Top 10 List: Teacher's Favorite Things

10.) Sharpie markers

















9.) Stickers























8.) Science Experiments

7.) Bulletin boards















6.) crafts/projects
















5.) Field trips
















4.) Apples :))


















3.) NICE notes from parents

2.) Class Pets



















1.) Snow Days!

Everyone Has ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) runs rampant in American children today. The big controversy is whether ADHD is actually increasing as a disorder or if children are being misdiagnosed. I have so many opinions on both sides I could probably write a book. However, for sanity's sake, I'll try to explain the sides simply.

Reasons I Think ADHD is Actually Increasing

• It is genetic and about half of children diagnosed have a parent diagnosed as well
• video games and a surge in technology
• We have learned so much about it that doctors can spot it more easily, resulting in more cases
• food additives and artificial processed ingredients

Reasons I think Children Are Being Misdiagnosed

• Data supports that 70% of children diagnosed with ADHD don't have ADHD
• Pharmaceutical manipulation
• It's an umbrella label in which several symptoms fall under that could be caused by something else (something as simple as an irregular bedtime can result in a child demonstrating symptoms that fall in the ADHD category)
• It's an easy quick fix/excuse for parents, teachers and doctors

I work with a large population of ADHD students. I can say that I have many that I truly believe have ADHD and are befitting largely from their diagnosis and medication. Others, I'm just not sure. I don't see the symptoms and I think they may just be a typical kid. Then there are ones that are clearly misdiagnosed and are following the wrong plan and taking the wrong medication. This can result in more obvious and debilitating symptoms than ADHD.

In America today, being a child with atypical behaviors is a sad and confusing place to be. Of course doctors and technology are smarter than ever. Unfortunately, politics, ignorance and greed are dumber than ever and they're our worst enemy in working out the truths any myths about ADHD today.

I am interested in your thoughts and experiences on this topic so if you have anything to share I'd love to hear it!

Famous People with ADHD...Or misdiagnosed ADHD

Justin Timberlake

Jamie Oliver

Will Smith

Michael Phelps

Jim Carrey

Ty Pennington

Paris Hilton

Howie Mandel

Terry Bradshaw

James Carville

Solange Knowles

Thomas Jefferson
"Magic" Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Michael Jordan
Carl Jung, M.D.
King Karl XI of Sweden
John F. Kennedy
Robert Kennedy
Jason Kidd
Evel Knievel
Bill Lear
John Lennon
Lewis and Clark
Carl Lewis
Abraham Lincoln
Luci Baines

Johnson Nugent
Louis Pasteur
Gen. George Patton
H. Ross Perot

Edgar Allan Poe
Cole Porter
Elvis Presley
Dan Rather
Buddy Rich
Eddie Rickenbacker
Guy Ritchie
Joan Rivers
John D. Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Pete Rose
John Ruskin
Nolan Ryan
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anwar Sadat
Pierre Salinger
Charles Schulz
Robert Schumann
Pablo Picasso
Charles Schwab
Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf
George C. Scott
George Bernard Shaw
Tom Smothers
Socrates
Steven Spielberg
Sylvester Stallone
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jackie Stewart
James Stewart
Richard C. Strauss
Lord Alfred Tennyson
Nicolai Tesla
Henry David Thoreau
Leo Tolstoy
Ted Turner
Vincent Van Gogh
Jules Verne
Werner von Braun
Lindsay Wagner
Mike Wallace
General Westmoreland
Weyerhauser Family
Walt Whitman
Jamie Williams
Robin Williams
Tennessee Williams
Woodrow Wilson
Henry Winkler
Stevie Wonder
Virginia Woolf
F.W. Woolworth
Wright Brothers
Vince Lombardi
Robert Lowell
James Clark Maxwell
Steve McQueen
Mozart
David H. Murdock
Napoleon
Nasser
Isaac Newton
Jack Nicholson
Anthony Hopkins
Howard Hughes
Nostradamus
Albert Einstein
Ansel Adams
Ann Bancroft
Beethoven
Alexander Graham Bell
James Boswell
Sir Richard Francis Burton
President George Bush (both)
Admiral Richard Byrd
Lord Byron
Thomas Carlyle
Andrew Carnegie
Gen. H. Norman Charles
Thomas Chatterton
Samuel Clemens
Samuel T. Coleridge
Christopher Columbus
Tom Cruise
Leonardo da Vinci
Salvador Dali
Emily Dickinson
Patty Duke
Thomas Edison
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ernest & Marel
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Edward Fitzgerald
Malcomb Forbes
Henry Ford
Rick Fox
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Frost
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Tom Gainsborough
Galileo

Bill GatesSusan Hampshire
Handel
Mariette Hartley
Stephen Hawking
Wm Randolph Hearst
Ernest Hemingway
Bill Hewlett
Alfred Hitchcock
Dustin Hoffman

I Never Want to Forget...

...any of my students!

I never thought of this as a child with my own teachers, as an education student or even during my student teaching. However, it has been at the forefront of my mind and worries during my first five years of teaching. I want to embrace and embed each child I work with into my memory, locked in a vault forever. The problem is that I have a terrible memory! I've already forgotten the names of kids I have taught or coached. I get so mad and frustrated with myself when I'm trying to think of a child to reference in conversation and I just can't place them.

Part of the reason I want to remember all of my students is so that I can selfishly say "I was _________'s third grade teacher." Surely, I will be the reason at least one of them is famous! The more honorable reason I want to remember them is because each of them has touched my heart in their own individual way and forgetting them or the impact they had on me is just not an option. I want to remember every cute and funny thing they say and do. I want to remember the heart to hearts we had in the hallway about not knowing their dad or how they haven seen their mom in three days because she works nights. I want to remember each and every smile, tear, hug an laugh.

Only in a perfect world would this be possible. I'm only five years in and I'm already forgetting. There's too many kids and too many moments to have a spot for each one. So I do my best to hold the moments in my heart. As for the names and faces, well, I buy a school yearbook every year to help me with that. I am also fortunate to have worked in the same school for these five years. This allows me to turn to my coworkers who have been there with me to say, "Hey, remember that boy that...?" I feel like I'm doing the best I can, but it will never be good enough.

All this makes me wonder if all my teachers remember me. I could never know for sure, but over the years as I have run into them, they all have remembered me or done a good job of pretending to. I usually tell them my name and sometimes my siblings names and after a thought it usually hits them. I know I still remember all of my teachers, their names and their faces. I loved my first grade teacher. She was wonderful and created a school attitude of passion rather than dread. I was in her first class as a teacher. As far as first years of teaching go, she blew me out of the water. I think her first year of teaching was as meaningful to her as it was to us because a few years later she invited her first class (then 5th graders) to her wedding reception. We had our own private little room and it was awesome!

The degree, lesson plans, professional development, room setup and teacher relationships are all important. The students are most important. I hope that I am providing them with all of the education, support and guidance that each of them deserve. I hope they never forget me and I know that deep down inside my mind I will never forget each of them!

In Case You Missed It...Sammi's Famous!

The Akron Beacon Journal had an advertisement that they were looking for teachers who have pets that contribute to their happiness amongst a stressful teaching job. The feature was the perfect opportunity to brag about my greyhound Sammi and how awesome of a pet she's been since I rescued her a little over a year ago. Obviously, she was chosen to be part of the article and now I can't take her anywhere without getting stopped for autographs and picture :) If you missed it, check it out HERE.

Another Great Year Begins

          Well another relaxing summer has come and gone, quickly as usual. People say that is the biggest perk about teaching-summers off. And I always think this reply to myself: "Yes it's wonderful having summers off, but we couldn't do our job well if we didn't have the time off to recoup, reflect and modify our practices to come back smarter, stronger and more prepared each year". What I usually end up saying out loud is:  "You chose your own career path and if you would like summers off, go back to school and get your degree in education and attempt to land a teaching position in today's economy".
          One of my favorite things about starting a new school year is decorating the classroom and plotting out how to make every aspect of it as useful and appealing as possible. This year our school chose to have a school-wide theme of poetry. So each classroom would be representative of a particular poem. It was fun researching and looking for a children's poem that had a topic that could hold interest throughout the whole school year. I finally came across the perfect poem for my third graders!

The Wise Owl

                                                                                                              There was an old owl
Who sat in an oak.
The more he saw,
The less he spoke.
The less he spoke,
The more he heard.
Why can't we be like
That wise old bird?

          Ahhhhh the perfect poem for chatty third graders! I could teach so many lessons from this poem. Incorporate classroom rules, branch out to science lessons about owls, so many other things. It also helped that I immediately had so many room decorating ideas incorporating owls. "Who's Who in Patrol 3" and "News to Hoot About".  I mean c'mon, owls are just cute and fun. An added bonus is that they are high fashion right now. I've seen owl everything lately. Jewelry, bags, pajamas, they're everywhere!



         






          I'm rejuvenated from my relaxing summer, excited about my room poem/theme and ready to take on a new year of teaching more experienced and prepared as ever! Students come on Tuesday and I can't wait to get to know them and help them achieve so many goals during the time we will spend together.

When I was a kid I never went to school-I said I was sick-but I always managed to get better by 3:30-I'd run into the kitchen-"Look, Ma-a miracle happened! I'm well! A little angel came and sat on my bed-she touched me with a wand and said, 'Go out and play.'"

- Bill Cosby