Good Morning Young Grasshopper(s)

The headmaster was enjoying the quiet of the post-first-thing-in-the-morning-rush.  It was Friday.  The flowers were in bloom.  The storm had been replaced with beautiful sunshine.  He leaned back in his desk chair and sighed.  And noticed a nice green decent-sized grasshopper on his wall.  He asked a dad out in the main office if his [...]

The Way It Ought to Work

So last year we were having some trouble with Math.  By trouble I mainly mean that we had lost our “light” in math.  We were running kids through the ropes, but there was no joy.  I have my suspicions why that was, but that is not the point of this blog.  There was a problem [...]

Starting a New Year of School

The start of school is so sweet and exciting.  Starting school is also one of the hardest things a teacher can be put through.  How do these two observations stand together?  It is much like a marriage honeymoon: lots of joy and lots of adjustment.  And that is because both the start to a school [...]

One of Boyden’s Boys Writes It Up Right

Frank Boyden is a giant, perhaps the giant, among American headmasters.  I need to give him several blogs at some point.  One of his students, John A. Pidgeon, has recently blogged about his 45 years in private education.  It is great reading for anyone who wonders how we got from WWII to where we are [...]

Fifth Grade Flies By

I enjoyed my day in Fifth Grade, but had to be called out a few times to be a headmaster, so it was not perfect.
Certainly by now I am seeing that I really have to be in the class to pass the class. I did poorly on most of the tests taken during this [...]

Fourth Grade on Parade

This is that really busy time of year, so my comments after spending a day in 4th grade are once again in bullet form.
A. It was true of Third grade as well, but even more so here in Fourth: I have taught this age, so it does not seem as strange to me. I [...]

Are Third Graders Real?

What kind of a question is that? Of course they are real. All we have to squabble over is the form of their reality. If you can teach Third grade, you can teach anything. Here are some observations that support that premise.
A. When they don’t know the answer to a question of [...]

So What is a Second Grader Like?

I think with the “behindedness” that I am experiencing these days, I should go to a form of writing I don’t like but that is much quicker for me. I will bullet out my thoughts from my Day in the Life of a 2nd grade class.
A. Even at second grade, I am finding the [...]

Grade 1 Two

This blog will suffer for being put off for too many days. I spent the day in a First Grade classroom again on Oct. 24, 2007 and have not blogged until now. But I did have some notes to work off of. It will be short and disjointed, though the day was [...]

A Whole Day the First Grade Way

Yep. Believe it or not, I graduated up to First Grade this week. 7:40am till 3pm is a haul, follks. I was tired when I was done. Truly some uncollected thoughts, but let me jump right in.
Order is such a wonderful gift to children. From the moment I entered this [...]