We have been working on addition and subtraction.
What a crazy week last week was! Between MLK day, a snow day and then my having to be out on Friday, I feel like I’m really missing my kids! Your child may have told you I wasn’t in on Friday because I was working with other teachers from across the country. I traveled down to Washington D.C. for the January session of the TeachPlus/NEA fellowship, where there are 53 early career (0-10 years of experience) teachers discussing issues facing us and helping to make changes in our profession for the future. To say I’m blessed to be a part of this group is an understatement – this group of teachers is not only inspiring but truly a group that makes you want to do better in everything you do in the classroom. They are thoughtful, committed and energetic about teaching and learning. It didn’t matter than I had to get up at 4 a.m. to catch my flight Friday morning, I loved every single minute of it.
We have begun writing in our winter journals.
Whenever I go to a conference like this, I am always thinking about our little school. And I don’t say “little” to demoralize us – it is just a fact – and you realize how unique our situation is when you start interacting with teachers from across the country. 38,000 kids in the Jefferson County School District in Colorado, 12,000 teachers in Montgomery County Schools in Maryland…and here we are reaching for the same standards and seeing many of the same issues right in our close-knit community. We should be proud of the work we do each day in the our school by the sea. (By the way, Nahant looks awesome from the air! Very distinctive!)
Now I’m all jazzed and can’t wait to get back with my kids but – WHAT – we have to wait one more day until we can be together! The Johnson School teachers have important work to do tomorrow that impacts our students’ learning, so I will hold on to my enthusiasm and see everyone bright and early Tuesday morning. Remember, the PTO ice skating event is tomorrow if you are looking for something fun to do outside of the house, since I just read this screen time study on kids today in the NYT. Good food for Thought. 🙂
Ms. Purdin
PS: Here’s another great article from the Huffington Post Education Blog by one of the fellows from Massachusetts about Common Core and Kindergarten: The Common Core In My Classroom.
