The Multilingual Mozambican: Remembering my U.S. English Language Fellowship

The English Language Programs of the U.S. Department of State is celebrating their 50th anniversary of the Fellow Program. As a former English Fellow to Mozambique, I want to share my teaching English experience as part of the celebration. I wrote about my fellowship in a newsletter while working elsewhere. Sections of the article are provided below. Please note that this

My K-5 Elementary School Literature Products on Sale at TPT

I’m a teacher-author on TeachersPayTeachers.com (aka #TPT). I’m having a 20% off sale for the holidays from 12/18/18 to 12/21/18. Here are the descriptions of a few of my seasonal elementary products aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). K-2 Story Illustration: The Gingerbread Man This is an 18-page document with text from story retold by Sandra Rogers in which students

My TeachersPayTeachers Best Selling Products

TeachersPayTeachers (TPT) has its back-to-school sale this week with up to 25% off with the #BTSFRESH code.  I thought it would be good to share a list of my 6 best selling TPT products with you. They are as follows: (Some are aligned with the Common Core State Standards.) Third Grade Research Project: Language Frame for Wild Animal Report Writing

Call for Comprehensive Commonsense Gun Reform

Let me begin by stating that I don’t have the answer for gun violence in America, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to understand the situation nor advocating on behalf of those who have lost their lives to it. This blog serves as a summary of the current gaps in legislation, school safety, consumer protection, and research. The purpose

Mini-lecture and Photos of Colonial Williamsburg for 5th Graders

The 15 images in this presentation are photos I took of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia a few winters ago.  I was amazed by the beauty of the old fashioned traditions like the image above with burlap and cotton bolls as ornamentation for the Christmas wreath.  This is one of my products on TeachersPayTeachers. The purpose of the presentation is to give

It’s important to keep retelling the history of 9-11

Note: This anecdote was written several years ago when I was teaching school in California. I’d just pulled up to school in East Los Angeles when I heard the radio announcement about the attack on the World Trade Center. Within seconds, I realized my nephew who worked there might have lost his life. I went to sign in and ended