This past week, the National History Day program announced that it lost one of its biggest benefactors. Though National History Day (NHD) doesn’t announce the benefactor’s name, it does reveal how much it’s going to hurt the program — a total net loss of $800,000, annually. If you don’t know what the National History Day […]
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Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Teaching Black Consciousness and White Privilege
One matter we have gotten over very quickly as a country is the notion, beginning in 2008 and carried throughout the Obama presidency, that we now live in a “post-racial” society. The fact that an African American was twice-elected to the nation’s highest office gave rise to the idea that racial discord can now be […]
Posted inFeatured
Discovering Dostoevsky in Middle Age: Why Education Is Usually Wasted on the Young
“Did I tell you that’s what I did when I was flying red eyes? I would stare out the window at the stars and get frightened by the enormity of the universe.” – High School Best Friend, Pilot, Autodidact Cory was my best friend in high school. To this day, he remains one of my […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
“Active Monitoring” Standardized Tests Is a Joke
Most states have a guide for how educators should properly proctor a standardized test. Chief among the list of directions is teacher behavior while students are testing. Those of us proctoring tests are bound to come across the term “active monitoring” (AK-tiv * Mahn-it-ORR-ing) N. – educational jargon-ese for teachers doing nothing other than staring at their […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Testing Season: Prepare to be Accountable
It’s testing season In New York, the state tests are here. Technically speaking the ELA tests have gone by already, other than make-ups that need to still happen. The math 3-8 exams are still to come, and in the tiny rural school system I teach in these tests are all taken seriously by the teachers. […]
Posted inFeatured
20 April Fools’ Pranks for Educators
I love Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but one of his greatest contributions is giving us our first written record of playing pranks on one another come April 1st. With Tax Day just 2 weeks later, standardized testing season right around the corner, and everybody itching for Spring Break, I have some pranks for you to […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Yes, Failure IS An Option
We’d be hard pressed to find an innovation that has changed our modern living as much as the light bulb. When Thomas Edison and his employees experimented with methods to bring about an incandescent light, they finally arrived – almost by accident – on using a cardboard filament. After its success, he famously quipped “I […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Opinion
Making Learning Extra-Ordinary: A Sarcastic Stab at EduJargon
During my first week as president of our local association, I shared a copy of a “Faculty Meeting Bingo” manipulative with all our members as a joke regarding educators’ over-reliance on edu-jargon. Eventually, this information made it to our superintendent, who wasn’t too pleased with the actions of his new opposite. Yet I utilized the wait time to […]