A Wonder-Filled School in the Philippines
In July 2019, I had the incredible honor of presenting a seminar in Manila. Mia Villavicencio, who is in my Wonder Tribe membership, was there and invited me to visit her center. It was such an honor and treat. Here is a peek into her amazing center! To enter this...
7 Must Read Blog Posts for Teachers
We had to take a moment and thank you for following Fairy Dust Teaching and engaging with all of our posts! We wanted to look back at 7 of your favorite blog posts over the years and include them RIGHT HERE to simply click on and be inspired all over again! 1. DIY...
How the Peace Table Transformed Conflict Resolution in the Classroom
Notice the child drawings behind the area. What a beautiful way to make that their own space. One of the best gifts from Montessori education has to be the concept of the Peace Table. The Peace Table is a conflict resolution tool for the classroom. Traditionally,...
Guest Post: How can I create a collaborative school culture?
Written by Chanie Wilschanski DiscoverED Consulting I was chatting with a director a few months ago about school cultures. She was sharing that she feels her school goes through phases of different environments and cultures. I thought about what she said a lot...
How to Engage and Inspire Young Children
I am super excited to share my guest appearance on Patty Palmer’s podcast Art Made Easy. Deep Space Sparkle has been one of my favorite go to blogs for years. I was so honored to be interviewed. Go HERE to listen in. . .
4 Steps to Your Greatest Teaching Year Ever
I have one of my favorite freebies for you - the Take One 2017 Toolkit. It is a life-changing document that has transformed my teaching practice year after year. I am so excited to share this with you. Feel free to share this with any friends or...
5 Year Blogiversary! Tossing Glitter and Give-Aways!
I am speechless! I can’t believe it has been five years since I started Fairy Dust Teaching! I had no idea how much it would grow. I still remember asking my daughter - “Do you think I will reach 100 followers?” Today Fairy Dust Teaching is heading towards 20,000...
What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Misbehavior
Did you know there is DNA of misbehavior? In my teaching practice, I have found the only real way to implement effective strategies with children with difficult behavior is to understand the deeper levels of their misbehavior. Sounds complicated. But actually,...
How to Create Highly Effective Transitions
Transitions can be one of the most challenging parts of the teaching day. One of my best tips is to shift how you look at transitions. Clearly, transitions are the changing times between main activities and group times. It is often transport time and preparation...
2014 Create Your Year Planner! New Years' Resolution Solution!
Click HERE to download. This is my gift to you! I appreciate you all so much! This playful planner has been created to give you access to an amazing year! There are 71 pages of creating-your-year-goodness. Forget those resolutions and make true changes! A few...
Featured Follower: Susan Meyer
There are people who cross your path and you instantly connect. Susan Meyer is one of those people for me. She has been a follower of Fairy Dust for as long as I can remember. I think what really captured me was her incredible gift for photography. It is...
New E-Book!
NEW E-Book! Ever-Changing Environments: A Pictorial Overview of Materials and Design at Rosa Parks Early Childhood Education Center! ON SALE! Inside the pages of this ebook you will find hundreds of gorgeous full-color photographs of Rosa Parks Early...
Woo Hoo! Welcome to my New Digs
Oh my word! I am so excited to welcome you to my new cyber home. Jeni has made some real magic in her design of my site. I am so grateful for her hard work and amazing talent! I would like to give you a tour! Ready?! Let's check out the magic here! Let's start...
Homeschooling in France: French Fibre Festival
For the last 3 weeks, I have invited you into our homeschool & daily life in rural France. You can see those posts here & here & here. I've been posting the "extra" photos that go along with those posts on my own blog - you can see those here. This is the...
Homeschooling in France: Our Village & Countryside
For the last two weeks, here at Fairy Dust Teaching, I have been giving you a peek into our homeschool & daily life in rural France. You can see those posts here & here and even more photos on my blog, Handwork Homeschool. Today, we're going to take a little...
Homeschooling in France: Part One
Guest Blogger: Elizabeth des Roches Blog: Handwork Homeschool My good friend Sally, here at Fairy Dust Teaching, asked me if I'd like to share a bit about my homeschool & life in France. "Sure", I said, "why not?" Today, I'll be giving you a glimpse into our time...
Two Years Later – Miracles Abound!
Two years ago Easter Sunday, my eldest daughter mysteriously lost all ability to walk, hold her head up - - she became like a limp rag. It took nearly 5 months to figure out - she had an aggressive form of MS. She spent nearly four months in a hospital bed. At one...
Markets in Nice
I must admit, I adore the open markets. There are so many! Here is a little flea market in Nice: Okay this is not a market but gee whiz - the blue in Nice is amazing. We sat next to the sea and . . . well . . . experienced such warm and glorious sun. Look at the...
Going South!
It is 7:00 a.m. in the morning and it is time to say good-bye to Paris -- for now. I loved our little flat in the Latin Quarter. So bohemian. There is something about the train station that is always so exciting. I love the European trains. We headed south to Nice,...
A Little Paris Sparkle. . .
It was misting as we walked around the corner. Damp, dark and cold. I wondered why I was out in the rain to see this famous landmark. I am sick. This is crazy. Nothing could prepare me for the amazing view of the Eiffel tower sparkling. It was stunning! It was so...
Paris Coco Style
If Coco Chanel loved Angelina's - surely I would. And further more, Audrey Hepburn loved this place. It was a must do. My friends and I were running late. We hopped on the Metro and quickly found ourselves lost. It was 6:15 p.m. and Angelina's closed at 7:00 p.m....
Books in Paris
Okay. I must make a confession. I am a complete book-a-holic. I have way too many and still - crave more. Nothing thrills me more than a good book. I went into this quirky little bookshop. The bookshop owner was British and such a delight. And I found two great...
Sick in Paris
I woke up Saturday morning with a high fever, no voice, and my throat swollen & on fire. My friends, worried, quickly found a doctor for me. And here is what he prescribed. He said my tonsils were swollen and perhaps infected. 🙁 He also felt I could have the...
Tea Time in Paris
Ooh la la - tea salons in Paris! Today I went to Mariage Freres, which has been there since 1850. They had over 600 varieties of teas from which to pick. It was overwhelming so I just went with the first tea that caught my eye. It was the "rouge d'automne the...
A Paris Toy Store
It seemed like it would be forever before I would be on my long awaited trip to France. It is hard to believe - I am here. Walking to the toy store. Such a beautiful walkway. Looking in the window of the toy store. Dancing fairies! Look closely and you will see...
My Favorite Things: AlphaBeat
My Favorite Things: What I feel every Early Childhood Teacher should have in their bag of tricks! Here is my first recommendation: If there was one CD I would recommend for movement with young children - it would be this one. I first found this CD in my public...
Resolutions: Day Five
Soul Food Nourishing ourselves is vitally important to a fulfilling year. It is crucial to being a teacher with vitality and inspiration. True nourishment is found in the tiny details of life. We can bring moments of grace into our daily lives. One of my favorite...
Inspired Money for Teachers
I can not begin to express how much renewal and knowledge I gained in my two Fund for Teacher's fellowships. It was life changing at the very least. This grant is tailor made for teachers who are looking for a specific type of professional development - heartfelt...
Resolutions 2013: Day Four
HABITS Fuel Goals. . . Pesky habits! When I hear the word habit - I think of all my bad habits. But in reality - there are many more good habits than bad. Habits are nothing more than the behaviors we repeat over and over again. In fact, a habit is a behavior...
Resolutions 2013: Day Three
------------------------ your beliefs become your values your values become your thoughts your thoughts become your words your words become your actions your actions become your habits your habits become your destiny Gandhi ------------------------- Values-Based...
Resolutions 2013: Day Two
One Word There is something about the start of a new year. It holds such power and possibility. Ending one year and beginning another is such an incredible opportunity. I can't imagine not seizing the vast open space in front of me - a whole year! As an artist -...
Resolutions 2013: Day One
A Five Day Series on Creating Your Year What, exactly, is a resolution? defined: resolution 1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination. 2. A resolving to do something. 3. A course of action determined or decided on. Resolution defined is the act or...
Soulful Sunday
The Call of Teaching I will never forget the moment I was called to teaching. I was pregnant with my third child and decided to give my hand at volunteering in my son's kindergarten class. The first time I walked into the classroom a rush of knowing filled every...
Soulful Sunday
Yesterday I was reading a book (Linchpin) by Seth Godin and had this ah ha moment. It is a book about business and as I read - I realized I was reading about the state of education. I just had to share it. Listen to this (I will be replacing the word "business"...
A Full Summer
Dear Readers, You might have noticed I have not been posting much this month. Well, this has been for good reason! I am in New Hampshire at Antioch University working on the first bit of my Masters of Waldorf Education. I am taking the summer sequence program. While...
Rewards vs. Bribes: What's the Difference?
How do you know the difference between when you are rewarding student behavior, bribing student behavior or holding them to logical consequences? This is really important because if you are bribing and bargaining with your students - you are in deep doodoo. It often...
Your Soul Food for Summer
A friend asked, "What's on your plate for this summer?" When she said that - it hit me. Just like having nourishing foods for our bodies - we need to have nourishing goals for our summer. I wrote down everything I had to do on a paper plate. Me oh my! Super...
Family Reflections
Family Reflections is a process I developed to get honest and helpful feedback from families. In my experience, parents often will tell me of a suggestion or issue in the classroom on a form that I might not otherwise hear. I think this is because a form is easy...
Shhhh. . .
Driving to my school today to get some work done, I felt this amazing sense of gratitude. I am feeling so blessed by all of you. I can not begin to express my appreciation and joy for your support. I am going to offer a FREE e-workshop as an expression of my...
Grateful Beyond Words
One year ago this weekend, my eldest daughter lost all ability to walk, lift her head -- all bodily functions shut down. My son had to carry her to our Easter dinner where we all broke down in tears as she could not keep her head up to eat. Lizzie living life with...
The Safe Pocket System Lesson Plan Packet!
Dear Ones, I am so excited to offer you my first Lesson Plan Store product! It is a lesson plan packet specifically designed for implementing the Safe Pocket System. It has everything you need to have a visual system of building children's appropriate behavior and...
DIY White Boards – so CHEAP!
You are currently reading our archived blog. While these older posts may not reflect our current vision and direction, we encourage you to visit our new website at wunderled.com to explore our latest, updated content. There, you'll find a wealth of valuable articles,...
The Peace Table
One of the best gifts from Montessori education has to be the concept of the Peace Table. The Peace Table is a conflict resolution tool for the classroom. Traditionally, there is a peace rose that the children can present to a child they have a conflict with and...
Reflective Teaching – Free Journal!
Click on reflection page to download. I think if there is one thing that has made the most impact on my teaching - it would be my reflective practice. At the end of the day I always take a moment to look at how the day went. I do not linger on my answers. Rather, I...
Collaborative Groups
I have been playing with my color groups and providing more collaborative opportunities. There is this transition after winter break that begs for more collaborative work. The children are ready for the rich experiences of negotiation, problem solving, compromise...
100th Day of School
beautiful photo by Kelly Corado Tuesday was the 100th day at my school. It was such a great day with 100 day activities all day long. My favorite part was watching the glee of the children as we released our balloons. It was so full of joy.
Grandparents Day
Okay - I know I have been on Pinterest too much when I am thinking "hand held white board messages." But honestly, it was a grand idea for Grandparent's day. What I loved about it was that those children who did not have grandparents still had a cute photo opt that...
3 Steps to Effective New Year's Resolutions
Photo Credit: http://travelguide.reservebranson.com/ 1. Start at the end. Create a compelling future. One of the big mistakes of most resolutions is that people make declarations that have little or no passion. Most resolutions are an attempt to fix or correct a...
Oh How I Love Magical Birthdays!
I just had to share with you the magical day I had. Today is my birthday. Woot! I am not mentioning how old I am (do the math, my oldest child is 29 years old. . . yikes!) I am used to little fanfare with a birthday so close to Christmas. Hey, people are busy. ...
Easy Teacher/ Volunteer Gift
This is one of my favorite gifts to make for a teacher or people in a group (like Sunday School, Book Club, etc). When I began making these in 2005, the only good mug available was at Starbucks. It is still one of the best quality mugs. But you can find lovely...