Weekly Writing Prompts [The Time I Ran Away]

Today's prompt does not have to be about a time a student ran away from home. What about the time they ran away from a problem, a friend, an enemy... or perhaps there was a time they desperately wanted to run away, but didn't...

A Must-Read Book for All Educators!

My 5 year old missed the kindergarten cut off by just a few days. She recognized all the letters, shapes and colors, counted to 20, &etc. By all standards she was ready for phonics, basic math, an intro to science... Instead of sending her to preschool, we decided to experiment at home. Our questions were:

• Where is she academically? 
• Is she ready to master the kindergarten standards?

Five months into school and we have a reader. She is picking up books and reading them on her own! She is mastering the kindergarten standards! Academically she was ready for kindergarten, yet the age cut off would never have allowed that. 

Being in the classroom with 7th and 8th graders where over half of them came to me reading at or below the 4th grade, I became frustrated with the public school system in America. It's failing students. It inhibits potential. We refuse to look to nations with successful educational programs and learn from them, or hire educational professionals experienced in the field of education as our Department of Education leader, or, or, or, or, or...

Teachers recognize the problems and we all feel like our hands are tied. We pour all of our energy into our classroom (including the cash from our own pockets) that it leaves little left at the end of the day. Is it really possible to make a change for the betterment of our students? Where we could actually help our struggling students struggle less? Or challenge our high ability learners? Or reach every student in every lesson, in every classroom across America? Or teach a student where he/she is academically?

When I read Salman Khan's book The One World Schoolhouse: A New Approach to Teaching and Learning these questions were answered! His ideas are unique and inspire creativity. His student-to-teacher interaction, a common sense approach, was exciting. And he takes the life-long learning philosophy to a whole new level. Reading his vision for education inspired me in my own classroom and as a teacher-mom. I saw the faults in the educational system in a whole new light and for once there were answers to these questions for my own classroom, but also gave hope knowing that changes can be made to benefit our future students, including my own young student. 

Seriously, educators, read this book and be inspired!

Weekly Writing Prompts [One Word Prompts]

My computer's tracking pad wigged out and I think I've finally figured out the issue, but until that happened I was unable to write and post anything. The mobile version of blogger is not especially user friendly. Thankfully, I've got it working. Hopefully it lasts until after Christmas. This season is expensive enough as it is!

With that said, one of the things I have scheduled weekly are writing prompts and I'm excited to share the first one: the first set of one word writing prompts.

One word has the ability to jog memory like smells, plus one simple word can blossom into many. What ideas come to mind when you read:

When I read dance, I think of the song we picked for our first dance as a married couple. It isn't the song itself, but the story behind the song I'd tell...

Journey brings so many incredible metaphors to mind! It's so easy to relate it to life.

And as I go down the list, I could easily write about what each word brings to mind. In your own classroom, model writing one of them and then let the students go.