Power bubbles and playing with worms: my 6 rules for raising a powerful girl
Who says a white dress isn’t made for playing in the mud? Imagine a world full of women — our daughters — who are strong enough to get dirty and climb high, brave enough to look closely at their surroundings, and smart enough to recognize just how awesome they really are.
5 beautifully illustrated children’s books you’ll want to read over and over again
Children’s books that both tell beautiful stories — whether they’re of small yet courageous mice or artists flitting around Paris in the 1920s — have always captivated me and been part of our bedtime reading ritual. Here are few that I especially adore!
Ruminations on the future of colleges: where will your kids be in fifteen years?
College is not necessarily about receiving an education, though this can still be achieved. Instead, college is about trading the least amount of work required to receive one of those job-granting acronyms: B.A., M.S. and so on.
10 Young Adult novels that don’t suck
As a middle school English teacher, I’ve read a lot of young adult literature and, quite frankly, there’s a lot of crap out there (I won’t even climb on my anti-Twilight soapbox). Navigating the muddy waters of YA lit can be akin to, well, teaching middle school, but there really are some amazing reads in this genre.
Watch your language: how we emphasize family diversity when talking to our kids
We want to teach our kids that diversity comes in many shades — and telling them that sex is something only moms and dads do is the first thing to go.
A Pi Day bonus: one teacher’s thoughts on why math matters
“You’ll need it to balance your checkbook” or “What if you wanted to re-paint a room of your house?” are phrases that we would often hear repeated to us when we asked “Why we will ever need any of this math?”. While these uses are just as relevant as ever, these answers not only leave today’s learners unsatisfied, but also do not address the essential needs of math in today’s working world. As parents and caretakers, we should be careful to not confuse arithmetic with Mathematics.
It’s Pi Day! Let’s talk about how awesome math is for your kids
Growing up I was totally one of those kids that read early, talked early, all that jazz — but hated math. I can’t even pretend that I just strongly disliked it, as my feelings were those of straight-up loathing. If I have to place the beginning of this hate-hate relationship, I can safely say it started when I got my first B in sixth grade in algebra.
Tips from teacher: 5 ways to keep teens from frying your nerves
Whilst I’m still learning how best to manage behaviour, and the results of my efforts are often far from perfect, I’m beginning to realise just how much I rely on some of the strategies taught at university or learnt from other teachers. Even when these strategies utterly fail me, at least I feel that I’ve done right by my students and maybe, just maybe, they’ll thank me for it when they calm down.