I watched a wonderful video by The Killers this morning. It is filled with images of dancers that simply lifted my soul. It reminded me of one of the joys of my second grade classroom — dancing. I never officially taught my students to dance. I had a huge collection of cd’s: classical for math […]
Featured
Posted inFeatured, Middle School, Opinion
When Cinderella Arrives
“I love it when the pretty girl crashes the party.” ~Kenny Sailors I don’t claim to know a whole lot about basketball, but I do love the sport. Whether you love it, or not or pay attention to it or not, no one can dispute that March Madness is a real phenomenon. According to experts, […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum
The Life-Changing Power of Extracurricular Activities
It’s the semifinal round of the county debate tournament. The prize: a ticket to the county debate championship and a trip to Washington DC for nationals. Our varsity debate team went 4-0 in the preliminaries and smoked the competition in the quarter and semifinal rounds. I’m judging another debate so I don’t get to see […]
Posted inFeatured, High School, Literacy, Middle School, Opinion
Trash Can Poetry in Motion: Teaching Outside the Box
I recently watched a segment on “Sixty Minutes” that featured an orchestra from Cateura, Paraguay, whose instruments were made entirely of discarded objects found in the local landfill…trash! The orchestra known as “The Landfill Harmonic,” or “Los Reciclados,” was created by Favio Chaevez and Nicolaes Goemez, and consists of a dozen or more children that […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Teacher Branding
{New Podcast} Staff Loungin' World Tour Interview
Welcome to Staff Loungin World Tour, the podcast where educators talk about education and fly around the world in a Lear jet sipping champagne and eating caviar while they do it In this inaugural episode of the tour Dave jets down to Atlanta to talk to Franchesca Warren, founder of the popular blog, The Educator’s […]
Posted inFeatured, Principals' Corner
Decreasing Our Drop-out Rate
In the U.S., one student drops out of school every 12 seconds. Too often we assume that students drop out because they are disinterested or lazy. Maybe we should be looking at our traditional high schools to see if they may be the problem. One model program that has been working since 1995 is Big […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, How to Fix Education, Interviews, Middle School, Principals' Corner, School Improvement
Inspirational Educator: Deborah R. Gerhardt
We at The Educator’s Room have a quest to locate and speak with any and every Inspirational Educator we can find. For this segment, we turn to North Carolina – currently a hotbed of pro-teacher – and much needed – educational reform. [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” […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Principals' Corner, Uncategorized
Fight! Fight! Illinois Teachers Refuse to Administer ISAT State Test
There is another battle this week between parents and teachers against Chicago Public Schools and it centers on testing. Threats from the board include disciplinary action against teachers including the revocation of teacher certification. Next week, the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) is administered to grade school students across the city and state. The test takes […]