My school has finally adopted a new primary grade level report! The new report cards are standards based! Students will get either a 1, 2, 3, or 4. A 4 means that the student exceeds the standard. A 3 means
Read MoreAdding Credits to My Man Card
Two weeks ago, Nancy Flanagan wrote an interesting blog about the proclivity for men to employ sports metaphors while framing education debates. I was thrilled to see that my first K-12 Center blog had actually been referenced, and thus ran
Read MoreWhat Counts?
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. Albert Einstein When I read this it made me STOP and think. How do we use data to inform our instruction and impact our student’s
Read MoreCan the right committee impact student achievement?
My school year started with a scene that might be familiar to many of you; the beginning of the year staff meeting! I sat through this 2 hour meeting trying not to think of all the things I had to
Read MoreNothing Special
Jim has been teaching 1st grade for twenty years. Opportunities to work collaboratively with his colleagues should be as common to him as his annual bulletin-board-supply shopping trip, and yet over the course of his 20-year tenure, Jim has spent countless hours in, what he and most of his colleagues would describe as, “the fancy-man-in-the-suit-with-the-power-point trainings”. If Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule holds true, then Jim and so many others have become experts at feeling patronized and isolated.
Read MoreOne Question Secretary Duncan…
Monday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, discussed other countries outpacing America in the educational arena. Secretary Duncan reinforced his message with the following bold statement: “The great ideas in education are always going to come at the local level. What
Read MoreAre You a Difference Maker?
Are You a Difference Maker? Each August I look forward to a new school year, new students, new goals and new challenges. With the start of a new school year also comes a new football season. You might be wondering
Read MoreSurf or Drown: Let’s Hunt TTWWADI’s!
I recently had the good fortune to hear Ian Jukes share his thoughts on education's struggle to keep pace with "Exponential Times." I found his presentation particularly interesting because a book I recently read identified exponential growth as the most important
Read MoreJust Shoot Me.
At the most recent annual AZK12 Summer Leadership Institute, I sat with a small group of colleagues from around the state to discuss the future of public education. At least I would refer to them as colleagues. They would refer to me as “all-that-is-wrong-with-public-education” or, more simply, the devil.
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