Every year hundreds of people attempt to climb 29,035 feet to the highest point in the world, the summit of Mt. Everest and every year hundreds of sherpa guides, porters and yaks make sacrifices to get them there. Without their help, most wouldn’t make it to the top alive, and many of them don’t come…
Category: Reflection
GUEST POST: Yes, I’m Telling You to Be Grateful for Stress
by Melissa Pilakowski It’s been a stressful past two weeks. I was senior sponsor for Homecoming. We’ve had daily rehearsals for our one-act play. I’ve had observations by our local service unit and the department chair of our local college (and as much as I’d like to say that doesn’t make me nervous, it’s still…
Thankful November…
It’s that time of year again. The dreaded Halloween sugar coma is starting to wear off, the kids are finally turning back into the humans I know and love, and the leaves are starting to change colors. I love the fall. I love hooded sweatshirts and the firepit in the backyard. I love cool evening…
What stories do the numbers tell?
I love statistics. I love numbers. I love all of the interesting stories numbers can tell, and I love trying to interpret what causes peaks and values in any data set. I have spreadsheets full of student data that I’ve started analyzing for my new students, everything from previous reading scores and math scores to…
An Epic First Day of School
Thursday was one of the best first days of school I’ve ever had. It was an event that hooked the kids in and hopefully left them excited for the school year. All day long I kept hearing “this is awesome” and “best class ever” and the occasional “Mr. Stock you’re weird.” Keep in mind this…
Having a growth mindset when things don’t go according to plan
I’m an overplanner. When it comes to anything, I overresearch, overplan, cross reference and overall look way too deep into anything I do. Before I came to the ISTE conference this year I had a color coded spreadsheet with listings of the first and second choice of sessions I wanted to attend. I had a…
Waiting for Permission
Today I boxed up 691 books to send off to elementary schools in our district. This is the 4th year in a row I’ve organized the Books for Backpacks program. The goal is to get books into the hands of kids who might not have access to getting a brand new book on their own….
Why my #five4five is getting posted on day 10
Last week I heard about the #five4five challenge on the Well Played podcast and thought it sounded like a great idea. The challenge was to try something new each day over the course of five days. I decided to write a blog post each day. The plan started out great. I wrote my first blog…
More than Just a Data Point
Yesterday was the last day of MAP testing. I think I was more nervous than the students. I want the students to do well. I want their hardwork to pay off, and I want them to be able to see growth from the beginning of the year. As I looked over the final scores, I…
College is an option…but it’s just one option
I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about what I want my students to get out of my class. When they leave middle school and go to high school, what skills do I want them to posses? What kind of person do I hope they will be when they leave high school? What will…
