Welcome! My name is Mrs. P (aka “The Pensive Sloth”) and I am an elementary teacher in Texas. I have taught Pre-K through 6th grade in a variety of settings–low income, high income, public, private, and magnet schools. I’ve even taught a wee bit of professional development!
Curriculum and instruction are my passion and as the field of education evolves, I think it is important that we build in the new without abandoning reason for “politically correct pedagogy.” I heard this at a conference a few summers ago and LOVED it! We have to do what we know works for kids. They’re depending on us. When I’m not teaching or thinking about teaching, I’m spending time with my family and dogs, reading, watching documentaries, trying desperately to keep my garden alive, writing, painting, making tacky crafts, and relaxing. Oh, and I’m really into sloths right now!
The Pensive Sloth 
Hello. Thank you for posting your insect photos. I’m curious as to how your Superworm experiment turned out. I’m also a 5th grade teacher, but from Washington state. I am teaching summer school and plan on doing an insect study. I have loved your posts and just signed up to follow your blogs. I agree with you statements and appreciate your humor. I just switched to a new school so don’t have my webpage up yet. I’m an animal science nut, but the schools keep making it more challenging to be creative. Happy summer!
Hey Shannon! I’m happy to know I’m not the only animal science nut out there and bugs are by far my favorite! The Superworm experiment was very interesting. I repeated the experiment with my kiddos this year and it turns out that, after the larvae are isolated for a week or two, the ones in the light pupated first. That doesn’t match what I read from a few sources online, but that is what we found. It’s a very exciting experiment, it’s cheap, and easy to do in the classroom. Once we isolated the Superworms in the pill containers, we checked on them and recorded our data every 3-5 days. I’d be glad to send you the form I used for students to record the data. It’s nothing fancy, but it helped us keep track! Feel free to email me at pensivesloth@gmail.com if you have questions or want the form.
I love your site. You are probably the most real teacher I have read about in a loooooong time!! Yes I agree with almost everything you write about! Truth and humor always is the best way!!!