Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

The view from my favorite chair in the den this morning as I listen for purpose in the silence. Great strength can be found in the quiet moments before the day starts. The time where no cat mews and the night's dew rests quietly upon the ground. Before the tyranny of the noise and the barrage of notifications and matters of nonimportance glare at you with self important demands. Hearing your purpose in the silence... Yet, through the quiet, I can hear the whisper of the true priorities of this day speak to my heart and mind and settle my spirit. To demand that those among us who don't get the mornings and don't like them become morning people is silly. But I would be remiss if I didn't at least point out that much time and peace awaits you if you'll set that alarm earlier and get up before anyone else stirs. The younger your children are, the more you need this time alone. The more you work with kids, the more you need this time alone. For, to me, truly, t...

They've already decided. The decision is made. If someone is in danger, they'll be there. They'll put out the fire. Whether it is the kind of fire that crackles in flame or in the heated sparks of human emotion, it is their job. 9/11 or not, they're always where things run hot. Once a week in the fall when my son steps out on the football field, I worry if he'll be OK as he plays the game. An Every Day Worry Every day of every year of every season, the loved ones of firefighters and first responders wonder if they'll come home that night. Does anyone understand? Do any of us really understand what it would be like to live life like that? Do we have a clue? Even more, do we even say thank you? Not the generic 'thank you for all you do" but the more powerful: Thank you for your service. Thank you for keeping us safe. Thank you for responding even when it is scary or hard or upsetting. There are public servants everywhere bu...

I sit here at 7:11 watching Shadow and Krispy, the cats, eye each other in a circle wondering who will attack first. Oops. There they go. Krispy delivers a paw to the chest and Shadow lands a clean blow on the head. Now they are taking a moment to lick and they'll be back at it before the clock clicks another minute. I wonder why they fight. Shadow was saved from the jaws of four of the dogs at the farm almost a year a go. I'm not sure why people put unloved, unwanted pets out at Aunt Nan's house because she has some pretty scary looking dogs out there. Shadow just looks innocent laying here in my arms one night. He's always ready to start a fight. ;-) We couldn't resist. Shadow was a baby kitten and had no where to go and we know that Boots and Krispy are getting on up there in age. We bought them home on Easter weekend when my son who is at college was 8 or 9. So, although they look great, I guess these cats are getting on up there. Maybe even as old as me...

English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Misunderstandings happen. They happen on Twitter. They happen on Facebook. They happen in our lives. Case in Point... A few weeks a go, a teacher, Shawn White contacted me through direct message on Twitter. He and I had exchanged a tweet on a Friday night. Then, I got up Saturday and started continuing to write a post I had started earlier in the week. This post turned into " Questioning Rigor " and was prompted by Dave Burgess ' ponderings in his book  Teach Like a PIRATE . Meanwhile, Shawn had messaged back and somehow the conversation had turned to this term of Rigor. Shawn feels that "vigor" is a better word to use and expresses it well in his blog post and also at the beginning of this recording. I understand his argument. Well, our tweets, and my post were all sort of happening at the same time. He had texted me a link bu...

My youngest has moved up into sixth grade. My how time flies. When I talked with him on Thursday about his week his first response was: "I'm so happy. I think all my teachers seem to like me ok." Do students think you "like" them? This seems odd but students really want to know if you like them. Are you going to be fair ? Are you going to give them a chance? They love you if you express an interest in something they love Then, he said: "I already have one teacher who loves me! I know it because she let me talk about Minecraft." This teacher had the kids do their coat of arms and on the coat of arms, they put things they enjoyed and liked. (I do Dave Burgess ' Play dough activity from Teach Like a Pirate which does something similar.) Under the pirate bandanas were small jars of play dough. I do an activity from Dave Burgess' book "Teach Like a Pirate" to get to know the students on the first day But when we say ...

My air conditioner has been broken all this week. They have ordered a part but we’re not sure if it is going to be here before school starts. If it is not, I’ll teach class on the stage rather than risk the computers expiring in the heat and have kids sweat because of the heat. Sometimes things stink as we prepare for school. This is less than ideal. OK. I’ll admit it - IT STINKS. Honestly, I stink too. But stinky stuff happens. It just does. I’m in gnat central here and it is 90 something outside and I’m opening my door to my room to cool it off. I’m wearing workout clothes that shed heat so I can sweat with as little soak as possible. And then IT happened… My laptop died today - perhaps heat induced. Not sure. I connected the hard drive - threw everything in Dropbox and am letting it sync. Dropbox has saved me again. When everyone has done all they can, you can still choose what you can Yet. My students will be here Thursd...

I'm drafting this on Monday night after our first day of preplanning at school. Today at lunch, our PTO had the nicest "teacher appreciation" luncheon. It was so nice. I snapped quite a few photos and thought I'd share with you what they did and what I liked about it. Motivational Quotes We all need to be reminded. The PTO had large watering cans with zinnias and flowers from the yards of the PTO members. Orange and white are our school colors so the green was accented with white and orange. It was gorgeous. Their quote was perfect: "A teacher's like a gardener and this is so you'll know we surely do appreciate how you help the children grow. Thanks for all you do." That was on a wooden stick inside the watering can with the flowers. Teacher Wish Lists and Likes Underneath our boxed lunches we had a piece of paper for our wish lists and likes. This list is one that PTO puts in a binder in the office. Things like "what is you...

Of all of the jobs I’ve had in my life, teaching takes the most energy and patience and is by far the hardest of what I’ve done. When I was a businesswoman When I was a businesswoman - I could fire employees who didn’t do their job – now, I have to work to motivate and teach every student even those who don’t want to be there. When I was a businesswoman - I could even fire customers if they caused a constant drain upon resources with complaining or wasted tasks; – as a teacher I work with all who come. When I was a businesswoman - I had great autonomy - the buck stopped with me in terms of customer satisfaction - as a teacher there are so many things in the life of a child at my school from the lunchroom to the playground to the team and other teachers - all of these combine to make their experience - I only have control over my own classroom. When I was a businesswoman the world was a more forgiving place when I messed up. I could mak...

Teaching is a profession. Teaching is also a decision. I decide if I am going to teach. Each and every day, I decide if I am going to teach. Just because I'm called a teacher doesn't mean anything. Some beautiful students from Japan, China, Hawaii and Georgia at Flat Classroom Live in Hawaii last week. I love students!! We had a blast at Punahou School. Thanks to Emily McCarren for inviting me and Julie Lindsay. It was great! I can call you a car and ask you to sit in my garage but if you don't have 4 wheels and a motor, you're not going to take me anywhere. Every morning as I wake up to face my day, I start gearing up to teach. Speaking is pretty easy for me because preparing for a keynote feels a lot like preparing for class with one exception. Teenagers are a much tougher audience than you beautiful, wonderful educators out there. If you have too long of a gap or you're caught unprepared you might end up with a mess on your hands. Do I upgrade and ma...

With major jetlag, I sit here bleary eyed on the couch considering the fact that in 7 days I'll be back at school. The summer will be done and it will start again - the 12th year of teaching for me. Are you waiting for someone to fix it? As I look at tweets, I see someone looking at the statistics on poverty saying, "The government isn't doing enough" and another person wanting someone to "fix education" and yet another bemoaning the fact that they don't have enough technology. Here's the thing. If you externalize the problems of the world and expect someone to come in miraculously and "fix" this or "do" that, you'll be waiting forever. You've got the classic superman complex. You're waiting for some super hero sized person or government to come in and fix the things that need fixing. You'll be waiting until your hair turns grey and your skin blows off your bones, my friends. Fixit doesn't happen. ...

It has always bothered me that I have nightmares about teaching. Always. Just before I have to go into the classroom, I have them...Full color, noise filled nightmares. I'm working with second graders last week at Vacation Bible School at church and last Sunday night I had another one of those dreams. It really bothered me, so I thought about it and these were my conclusions. This was a nightmare for me. My son and I went down the Nantahala Falls the total WRONG way this time. We didn't go under because we didn't stop padddling. I righted us and we sailed on through but it was scary. Teaching can be scary, especially if you don't respect the power of the classroom and if you stop rowing your own boat, you're in trouble. Why do we have teaching nightmares? I've talked with other teachers on my Facebook page about this and we all seem to have nightmares, but why? Why should we dream about failing as a teacher when it is something we just do? Shouldn...