Word on the Street

This is the view from my hammock.  When I look up from my book, this is what I see.  The word on the street is that I read a lot.  True.

The word on the street is that I don’t like to teach math.  Not true.  I love patterns; I love helping people find the perfect solution; I love games.  I love finding multiple avenues to solve one problem. I love showing how numbers, like words, can tell a story.  I love playing a part in building math confidence. Parents tell me that they’ve heard on the playground that I don’t like to teach to math.   It simply isn’t true.

The word on the street is that I love to teach children to write.  This really is true. On the first day of school I gently lead my students into a vale of voice and meaning through story. I explain that when we tell stories we are “writing in the air.”  When we write down our stories, we are putting our voice on paper.  I loved hearing the “Quick Write” notebooks crack open for the first time last week as I turned on our writing music.  Did they all punctuate?  Did their ideas hang together?  Was their spelling correct?  No.  One of the joys of being a third grade teacher is watching it come together.  And it will.  These children are going to write well and love writing.  That is the word on the street.  And it’s true.

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