February 2, 2017 Dear Families, I do not know Silvia Pencak. I do not know if I share her beliefs or her values. But I know that I agree with her definition of character. According to Ms. Pencak, “Character is how you treat people who can do nothing for you.”  As I reflect on this … Continue reading One Life Influencing Another

January 19, 2017 Dear Families, “Do I have to keep these?” “I’m sorry, Hunter, these is an indefinite pronoun. To what are you referring?” “Can you please not give me a grammar lesson every five minutes? These, the trophies I got when I was little? They don’t mean anything.” Two years ago, I redid Hunter’s … Continue reading How Often Do You Praise Your Students?

January 12, 2017 Dear Families, Well, I blew it! It’s not the first time. It won’t be the last time.  But I definitely dropped the ball. During the break, I decided to identify topics I wanted to cover in my Thursday Wire updates.  On my schedule, I identified that this week’s letter would address the … Continue reading Middle School Students Force You to do Better

January 5, 2017 Dear Families, Happy New Year! I hope that your break was both restful and enjoyable. I treasured every minute with my family, even the family meetings. Maddy came home Friday, December 15th to enjoy a much-needed break from the regiment of college academics. Her re-entry to life at home provided us with … Continue reading An Opportunity for Growth

December 15, 2016 Dear Families, I battled all day to find the words for this week’s wire. I walked the halls, sat in on an 8th-grade Socratic discussion, MC’ed the first annual Lost and Found Lunch Time Fashion Show, and attended a meeting for Make-a-Wish Colorado. Now at 10:23 PM, while staring at the computer, … Continue reading My Battle

December 8, 2016 Dear Families, As we approach the end of the first semester, I felt it necessary to reflect on our first five months together. Our glows as a family offer cause for much celebration. Our grows allow us to push ourselves to contemplate my favorite Neil Gaiman quote. “I hope that in this … Continue reading Glows and Grows

December 1, 2016 Dear Families, Growing up presents all kinds of new opportunities. Good. Bad. Ugly. Our society offers all sorts of fun distractions in the process. Snapchat. Instagram. Twitter. Navigating the road of adolescents often proves to be as winding as the highways of the Colorado High Country. As parents, we find ourselves in … Continue reading Nutrition and the Teenage Brain

  November 17, 2016 Dear Families, Today personified all the reasons I love my job. I spent an entire class period listening to the 8th-grade leadership class present their ideas for their final service project. May I pause and ask you to reflect on the pronoun that I used. Their. Their ideas. They prepared and … Continue reading Like the Soothsayer in a Shakespearean Classic

November 10, 2016 Dear Families, By now you know that my parenting journey contains all sorts of opportunity for growth as a person and as a parent. I wish that I could say that every decision I made resulted in a harmonious outcome.  Oh, how I wish that. My heart’s desire is to share my … Continue reading What I Wish I Knew as a Middle School Parent

November 3, 2016 Dear Families, Congratulations, Cub fans! Steve Bartman can come out of hiding. The goat is dead, and the black cat no longer hinders the batter’s box. It’s a good thing you won it all. Now I can say my Giants were knocked out by the World Champions. That makes us the second … Continue reading Congratulations, Cub Fans!