Dr. Wottawa's Educational Blog

     On a #Read2Lead Twitter chat last night, I answered a question to continue my work on this blog page.  Today, I sit at my dining room table as my new office space "humbled" at the work our field has done over the past two weeks.  The COVID-19 epidemic proved that our educators across our country can pull together, support the varied needs of our children and families, and share resources with one another so others can benefit.      I began this journey working through the cancelation of our students trip to Italy, I immediately made my recommendations to my leadership team and teachers.  To my surprise, the parents and students humbled me by (although disappointed and frustrated with the travel company) expressing empathy towards our leadership team in making the decision to keep our students safe.  Soon after, the COVID-19 wave quickly moved towards the U.S. and this is where the real inspiration humbled many.     ...

     It has been sometime since I have written on my blog due to medical and family concerns.  I thought it would be appropriate to continue where I left off to express how grateful  I am to have such wonderful educator followers, friends, and of course family.      In education, we often forget to express our gratitude  towards the people who assist us, teach us, lead us, and support us.  Recently, I had an interaction with an individual that left me feeling troubled and I began to doubt myself.  A few days later, an onlooker to the interaction found me and "checked in" with me and my feelings.  This person was kind and empathetic to the situation and expressed many positive feelings about me as a person and leader in regards to the previous interaction.  Afterwards, I took a step back and thanked this person for taking the time to recognize my struggles and I expressed how grateful  I am to have someone who cared ...

     This week's post was difficult to develop and I struggled with the letter "F" when thinking about education.  Then, while I was driving to school this week it came to me; we have to facilitate learning for our students, not bestow knowledge upon our students!      When examining the definition of the word "facilitate"  it is not a word, by definition, that seemingly pairs well with education.  Yet, as educators our goal is to bring out the best of our students and through growth and knowledge make their lives easier.  How can we facilitate learning that will be lasting for our students?      In order to make many parts of our lives easier repetition is required.  I love to cook; so after I completed my doctorate, I asked my wife for the pasta attachment for our mixer to make homemade pasta.  My first attempt was a challenge; I read several recipes, explored the mechanics of the machine, read about the...

     This post was an obvious decision for me as a teacher, leader, and parent.  Empathy is a characteristic that drives us as humans to listen carefully to one another, try to understand another's perspective, and grow together as individuals and within the relationship with others.  All people walk into our lives with various experiences (negative and positive); and these experiences impact our judgments, operating with an empathetic lens opens communication, shows kindness, and ultimately builds trust.      As teachers, our students enter our classrooms from a plethora of home situations, parental concerns, and social pressures that impact how they function in our difficult world.  Simply greeting our students at the door with a caring smile and a welcoming "Good Morning, Are you ready for a great day of learning?" Can really set the tone for the day.  This sounds easy... well empathy is hard and takes time to develop; in fact it is ...

     When I hear the word "diversity" I immediately think about ethnicity, culture, and the acceptance of our differences.  In addition, we can engage students in diverse activities, lessons, and projects that promote divergent thinking .  Lastly, we have diverse learners within our classrooms; where, some may have IEPs, special circumstances, and/or have a learning style preference.      At a recent EdCamp  on Long Island there were many discussions and presentations centering around " soft skills " that prepare children for life.  A cyclic trend of Project Based Learning (PBL) has returned and engages students in the use of a range of soft skills to solve diverse problems where students develop divergent thinking skills and practices.  The bottom line, create an educational climate that allows children to engage in diverse learning experiences.  A simple example would be to allow student choice for homework assignments. ...

     When taking notes to write this post, I composed a list of "C" words that mean a great deal to me as a person, teacher, and leader.  However when reviewing the list, "Courageous" is the one word that I could not link with another that has such meaning for our students and teachers.  In order to support risk-taking within our classroom we should be courageous when developing lessons or setting up our classroom layout, and we need leaders that support these courageous behaviors because it can support critical thinking, a growth mindset, and inspire learning.      This school year my youngest daughter started the fourth grade and over the summer she was very excited to learn that she had Mrs. A.  My older daughter began middle school and when we asked her about Mrs. A, she explained several "out of the box" ideas and different teaching methods that she heard her friends speak about in the past.  We were intrigued and could not wait fo...

     As teachers, we often feel that we should speak and our students should listen intently to our well-planned lecture.  Reality check, children need to be engaged in a lesson; meaning, that we cannot be boring!  We have to put on a "show" for our students, we have to act excited about the lessons we teach, and we have to act as if we just discovered something new (even though we've done this concept a thousand times) for the first time.      We have to be great actors ( ju st as Rita Pierson had said ) when we are in front of our classroom because our enthusiasm fuels our students' engagement.  I recently have read some of Suzy Pepper Rollins books and she discusses the attention span of children from kindergarten to adulthood; essentially, we all have about a six to twelve minute attention span.  What does that mean for us...  DO NOT BE BORING!  Sounds easy enough; however, in most cases it is not that easy.  When I ...