A Piece of Cake

No, this isn't a blog about food, although the title of the blog, the title of this post, and my username do give that impression.  So allow me to explain.  I love Mary Poppins.  In fact, I love all things Disney, but I have always had an especial fondness for Mary.  She slides up banisters, pulls an endless amount of objects out of her carpetbag (sometimes I feel that way about my school bag), jumps into chalk pictures - and she can fly.  What's not to admire?  Mary was the uber babysitter, and she cared very much about the children she was responsible for.

But this isn't a blog about babysitting, it's a blog about teaching.  Specifically, my adventures in teaching.  Now, I'm no Mary Poppins.  I am not "practically perfect in every way" although I do enjoy singing and dancing about for my students.  But it occurred to me recently that every year, every month, every week, I am trying something new in my classroom.  Some experiments work, and some explode in my face like a chimney (if you know your Poppins trivia, you should be picturing Michael with a faceful of soot right about now).  So I figured, why not share the successes and the failures with others.  If my ideas can help inspire others or prevent them from making the same mistakes, than this blog will have fulfilled its job.

So I leave you with the opening to the song "A Spoonful of Sugar" the inspiration for this blog title.  I think it quite nicely has some parallels to the teaching profession, although I doubt that was the intention of the Sherman brothers when they wrote it.  You can judge for yourself.

In every job that must be done
there is an element of fun.
You find the fun and...
SNAP!  The job's a game.
And every task you undertake
becomes a piece of cake.
A lark.  A spree.
It's very clear to see.
That a spoonful of sugar
makes the medicine go down.
In a most delightful way.