Happenings

Video Pen-pals Global Collaboration via Level Up Village has made an impact on my students!  It all started in the fall of 2015 on the side lines of my son's soccer game.  When I first heard about Level Up Village, I was intrigued and wanted to try it with my class!  But, at the time, LUV's offerings were related to science and technology, and since I am an English teacher, the courses didn't fit. So, the solution was to create my own course that related to literature I was using in my classroom already!  So, that's what I did! Read " Creating Meaningful Global Connections "--the article I wrote about my first experience with Global Collaboration (and why English teachers should try it)on Edutopia.org. The experience was so positive and contagious that Greenwich Time ran an article about it!  And, much to my surprise, when googling my name, I found that someone blogged about my article and their own experience with global collaboration.  I ...

Yes, it's true! In 2015, my family filmed an episode of The Property Brothers at our home in Connecticut. Check out the before and after photo gallery here ! Wanna catch a re-run of the episode?  Check when it will air here .

Writing letters that actually get sent out into the real world was a big deal for my 6th graders.  They were like, "Are we REALLY going to mail these?" and when they found out I was serious about getting their ideas out to real people, they stepped up their writing game.  Having an authentic audience that will actually receive their letters was a wonderful motivator! Many students wrote to our principal regarding school issues like passing time, the lunch menu, or adding a new club.  Handfuls of letters went to our superintendent or the Board of Education to add a new foreign language, or change our school start time. But the letters that got the most attention are always those that get published on the editorial page of the local newspapers.