What is success? How do we cultivate successful students? How do we model it as teachers? Is it possible to both succeed AND fail in the same endeavor? If so, is the overall effect one of success or failure? In my education classes at university, we generally defined educational success in two ways: a) meeting... Continue Reading →
Thursday: the almost-weekend day. Except today. No school on Friday means Thursday is Friday, and if Thursday is Friday, then everyone has "long weekend" on the brain. At 8:45 this morning, I walked into my first 5th-grade band class. What am I teaching today? Oh yeah, review a few exercises and Hot Cross Buns, then... Continue Reading →
Last Monday I flew to the coast with seventy 12-year olds and eight other adults. "Sounds like a strange and twisted way to spend a vacation at the beach" you might say. If it had been a vacation, perhaps ... this however was school! Science class on the coral reefs, history class at the 14th... Continue Reading →
Ladies and Gentlemen! Now entering the ring: In the blue corner - that terrible thief of time, the colossus that strikes trepidation into the hearts of teachers and students alike, it's First-Day-of-School! In the red corner - she held her ground in Round One, folks - she may be small, but she doesn't go down... Continue Reading →
We made it - school is out! So what happened in May? Many, many concerts. At school, we had a concert every week. Add to that several extra-curricular music festivals which I had to either attend or sing in, and altogether it was a highly musical month. I have uploaded a few video clips so... Continue Reading →
A question for teachers and interested student-types. What do you do when, in a high school assembly, the principal of your school says this: "I'm well aware that prom is this Saturday. Tickets of course are still on sale. Now, I think I should take a moment to say something important here about prom night.... Continue Reading →
"Hello 4th grade." "Hello Ms. Lillis." "Please take your recorders and your books and find a spot on the carpet." I motioned to the Persian-style carpet on one side of my classroom. The excited group began to move and I went to my desk to get my recorder. "Ms. Lillis, do you believe in leprechauns?"... Continue Reading →
FRIDAY At breakfast that last morning, I hardly recognized some of the kids. Boys who had hidden under sunglasses and snow caps now had gelled hair and clean faces. Some of the girls had traded their sweat pants for skirts and had dug out the jewelry. We boarded the bus a little after 9am. Though... Continue Reading →
I arrived at school this morning at 8am GMT+2. As the last polls closed in the US, I sat at my computer checking headlines. Outside my window, elementary students arrived on the playground. Second and third graders echo-chanted "BA-RAK! O-BA-MA! BA-RAK! O-BA-MA!" As I walked to the staff lounge to check my box, I received several... Continue Reading →
I had the pleasure of chaperoning a high school Habitat trip this weekend. On Friday after school, another teacher and I took sixteen HS kids to a Habitat site four hours north of Nairobi. We arrived in the evening, camped out on the cement floor of a school house, and went the next morning to... Continue Reading →
Of Wonders & Wanders 
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