Avenue4Learning

Over winter break, I saw a couple of local news segments about a teacher who had won an award for her great teaching. The phrases used to describe her: “tirelessly giving of herself” “works late nights and weekends to do whatever it takes” “selfless and saint-like” My first impression was that she must be a [...]

Today is World Teachers Day. Have you thanked your favorite teacher today? In my last post, I asked for names of teachers who make a difference. In this post I’m going to list them– as well as many of my own teachers– to celebrate their hard work and dedication to help kids learn. I would [...]

I am a teacher. By choice. Why? Because I love learning more than little kids love candy… and helping others learn makes me incredibly happy. Too altruistic? Too sappy? Sorry, but it’s the truth, and it’s been that way since I was in 2nd grade. At the age of 8, I knew I wanted to [...]

My apologies, Mr. President. It has been over a month since I wrote Part I of this post. To be completely honest, I have put off writing the second part because I’ve been too angry to write it.  I’m so frustrated with what I hear coming from our government, with so-called “experts” who have not [...]

Dear Mr. President: In the past two weeks, I have read more about schools, teachers, and accountability than I have ever seen in my nearly 20 years in education. Sadly, I can’t say that what I’ve been reading is encouraging. The one word I see over and over again is “accountability.” Accountability IS a good [...]

I became a teacher because I love sharing what I learn with other people. And I LOVE TO LEARN!! As early as 1st and 2nd grade, my classroom teachers used me as a peer tutor. While I’m guessing their intentions were mostly to benefit the students I tutored, they might not have had any idea [...]