JM Ducey Educational Consulting LLC

Thank you The Galleries at Heartland Art Club of Kirkwood for allowing me to host a great day of literacy learning in their beautiful gallery alongside educators from six STL County districts LIVE and in person. We wore masks, were socially distant and didn’t skip a beat. Training teachers in the time of Covid has never been more important and more tricky! I’m so excited for part two tomorrow 🙌🏻📚😊

Love this story:.....in 1949 a school teacher named Eleanor Abbot invented the game Candy Land. She was a patient at the time in the polio ward of a hospital during the polio epidemic. She wanted to give hope and mobility to all the many children afflicted and those under quarantine. Milton Bradley bought the game from her and featured a young boy with a leg brace on the board to intentionally connect with the children with polio. ❤️❤️

Let’s all be real here... parents, educators and students have never been in this situation before. At best, we are building a temporary plane while flying it. I think if we put these 4 words into action and let go of the rest we will come out on the other side of this better, not worse ❤️

EVERY educator needs to read this and hand a copy to the decision makers in their district. Thank you Sara Holbrook for being so honest and vulnerable...
"Oh, goody. I’m a benchmark. Only guess what? The test prep materials neglected to insert the stanza break....I just put that stanza break in there because when I read it aloud (I’m a performance poet), I pause there. Note: that is not an option among the answers because no one ever asked me why I did it....I apologize to those kids. I apologize to their teachers. Boy howdy, I apologize to the entire state of Texas."

Poet: I can’t answer questions on Texas standardized tests about my own poems Also: 'How in the name of all that’s moldy did this poem wind up on a proficiency test?'

It's finals time- the most overwhelming and not wonderful time of the year for our students. So many get bogged down in the "how to" process of "studying" or just haven't developed a successful system and therefor fail from the start. I love how this simple graphic organizer can put all the important pieces together... and will likely look different for everyone, but build success for all.

I can't remember what I had for dinner last week, but I still remember when I received my first positive phone call...

"Hi Timm and Jean this is Lynn Foy McCrary from Tillman Elementary, everything is fine and great here, I'm just calling to let you know that Elizabeth Ducey (insert a few simple, kind and positive things Lynn noticed)......"

*yes she could have emailed or texted, but there was so much power in that quick conversation!!!


https://www.edutopia.org/blog/power-positive-phone-call-home-elena-aguilar?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-positivecallhome&fbclid=IwAR3Mlj3_aiyyftTCgC970GF2P4o01CtOy_87OWDZZOfzDBGtYv4yb1XL6tE

The Power of the Positive Phone Call Home