Author: Becca Burk

Entering my eighth year of teaching, there are a stack of books that I know I'll read. Of course, there is plenty of room for new books to join and other familiar books to jump back in the pile too. Something that has been fascinating to me this year has been watching how books come… Continue reading With each year, a new purpose

It doesn't seem fitting to go on as normal...it doesn't feel right...it's heart wrenching to go on yet again...but we do it, day in and day out. We do it while keeping hope for the sweet littles that we work with. What we do matters. I walked into school Wednesday morning holding back tears, knowing… Continue reading “You’ll be in my heart”

With poetic rhyming and vivid illustrations, Andrea Beaty and David Roberts do it again with the latest addition to the Questioneers series. Miss Greer, the teacher we have come to love has a class full of characters, Ada the scientist, Rosie the engineer, Iggy the architect, Sofia the future president, and now Aaron the illustrator.… Continue reading “To write stories, he thinks, is the greatest of things”

I'm always watching for mentor texts for our kindergarten persuasive writing unit and when I came across Rise Up and Write It by Nandini Ahuja and Anoosha Syed, I literally squealed. Not only does this book show how children can really impact change in the world, it is written by and about people of color.… Continue reading “I know we can change the world!”

As this year comes to a close, I sit here reflecting upon what has been yet another year of unprecedented times worldwide. As people and as educators we have continued to navigate higher expectations, new challenges, and even more to do. It has felt overwhelming, exhausting, and at times, defeating. The 'never enough' mentality is… Continue reading Let’s Just Listen

by Hudda Ibrahim In true Covid-kindergarten fashion, I logged onto my morning meeting zoom from my kitchen table at 8:30 on a Wednesday morning. My class and I were quarantined and therefore spent many a day learning via zoom. A year ago, the idea of teaching while quarantined from my kitchen table was completely overwhelming… Continue reading What Color is My Hijab?

"Here's Amanda, fighting for the good things." As I watched the inauguration last week, I knew Amanda Gorman's poem would become a critical text in my kindergarten classroom. Seeing her, a young woman who looks like many of my students, a writer, a speaker, an overcomer, a seeker of justice, made me want my students… Continue reading “Fighting for the good things”

It’s been hard to come up with what to write about in this time we are living in. I have two cohorts of kindergarteners that are in person two days a week and remote the other three. I am responsible for all of them, all 5 days. While I am more than thankful to have… Continue reading Snowflakes Are Falling

As I prepared to start the year in kindergarten in these unprecedented times, I carefully evaluated which of my favorite read alouds I would choose to share with my new students in the first days of school. I always look for new favorites to mix in with my old favorites but this year, I had… Continue reading I Got the School Spirit- even in these times

"Miss Masse, that's what we say!" Yes my loves it is, we can do hard things! The end of last year was one like none we've seen before. I did nightly read aloud videos for my kindergarteners but they would also ask me to read some favorites again "live" for them on our zoom meetings. I… Continue reading Hard Things…

What we, as educators, have lived in the last three months has been something we never could have imagined. I, a kindergarten teacher in a highly diverse school in Maine, was shaken to my core and pushed in all new ways. I was teaching in a way I would never have signed up for. Honestly,… Continue reading A Stack That Brings Me Back

I struggled to decide what to write this month knowing that no words can justify what educators and children are feeling as we finish up school and prepare to embark on a summer and eventually a fall filled with unknowns. That got me thinking about what grounds us in our daily life as educators. What… Continue reading From the mouths of babes

I hear you. I'm not good enough. I can't do this. This is too much. I hear you. What else can I try? How can I check on __________? Maybe if I... I hear you. What will happen next? How will I keep up? How can this be the best? I hear you. There has… Continue reading Dear Educators,

As we sit in unprecedented times, teachers everywhere are trying so hard to connect with their kids. Some may say they are our students, but to us, they are our kids. We hold them in our heart and treasure every moment we have with them, so this is incredibly hard. Up here in Maine, I'm… Continue reading Connection in the Chaos