Lorraine+M.

I believe in the value of learning for each and every student. I believe that I can and will have a positive or negative effect on my students. I believe teaching is a journey, my students and I learning from each other as we travel along. I believe that sometimes, I must lead and other times I need to trust my students to lead. I believe my expectations must be high enough to forster growth, providing a healthy stretch of ability for every student. I believe as a teacher, I must become experienced in knowing when to nudge and when to watch for a cue from the student. When a student doesn't "get it" then I have to get up and go for a new idea, a new approach from my teacher bag of tricks. I believe that I'm responsible to myself and to students, parents, colleagues and administrators to be at the top of my game. However, I need to forgive myself for the things that don't work out as well as planned just as easily as I do others. I believe getting to know each student and to in some way touch every student every day is vital to successful teaching. I believe I can help my students while they are with me in the classroom, but I cannot change their environments beyond school and therefore must make the most of the time and things I can control. I believe that I and every student deserves respect and it is my duty to insure that we are all respected. I believe that sharing healthy laughter builds community. I believe teaching leaves heartprints. I believe in teaching. LM

IIJune 28, '10 My thoughts about a couple of things that my new first graders will need in order to become writers. They will need to be immersed into mentor texts, tons of rich language and much modeling of various writing genres and their purposes. They will need to become mesmerized by these literay influences. As their teacher,I will need to make writing irresistible.

I'm reminded that texting is its own genre.