Homeschool Hell

Homeschool is happening. And let’s all be honest. It. Is. Hell. On. Earth. No matter which side of this you are on, it’s hard.  As a parent with credentials in education, I can tell you this sucks.  It’s hard on teachers to rework how they approach instruction, it’s hard on kids because they are now…

Read More

What You Feed is What You Grow

When you grow up in the southern United States, you grow up around food. It’s how we create community and build fellowship. The culture is figuratively and literally rooted in the soil (or red clay as the case may be for some of us), and those of us of a certain age learned the seasons…

Read More

Where Have All the School Mamas Gone?

If you work in a school, at one time or another you have had a School Mama. You know exactly who they are. You can probably picture one right now. School Mamas come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and are in every school. They are the ones who are wise, give you tips on how to…

Read More

Just One Resolution

About 25 years ago, I was a disillusioned teacher. I spent my days dealing with students who did not appear to care or appreciate anything I was bringing to the classroom, and I spent my nights dreading going to work the next day.   For some of my instructional day, I hated the content I was…

Read More

Choose Joy

“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day!”  – Henri Nouwen From the desk of Leigh Ann . . . Learning should be a joy-filled experience, but the demands of each school day can put a damper on things, so the joy vanishes as the…

Read More

Joy-Boosting Self-Talk

You can’t help but smile when you look at these faces filled with genuine joy!             According to the dictionary joy is “a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.”  Children are experts at experiencing joy, but what happens to us as we get older?  We are so filled with self-imposed expectations,…

Read More

Bend, Baby, Bend

  I have a great love for children’s stories!  They are incredible teaching tools and always speak to my heart.  Since this month’s theme at ERG is resilience, one of Aesop’s fables came to mind: Once upon a time there was a huge oak tree that lived on a river bank.  It was very tall and…

Read More

Bounce Back

  “Blessed are the hearts that can bend, for they can never be broken.”  – Albert Camus Have you ever heard the story about the old donkey and the well? Once an old donkey fell into a well.  He cried and cried until the farmer heard him and came running.  The farmer couldn’t figure out…

Read More

How To Start Summer

Having to tell someone how to actually start a season may seem odd, but if you know educators, then you might know someone who needs this advice. We are in schools at least 9 months of the year, and at the end it is sometimes hard to say goodbye to our school year selves.  In…

Read More

2 Tips For Creating Compassionate Students

From the desk of Alice… One of my favorite times of the day is my morning commute.  Because I often work on different projects in different locations, it is not uncommon for me to have a commute that is an hour or more.   During this time I get to sip my coffee, enjoy some…

Read More