Who would have believed that it would come to this? Education Week is having a webinar on new approaches to reading aloud in K-2nd grade (New Strategies for Reading Aloud to K-2 Students, Thurs. June 18, 2-3 p.m ET). The underwriting for the webinar is through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and with Common […]
The Scientific BS Surrounding Common Core and Teaching Vocabulary
I am going to be a BS detector. The Common Core State Standards are made to appear complicated. Fancy codes and scientific sounding big words are used to wow the public. But if you look at the standards, they’re nothing innovative or new! Take vocabulary. Teachers have been teaching vocabulary since the beginning of time. […]
25 Reasons Why You Should Appreciate Public School Teachers
Please feel free to add to this list in the comment section. Teachers in public school teach all children—they reject no one. Teachers choose teaching because of their subject and mostly because they like the students. Teachers don’t pick their careers for the money. Their teaching is free (well except for AP). Many teachers pay-out-of-pocket […]
Recess and Behavior Problems Part I: Attitude Adjustment
My recent post “If You’re a Teacher Who Denies Recess…” raised some questions about what a teacher could do if they couldn’t use recess as a bargaining chip to get students to complete their work and/or behave. I thought it was important for me to address these problems. My attempt here is to show that […]
If You’re a Teacher Who Denies Recess…
If you are a teacher in a school where children are lucky enough to get recess, please don’t use it as a disciplinary tool. Don’t deny students with behavioral issues recess for punishment. If you do, not only will you not be doing right by your students, you will risk looking like you know little […]
Real Problems in Education and Teachers Who Cheat
In Memphis, a man who was helping an elderly woman into her car was attacked by a group of young people at a gas station across the street from a school. In another part of town a mom worries about gang retaliation at her child’s high school. Memphis is not alone. No matter what city […]
How to Grow Good Teachers
Here is how those who have power could help teachers in public schools if they really wanted to. They are in no special order. I included these in the post about Nancie Atwell the other day, but I think they are worthy of standing alone. I didn’t want them overshadowed by the Nancie Atwell discussion. […]
Making Schools the “Best in the World”
Words of wisdom from across the pond. By Leah K. Stewart You know those fist-pumping speeches that invariably include the line, make this nation’s schooling the best in the world! Almost without exception we hear this wherever national schooling exists: US, UK, Canada, Australia… Am I the only one who shudders at this wholly accepted […]
Who is Your Child’s Teacher?
Who is your child’s teacher? Are they a fully prepared, appropriately credentialed teacher, or a fast-tracker, a person who didn’t learn much about students, who maybe knows a subject, but essentially nothing about how children learn? Public schools should provide every child with a real teacher prepared in the area they’re teaching, and they should […]
Teacher Hate
TIME Magazine is the latest media outlet to vilify teachers. The Nov. 3rd edition conveniently snipes at teacher tenure, while giving corporations the nod. How much money did they get, you have to wonder, to show the gavel hitting the apple? And gavels should be what they fear. A lot of places are starting to […]