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May 12

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On Stephen King: A Reflection

By Gaetan Pappalardo

I circled the neighborhood looking for a place to park that wasn’t too, well…suspicious? I wasn’t breaking the law, even though I felt a little mischievous.  Bangor, Maine in April is pretty desolate. I couldn’t hide in a crowd or park in a lot.  The streets are wide. It’s quiet. I drove around the block a few times trying to gather the nerve to park, excitement growing with each pass.  There’s no mistaking his house. He’s definitely not hiding from the public’s eye.  The black gargoyles perched atop the wrought iron fence were a dead giveaway.  Stephen King has lived here since 1980. He’s spent time in various locations in Maine throughout his life and also did a stint in Boulder, Colorado where he wrote The Shining, but Maine is his home.

When asked, “Why Bangor? Why did you pick this place to settle down and write?”

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May 4

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Reflecting on Reflecting

by Rose Cappelli

       Have you ever had the experience of discovering a new word or a new idea and then, as if by magic, you start to hear or see it everywhere? Sometimes it’s not necessarily something new, but something you have just been thinking quite a bit about. That is what it was like for me recently with the idea of reflection.

       Before I sit down to write something, it is usually part of my process to think through what I want to say, perhaps engage in some internal oral rehearsal, maybe do a little research, and then start to write. So for the past few days essentially what I have been doing is reflecting on reflecting. It wasn’t long before I started to see or hear “reflect” or “reflection” everywhere. Read more

Apr 30

Summer Courses

Apr 28

How to Get Research Started in the Elementary Grades

By Lynne R. Dorfman

           I have always known that research begins with a burning question – one that needs to be answered to satisfy that “Curious George” persona in all of us.  As my students have engaged in content area learning in the past, I now realize that I was perhaps too quick to send them off on a journey (not always a journey of student choice either).  We all know how important the three Cs are to student learning – choice, challenge, and collaboration.  But what if your students don’t have a burning question to ignite their quest? Read more

Apr 20

PAWLP — An Invitation to Inquiry

By Janice Ewing

       “Transforming wonderings into questions is the start of teacher research” (Hubbard & Power, 2003).

      This month on our blog we’ve been exploring the challenges and rewards of research and inquiry. Tricia Ebarvia shared the thoughtful process she has developed with her students  in “Updating the Research Paper” and Rita Sorrentino examined the timely issue of “Why Johnny Can’t Search.” These and numerous other posts have inspired me to reflect on the value of teacher research and inquiry and on PAWLP’s role in creating a culture that invites us into these practices and sustains their growth. Read more

Apr 13

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Teaching Johnny to Search

By Rita Sorrentino

      Although today’s students are tech-savvy in many ways, they tend to have less-than-stellar searching skills. In an article, “Why Kids Can’t Search,” Clive Thompson makes a strong case for search engine fluency. I am not surprised by the research results that were conducted by a group of researchers led by College of Charleston business professor Bing Pan. In the study, students relied on Google’s ranking of web pages, and selected information from the top of list even when the order was changed resulting in (falsely) top-ranked pages. From this and other studies cited in the article, we have identified a new quandary in our educational landscape: Why Johnny can’t search? Read more

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