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a Teach for America science teacher in St. Louis
Donate Now I’m currently in Chicago for a training on AVID for school, but this article appeared in the paper today. It discusses how, on the whole, middle schools were the best performers in the state. In particular, three St. Louis Public Schools’ middle schools were the best performers in the region. Among them… my…
read more »Donate Now I can’t legitimately say that I need some time to think what I should be typing right now since I haven’t updated anyone in quite some time. So I won’t put it off, but I am needing to think along the way. Fortunately or unfortunately for you, this is going to be lengthy.…
read more »Nothing is more exciting as a teacher than having a very real-world example for my students in order for them to connect their classroom knowledge to the world around them. At approximately 4:37 a.m. Friday the opportunity came knocking. This is the approximate time that
read more »Even though it was 70 degrees and sunny on Sunday, it is snowing like the dead of winter in St. Louis today. In fact, this is our biggest storm of the year. More than 8.5 inches has already blanketed the airport, the place of our official readings. Eating Ted Drewes while wearing short sleeves seems…
read more »While trying to spice up a lesson on the metric system and how to make metric conversions using the Metric Shuffle (using the popular song Cupid Shuffle as inspiration), I manufactured these half-original jokes. Q: What do you get when you put ten cards together? A: One dekacards. Q: If I had one million microphones,…
read more »Deck the halls. Fa la la la la. The holidays are a time of cheer for everyone. I wish I could insert one of those screeching sound effects like would happen right now if this were a television show. Then I, your narrator, could come on and prepare us for a story that differs. No…
read more »While I was working for Dateline NBC in the summer of 2004, I researched about the "meth epidemic" sweeping the midwest. Towns small and big ravaged by the effects of this horribly addictive drug. I never thought that the meth dealers would have any impact on my life directly. Just for the record… I don’t…
read more »Nothing like some rankings to help me finally break through my writer’s block. Today, St. Louis passed off its dubious title of “Most Dangerous City” to Detroit, Mich., in the 14th annual ranking of crime statistics published by Morgan Quinto Press, now owned by CQ Press. Unfortunately, CQ does not have a public link for…
read more »Half-days for three days of the first week of school makes for a low stress week. SLPS made the advanced call today.
read more »Sometimes students can surprise you with the work they produce. As an effort to recognize that Earth Day was near (today in fact), I assigned my students a journal entry: What is the most important environmental issue to you? We talked about what this meant, and I provided examples such as pollution, recycling, and global…
read more »I’m not sure what is going on. People who live in St. Louis joke about the parking enforcement here. Basically it’s described as nearly non-existent. I know people who never put money in any meter and have never received tickets. Because of this, you can understand why I’m shocked to have received two parking tickets…
read more »In teacher heaven, there are people who want to help you be a better teacher. In teacher heaven, you can learn how to be a better teacher. In teacher heaven, there are no papers to grade. In teacher heaven, there are a near endless amount of options for things to see and do related to…
read more »Yesterday, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to implement a take-over of the St. Louis Public Schools district. This is, as you can imagine, big news.
read more »I recently was asked by someone about my favorite place in St. Louis. I basically stumbled on the question. Not truly sure of the answer. But a more shocking realization is that maybe I hadn’t yet explored enough of the city. I finally settled on the penguin room at the St. Louis Zoo. I think…
read more »I remember trying to explain momentum to a student one day. I described it as pushing a full shopping cart in the grocery store. It’s hard to get started, but easy to keep going. Coming back to the blog is the same way. The first week back from break was a bit of a mess.…
read more »Unlike this summer, this time I escape with power. In fact, I have my windows open to cool it off because the radiators are heating things up a little too much. Let’s turn to our friends at the St. Louis Post Dispatch for an update… The storm was the worst ever to hit the AmerenUE…
read more »What an exciting year to move to St. Louis, Mo. This past weekend, the Gateway City with it’s gleaming Arch (which just turned 41) took a title away from Detroit, Mich. I know what’s racing through your head right now… the Cardinals‘ exciting victory Friday over the Tigers to take the World Series title. This,…
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