Welcome to Miss. Casella's Classroom! This is intended to provide free math and literacy lessons, as well as, to have an ongoing conversation with like-minded people. Emphasis is placed on social emotional learning, mystery, creativity, and imagination. Strongly, as a public educator, I feel these elements help to evoke independent critical thinking skills, while opening a gateway to optimism. Personally, I love philosophical metacognitive conversations. Inside all of us, there is a child. Let that child play. Fully, I support play-based learning/inquiry-based learning at all levels of learning. In these environments, people thrive by having the opportunity to do their own thinking, reaching their own conclusions independently or in a group. Centers, give way to incorporate the multiple intelligences and differentiated learning. Is it farfetched to believe Big Foot exists? Do fairies really exist? Why you ask? Well...why not! Dinosaurs once ruled this planet.