Here’s to the best of the best: talent that we don’t deserve, but that our children do.
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What Do Teachers and Jersey Shore Have in Common?
One exhausted night at the end of May 2011, I got sucked into a Jersey Shore marathon and began to wonder if teachers could “GTL” like the overly-tanned and overly-paid reality show MTV characters. According to the oh-so-charming Mike “The
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Whose Responsibility Is It?
Every school needs good teachers who step up and accept responsibility for their teaching and student learning. In the same respect every school needs strong administration to hold teachers responsible for their teaching and of student learning. What happens when
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The Teacher-Evaluation Autobahn
In a recent post entitled “Principal-Proof Evaluation” on the National Council for Teacher Quality website, I stumbled upon some baffling commentary. Obviously, I am still a bit confused, or I wouldn’t be responding. (I was supposed to be following up
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The Best Way to Appreciate a Teacher
Oscar Wilde has a famous quote about work: “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” I invoked the spirit of this quote as I drove to work this morning, completely not in the mood. Then I imagined the quote with a slight twist: substitute the word “job” for “teacher”.
Read MoreNo Prom For You!!!!
"Student banned from prom for romantic gesture." This was the headline I read earlier this week. Of course, like the rest of America who read an article covering this topic, I was outraged. How could a boy be suspended from
Read MoreValue Added Part III
Tests are easy to graph. I’d like to find a psychometrician who can take the camping, the PB&J, and the Pacific Ocean and show how THOSE things have forever impacted the sophomores on their four-day trip.
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Two Fronts and Many Voices
The climate is toxic and the vultures are circling. Union partnerships are being used against educators in the court of public opinion in a way that shifts the conversation from exemplary teaching to benefits and bargaining. They are important topics
Read MoreReform or Deform: Which is it?
Like its sister-term, “accountability,” the term “reform” has had a few minutes of fame in education this year (see this swell piece by blogger-extraordinaire Nancy Flanagan). Here, Flanagan blatantly opens her piece with the statement, “Hello my name is
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