The paradox of summer reading: Read=pleasure or Read=work. All students should read at least one book this summer. Students should practice the independent reading skills they have used the whole school year. They should receive credit for reading over the summer, but to give credit means an assessment. An assessment comes dangerously close to committing Readicide,(n): The systematic killing […]
Colette Bennett
Colette Marie Bennett is the Curriculum Coordinator for English Language Arts, Social Studies, Library Media, and Testing for the West Haven Public School System in West Haven, Connecticut.
Previous to this position, she served as the Chief Academic Officer (7-12) for Regional School System #6 in Litchfield, Connecticut. She has 23 years of teaching experience in English Language Arts from grades 6-12, including electives in journalism, drama, and film studies.
A graduate of the Alternate Route to Certification, Bennett also has a Masters in English from Western Connecticut State University a 6th year in Advanced Teaching and an 092 Administrative Certificate from Sacred Heart University, and graduate credits from the GLSP in Social Studies at Wesleyan University. She holds a Literacy Certification (102) from Sacred Heart University for grades K-12.
She has presented how technology is incorporated in classrooms at the Connecticut Computers in Education Conference (2010, 2012, 2014), the National Council of Teachers Annual Conference (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), and the Advanced Placement Annual Conference (2011) the Literacy for All Conference (2012), and the ICT for Language Learning in Florence, Italy (2014).
She blogs about education at Used Books in Class: http://usedbookclassroom.wordpress.com/
She tweets at Teachcmb56@twitter.com
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Uncategorized
Letterman’s Top Ten Tribute to Teachers Needs More than Teach for America
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] Tributes for teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week are appreciated coming just as the school year comes to a close, when very tired teachers are looking back to see student progress over the past […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum
Great Teachers Are Content Area Experts WITH Skills
Tuesday nights are #edchat nights on Twitter, and educators across the country, even across the globe, discuss topics of general interest for an hour. On May 7, the topic posted was: What is BIG Shift in ed that everyone is looking for? Is there 1 idea that can positively affect education? While I was surfing the column […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Knowing the Ending Need Not Be a Spoiler
Enter the spoiler alert. Because the number of ways people hear about stories is increasing, spoiler alerts for books and films are offered as a “heads-up,” a means to prevent plot details from becoming public. Knowing the end of a story might mean that the strategy of “predicting” a story has been compromised. However, there are genres […]
Posted inFeatured, Opinion
Wikipedia Steps on Women Writers in Stepping Towards the Scholarly
A short-lived category sub-set in a Wikipedia entry set off a feminist firestorm at the end of April. In an editorial for the New York Times titled “Wikipedia’s Sexism,” the writer Amanda Filipacchi noted the removal of women writers from the Wikipedia web page category “American Novelists;” women writers had been regrouped under a new web page, […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, From the Front Lines, The State of Education
State of Education: The Perfect Storm of Connecticut Involves a New Evaluation System, Standardized Testing and Teacher Pension Fund
This article is part of our new feature “State of Education” where we hear what is going on in each state around the country, from an educator in that state. If you would like to write about your state, contact us at info@theeducatorsroom.com! A “perfect storm” is the name given to an event that […]
Posted inElementary School, Kindergarten, Opinion
Dress Code Violations? Blame Disney's Princesses
Once the snow has melted, and mud dries up enough so wearing flip flops is possible, the season of dress code violations begins. Whether your school dress code policy is ultra conservative or lassiez faire, every spring, there will be one or two students, usually female, who will challenge the dress code with a startling vigor. […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines, Uncategorized
Product Marketing a Test that Markets to Students
The New York State Department of Education’s new standardized tests were administered last week. The tests for grades 3-8 were developed by the educational testing company Pearson and contained new “authentic” passages aligned to the new Common Core State Standards. State tests might have been routine news had not several teachers also noticed that the English Language […]