Mr. Gierhart's Blog

About eight years ago in the summer, Mrs. G and I drove to my friend's mom's house. She had taken in a cat who had just delivered three kittens. We were going to adopt one to live in our new house that we had just bought in Geneseo. First, we pulled up to her house. She opened the door and invited us into her basement, which was full of her many cats. When we got down there, we immediately saw the three new kittens. Two of the sisters were playing together and rough housing. The third was more clumsy and played by herself. This kitten was as small as a stuffed animal with a tail that was striped like a tiger's tail. When we picked her up, she smelled sandy like a litter box and felt as soft as a cloud. Mrs. G and I noticed very early that she was super cute. In fact, her feet and belly were as white as Olaf the snowman while the rest of her fur was brown, gray, and black.  Then, she nuzzled my cheek and it felt damp like a sidewalk after a rain shower. We knew ri

In the little pond at dusk, Ducky was wading in the still water with his brothers and sisters. Mother Duck was watching them nearby. The pink hues of the sunset were fading into the engulfing darkness of night and the emerging stars twinkled at their reflections in the pond. The nearby canal that connected to the pond babbled and flowed beneath the fluttering bats and slithering snakes that were just awaking from their daytime slumber. Mother Duck called to her ducklings, "Let's head back to the shore and get snuggled in for bed!" All of the ducklings followed Mother Duck  🦆 ...except for Ducky. His little yellow tail wiggled back-and-forth as his webbed feet kicked and paddled towards a cluster of flitting dragonflies he had spotted across the pond.  When he turned around to make sure he hadn't gotten too far from his family, he was startled to see that they were gone. As he frantically turned his orange beak and eyes in each direction, he realized that he cou

Our third grade classroom is near the restrooms, cafeteria, and recess doors. During our math class in the late morning time, all of the other students in our school pass by on their way to lunch and they are SUPER LOUD AND PESKY! It distracts my angelic third grade learners from their arduous math efforts. 😠😩😣😬 In my opinion, we should solve this problem by constructing a force field in our hallway that temporarily imprisons students who are loud on their way to lunch and recess. 😂😎😇😏😛 First, if the student is trapped in a force field for a few minutes, they will realize their mistake. As a result, they will improve their behavior and PIPE DOWN. Also, the students would remember the force field is in our hallway. Therefore, they would try a lot harder to be quiet during our math class to avoid being locked up and late for lunch and recess. I believe that by building a force field in our hallway, we could really reduce the amount of distracting noise we experience during ou

Next year, I will be a professor at Columbus State University (CSU) in the Elementary Education program. In my opinion, the best way to teach college students how to be great elementary teachers is to show them ways to make learning fun for young children. To do this, I should show them how to lead students in doing research, creating fun projects, and reading interesting books and poetry. First, I must show these future elementary teachers how to make learning fun for students. As an example, I could help them find ways to make writing assignments for children that allow the kids to pick their own topics and ideas. Blogging instead of writing on paper is also fun for young students. Next, I should show them how to design fun projects for children. This may include creating fun science projects in which their students can design rolling carts or measure water evaporation. Dictionary Digs are a fun project too, because students get to look up lots of interesting information about wo