As a teacher and American citizen, it is difficult to discern what values we stand for as a nation today. It seems that our government has blurred the lines between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, equality and discrimination, and honesty and scandal. In the pendulum swing from the “post-racial” Obama years to the quasi-authoritarian […]
Technology
In Defense of Standardized Testing: A Reflection
Standardized testing: just the thought of these assessments strikes terror in the hearts of teachers. If only our students cared as much about how they score on state-mandated tests. Most of the educational literature reflects a negative view of standardized testing, but they serve an important purpose in American education: to indicate teacher effectiveness through […]
The Royal Wedding: Why Should We Care? One American Teacher’s Perspective
The news broke this morning: another school shooting, this time in Santa Fe, Texas. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to entertain the thought that this most recent massacre is the 22nd school shooting this year. I can’t bear to think that ten more families will be planning funerals and that […]
Integrating Trends in Education: Lesson Plan Development for the 21st Century
When school starts next year, I’ll be in my thirty-fifth year in education. I feel like the slogan of the Farmer’s Insurance ad, “I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two.” Group work is now “Cooperative Learning.” Homework and tests are now tagged as “formative” and “summative” assessments. “Bloom’s taxonomy […]
Teachers In Action: From the Classroom to the Convention
It was a busy week. My student government kids teleconferenced with the Broward Education Foundation to award them $1,000 they had collected through the spare change in the cafeteria. The SCA students wanted to help the victims of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. The organization receiving the gift looks after the social, economic, and academic […]
One Future of K-12 Education: From the Factory to a Personalized Model
From the Factory to a Personalized Model If you’re old enough, try to think back to the way teaching and learning was designed 40 or 50 years ago. The teacher was the “sage on the stage.” He or she had the subject information in their mind, and it was up to the teacher to make […]
Using Current Events in Teaching the Executive Branch
As an eighth-grade civics teacher, I am about to start my unit of study on the Executive Branch. To be honest, I’m a little scared. Strike that. I am very scared. “Why are you scared, George?” you may ask. “If you stick to the facts, you’ll have nothing to worry about,” In normal times, I’d […]
Using Popular Music in the Secondary Classroom
Teachers born between 1950 and 1980 makeup both the baby-boom generation and those known as “Generation X.” The music with which they grew up is a reflection of the historical periods that produced it – Vietnam, the Cold War, the Fall of Communism, September 11, 2001, and the events that followed. Teachers of social studies […]