But we haven’t gone far, we wanted to make sure you knew where the MSTA Blog is now located in our connected community, The Lounge. Please be sure to update your bookmarks! Sincerely, MSTA Communications Continue reading

Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing guest posts from #MSTA12 attendees sharing their thoughts on our 150th convention. Today's post is from member, Lori Fordyce. Convention is a great reminder there are other things going on outside of... Continue reading

A few years ago on a lark I asked my wife to buy me a ukulele for Christmas. After almost two years of noodling with it at home and at school (modeling learning to my students) I decided that I... Continue reading

Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing guest posts from #MSTA12 attendees sharing their thoughts on our 150th convention. Today's post is from Southeast Region President and MSTA Member, Tara Gann. I met Ralf Trusty 3 years prior to... Continue reading

The exciting changes, just keep happening here at MSTA! Our beloved magazine, School & Community is introducing a new Meet the Reader feature. For every issue, we will ask a question and share your answers. The writer of our favorite... Continue reading

We're very excited to announce that the official MSTA blog is moving to a new home on the Lounge! We will be previewing the posts (like the one below) on this site as we transition, but you'll have to visit... Continue reading

Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing guest posts from #MSTA12 attendees sharing their thoughts on our 150th convention. Today's post is from Barbara Warren Madden, the Communications Chair for the North Kansas City CTA. Though she has been an MSTA member for eight years, the 2012 convention was her first. She is looking forward to attending next year. Every year in my high school geometry class, I set aside one day as Snowflake Day usually the day before Thanksgiving Break. One of the many reasons I love teaching geometry is that it lends itself to special days like Snowflake Day. You start with a rectangular-shaped sheet of paper folding and cutting it into a square followed by an isosceles right triangle and then a reduction of said triangle, finally dividing it all into thirds and then randomly cutting the tightly folded polygon into a unique, one-of-a-kind paper snowflake. It never fails, no matter how old; everyone is amazed at the snowflake that unfolds. Continue reading

Many of you have requested the audio of Joplin Superintendent Dr. CJ Huff’s speech given to our Assembly of Delegates on November 15, 2012. You can listen to the audio on MSTA's the Pulse, here. Be sure to watch the video he references below. Continue reading

This a guest post from MSTA Senior Staff Attorney Vera Campfield on the recent Missouri Supreme Court Rulings. Districts in Missouri now have a clearer picture, but not an exact definition of what bargaining “in good faith” means. In one... Continue reading

Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing guest posts from #MSTA12 attendees sharing their thoughts on our 150th convention. Today's post is from South Central member, Christopher Wright. I look forward to convention every year. It is a wonderful... Continue reading

Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing guest posts from #MSTA12 attendees sharing their thoughts on our 150th convention. Today's post is from our Official Live Tweeter, Robert Sigrist. Convention was an exciting time this year. From a personal... Continue reading

Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing guest posts from #MSTA12 attendees sharing their thoughts on our 150th convention. Today's post is from School Librarian and MSTA Reading Circle Chair, Brenda Steffens. I have just returned from the 150th... Continue reading

This guest post is from Southeast Region President and MSTA Member, Tara Gann. Sitting at a SERTA Board of Directors meeting in the fall before the 2012 Kansas City Convention, I listen as my fellow Board of Directors discuss school lunches and how their students are going hungry. As a region, we decide to propose a resolution opposing Federal Regulation on school lunches with the hope it would be approved by the Assembly of Delegates. Continue reading

The college classes of 2016 and beyond were born into a high-tech world. While it may seem as if today’s students are only interested in watching YouTube videos and socializing on Facebook, technology can play a positive role in the... Continue reading

MSTA's associate editor Rachel Webb shared this post on a snack-food craze has administrators and educators in numerous school districts seeing red. At least three states have banned Flamin’ Hot Cheetos at the class, building or district level this fall,... Continue reading

Editor's note: MSTA member Krissy Venosdale shares her classroom election story that started with one tweet and grew to include classrooms around the world. Don't forget MSTA has an election guide online. The Presidential Election is just four days away and so is the chance to involve our kids in real-world learning! Our students are seeing political ads, signs and even hearing the adults discuss the ins and outs of the upcoming election. But, how do we help our kids understand the power of one vote? We can't just tell them, we have to help them experience it. Continue reading

We received this guest post from Rep. Chris Kelly. It addresses the funding question related to Proposition B in the upcoming election. While MSTA has not taken a position on Proposition B, we wanted to share with you information to help our members and advocates make an informed decision. If you have additional questions about the funding for Proposition B or Proposition B in general, please contact Rep. Kelly's office at 573-289-4067. Proposition B: The Right Thing to Do for Missouri’s Children Continue reading

This guest post is from School Librarian and MSTA Reading Circle Chair, Brenda Steffens, and is the third in our series (you can read the previous posts here and here). The goal of the Reading Circle is to encourage children... Continue reading

Editor’s Note: As National Bullying Prevention month winds down, we wanted to share another resource for you to use in your classroom. This guest post is from Katherine Mayfield, author of the award-winning memoir, The Box of Daughter: Healing the... Continue reading

Are you looking for a way to encourage students to explore teaching as a career? As the baby boomers employed in education look to retirement, thousands of teaching positions will open up. You can encourage your students to seriously consider... Continue reading

Have you noticed that MSTA’s posts aren’t showing up in your Facebook newsfeed lately? As usual, Facebook has made some changes and now requires "liked" pages, like ours to pay to promote our content to all of our fans. If we don’t promote our posts, only about 10 percent of those who like us receive our updates. Continue reading

The State Board of Education met on Tuesday and we wanted to share the details of that meeting with you. (You can see the full agenda here.) MSTA's Mike Wood attended the meeting. The biggest news was the vote to... Continue reading

We know all of MSTA's members and advocates were not able to attend the Open Hearings, so we wanted to share the video we showed during those meetings. As we’ve mentioned before on this blog with the post Educators, more... Continue reading

Image from: 5dollardinners.com I have helped a few members over the years with issues related to students with food allergies in their classrooms. There is never an easy solution to the issue. A parent with a food allergy kid just... Continue reading

Editor’s Note: Know anyone who is a life changer? This blog post is from LifeChanger winner Sandra Winkley of Dallas, Texas, in response to our post Educators, More Than Just Teachers. Nominate someone from your school (see the link at... Continue reading