Judy Lindquist

Banned Books Week starts today. This is a week designed to raise awareness of censorship and to celebrate the freedom to read. Censorship, like most things that erode our freedoms, starts small and often seem innocuous. Historically, we see that it is through the gradual chipping away of rights that cultures and groups of people lose their liberties and rights. It should come as no surprise that when we study the dictatorships or fascist regimes of the past, one of the fi

“My brain hurts!” one of my students wailed. My small group of Gifted 2nd graders had just finished a STEM Challenge which had taken them most of the day, made a mess of the classroom, and in which they had failed. The day also included laughter, discovery, creativity, and struggle. After reading the book Ada Twist, Scientist, they had been tasked with the job of designing and building a safe way for my UCF Troll Doll to get from our 2nd floor to the 1st floor, without usin

This weekend I started my holiday baking in earnest. So grateful for my enormous freezer! When I am not writing, cooking is my next favorite pastime. They are so much alike. And that is just what I tell my students, whether they are my elementary students, my college students, or adults when I am presenting at conferences. As a beginning cook, we must rely on recipes so we know what ingredients, in what quantities, to put into our dish. The ingredients we use depend enti

A book came in the mail last week. Not an unusual event at my house. In fact, if I am to be honest, it is a pretty regular occurrence. The feelings I had however, when I opened the package and perused the book, were unusual. Confusion. Disappointment. No, there was no physical damage to the book. But as I looked closely, there was no author listed. Flipping through the book, I could find no copyright page. The size of the book felt odd for a biography. I started skimming.

I have apparently reached that age where people assume you are retired, thinking about retirement, planning for retirement, or wishing you could retire. Add in the fact that my husband has recently retired, and everyone seems to assume I am right behind him. But that is not the case. I love what I do and I believe I am fairly good at it. Why on earth would I walk away from that? This is especially puzzling to people because I am a teacher. A

“Team Building”. A phrase that conjures up images of obstacle courses and laughter. Or causes the rolling of the eyes and a sinking feeling. Research shows that when individuals gel and have a productive relationship, the quality of work increases, so many businesses, corporations, and enterprises make a concerted effort to foster that kind of team-mentality. An entire industry has grown to meet this need. Education is not immune. At the start of the school year, most sch

Here in Central Florida, we have just completed three weeks of the new school year. This is when I meet with our new teachers and interns to take a moment and reflect on how things are going in the classroom. While it ends up being a very productive discussion session, it is not focused on curriculum and instruction, (that session is in a couple of weeks) but the discussion focuses on something much more important. How is the classroom community shaping up? Every teach

We just finished the first week of our school year. The first week is always a hectic week. Filled with getting to know our students, setting up routines, teaching procedures, building classroom community, connecting with families, and of course, introducing curriculum. As the Gifted Resource Teacher at my school, I do not have a homeroom, and do not start meeting with my groups until the second week of school, so as to allow schedules to settle before pulling students. T

This past week our new school year underway. The students don’t start for several more days, but teachers and staff have spent the last week in school preparing for the new school year. Preplanning week is a combination of scheduled meetings and unscheduled time to work in our classrooms. As I begin my 33rd year as an elementary classroom teacher, I have experienced all kinds of preplanning weeks. While preplanning is designed to help set up teachers and schools for a succ

Tomorrow is my dad’s 90th birthday. We surprised him with a celebration last week. My brother and sister and their families flew in from the northeast, my step-brother from the west coast. There were 4 generations there, with his great-granddaughter who just turned 7 being the youngest and him, the oldest. While he was very moved and thrilled to have everyone together, dad thought it was also nonsense. He thinks birthday celebrations are for children and that once you re

Portfolio Career. I recently read the term for the first time on a blog. The term refers to doing a variety of things that enable you to grow your skills in different areas and potentially have multiple income streams. In addition to the added income, focusing on having a Portfolio Career enables a person to have the flexibility to diversify their skillset and feed their passions. Apparently, I have been working on my Portfolio Career for years and never knew it.

I have always loved writing letters. I think it started when I was a girl scout more than 60 years ago and became pen pals with a girl I had never met, but our troops wrote to each other. Yes, these were the years before digital and electronic communication, so the options were more limited, but I grew to adore writing letters and wrote them frequently. I have been thinking a lot about my letter writing lately, as I just finished the book The Correspondent by Virgi

I am an early bird. An obsessively early bird. I am getting up when my night owl friends are going to bed. Literally. By the time the sun comes up, I have been up for hours. When people discover what time I rise in the morning, most react like it is a hardship. But I feel it is a gift to myself. The hours when the world is still dark and quiet and I am alone. They are peaceful and productive hours for me. I do my morning yoga and meditation. I write. I plan.

Across the country lately, there has been a lot of focus on discomfort. Or rather, in relation to our nation’s history, how to avoid making people uncomfortable. There seems to be a focused, concerted effort to erase anything that refers to anything in our history that does not make one feel proud and superior. State legislatures have even crafted laws that essentially says that schools are not allowed to teach anything that makes a student uncomfortable. Yes,

I have always loved front porches. Growing up, of the two homes I lived in, only one had a front porch. It was not big or wrap around, but it was large enough to accommodate a couple of chairs, and pots of flowers in the spring and summer. Of the four homes my husband and I have owned during our 47 year marriage, only one had a traditional front porch. While I do not have a traditional front porch now, I do have a front patio, complete with blooming gera

That is printed on one of my most comfortable t-shirts. It is also a fact of life for me. As an elementary school teacher, a Children’s Literature adjunct professor, and a middle grades author, my life is centered and anchored in children’s books. That is not to say that I do not read adult books, because I do. All the time. But half of the almost 100 books I read last year were children’s books. Not picture books, (I read those, but do not keep track of them on m

Summer is upon us. Whether you are someone who marks summer’s arrival by Memorial Day Weekend, when the weather reaches the 80s, or when the school year wraps up, by this time we can all agree it is here. As a teacher, my summer days have an extremely different rhythm than my days from August through May. Some significant differences, and some minor ones. One of the most interesting is that I get to see the sun rise. I can witness the darkness o

Last weekend I had the privilege of being part of a panel for a session at the Florida Historical Society’s Annual Public History Forum. For those unfamiliar with the term, Public History is “the practice of applying historical methods and skills outside of traditional academic settings, engaging the public through museums, archives, historic preservation, and digital projects”. While I admit to being a history-geek, this is powerful stuff for all of us. Helping people un

Well, year #32 as an elementary school teacher is now in the books. I have spent this last week, packing up my classroom for the summer. Taking down bulletin boards, packing up supplies, throwing away outdated files. I have also been giving hugs, signing autograph books, and wiping tears (my own and others’). These are the end-of-the-school-year rituals that teachers everywhere are immersed in right now. We are in a world of mixed emotions. While there are a mil

The Six Traits of Writing, (or as they now say, The 6 + 1 Trait) is a staple for teachers and educators. These are the research-based components that go into a piece of quality writing. The six things that braid together to produce that essay, story, poem, or narrative that works. Ideas, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Organization, Conventions, Voice, and finally Presentation. Understanding these traits helps students to strengthen their writing skills and helps teachers m