an App in the classroom.

I have two items worth mentioning today.  The first has to do with the on-going debate about computers in the classroom.  My current school does not use computers for anything other than typing a paper or two.  We don't have the internet and the use of cell phones is discouraged.  I teach the Lower School children, ages 4-9. For this age, I agree with the philosophy and this is the age I will be referring to. The goal is to instill a love of learning and to foster reading development.  This is best accomplished without computers.  I have read articles about schools that are attempting to be free of "screens".  Most children today have computers, i pods, i pads and tablets available to them at home.  I myself enjoy my computer a great deal but I am not an elementary school student anymore.  Many of you out there may disagree with my school's philosophy and that is fine.  I believe in choices.  This story may change your mind.


    Today I observed another way that technology was used in the classroom and I was a huge supporter of this project.  We have a great collection of colorful rubber bugs, the children often use them during math activities.  Recently they have been using them at the end of class during their free time.  I asked them what it was that they were playing.  They had created an adaptation of the popular game Angry Birds.  They were playing Angry Bugs.  They created a tower out of blocks and hid various colored bugs in the tower, they each took a turn and hurled rubber bugs at the tower attempting to knock it down. Despite the rubber bugs bouncing off the wall, I thought this creation was brilliant. They also used other game pieces as the Golden Eggs that you receive after completing a level. 


 The children successfully adapted this computer game into an actual game.  For a brief second I thought about redirecting their efforts but that teacher voice inside me just decided to go with it.  I said that if they wanted to continue to play Angry Bugs that they should write down the rules and post them so that anyone can play.  They also had to assign a point system to the various colors.  This small game is turning into a completely child centered and initiated project that involves math, science, reading and writing.   Now as one child is having a turn the others are creating the sounds that the birds make.  This is a natural transition to science and learning about real bird sounds. 
Here are the first two levels of Angry Bugs with a few rubber amphibians mixed in.

the moment I knew.

     There is always a debate.  Why private school? What do you have against traditional schools?  How is it different? What happens to those kids in your class later in life?  I have fielded so many of these questions over the course of my teaching career.  It may surprise you to know that I never get tired of this discussion.  Everyone has a choice in this world, parents and children should have a choice in their education. It is not alternative education, it is simply education. But that is another debate entirely. 
      It all starts with one question and that is "How did you like your education, do you remember being excited about going to school and learning?"  Most of the time the answer is a resounding "Not really, but I did well."  It's  simple, children should  love learning, they will grow into adults that enjoy learning.  If you were one of the "ones" that did well then congratulations.  I was not one of the "ones" that did well.  My grades were not too bad, slightly average I guess.  Who wants to know that they are average? Average is not something people usually strive for, at any age. 
     Thankfully I had a terrific support system.  My parents worked with me, they realized that it was difficult for me and they supported me.  To this day, my mother swears that if I were in school today I would be put on some form of medication.  In high school I had teachers that went out of their way to make an impression on me and it worked but that is not always the case. 
      When it came time for me to choose a career path I knew that if I taught in a traditional school I would be miserable.  I did not really love it as a child, why would I enjoy it as an adult?  I don't make as much money which is a challenge, but I do love my career and when I return from summer work (notice I did not say summer vacation. I don't know many teachers that "vacation" in the summer) I look forward to school and so do the children.
     The second reason for choosing to work in a progressive school goes way back to a student teaching experience.  I was teaching in a kindergarten class at the time.  One of the girls arrived at school and was in tears. As anyone would do, I went over to comfort her.  That is what adults are supposed to do for children.  When they get cut, we give them a band-aid, when they are happy we celebrate with them and when they are sad we comfort them, regardless of gender. The girl told me that she would like me to  read her a book. I sat in the rocking chair, put her in my lap and I started reading her a book. Halfway through the book, her tears were dry and she was ready to start her day.  As this was happening the principal happened to walk by the classroom and peeked in. During my lunch break I was called to talk to the principal.  I thought to myself, here we go again; I am in college and I am still being called to the principals office. 
    The principal asked "What were you doing with that girl in your lap?"  The question took me by surprise, "I was reading her a book." I said.  
    "Well, you can't have her in your lap, that is dangerous territory." And that was the end of the discussion. 
          A simple act of kindness was being scrutinized.  I was shocked and enlightened.  

do you have sexleptia?

     First of all, thanks for reading.  My blog was viewed almost 100 times today.  If you keep reading and sharing I will keep providing stories.  
    My school is approaching its 40'th anniversary.  Quite an amazing landmark for a progressive independent private school.  In that time our founder and director has lead the way.  She is 100% committed to progressive education.  A remarkable leader in a world focused on tests scores and standards.  Every year we have a Founders Day Party.  The joke is that she is perpetually 29 years old.  Today we were making our cards and collage for her and I asked the question "Why do you think she started this school in the first place?  She was a teacher. Why leave a teaching job to` try and start her own school?"  Here are my two favorite answers.


   1.    "Well maybe she wanted to have more friends; friends that are kids."
   2.     "Maybe she was out of money and needed a job so she made her own work."


Story number two of the day, unrelated to the previous story.
There was a group of young children working on basic reading skills. Our library is a very cozy place for children to learn.  We work in very small groups,the focus is on establishing a relationship so that you can truly support children to learn not simply to memorize what we tell them. The teacher broke out the basic phonics cards.  Each child flips over a card and attempts to sound out the first letter sound of each word.  Keep in mind that this particular group of children are the youngest.  They get a great deal of support and encouragement.  The first child sounded out the letter B.  The second child sounded out the letter F.  Then it was time for the youngest of the group.  The encouraging teacher said "Okay, its you turn.  What is the first letter of the word and what sound does it make?"   This tiny, young spitfire quickly remarked," I don't know how to read yet.  I am only five PLUS  I have sexleptia."  


I think this young girl just invented a new term.  Pretty soon they may have an over the counter medication for such an ailment.  I can only imagine the side effects.

 

Learn vs. Sled

     I made an interesting observation today.  We spent the entire class period before lunch sledding.  Yes, you heard right.  I am encouraged to bring my children outdoors and let them have time to be children.  Do I do this at the expense of formal learning, no.  There has to be a balance.  Luckily I work at school that shares my philosophy.
  I made this decision because we have very little snow this year and the forecast called for rain so we were going to lose what little snow we had left.  We bundled up and trekked across the field, through the woods and landed at our steep and tiny sledding hill.  It is so steep and short that my job is to stand at the bottom and stop the sleds before they go down the hill into the woods. That pretty much means I knock them off of the sled before they go into the trees. Safety First! Eventually they learn to stop on their own.  This year we have more ice than snow so I had a very important function.  This lasted for forty five minutes and then we went in for lunch.  
     After lunch we started working on a terrific science project.  We are turning our ceiling into a gigantic model of the Solar System.  Christmas lights for stars, huge styrofoam balls for planets and space ships.  We used old CD's to make the space ships.  Before hanging them from the ceiling we will use them for math and measured the distance they travel after being flung across the field.  The spaceship project was a huge success!  Children from other classes joined our project. 
    We met for reflections at the end of the day.  The reflections leader chose to discuss high parts and low parts  of the day.  I thought for sure that the high part for every kid would be having an extra recess and sledding.  To my surprise the most popular high part of the day was working on our science/math project.  


Learning trumps sledding...who would have guessed?


Unrelated quote of the day. 
"My baby spitter knows Sweden."  What he was trying to say was that is baby sitter knows how to speak Swedish. 

Smell my feet.

 Halloween Vader, a popular choice among young children.


We all remember how great it was to go trick or treating then, somewhere along the way we lose our love of Halloween.  Children absolutely love Halloween.  They begin planning next years costume on November 01.  Throughout the school year I would say that a consistent topic of discussion among kindergarten to third grade children is Halloween.  



Yesterday at lunch a conversation about Halloween popped again.  I thought back to a few years ago and recalled a great story.  


I asked a boy, "So have you decided on a Halloween costume for this year?"


His reply. "Well, I think I am going to be that guy that wears a black cape and has that large pitch fork thing, but I can't remember his name.  Oh, I remember.  I am going to be the Grimm Reefer."  



Halloween at my school usually coincides with Art Week.  Yes, a week of focused Art related activities for the entire school, grades kindergarten to eight. Our academic classes end at 11:45, then the children choose between at least 8 different art related activities. They spend the rest of the school day either working on their art activity, often with the assistance of professionals in the field or traveling to galleries in the area.  The final day is the closing of Art Week and last year it was also Halloween.  My school goes all out for Halloween.  Pumpkins and scarecrows line the drive way.  If you have been keeping up with my blog posts you should be able to guess the main focus for our Halloween party.  If you guessed a dance party, you are right. 

Paint Ball Art for an Art Week activity. 


One of the other faculty members was reading off the choices for Art Week.  The choices included writing poetry or making scarecrows.  I overheard a discussion between two children, they were going over the choices with each other. One of the girls said, "the choices are, making polar trees or making the black crows."

say excuse me.

Today's post will be a quick little piece about children and manners.  I hear the usual please and thank you but every once in a while I hear a response that catches me off guard.  I eat my lunch everyday with the class so I get to hear many conversations.  If two children have bananas there is usually a banana telephone even if they are sitting right next to each other.  For a while Trix Yogurt was a popular lunch snack although it was always pronounced Trix Logurt.  This alone may not seem funny but I thought that Trix Logurt would make a great character in a detective story.  So we wrote stories about Trix Logurt, Secret Agent.


I was sitting at the table with a group of boys and they were all quiet while eating.  The silence was broken by a loud BURP, not just the word but he actually burped real loud.  I was expecting to here an excuse me or something but what I heard made me crack up.  Instead of excuse me he said "Well, that is a sure sign that the tank is almost full."


I was having a discussion with a girl about her family.  She said that she loved her Aunt because she buys the best toys.  I asked if it was her mom's sister or her dad's sister.  She replied "It is my mom's sister and she is real fat."  We had a discussion about how that is really not the best way to describe someone.  After our discussion I could see that she understood the main point. Or so I thought.  A few weeks passed and her Aunt came up in our discussion again and this time she said "My aunt is sort of fat.  Oh wait that is not nice to say.  My Aunt has a real big belly."  So we revisited our previous discussion.  

M.L.K school day.

Our Portrait Wall.


The children in my classroom will be the first to tell you that what makes me most concerned is when the children are mean to each other or exclude someone from a group.  I will stop an entire class to discuss this issue. In fact, this is the philosophy of  the school.  There are countless discussions about social interactions.  Not everyone has to love each other but you do have to figure out how to get along with them. "Say what you mean but don't be mean when you say it" sums up the approach.  Be honest but not hurtful.
 I don't get upset when the children get angry, I get upset when their anger turns towards another child.  It is important for children to realize that language and tone of voice are just as hurtful as a punch in the face.  It is never too early to start this process.  Do the children get time outs or punished?  No.  Do we come to resolutions through adult guided conversations? Yes.  


When it came time to discuss Martin Luther King Jr. the children were very familiar with language and terms used by the Civil Rights Movement.  They understand about being fair and treating others with compassion and kindness.  Throughout the day there were many discussions about Martin Luther King Jr.   The children heard that name a lot today.  


Our school spends the last 15-20 minutes of everyday engaging in Reflection Groups.  This is a time to work out unsolved issues, voice concerns or simply share with each other.  My class takes this time pretty seriously.  Usually one child leads the discussion but today I interjected.  I asked them to tell me one thing that they learned about Martin Luther King Jr.  There answers were great and they clearly grasped the sentiment we were trying to convey.  The funny part was that, even after hearing his name all day, they were tongue tied during reflections.  I laughed (inside) nearly all the way through today's reflections.  


Martin Luther King Jr. was referred today as the following.
"What I learned about Arten Luther"
"I learned that Lootin Martin King"
"I think that Looting King Arthur"
"Arthur Mootin was..."
"King Martin Arthur fought for....'


Despite having the name mixed up their thoughts were right on.  It was best summed up by one of the youngest children in the class when he said "Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to make sure that white people would be nice to black people".- age 5

just listen to the music play

 Hand drums are a great way to teach math skills and music theory.

These pictures are from my current classroom.


   When I was fifteen I started to learn how to play the guitar, thanks to family for having the patience to teach me during family gatherings.  I stayed with it and now music plays a big role in daily life and my teaching practice.  I knew that I wanted to have music in my classroom.  I have learned that music has the power to make a reserved group rowdy and music can settle a rowdy group. When I first started I developed a program called "Little Fingers on Frets".  Although the program has not developed into something that can stand on its own it is still a part of my classroom. Through fundraising and donations I have always had child sized guitars in my classroom. The children have music class once a week with a music teacher and music once a week with me.  I tend to focus more on hands-on, world instruments and guitars. When we gather we make a beautiful ruckus.  The class usually ends in a dance party.  Two years ago a group of boys formed a music group and wrote a song called "Donuts and Coffee in my Refrigerator". 


This year I combined two classes.  On Mondays we have World Food cooking class.  Often parents come to the classroom and help with the cooking.  Each week we choose a different country and make food from that country.  The children also learn about various customs and we listen to the music from that country.  We were cooking food from Brazil.  The class made a fantastic lunch.  All the cleaning was done, it was time for our weekly World Dance party.  The children have Spanish once a week so they are familiar with Latin music.  I announced,  "Today we will be dancing to a few Salsa tunes!"  A child, new to the school replied "Salsa music?  We did not make any chips."


 Flashback...  Have you heard of a didgeridoo?  If you have not you may want to listen before going further.  We were studying Australia so I thought that I would bring in this simple, magnificent sounding instrument.  I spent a few weeks trying to learn the very basics.  I got it to make noise and my cheeks got red but that was the best I could do.  I introduced it to the class, gave a brief description and began to "play".  Here was the reaction of one little boy. "That is an instrument? That is not an instrument.  That instrument sounds like a fart machine!" I could not argue,that is exactly how I made it sound.  Thank goodness I had a real didgeridoo recording on hand.   It was even funnier when you consider the boy had a real heavy Maine accent.

think first before you move.

I don't know about you but once I start working on "computer" stuff I tend to go overboard.  This blogging endeavor is no different.  Apparently the new address is  www.bugsmudbooksandsticks.com.  I will continue to type and hopefully people are able to locate what I have written. 


It has always been my belief and practice that teachers should find ways to introduce material without the children realizing that they are learning.  The basic approach is simple, spend time working in groups and figure out each child's interest.  If they like reading books about the ocean chances are if you use books about the ocean to support reading development there will be success.  Today's model for education is to disregard the needs and wants of children and attempt to teach them by sheer repetition and testing.


 Over the years I have noticed that many children are interested in the game Chess.  Not all play by the rules.  For some children the King, Queen, Rook, Knight and Bishop are all just characters in a well created story and the chess board is the kingdom. A perfect time to introduce and focus on creative writing.  Other children pick up the complex game of Chess quickly. 


....and here is today's story.  There was a very shy boy in my class, not only shy he was clearly socially awkward.  His mom told me that he really loves playing Chess and asked if she could bring in a Chess set so that he can play during the day.  I sat down to play a match. My goal was not to beat this six year old, the goal was simply to get to know him better.  He beat me in about four moves.  We played again and he beat me quickly.  I am no Master but I can usually hold my own while playing chess.  So we played once more and I tried this time and I lost.  I did notice that his classmates started to realize that the teacher was losing to a six year old.  He started teaching other children how to play and before we knew it the room had five Chess sets and a handful of children learned how to play.  Chess requires the children to use a wide range of math skills not to mention the ability to think ahead and remain organized.  I was playing with my six year old challenger again and this time, in the middle of the game I knocked the board off the table.  I wanted to see how he would react. I was expecting a meltdown of epic proportions.   I said that we could just start over.  He said "we don't have start over, just help me pick up the pieces".  I watched in awe as he put every piece back on the board in the same spot they were before I knocked over the board. He memorized the layout of the board.  He couldn't recognize the alphabet or spell his name but clearly he had a fantastic ability to learn.  I used chess as the jumping off point for most of his formal learning.  


 The progressive philosophy is not rocket science, in fact, it is education in its purest form.  The focus is in on helping children learn to love the process of learning and not demanding that they learn what we have to teach them.  


I played countless chess matches with him in the course of a year and I only won a handful of matches. He once walked in on Monday morning with a trophy.  He came in second place at the local high school chess tournament. 

crash at the first turn

After working with kids for so long I have realized that there are certain patterns of interest.  There was one boy who loved NASCAR.  Everything he did involved race cars.  In the block room he made a nearly life sized model of race car, in art he drew pictures of race cars and when he was in the library, he wrote and read books about race cars.  


My classroom has a lot of windows that face out and look across the campus.  This is so that the adults can watch the children as they move from class to class and building to building.  The walkways are gravel and sort of snake through the fields.  I was looking out the window, towards the art building.  I saw the race car lover running along the path at full speed.  He was even pretending to shift imaginable gears along the way.  As he approached a turn in the path, his legs slipped out from underneath him and he was airborne.  I went out to make sure that he was alright.  He didn't hit his head, he just had a skinned knee and his elbows and hands were slightly bloody.  Once I knew he was okay, I said "That was a pretty good fall, what do you think happened?"  Without hesitation he said "Well I was going along on fine I got to turn one, dropped the hammer,  then  lost control   But I am okay."  


 I was ready to console a boy that just fell and scraped his knees.  He was ready to pretend that he was being interviewed by the camera crew covering the race. 

Kick ass beard

Over the years I have realized that children love to talk about hair, specifically my lack of hair. I often joke with the kids that I could use a hair elastic to keep the hair out of my eyes.  It usually gets a chuckle.  Inevitably the conversation comes up about the clear fact that I don't have any hair.  (but I can grow a kick ass beard).

Last year I was told "You have hair. Not like my dad, he is all bald.  You at least have sprigs of hair".  Thanks seven year old for recognizing the slight difference between bald and sprigs.  Last week, as I was sitting on the floor I felt someone standing behind me.  Then I felt a small hand tracing spiraling circles on my head and then I heard, epiphany.  "Hey guys, come here.  Look at Todd's hair, it looks like a whirlpool".  A debate arose, does my lack of hair pattern look more like a tornado or a whirl pool.  Thank you National Geographic Magazine for providing us with fantastic photos that solved our debate. Whirlpool it is. 

Just today I heard a slight variation from the first interaction.  The girl was younger, her father still "all bald" and me asking if I could borrow her great glimmering pink bedazzled head band so that I can keep the hair out of my eyes.  Her reply "Well you have some hair.   You kind of have pringles of hair."  Clearly Pringles are not a staple in her home because my hair is not crunchy and delicious.  After further discussion her approach remained  the same but she used the phrase prinkle of hair instead of the previous pringle.  "I may not have hair but I do know that prinkle is not even a word!"  Okay, I didn't really say that and the word prinkle may be in the Scrabble dictionary.  I assume she was trying to get to the work prickly.  

...but I can grow a kick ass beard.

do you know what a wimple is?

Back for day four.  This one will be short and sweet.  To make a few extra dollars while working summers at the camp I took on the role of bus driver prior to the start of the day.  Well not exactly a "bus" driver since that is reserved for the pros.  I drove a station wagon and was responsible for picking up three children.  The first stop was a very young girl, one of the youngest campers.  In this story I will call refer to her as Kiara.  The second stop was a twelve year old boy.  He was partially deaf and was fluent in American Sign Language and knew a bit of Spanish.  The final stop was Steven, he was deaf.  I thought this was a great chance for me to learn a few basic signs and few basic Spanish words from Kiara who was  young and bi-lingual although she tended to get Spanish and English confused.  She was difficult to understand at times.


  And then...... Prior to my morning route I discovered the windshield wipers did not work.  I went on my morning route and picked up Kiara.  I looked in the rear view mirror and saw this very cute, pig tailed young girl and yet it was very challenging for me to hold a conversation.  Stop number two was not coming to camp.  No big deal except this boy was my main form of communication with the other two children.  Riding in silence is not really my style so it was a concern.  By stop number three the rain was coming down and I noticed Kiara was slightly nervous back there, alone in her giant station wagon seat.  Steven gets in and we are on our way and now it is raining even harder.  It was clearly bothering Kiara.  She kept telling me "put on the wimples!"  I was confused and looked to Steven for some help but he was even more confused than me.  I was looking to a hearing impaired seven year old to help me decipher what the six year old Spanish speaking girl was trying to tell me. She continued to say, with conviction "put on the wimples".  What the hell is a wimple in any language was my thought.  And then one hand motion from Kiara clued Steven in and he  made the motions of windshield wipers.  Wimples = Windshield Wipers.  I did not even bother trying to explain why they were not on from the start.  All I could come up with was a shoulder shrug and "broken".  I hoped that would suffice.  


 I felt like I was the start of a good joke.  There was a suburban white boy, a Spanish speaking girl and a deaf boy in a station wagon....."


To this day I ask my wife to turn on the wimples when it is raining.  And all of my stories are true first hand experiences.  

they are always listening...

I know. Three days in a row.  I have quickly discovered that the act of blogging allows you to feel like are you doing work when in fact, I am actually avoiding doing my work and yet I still feel productive. 


I don't know what it is about children cursing but I find it very funny.  I never laugh in the moment, I maintain a professional tone but inside I can't wait to tell somebody. Part of the humor is that they don't really understand what they are saying, children are simply repeating what they have heard.  Although on this one occasion the words I heard were used in perfect context.  A little too perfect.  


Flashback...again.  At the original school the playground area was very simple.  Not too many plastic toys and stuff.  You know the idea that children have fantastic imaginations.  There was however, one plastic automobile that had been recently donated.  It was the kind a child can sit in and pretend to be driving.  There was one child who was clearly taking full advantage of his new found love of driving.  He was in there for a long time. We are talking road trip long.  The other boy was waiting patiently until he reached the frustration level.  I quietly observed the situation unfold, noting that this would be a great chance to observe conflict resolution and communication skills as long as there was no physical road rage everything would be fine. The boy that was waiting leaned into the car and I heard a whisper of name calling.  Harmless, kids stuff. Until I heard the drivers response.  Here was the conversation.


ages-5/7


Waiting boy-  "You are stupid. It is my turn to have the car".


Boy in the car - "Oh yeah, well you are fucking asshole".


YIKES, WH....WH...WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?  Needless to say we had a meeting.  






Cursing story number two to follow when I feel the need to procrastinate even more. 

The Weekly Visit...

When I see a picture like this I imagine that one day the child will move to the left and another child will take the seat on the right.  I am very close to my grandmother but I don't live close enough to visit as nearly as much as I would like to .  So I started taking my classes to visit other people's grandparents. This process is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever felt. This has been a part of my class schedule for nearly all of my time in the classroom.  I have countless stories from this experience and will share them now and then.  


From years past...


It was May 01.  Happy May Day.  What better way to celebrate than to create a May Pole at the  nursing home?  The sun was shining, the flagpole served as a perfect May Pole and provided a smooth surface so that five or six residents could join us in the celebration.  I used tissue paper for the ribbons and I am ever thankful that tissue paper breaks easily.  You will have to use your visual imagination for this so get ready.  Now imagine there are 10 kindergarten/first grade children and about six of the residents from the nursing home standing in a circle each holding a flowing piece of tissue paper.  The music begins and the children start walking around in circles as do the residents.  Then the children slowly begin to pick up momentum and gain speed while the residents are slowly walking in circles.  Before I knew it the children were running full speed in circles and as a result they began to pass the older people.  Imagine what happens..slowly the residents began to get wrapped up in the flowing tissue paper.  They started to look like colorful mummies binut laughing the entire time until...the tissue paper ran out of slack, tightened and broke leaving me the job to unwrap a few of the older residents.  


Story two, from years past.  This time it is Halloween.  Wahoo kids party at the Nursing Home.  There was scary music playing then great dancing tunes playing and everyone was dressed up.  All but one older gentleman in the corner.  He was, to us, a bit more confused than the other residents.  He began to get scared and started yelling.  The sound he was making was obviously (to us) a clear indication that he was not pleased with his current surroundings.  A look of nervousness shot through me.  How do I explain to a child that an older man is afraid of costumes and fake ghost sounds?  At the moment a young boy jumped right onto the mans lap, rested his hand on the wheels of his wheelchair and said "Happy Halloween.  I know what you are.  You are making the noises of an ambulance.  Are you an ambulance for Halloween?"  It took this child about one minute to express this thought and that one minute changed everything.  I saw a problem, an old man that was clearly not quite in touch with was happening and felt an unexplainable awkwardness.  This little boy saw nothing.  He had no worries or reservations.  He just saw a man and was totally honest in his approach.  

The Introduction...

I am new to the world of blogging but I figured I would give it a shot.  What could I possibly have to say that has not already been said by someone else?  Maybe nothing but possibly something.  I decided to to see what happens.  I will post and you can decide.

I have been working with children since I was 15 years old.  My mom insisted that I volunteer somewhere so I did.  I worked as a volunteer camp counselor in New Jersey.  The camp was located on many acres and the kids there were bused in from nearby towns.  Towns mostly made of concrete with not a tree in sight.  The job was not easy but I was hooked from day one. I could start a separate blog based only on the stories from that experience. Let me know if you want to hear a few. Audience participation in blog form.

 I worked there for almost seven years.  My goal was to try and teach kids about the outdoors. Went to college and all that jazz.  Graduated and worked here and there until I found a business partner and we started our own school in Maine.  The genesis of this school and its ensuing 8 years can also make for a great story but remember, this is my introduction. And currently I have been at my current teaching job for 5 years at a fantastic progressive school.  I do spend a great deal of time outdoors and I am working with children.  My original pre-college notion has come to fruition.

In that time I have accumulated many stories, experiences, triumphs and challenges both with children and adults that I thought I would like to write about.  What better way than to start a blog.  Why "applesmudbooksandsticks?"  Well those things play a huge role in my stories and life.  And that concludes a brief introduction.