Writing With Abandon

Reflections and ramblings about life as an educator, writer, reader, knitter, and over-thinker. Trying to do the writing only I can do.

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about

I’m Amy. A born and raised New Yorker, currently living in Miami. Here to reflect on my experiences as an educator and learner, working things out as I write.

Category: Uncategorized

  • Gratitude

    I’ve been trying to write this post about the importance of thought partners for the past week and a half, but I keep coming up against a wall. “Blog!” kept staring at me on my to-do list, and I kept pushing it to the next day, and the next. It was the first week back…

  • Planning for Project Based Learning: Using Tools — Curriculum Maps, the CHRL Framework, and Thinking Maps®

    Anyone who knows me knows that I am very organized. (Yes, I do tend to get cluttered. I’m working on it.) I especially value organization when planning Project Based Learning units, which, without some structure, can just seem like a bunch of floating ideas. My three favorite tools for planning PBL units are curriculum calendars,…

  • Planning for Project Based Learning: Depth Over Breadth

    When my husband and I decided to move to Miami, I was sure about one thing: whichever school I taught at would need to embrace inquiry, integrated studies, and project based learning. I was lucky to find KLA, which has allowed me the same creative freedom that Samara did in designing curriculum that is meaningful…

  • A Beginner’s Mindset: Rollerblading in the Learning Pit

    A Beginner’s Mindset: Rollerblading in the Learning Pit

    This October, I decided to get back into rollerblading. Perhaps “get back into” is a generous statement, seeing as aside from the occasional outing as a child and one semester of rollerblading P.E. my junior year in high school, I was never really “into” rollerblading to begin with. But when I moved to Miami this…

  • Off-Script: Creating New Paths

    I’ve always struggled to follow a curriculum. My first year of teaching, my fellow teacher newbie and I visited our new school a week before we had to report to get some materials and start planning for the first month of school. Our math coach placed the teacher’s guide for our school’s math curriculum in…

  • Small Victories

    “Oh! You would be so proud of me,” I started saying to Ana at dismissal. She herded a child out the front door, wishing them well, and then turned back to me. I took a breath. “I—” “Stop.” She grabbed my shoulder, cutting me off. “Why do you keep saying I ‘would’ be so proud…

  • Shitty First Drafts

    à la Anne Lamott. Hello, internet! Ana suggested I start blogging about my experiences teaching, so here I am. I’m Amy, a born and raised New Yorker-turned-Miamian. After 5 years teaching Spanish dual language in NYC public schools in both Washington Heights and The Boogie Down Bronx, I find myself now at an independent, Reggio-inspired…

  • My 5th Graders have Senioritis

    Originally written in late May 2021. I wake up and sit in front of the laptop, start the Zoom meeting at 8:30am, and watch them trickle in slowly. I say good morning to many who say nothing back. Cameras off. Microphones muted. Perhaps one will write “good morning” in the chat. I appreciate that. And…