M.D. Saints Writes

Somehow, the YouTube algorithms that be popped up some decluttering and minimalist videos.  I do not generally take the algorithm bait, but this time I did.  And now I am inspired to slim some things down…clothes closet, linen closet, random piddly kitchen gadgets.  Our house is not large anyway, so we could use a little bit of freed up space!  Somehow, all that started me thinking on classroom clutter.  Cluttered teacher desks.  Cluttered student binders and backpacks and lockers.  Cluttered lessons.   Cluttered lessons.  Yes, indeed. Cluttered lessons are easy to overlook, I mean, can a lesson really be cluttered?  Isn’t all the work good?  Nope.  Not to me; I consider anything with busywork clutter.   Busywork is academic clutter.  It fills a…

My son is four months told today so, naturally, I took the obligatory photo to mark his growth and compare it to the previous three months.  It’s fun and at the moment, he’s enjoying it.  Unlike, the millions of school photos being taken all over the country right around now.  Picture day:  The most awkward day of the school year.   Here.  I have proof.  Just look at the awkwardness of this seventh-grade photo.  So awkward.  So 90s when, thankfully, very few of us overthought our appearance.  I was, clearly, not one of those few overthinkers, hahaha.  That moment is welcome to run away. Picture day, at least in the two districts I have worked for, always goes through the…

Last night, well a couple of days ago by the time this is published, my husband installed our son’s bookcase.   I am so very excited!  Books are so important for children—for so many reasons; they increase vocabulary, comprehension, critical thinking, analytical skills, imagination and creativity.  And as an English teacher it is only natural, or should be anyway, to seek to quickly instill a love of reading in my child.   Unfortunately, not all children have this instilled within them, and of course some children whose parents try to instill it, well, it just doesn’t take.  They are their own individuals with their own individual likes and dislikes after all.  And it goes without saying…

I love routines.  I do well with schedules and checklists and everything organized.  Routines just make things so much simpler to me. But, a new year with new students, new coworkers, and sometimes new administrators, pretty much always brings new chaos—whether it’s in the form of challenging children, a cantankerous coworker or poorly implemented new protocol (that last one happens way too often…) some type of chaos is bound to ensue.  I can’t always do anything about coworkers or administrators, but cantankerous children, now they, thankfully, are manageable and actually easily mitigated with clearly set routines and expectations.   I know not everyone thrives on routine and structure, but I sure do and…

It is hard to believe that summer is coming to its end, yet again.  At least here in my district, anyway.   Despite that I am not returning to the classroom this year, the time flies nonetheless. In fact, perhaps even faster now that our son has arrived and he is almost officially out of 12-week newborn phase. He already has almost 100 books and we are reading to him every day—a variety of levels and in both English and Spanish. Not to wish time away, since it just vanishes anyway, but I sure look forward to when he is old enough for interactive bedtime reading!   I know the majority…

It is late.  This post is a week late.  It’s late in the school year.  And it is just flat out a late hour.  I’m exhausted.  As many teachers are this time of year.   My last post was just before Teacher Appreciation Week, and it got me reflecting on my own teachers over the years who were either great teachers, or just nice, haha, but perhaps not so great at the teaching part. I did somehow learn to type (haha, how wonderfully 90s, it’s too bad this is not still a class, actually, since most students do lack basic computer skills) in Mr. Laird’s class, despite that I can only recall him chatting with students…

My goodness!  National Poetry Month has come to a close and May is upon us!  Here in Florida, we are in the ultimate homestretch.  I know many schools in other parts of the country start later and so go later, but generally we are done at the end of May.  The light at the end of the tunnel has brightened indeed!   Though there are still many testing sessions going on, the ELA high stakes assessments are over with, and we are pretty much in wrap up mode with various units.  I’m in the process of adding more resources to my store…it’s been slow going, but the newest one, a unit on Perseus and Medusa of…

National Poetry Month is marching onward almost as fast as the school year is marching onward towards its terminus!  Since testing season is in high gear in many states and districts, it can be a little difficult to push through longer units because students are coming and going from various testing sessions.  Thus, I have found poetry resources to be particularly useful during this time, and even more so these micro-poetry units highlighted below.   Each of the these resources are designed to take only one or two days, and they include the text of the poem and a little author biography introduction to help simplify things. For the most part, these poems…

It’s National Poetry Month!  I was not a fan of poetry when I was in school, and when I first started teaching, I was also not a fan of teaching it.  Students notoriously struggle with, and dislike, poetry.  It’s so…well poetic, that it just takes more effort to analyze.  The figurative language is usually so heavy and the plots usually so brief that students easily become lost.   The memory of feeling so MEH with poetry, and the initial couple of years of dragging my students through Dickinson or Shakespeare sonnets, helped me in refining my poetry-teaching tactics to make poetry units as manageable, simple and fun as possible.  I try to make no assumptions when…

A couple of days ago I received a review on my comparative analysis lesson for Lois Lowry’s The Giver and the 1998 film The Truman Show:  This was difficult for grade 7/8, but, with guidance, it really was a meaningful assignment. They were able to draw parallels and fully engage with the assignment. Thank you! We all really enjoyed this. I’m really appreciative of this buyer taking her time not only to leave a review, but to specify that, despite its difficulty, her students were able to draw the parallels with her proper scaffolding.   I do not make easy lessons, and this has definitely been a process of growth for me over the years…