Middle school literacy teacher/mentor. MEd in gifted education. Settler. Blessed with two amazing children and an awesome husband. Always thankful. She/Her.
Nova Scotia, Canada
Joined February 2011
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Janine Mac retweeted
I asked a group of former cohort members what we, as a university, could have done better to prepare students for the being a teacher.
One student's answer stuck with me.
"I wasn't ready for the loneliness. As a cohort, we were a community. You played a small role but it was us as a leader but, sorry, John, it was us. We were tight. Then you enter the field and you're on your own. I just wish I worked at a place where we ate together and planned together and had a couple of drinks together on Friday night like we did as as a cohort. I miss that so much."
I'm not sure how you define PLC but it's not "a group of people who analyze data together." It's what she was describing. It's a community that talks shop on a Friday afternoon after work.
Janine Mac retweeted
The Gullah Geechee song “Kumbaya” is a plea to God for help. You may know it as “Kum Ba Yah,” “Come By Yuh,” or “Come By Here.” Once one of the most popular songs in the folk revival of the 20th century, it has more recently become the subject of misplaced scorn.
ALT Title: "Campmeeting" from the Lowcountry Gullah series by artist John W. Jones
Janine Mac retweeted
I love the intro of this Op-Ed latimes.com/opinion/story/20…
We’ve had kids fake reading for decades and now they’re fake writing too. Smaller classes let educators know their students’ true abilities. Maybe it’s time to stop the diploma-factory model of education.
Janine Mac retweeted
"The best way to improve your ability to think is to spend time thinking.
One way to force yourself to slow down and think is to write. Good writing requires clear thinking.
Writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide."
— @shaneparrish
Janine Mac retweeted
Today I sat down with a student who hasn’t done anything in class so far (7 days in). All I told him was that I will give him feedback and another shot on it no matter what.
Guess who turned in something today.
It highlighted something important for me.
1/
Janine Mac retweeted
Silent Write Around in response to 9/11. Each student had a different color pen, read & responded to each poem or article at each table. Powerful writing
Janine Mac retweeted
Someone (not in education) was surprised to hear that teachers have to set up their own classrooms.
She thought we had someone to do that for us and we just walk in the first day and start teaching. I had to explain it takes days of prep + physical labor. And we don’t get paid.
You don’t want to be a teacher at a school that is closing permanently. Boxing all the books. Culling all the resources. Donating valuables to other schools, only to have it all thrown in a basement. Plus teaching to the very last day. No, you don’t ever want to have to do that.
The first time I was ever asked by someone if I wanted them to make copies for me was in my 19th year of teaching. She was a substitute secretary and couldn’t do all of the secretary’s usual tasks. My eyes welled up when she asked me, but I didn’t have anything at the moment.
Great inquiry question too!
As you begin a new school year, you might ask your students this question I learned from @ernestmorrell: "What does it mean to get better at reading?" Maybe chart their responses.
Janine Mac retweeted
As you begin a new school year, you might ask your students this question I learned from @ernestmorrell: "What does it mean to get better at reading?" Maybe chart their responses.
True instructional leaders don’t do this; you’ll find them in the comments. There is so much wrong with demanding documentation without genuine interest in how the teaching is happening. You’re replacing professionalism with accountability and your students will suffer for it.
Things happen, but this… I’ve cleaned out so many classrooms (and once, a school) that I just don’t have the stomach for it anymore. Please leave your classroom usable for the next teacher. Throw out the garbage, tidy the books, and please don’t steal all the good resources.
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