Saying Farewell to Mount Pleasant School

This week ended my run of teaching at Mount Pleasant Elementary School. I have been in the same classroom for 21 years and it was time to get rid a huge accumulation of teaching materials and memories and move on to a new chapter in my teaching career. I first arrived at Mount Pleasant School in 1988 after teaching seventh grade for six years at the Brockton Christian Elementary School.


I had just got married to Sarah and we moved to Nashua where I promptly crashed my bike, broke my collarbone (ending a five year string of competing in Ironman distance triathlons-1983 version here-at 30 seconds in, I am the very skinny guy standing next to race promoter Dave McGillivray-17 years later I would run the Boston Marathon with him) and forced me to start my public school teaching career with an arm that I could barely lift to write on the lowest part of the chalkboard (note how I hold my arm awkwardly in the picture above). On my first day of school I was greeted by a tough little girl looking up at me and saying, "You can't be a good teacher, because my mom said that men are not good teachers." On that note I started a 21 year run of trying to prove that little girl and her mother wrong.

Just like when I left my first teaching position, the hardest part of moving on is leaving a group of teachers and staff behind. I started at Mount Pleasant teamed up with a little dynamo of a lady named Ceal Roy. I worked with her for many years and she taught me that first of all you have to enjoy your students and have fun in the classroom. We added a new member to our team in the middle of the year seventeen years ago. Nancy Bozek has the best laugh at Mount Pleasant, which she will take to her new school next year. I know she will get more than a chuckle out of this video then I ever will.

Through the years, I have had many other great teammates at Mount Pleasant, including Tim Caster and Caitlin Maynard who joined the staff this year. We have had a lot of fun together and I wish I could continue working with them some more. While they may have been rookie teachers at Mount Pleasant, I learned an awful lot from them. Tim continually makes his students his primary commitment and Caitlin in her first year of teaching not only taught like a veteran and kept the "boys" organized, but she also knows how to have fun with teaching and her students.

When I first started teaching at Mount Pleasant it was overwhelming. I was quiet and reserved hoping that no one would notice that I wasn't sure about what I was doing half the time. One Spring I got a phone call from Sue Porter wanting to know if I would like to teach the ESL summer school with her. I thought it was pretty funny that I would be asked to do this since I couldn't speak another language. She was convinced I would be good for the job and that I didn't need to know another language, so I decided to try it out since she had a bit of faith in me. That started many summers of some of the best teaching moments. We worked hard at creating experiences for the ESL students that were creative, hands-on, and fun. Each week we went on a field trip, cooked or made food, read books, created posters, videos, and computer presentations. Everything we did was tied together in themes and many current Mount Pleasant staff joined us on our many adventures (and misadventures) as fellow teachers or paras during many of those summers. It was hard work, great teaching, and loads of fun. Through those experiences I really became a "member" of the Mount Pleasant family.

The Mount Pleasant staff are really a family. While we often called our school "The Best School in Nashua", I think I can say quite plainly that it is the best group of teachers and staff in Nashua and they have proved that again and again through the years. They have proved that many times for me. When I chose to pursue an opportunity to teach at another school next year, they were very supportive, but also they were the reason I hesitated about leaving. This is the staff that helped make the 2000 Boston Marathon such a wonderful success. When the school district would not allow me to take a personal day to run the race. I decided to run it after my day of teaching. Two carloads of teachers drove me down to the start as soon as school ended and I ran the race with the race director Dave McGillivray (starting 4 hours after the official start of the race). When we finished, there were the Mount Pleasant teachers at the finish line cheering me on. We even made the news that night on the Boston television stations.

On the last day of school that first year at Mount Pleasant, flowers were sent to me by my wife. Sarah was pregnant. The next year, I had to go through a Mount Pleasant baby shower and then my son Andrew was born. Many teachers have watched Andy grow up. On Sunday he graduated from Nashua South and he will be off this Fall to Gordon College. Mount Pleasant played even a bigger part in Andy's life. Andrew attended Mount Pleasant School for his fourth through sixth grades and the staff of Mount Pleasant were beyond supportive when Andy attended here.


I have made many life-long friends at Mount Pleasant and wish to tell the staff how much I enjoyed working with them. When reading a story about Lou Gehrig, I sometimes had my students deliver farewell speeches like Lou Gehrig's speech. Maybe, I should try something like that, but I'm not dying, I am just moving down the road to New Searles Elementary School and I am so excited to get started there and being a rookie at the grade 5 level.

But I would like to thank, all of the teachers and staff at Mount Pleasant. You are the best and filled many days with laughter and friendship. You are great teachers. Earlier this year, I received an award from the Boys and Girls Club of Nashua for Excellence in teaching. I believe that any teacher at the school could have or should have received the same honor. Every teacher has their own style, interests, and strengths as a teacher. However, every teacher puts the students of Mount Pleasant first. While we all teach in different ways, somehow our individual styles meet the needs of the students and make Mount Pleasant such a unique and caring place.

I have always enjoyed my teammates through the years and up on the third floor, where my classroom was located, I always noted the stellar teaching and dedicated staff in the upper grades. I am simply amazed at what goes on in the lower grades. Those people need to be paid more! Teaching children not only how to read, but how to behave and get along with others, so that they be successful in life is such a daunting task. The teachers at Mount Pleasant do it with so much enthusiasm and dedication. No matter what the difficulties, they never seem to give up, but look for new ways to teach.

I am not sure if the students at Mount Pleasant realize how good they have it! The support staff at the school are simply amazing. What goes on in the Title One rooms, the ESL classes, and during reading intervention times is so helpful to building successful students, but it also adds an extra personal layer of support to students that very much need it. Sometimes I would go back at night to work at the school and I would see Special Ed teachers Donna Kenney and Mary O'Doherty still working away to provide the best services to their students. I swear some teachers live at the school. I am always dumbfounded when I bump into them at grocery stores or the mall. I always thought they eat and sleep at the school!

I am always amazed at the quality that the specialists bring to their teaching at Mount Pleasant. I always appreciate the extra support of the wonderful paras that we have at Mount Pleasant. I need to mention the paras that have spent a whole year full time in my classroom through the years. They see exactly how you teach and interact with students day in and day out. I have enjoyed working with Darlene Ledoux, Karen Frasca, and Dee Krammes when they were assigned to my class and I always enjoyed those years when I had such quality help and a good friend in the class.

Everyone at the school it top notch. Why do all the students like to visit Ann Vose? Because she is such a great nurse and a person the kids like to see (some times daily and some times hourly!). The secretaries, Joanne Ritchie and Terry Scarpati, may take time out of their lunches to meet with children. Paula Daneau provides great guidance to those who need it. Linda Morehouse was always showing me new ways to teach reading strategies to my class, that always seemed to reinvigorate my teaching, The entire staff is friendly. Bruce Geer was my principal for most of my years at Mount Pleasant. He was always fair, honest, and encouraging. Plus he was always good for a laugh or a "pat on the back". What more could you want from a principal?

Thanks to all these people for making my years at Mount Pleasant so rewarding. I will miss the staff. I will miss the students. Mount Pleasant has a unique mix of children. Each new year was always different than the preceding year. I will miss seeing children returning (well actually many of them are now adults and parents themselves). Many have gone on to very successful careers. It is always nice, staying in a school and seeing kids return to update you on their lives.

I extend my best wishes to Mount Peasant School, but I do look forward see what else is out there. New Searles Elementary School and the staff there look like a great opportunity for me to expand my boundaries and continue to enjoy my profession of simply teaching!

Here is a animoto video of Mount Pleasant School, that I made last fall.

National Symbols Posters and Word Clouds

Here is an animoto video of some of our National symbols, monuments, and landmarks. Take a look at the wonderful lettering on the posters. We tried something new called "word clouds". Maybe you have seen them before on web pages. Students learned how you can make a word cloud on wordle.net and then chose important words from their project to put in their own "word cloud".

Using the "create" screen at wordle.net, you can type in words to make a word cloud, or paste in test or a report. You can also put in the URL of a website. Here are some wordle word clouds based on our blog post on our Benjamin Franklin Museum. They were simply created by pasting the text from the blog page onto the wordle "Create" page. If you don't like the design of your word cloud you can hit the randomize button to create a different version. Here are three different versions from the same words.

I can see many applications for wordle in the classroom. It seems to be an interesting way to introduce important words from or about a story.

New Hampshire State House Visit

Last week the the fourth grade classes at Mount Pleasant School took a field trip to the New Hampshire Historical Museum and the New Hampshire State House in Concord. It was an enjoyable trip filled with learning. We even got to meet Governor John Lynch, who came out of a meeting just to meet the students and talk with them a bit! This is an Animoto video of our visit to the State House.



Here is an Animoto video of our visit to the New Hampshire State Historical Society. We were investigating everyday things that people used in the past.

Our Benjamin Franklin Museum

Here is an Animoto video of some of the Benjamin Franklin projects my class made for a Benjamin Franklin Museum. We read about Benjamin Franklin in the Scott Foresman story "Out of the Blue" based on the Jean Fritz book, "What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?" Earlier in the year I had bought a copy of the book, "Amazing Ben Franklin Inventions" by Carmella Van Vleet and decided to use many of the creative ideas in it with my class. Every student chose a project that was in some way related to Benjamin Franklin. The projects were not difficult and they were fun for the students to make. We displayed our projects and posters as well as presented our projects to the other fourth grade classes. This is the book that is full of ideas, clever projects, and interesting activities. I would like to do this activity again with another class. We were able to learn about all the different activities, ideas, and inventions that Benjamin Franklin was involved with.

I found this book on Amazon and have ordered it. It looks like a perfect companion book for the projects.

One note about this Animoto video. I found a button to slow down the pictures as I did not have that many. It now spends more time on the picture. I like how every Animoto has different transitions and how they always seem so perfect for the pictures.

Are We Human...or Are We Dancers?

"Are we human...or our we dancer?" That is a line from "The Killers" song "Human". I understand that the song was a reaction to a remark once made by the late Hunter S. Thompson, an acerbic journalist famed for “telling it like it is”, often in offensive terms. He had commented that America is nowadays raising a “generation of dancers”. I don't think he meant that in a positive light!Thompson committed suicide in 2005. This song seems to be about people losing their humanity and all being trained to be the same. When it comes to being different or pursuing an "open door" the lyrics go:

I did my best to notice
when the call came down the line
up to the platform of surrender
I was brought but I was kind
and sometimes I get nervous
when I see an open door

close your eyes, clear your heart

cut the cord
are we human or are we dancer
my sign is vital, my hands are cold
and I'm on my knees looking for the answer
are we human or are we dancer

After listening to this speech, I think of "Are we dancers" in a different light. Are we allowing our children to dance to the beat of their own creativity? Our we allowing that particular door to be opened? Or our we and our educational system closing that door to our children in the pursuit of other lofty goals? You will get it when you hear the story about the dancer at the end.

Sir Ken Robinson gave this speech in June 2006 for the TED conference. Here is the introduction from the TED blog.

"Why you should listen to him: Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this." "

This is an entertaining speech that will make you think. Here are some "killer" lines from the speech. There are more, give it a listen.

"And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.

So I want to talk about education and I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status"

I want to hang that one on my classroom wall, or at least write it out and leave it on my teacher's desk to remind me not to "lose" the teaching of creativity.

"I heard a great story recently, I love telling it, of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson, she was 6 and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, "What are you drawing?" and the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." And the girl said, "They will in a minute."

I wonder how many kids like this, we miss in our classes as we don't allow them to pursue something passionately.

"You'll never come up with anything original, if you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong.

And we run our companies like this, by the way, we stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make.

And the result is, we are educating people out of their creative capacities."

I actually have had a quote similar to this on a poster I created, up on my classroom wall. "You can't make anything, if you are afraid to make mistakes."

"Picasso once said this, he said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it. So why is this?"

I always tell my class, something similar about science. They were all great scientists once before they got to school. They threw their food off the high chair while they ate, to see how gravity worked. It kept working until someone gave them a helium filled balloon! And the questions that little kids ask, "Why? How come? and so forth. Where did they go? Recall how easily a 3-year old studies ants on the ground. I asked my class a week ago, when was the last time they observed ants. It had been a few years! Where did their enthusiasm for science go?

"But something strikes you when you move to America and when you travel around the world: every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one, doesn't matter where you go, you'd think it would be otherwise but it isn't. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on earth.

And in pretty much every system too, there's a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think maths is very important but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting?

Truthfully what happens is, as children grow up we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side."

There are plenty of other great quotes in this video. Wait until you hear about the "dancing" girl. Everyone should watch this.

By the way, I can't dance. Not one step! I have to be the world's worst dancer!

Here is a more recent post by Sir Ken Robinson about not just reforming education, but transforming it.

Trip to The Little Red Schoolhouse

Our class had a fantastic trip to The Little Red Schoolhouse. Our time was shorter than normal due to bus difficulties, but we still had a wonderful time learning what school was like in 1842. Here is a Voice Thread of our trip.


Here is an Animoto video of our field trip.

Simple Fun at Brain Bashers

Brain Bashers is a collection of brain teasers, puzzles, riddles, games and optical illusions. With thousands of brain teasers and puzzles, over one hundred awards, BrainBashers is updated with optical illusions and games regularly and has 5 new puzzles added every other week. It looks like a fun site to go to when you have a few minutes and want something fun or challenging for your class (or a students to do).