never had to use it while focusing on the slides of a presentation. I had the Skype call in a small box on my screen, while my presentation was the main screen. I was wondering if my distance from the screen, etc. was correct, but it wasn’t the top priority. I wanted the teachers to see my class working with them, so I moved around and shifted the laptop. At the end of the session, I learned that for most of it, the people in Toronto had been seeing the top of my head.

While I had figured out ahead of time where to stand and how to get shots of my students, somewhere in the transitions, I had shifted my laptop enough to cut off my head. I should have asked during the presentation, but I just didn’t of it. I had considered having two laptops, one with Skype and one with the presentation, but thought that it would work with one. Clearly a mistake! Next time, one designated for Skype and one for the presentation.

Also, when working with teachers in Toronto and students sitting behind me, I should have had my students doing more. While they loved the experience of sharing with teachers in Canada, they would have liked to participate more actively. They had jobs to do, serving as notetakers, timekeepers and photographers, but they wanted to do more. They were sharing their ideas in the sidebar, but they wanted to talk to the teachers and respond to what they were hearing. I hadn’t expected that. They had been nervous and a bit intimidated when we practiced, but when they were “live,” they wanted to participate. That is definitely something to consider for the future, because they have lots of experiences they could share.

So I had better figure out the challenges of digital connections and begin to make them work! Again, it was a presentation and experience that couldn’t have happened without the help of Cal and the teachers in Toronto who shared their time and their thinking! What a learning experience for me in collaboration!

This past week, I tried an experiment with my 7th grade. We have been working on recognizing main ideas in the text and then finding the facts that are connected with them, important skills in history. My colleague and I decided to have them work on an activity that gave them the facts and have them build the category from the facts. We brainstormed a list of significant characteristics of an empire and added some facts that explained or were connected to the category: for example, clear boundaries was a category and mountains, strong military, oceans were some of the facts that we used.

Then I got to thinking about using movement to engage the students and build a richer experience of working with the information. The weather looked wonderful. Beautiful autumn day! We enlarged each fact to 48 point font and glued them to construction paper cards, different colors for each category. All of the Clear Boundaries ones were on green paper; all of the One Leader were on purple, etc. Then we laminated them, just to make them sturdier.

When the students got to class, we marched them outside to the playing fields and gave each one a few cards. We told them to scatter them all around the field and the back porch, not hidden but far apart, and to then come back. They clearly thought we might have lost our minds, but they also  that this was better than sitting inside on a beautiful day, so they ran around, dropping their cards. When they were all back, we put them into groups of four and gave out their worksheets. The worksheet had 6 boxes, one for each category. The top line was labeled Purple or Green Category and then there were 5 lines, one for each of the facts. We explained that their job was to run around and collect all of the facts for each category and then, when they had them all, to figure out what that category was.

They loved it! They ran around, sometimes in pairs, sometimes alone, sometimes as full teams, racing around collecting facts. It took about 30 minutes for them to collect and record all of them. By that time, they were ready to sit down and discuss what they found and what it meant.

The next part was challenging for them. They wanted the category to be obvious, and they didn’t like being told that they were heading in the right direction but not there yet. This happened frequently, because they would focus on 2 or 3 of the facts and ignore the others. They wanted Clear Boundaries to simply be Geography, but as they worked at it, they got better at looking at all of the clues and building from them all.

When I asked them at the end why we had had them do it this way, they immediately answered,”Because it was fun!”

“Because it got our brains working!”

“Because we’ll remember it!” All of which were true! And I hope it works!

It was a day of running and laughter, shouting and listening, wrestling and finding solutions! A wonderful way to enjoy the day and learn new skills at the same time.

Having just spent two days watching my students tackle a series of high ropes challenges, I am aware of how much fear keeps us from doing what we want, and how much setting a goal can help. At each part of the course, the students had to climb up into the trees, leaving the safety of the ground and trusting in their peers to keep them safe by paying attention and holding the belay rope tightly. It was an amazing experience to watch them learn and gain confidence over the course of the two days.

Initially those with experience scrambled up and easily headed across the logs and wires that were strung 40 feet in the air (my guess). It looked so easy as we watched them. Then the rest of the students began to try it. Some made it to the top of the ladder but simply couldn’t make it onto the small staples that stuck out of the tree. Some made it onto the staples but froze after two or three. Some made it to the log and could not step away from the tree, unable to walk across it, while still others surprised themselves and completed the task.

The instructor kept challenging them to simply move a step or two outside of their comfort zone, that it wasn’t about completing the challenge so much as pushing themselves into a new space. Each instructor also kept reminding them that while it was scary, they were in fact completely safe. Knowing in their heads, however, that they were safe and actually being able to act on it proved to be two different things, especially the first time that the way down entailed sitting down in the harness, pushing off of the tree and letting their classmates lower them down. One fear replacing another in many cases.

It was fascinating to watch the progression from fear to disappointment in themselves to determination to tackle the next challenge with more courage and focus. Every single student went further the second time up, often not to the top or to the finish, but definitely beyond their former stopping point. It became less about doing what others could do and more about pushing themselves one more step beyond where they were comfortable. They wanted to accomplish a personal goal, one that they were setting for themselves. It was great to watch the change that came over them as they ended the challenge having done what they set out to do, having taken even just one step more.

On the last challenge, one of the students asked me to do it. I laughed and said “No,” for lots of reasons. “Already done it before, arthritic knees that I don’t really trust,” you name it. The instructor encouraged me to try it, but I simply shook my head, and she stopped. I did not want to do it, and as the teacher, I didn’t have to. I didn’t even have to begin the challenge if I decided not to.

It all got me to thinking and as I have thought about the two days, they made me think about my classroom – no big surprise for anyone reading this blog!

First, am I setting up challenges where completion is not the only goal? Can my students make it half way, learn from the experience and try another, similar challenge? School is often not like that. It is about finishing a task, doing it all and being assessed on it. I want to think about building in more levels of success. Avoiding grading each project and having students reflect on their work helps, but the part that I often miss is the repetition of the skills with slightly different challenges. I often move on too quickly, excited to try a new way of learning, rather than practicing a skill through a variety of levels. I know that I need to remember that more often.

The second lesson is that I must continue to try to challenge myself as much as I challenge my students. My areas of fear are different from theirs as is my comfort zone, but if I want them to take steps out into what feels unsafe to them, I must force myself to do the same. I must build on my strengths and look for ways to move beyond them, not just for myself but for the students who spend their days in my classroom. I will guide their challenges better if I remember how hard it is to move away from being comfortable, how debilitating fear can be, and how exhilarating making it just one step further always is! If a day in my classroom could contain those elements, that would be wonderful!

My students are researching the Republican candidates for president as part of our Government unit. They began by listening on YouTube to President Obama’s speech on the American Jobs Act. They made lists of what the president identified as challenges that the country is facing and what his solutions were. They were then randomly handed cards with the name of one of the declared candidates written on it. Their task was to research the positions that the candidate had on the economy and one other topic of their choice.

I have done this project twice before, 4 and 8 years ago, and the difference this time was plain and simply the access to information. Everyone, from the candidates and their supporters to my students was aware of the power of the internet, and they were all using it learn and to present their thinking. For the political process, this means that students do not have to wait for the newspaper or the evening news to find out ideas. Eight years ago, candidates had websites, but they were bare and basic in comparison to today. Today, the sites are layered with engaging photos and snappy text to keep a viewer there for more than a second and a quick click to something else.

I talked with my students about how to go about learning about their candidate. Their first stop is Wikipedia. There is current and studied articles that will give a solid overview for understanding the background and current role of that person in American politics. In the past, I had more hesitation about using Wikipedia as a resource, afraid that what was written there would not stand up to in-depth scrutiny, but over time, I have changed my views. For middle school students, on topics of general interest that many people read, it is a great place to start. The reading level is usually manageable. I have taught them that it is never the final source, just as an encyclopedia isn’t, but it can give them enough context to build their own questions.

Last year’s class researched important people of the 21st century. We went to the library to use the encyclopedias for an experience of non-laptop research. The only problem was that we ran into issues like the fact that there was no mention of Hillary Clinton, except in Bill Clinton’s biography. She was the Secretary of State and unlisted. So while, there may be errors in Wikipedia, as there are in all encyclopedias, it is a good start for an overview.

We talked then about how to find other information on their candidates, and the two sources that I pointed them to, which truly surprised all of them, were Twitter and Facebook. It took awhile to convince them that social media is a powerful tool that politicians want to harness. While they use these places simply for chatting with friends and looking at photos, I told them that many companies and individuals are using them to reach out to the public. They began to understand that those spaces might well be places where they would get the most recent ideas from their candidate.

They are used to instant communication with each other, but they hadn’t made the connection that social media allows them to learn at the same pace and with the same level of interaction that they have when sharing with each other. It is a new way of learning, when the information is not stagnant but constantly shifting and being enhanced.

Goals as teachers: 1. investigate the tools that will help them identify the best sources for information; 2. provide models for how to handle all of the information that they find. They, like we, are drowning in the information that surrounds us.

We need to curate for them and for each other, so that we spend time with the most important and significant and avoid the overwhelming amounts that we do not need.

This morning, I saw a tweet from @CoachB0066 saying that he was beyond thrilled to be back in school. It reminded me of last week, when a student told me that I was awfully “peppy, not in a bad way,” and I responded that it was because I love my job. Teachers, especially ones who love learning, both teaching it and doing it themselves, are some of the happiest workers I know. Challenges and conflicts simply send us into overdrive, trying to figure how a certain student thinks or what better way to help each one gain mastery. It is all a wonderful and ever-changing puzzle that draws us on, rather than discourages us.

I realized that that same kind of love of the work is what I want for each of my students. I want them to come to school with an eagerness to take on the challenges. I want them to feel “peppy” when confronted with both tasks where they quickly succeed and tasks that force them beyond their comfort zones.

I think that there are two parts to making that happen. The first is humor and fun. I want my students to enjoy being in class; I want them surprised and interested. It is one reason I change my desks around all the time. I want them curious before they even start a lesson, before they get to my door. “What will she have us doing today?” I want them to discover that learning is exciting, that discovering new facts and understanding complicated ideas is energizing and simply fun. They need to feel part of this journey of discovery!

The other part of learning and growing is building resilience and determination in a world of quick answers. My students often want the work to be done, quickly and easily. They want to “google” it and have the task be over. They often are discouraged when they have to return to the task and add more, or when they simply get the wrong answer. They tend to experience it as failure, rather than part of an ongoing process.

Teaching them that the best work is rarely the first draft is one of my goals. I have to think of more ways to break down the steps of the learning, so that they can feel a sense of accomplishment with each one, and realize that the final product took a lot of work. I didn’t do this well this week. I assigned a project to my 8th grade US history class to research the city of Philadelphia and create a brochure on why it is a great city in which to live. I told them that we would send the best brochure to the Chamber of Commerce. I set up a list of research sites and sources as well as topics to investigate: economics, government; arts and culture, etc. They were to collect a wide variety of facts and then create the brochure. They had 3 classes and homework time for the project.

After one class, they were all working on the brochure. I could hardly wrestle them back to gathering facts about the city. The task, for them, was the brochure and  completing that was where they were focused. The research was simply something to get done as fast as possible. Next time, I think that the research will be one task, distinct and unique, with conversations around that before moving on. Then when that is completed, and they have reflected on what they learned from the research process, then I will introduce the brochure. It will build on the research that way and not overwhelm it. Live and learn!

So the goal for me and for my students is to be full of “pep” and determination!

The first time I went whitewater rafting, I remember listening to the guide, a college kid who clearly knew what he was doing but still seemed too young to actually keep my entire family safe on rough waters. He said that all we had to do was follow his instructions, learn from him what to watch for, pay attention to the water ahead of us and have a great time. It all sounded exciting but more than  a little scary. I am a bit too much of a “want to be in control of my surroundings” to feel comfortable turning it all over to this person I didn’t know all that well.

At the beginning of this school year, I saw a look in my students’ eyes that reminded me of that trip. I was explaining to them that they would not be assessed by grades.

“No grades! But how will we know if we are doing it right?”

I was clearly taking them away from a shore where they felt very comfortable. I was asking them to leave a place where, whether they had success or not, they at least knew “how to do school.” If there were no grades, then how would they know who they were in my class? What would make them do the work? Why would they care? For so many of them, school had become, over the years, a place where the adults in their lives were in control: their parents, who wanted them to succeed; and their teachers, who evaluated and assessed them at every turn. It was their job to perform: follow the rules, do what they were told and hope that the evaluations proved them worthy.

“How will I know whether I am doing it right?”

“How will my parents know if I am a good student?”

“What about colleges?” An interesting question coming from a 7th grader, but one that shows how much they are programmed to work for the outside evaluation, people “in the know” who tell them if they have learned or not. It is the adults who tell them if they are good students or not, if they are working hard enough or not. The motivation is not intrinsic learning, but for adult affirmation.

As I spoke to them, it was clear that they thought that if there were no grades, then I was somehow deserting them, leaving them on a deserted island, a Lord of the Flies kind of experience where they have to find their own way. “I don’t know how to learn history!”

When grades are taken away, school becomes a entirely new place. It almost felt to them like there would be no teacher, and they would have to learn by themselves. I reassured them that I wasn’t going anywhere. My job of teaching them to be the strongest possible learners that they could be was still the same. I was going to teach them to be better readers and writers. I was going to provide lots of times for them to practice new skills and develop their thinking. I had to convince them that the primary change was simply that they were going to become part of the process of reflecting and evaluating the work that they each did.

They simply shook their heads with worry, so I set them to a task to show them that they could do what was being asked of them. Using Peter Pappas’ “Bank Robbery” activity, I had them solve the mystery. It is a great critical thinking activity, and a perfect set-up for a history class, because it gets them to use two important history skills: asking questions and making categories. They worked in groups of three, and I wandered around, asking questions and offering encouragement and some guidance. After each group finished, I had them write a reflection: What did they do well in solving the mystery? What was challenging about the activity? What would they do differently if they had to do it again?

A simple exercise, but by the end of it, they began to understand. They knew who they are and how they worked; they just needed to be asked to talk about it. They knew when they have listened to their partners or when they have interrupted. They knew if they figured out how to organize the material or if they simply got frustrated.

It has  been two weeks of school so far, and they have written 4 reflections on different kinds of work. When the trimester ends, they will have a collection of reflections to help them write their Comment for their report card. They will put together a portfolio that shows how they have grown as a student over the course of the trimester. They will talk about their work: where they have grown and where they still need to grow. With each new reflection, they are taking charge of their learning, identifying strengths and setting new goals for themselves.

This is even more exciting than the whitewater rafting trip! No doubt about it!

Special thanks to Joe Bower and Peter Pappas for all that I have learned from their blogs!

Today was my first full day back at school. I wore my new pedometer, and at the end of the day, without stepping outside the four walls of the building, I had walked the equivalent of 5 miles, without even realizing it. Just up and down the halls, checking on students, retrieving copies from the printer, walking to the cafeteria, getting books from the library.

I read last year that isolated exercise, an hour a day at the gym, while good for you, is not as good as we once thought. The body need ongoing exercise during the day.

I always thought that teaching took a lot of energy. I just didn’t realize that it also was that ongoing exercise activity, but I know that it is true that there is rarely a moment when teachers are sitting down, simply staring at a computer screen. We are wandering among desks, asking questions, looking for solutions. We are taking students to the nurse or leading groups to their next destination. We have work to do, most of it on our feet, all day every day.

So my take-away from this rather amazing number: be careful what shoes I buy! I will be on my feet and using them all of the time that I am at school. My feet are a much more important part of my job than I thought!

So buy  a pedometer, and let me know how many steps you walk in the course of your day in the classroom.

School starts in full tomorrow! I am filled with the joy and terror that comes at the beginning of every new school year. In many ways, I am no different than the students, asking myself the same questions:

“Will I do well this year? Will they like me?”

“How can I make sure my weaknesses don’t defeat me?”

“Is it possible to not make the same mistakes all over again?”

Like my students, I want to be my Best Self this year in school. I want to do it all right, have energy and enthusiasm for each lesson and for each student. I want to avoid exhaustion and discouragement. I want to understand each problem and find an immediate and perfect solution. I want all my skills to shine: my writing to be clear, my speech to be insightful. You name it; I want it to be the best!

Unlike most of my students, however, it almost makes me smile to know that, with all of the best goals in the world, I still take myself, strengths and weaknesses into school each day. While I want only the strengths and abilities to be visible, the weaknesses and mistakes will find their way in as well. No matter how hard I try, I will never escape the days or the minutes when I don’t understand, when I am tired or confused, when I simply want to be done.

Over the years, though, I have learned that they can be an important part of what I have to offer to my students. As they can live with me through it all, the high moments and the lows, sharing in the challenges and the successes, then together we can grow. No student who enters through the classroom door is perfect, so working out how to be the very best students and teacher, the best people we can be, in spite of our weaknesses and failures, is part of what I want in the learning that happens in my classroom.

To make that happen, my classroom needs to be a place where we all are safe to learn, making mistakes and figuring out the lessons that can be seen through them. That is where I can not fail! I must never tolerate, from myself or from my students, any word or action that belittles the thoughts of another. Every moment needs to be vigorously protected from cruel criticism. I must create a space where all of us are safe. That is my first and foremost job. We all learn best when we can safely take risk and experiment with new ideas.

I know that I will make mistakes during the year: plan lessons that simply are not interesting and engaging, forget to finish a task that needed doing, say something that didn’t lead to learning and understanding. I have to turn those times, and all of the others like them, into learning times, modeling that making mistakes does not need to be scary or humiliating.

Part of it is sharing the disappointment at not getting it right. None of us wants to fail or get it wrong, even when we haven’t done the necessary work to get it right, we still hate the feeling of failure. Talking about what I didn’t get right and showing a way beyond it is a valuable lesson. They need to learn that none of the mistakes is something BIG, either about me as a teacher or about them as students; it is simply a time to assess and figure out how to make it better next time. If I can model that learning is ongoing, that mistakes do not need to stop that process, then perhaps they will join me, and together we can create a great learning year.

So here’s hoping we all do well this year, undefeated by our weaknesses and strengthened through our journey together!

Lesson Number 1 – Divert! Divert! Divert!

My husband and I live in a house that leaks, not severely, but it definitely lets in water when there are strong storms. Irene was going to drop a lot of water, which it in fact did, so we went into preparation mode. We came up with some new strategies to handle the pounding that was going to happen. The most effective, Dick’s brainstorm, was based on our rain barrel. He took 4 trashcans, fitted them with faucets and attached hoses to them. He put them under the places around the house where the gutters and downspouts usually get overwhelmed, causing the water to pound into the ground and seep into the house.

As the school year starts, this idea of diverting the water, so that it did not injure the ground and the house, seems like a good metaphor for a new goal. I want to provide my students with skills and new ways of thinking, but I must make sure to deliver them in ways that do no beat them down. The goal is to avoid pounding and then drowning them in a single, “right” way to learn. Instead, I want a classroom that gives them chances, lots of them, as many as it takes to absorb and gain control over new ideas. If provided with time and a variety of strategies, then each student can learn and take in their growth at whatever rate she can. For some, that will come quickly with no sense of being overwhelmed; for others, the learning will need to be defused and diverted to avoid pooling and overwhelming her. By paying attention to each student, to the signs of success or concern or panic, I want to present ways to grow that match each student in the room.

Lesson Number 2 – Never underestimate strength!

In our garden, I had planted an okra late, really late. It is only about a foot tall, and when I heard the news about Irene, I pretty much decided that, after the storm, it would be too beaten down to survive. I just wrote it off, not expecting it to withstand the deluge. It was simply too young and too fragile. But when the rains abated, it totally fooled me. We went to check the garden, and there it was, standing tall and looking like it had grown an inch or two while weathering the storm. What was a day of pounding rain to this little plant!

So that led to Goal #2. I have had students like this, and I will again, ones who look like they will never learn, never survive the rigors of learning, and yet they do. They find the ways to hold on, to take in the lessons and ideas and to become stronger from their efforts. I want to provide a classroom where each student learns how to be strong enough to withstand the challenges of learning. School can teach a student that he or she is a failure, that they can not do what is asked of them. It can take away their sense of power and control. My classroom needs to be a place where students learn strength, where they come away with more power, not with less. That is a hard goal. I am not perfect and will make mistakes, but the goal is still there. I want to make my students able to withstand the challenges of learning and growing.

We must show our students how to dig their roots in deep, so that they can withstand challenges. Even when studying their passions, there will always be times when it is difficult, when they want to give up. So my goal is to prepare my students with the tools and the joy in their learning, so that they will still be standing after their each challenge that comes their way.

Here’s to a great new year!

August often finds me feeling overwhelmed with the task of starting back to school. I love my job, and I love the work that it requires of me, but in August, summer has taken control of my life. I am rested and calm. I am making my own choices about what to do each day, with little or no influence from anyone else. I am reading when I want to, going for walks or out to lunch. The days have a gentle pace that is far removed from the energy and demands of the school year.

August brings an ever-increasing drum roll, as the weeks pass quickly by. I often feel unsure about how I will be able to return to completing all of the tasks that I do during each school day. The balls that I know I will soon be juggling are all on the ground, having spent a restful summer with no movement. But now, they all need to get back into the air. I have to remember which one needs focusing on and make sure that it gets the attention it needs without dropping all of the other ones. Reds and greens, blues and yellows, all flashing before my eyes! It feels more than a little daunting!

But this morning, through the power of my PLN and with Facebook as a tool, the energy and excitement of my work began to flow again, erasing the trepidation and replacing it with joy and a new sense of power. First, I saw a posting from @aleaness about using a New York Times article, that was originally posted by Chris Lehmann, as a writing prompt. She was going to make a model for her students, using a photograph of herself. She thanked @doremiGirl for ideas about adding music to the activity. I wrote asking how she was going to do it, and @doremiGirl responded that I could have a YouTube link or QR code, or they could make a movie and narrate over the music. The ideas were great, but it was the sharing with other passionate educators that changed the day. I was no longer alone, preparing for a classroom where I worked in isolation, behind a closed door. I was reminded that I am part of a global team of educators, who support and encourage each other, sharing ideas and new ways of thinking.

While it takes time to share and connect with other teachers, I remembered this morning that it is in fact the life-blood of my teaching practice. I remembered that I am not alone, trying to get all of my juggling balls back in the air, but instead,  I am part of an army of teachers, getting ready to give all that we can to bring a joy in learning and a sense of achievement to all of our students. We are picking up the tasks of our job together and supporting each other’s efforts!

September can be daunting, but it is far less so when I listen and learn from other educators. Then it is simply  the time when I return to doing what I love, surrounded by others who love it as well. So thank you to all of my Passionate Learning Network! Together, we will have another awesome year! I look forward to the work we will do together and to the ways that we will change the lives of our students!