Etch 'n Sketch...

...is how I teach my new students and parents to pronounce my name (everybody knows what an Etch 'n Sketch is, so it seemed perfect). Oetjen is just hard to read, and I've heard just about every pronunciation in the book, even Ofjen (I guess the t looked like an f...). Well, Etch 'n Sketch seems to work pretty well, although the school secretary did tell me once that a parent called asking for Mr. Etch 'n Sketch. My wife, Erin, has a different way to teach our name--"The O is just for smiley faces." If you didn't guess, that description matches her personality 😁

But for me, Etch 'n Sketch Reflections seemed like the way to go for my new blog. Before I go any further, I do want to identify the fact that I realize the name-to-fame is actually Etch A Sketch...but my name is Oetjen, not Oetja, so it sounds better.

Right now, I am sitting in a grad class learning about using technology to effectively communicate with students, parents, and the community (a big shout out to Sarah Paff for the great course and the amount of work time we had to actually develop our communication tools!). A little earlier, we started talking about blogs, and I started thinking about a fantastic colleague of mine--Marisa Kluth. Last year she started a blog of her own to share her thoughts, happenings, and resources with the world, so I figured I would follow her lead. THANKS Marisa for all you do!

So, here's my goal for the blog. Every Thursday I will share an update of what's going on in my classroom world. A podcast that I listen to (@proyoupodcast @tomjdeters) talks about the importance of consistency, so every Thursday these posts will appear (and I recommend you check out the podcast if you need some ProYou time). I want to use this blog to share what's going on in my classroom, resources that I have used that might be helpful to others, talk about what's happening in the education world, and just keep track of my thinking...my memory just isn't what it used to be.

If you've stuck with me this far, I hope you will continue to do so in the future. I know today is Wednesday, so that means I'll already need to make a post for tomorrow (staying consistent!) But that won't be a problem because I'll have plenty to share! For the next two days my school has some training for math and literacy to check out the new version of Math Expressions and get some firsthand knowledge from Jan Richardson, a guided reading expert. I'll let you know how it goes.

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