welcome to primaryperks! we, alyssa and deanna, two kindergarten teachers in manhattan, are committed to helping ourselves and others make the preparation and organization of our teaching be thoughtful and efficient so that our kids, in turn, can learn with passion, purpose… and independence, too!
we’ve been asked time and time again to share tips for preparing and organizing materials and plans for the components of balanced literacy and mathematics with teachers and leaders at workshops and on visits to our school. after many persuasive inquiries, we’ve decided share our perks, or the moments that make us say, ‘OH, YEAH!’ with you here. we hope you’ll join in sharing your perks here, too, so we can all learn from each other.
alyssa & deanna
primaryperks 
Hey NEWMAN! Coolishish! I did not organize my photos into iphoto for school or for my kids’ birth, grad, etc! Probably because I am so overextended there isn’t room to do so. I spent all day yesterday in Poughkeepsie (up by Vassar/Culinary Institute/ Splash Down Mt. on a research panel for environmental science). Anyway. Love this idea. Would love it more if it developed into a way to share our iphotos/differentiated tools that work/ check list rubrics/ books that got more bang for their buck/ etc… We missed you at 277. Lots of changes EVERYWHERE. Hope everyone can breathe out a bit next month. I am working on several books (not all science ones either!). Ann D. Owens 🙂