This was a very powerful story that I read in 2 days. I quickly connected with the main character, Silas, who is on a quest to find and save his father who was taken by bandits in this story that is set in the past. Silas can see and talk to ghosts which is an interesting twist to this tale. This is the story of Silas, on his adventurous journey through the scary Woods and of the people who help him along the way. It is the story of mother who loves him very much but is no longer with him. It is a story of the power of love that never dies. Even when the physical body might pass, the power of ..read more

I loved this book and read it in one sitting! It was a wonderful mix of reality and fantasy. The story is about a 10 year old girl named Willodeen who has suffered great loss. She is different and doesn’t always fit in, a theme that young readers will certainly understand and relate to. Willodeen feels more comfortable with nature than she does with people. She especially loves and closely observes one special kind of animal called a screecher that most others consider a nuisance or pest. The survival of her town depends on the arrival of the hummingbears each year who make beautiful bubbl ..read more

  As those of us in the eastern part of the United States move into the 11th week on stay at home orders due to Covid 19, I wanted to share a family friendly outdoor game/hobby that has brought me great joy over the last 5 years.  Geocaching  – the world wide outdoor scavenger hunt! Geocaching started when GPS was created as a way for them to test it to see if it really worked.  The idea was to hide a container in the woods and then use GPS technology to see if you could find it.  Fast forward 20 years and there are now over 3 million geocaches of all shapes and sizes ..read more

  This is an image story that we will write together.  I will start it off.  Please read the comments and continue my story.  Can’t wait to see how it turns out! This is Marc the koala who was looking out in the forest and saw a bear.  What should he do next ..read more

Last Friday we found out that our governor was shutting down schools for 2 weeks in order to slow the spread of coronavirus in our state.  Even though we knew it was probably coming, we were still in a bit of shock and left scrambling to figure out how to manage this uncharted territory of remote learning for our school of over 300 students from PreK – 8th grade.  One thing we knew we had to do was still be able to connect with students to support them and maintain our learning partnership.  mohamed_hassan / Pixabay Besides creating flipped learning type videos, teachers and students also n ..read more

sdobie via Compfight After teaching 3rd grade for the last 14 years, this year I have moved into the role of Librarian/Technology teacher for the whole school, PreK3 – 8th grade.  It has been an adjustment to say the least, but I am really enjoying it now that I have settled in.  This job has allowed me to teach my 2 favorite things – technology and the love of a good book.  One goal that I have is to motivate my students to read everyday for enjoyment.  Here are a few of the ways I’ve tried to incorporate this goal in my new position. Read Aloud to the Children Every Time I See Them – I thi ..read more

I’ve been teaching 19 years and for the last 14 years, I’ve been teaching 3rd grade.  I really enjoy this age level because they are old enough to do a lot of things for themselves but they are still very excited about learning.  However, teaching the same material over and over again, year after year can be a challenge.  I always tell my parents at Back to School Night that I sometimes get bored of teaching the same lessons, and if I’m bored, I know my students are probably bored too!  So I am always looking for new ways to spice up my classroom and make learning fun for the children.  The pr ..read more

#EdublogsClub Prompt 7 – The Listicle Becoming a global educator is very important in today’s society.  Even the youngest children can benefit from making global connections but many teachers have no idea how to get started.  Here are some easy ways to make that happen. Make Connections with Blogs – Blogging is an easy way for students to get connected with other classrooms around the world.  Two of my favorite websites to use for that are “The 100 Word Challenge” and the “Student Blogging Challenge.”  Each challenge has a weekly writing prompt to give the children a topic to write about and ..read more

Last month I signed up to take part in the #EdublogsClub – a weekly writing club for educators to blog about a different topic each week. I’ve been so busy that they are on prompt 5 and I am just having time to get started. This week’s theme is to share your favorite free web tools and I’m happy to provide my thoughts on this topic. Online Worksheet Generator – Wizer.me  Our school is is a GAFE school and the students are 1:1 with chromebooks.  We are trying to get away from running off paper and doing more work online.  However, there are often times when I’d like my 3rd grade students to ha ..read more

This year my 3rd grade students at St. Ignatius School took part in an International Peace Day Video along with 19 other schools from 10 different countries including Germany, Guatemala, Malaysia, New Delhi, Australia, Greece, Venezuela, Ireland, India and the USA.  Special thanks to Lisa Parisi and Our Global Friendships for making it all happen!   Watch our submission video here – Global Peace Day Song 2016 ..read more