To dramatically improve teaching and learning nationwide, structural changes and out-of-the-box thinking are needed. The most quality solutions will involve new layers of teacher support and leadership. I think the chart below speaks for itself. I mean, if horses have
Read MoreWhat Would Your IEP Say?
So I show up for work this morning and immediately have to deal with a challenging student. This kid is the typical, “emotionally disturbed” kid who is strategically placed so that if he throws himself onto the floor in an
Read MoreProtecting the Teacher AllSpark
I read Bill Ferriter’s blog this week about the story of Mitchell 20, a movie about 20 Phoenix elementary teachers who chose to pursue National Board certification as a way to take control of the one thing they could control:
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Sink or Swim?
Each year, I host teaching interns or student teachers (or both) as they move through teacher-preparation programs through local universities. During this process I am able to “pay things forward” by coaching other inspired people to be the best teachers
Read MoreWhat Parents Really Want to Tell Teachers
Personal Facebook friends of mine know that, from time to time, I post links, blogs and overall feelings about the teaching profession in addition to the usual, daily things like, “Alaina Adams is eating Frosted Flakes right now.” On September
Read MoreNCLB-Common Core-Value-Added-Limerick-of-all-Limericks
There once was a passionate teacher, Who cheered with her students in bleachers. Then bubble sheets came, "Data management” reigned, And now her students can’t reach her. *Sometimes, a seemingly-nonsensical poem just says thingsbest.
Read MoreWhat 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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Value Added Part II
I wonder what, in recent history, has suggested that the world of business has anything to even offer the world of education. In just the past couple of years, business models have messed up the economy as well as the gulf of Mexico. Why on earth would we be looking to business to help us figure out how to better educate our kids?
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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