Tales from the Fourth Grade: The Best Field Trip EVER

Teachers will tell you that one of the hardest parts of any school year is the planning and execution of field trips. While students are looking forward to a “day off” from the classroom, teachers and administrators are scrambling to get permission forms returned and figuring out driving and chaperone arrangements. Though I didn’t have …

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Tales from the Fourth Grade: Make a Joyful Noise

While my students were writing out their first book report for the quarter in cursive (my kids will have non-forgeable signatures, thanks very much), I decided to play some music to keep them motivated. Eva was enjoying my classical music and asked if we could listen to songs from Phantom of the Opera. I first …

Happy Climbing: How to Overcome Obstacles

My family is blessed to own property on a beautiful island in northern Lake Michigan. While it is the largest island in Lake Michigan, Beaver Island is not exactly brimming with activities or tourist attractions like Great Britain in the Atlantic, or Australia or Hawaii in the Pacific. It is a place to unwind from …

Tales from the Fourth Grade: For the Love of Literature

I went into the school year expecting great things from my new set of fourth graders. As all teachers will freely admit to, we spend time during the year regaling our coworkers with stories of our students, and so I already had a favorable impression of my incoming class from tidbits I had acquired. I …

Book Review: Teach Like a PIRATE

Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator by Dave Burgess My rating: 3 of 5 stars I'm not entirely sure for whom this book is intended. I read it in hopes of improving my technique and building more enthusiasm in certain difficult/jaded students, but the …

Teach Like a Pirate: Building Rapport, Student Engagement, and Creativity

While reading Dave Burgess’s highly popular educational tome Teach Like a Pirate, I discovered several key elements were repeated over and over again. These elements tie directly into the acrostic PIRATE, which stands for Passion, Immersion, Rapport, Ask and Analyze, Transformation, and Enthusiasm. While Burgess contends that a successful teacher will implement all of the …

Book Review: The Rosie Result

The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion My rating: 4 of 5 stars "I had observed that neurotypicals criticised autistic people for lacking empathy -- towards them -- but seldom made any effort to improve their own empathy towards autistic people."Boom. What a statement, and so incredibly true. My sister is totally empathetic, yet neurotypical people …

Book Review: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn My rating: 4 of 5 stars I feel this book would be a great one to make Western high schoolers, who are convinced of the "evil fascism" of their country, to read. They can whine all they want about how "totalitarian" their government is, …

Ephemeral Impressions

Dear Peruse and Muse readers: Today my entry will be different as I share some happy news in regards to my writing. I have been accepted at https://channillo.com/ to publish a series of poetry. My series is called Ephemeral Impressions (https://channillo.com/series/ephemeral-impressions/) and will be going live on Wednesday, April 10. If you have enjoyed my …

Why I Write

Have you ever felt defined by one characteristic? The world sees just one facet of your personality and latches onto it with zero compunction. Maybe people only see the dark side of your persona, or maybe they assume something about yourself based on a quick first impression and never take the time to truly get …