Fellow educators, many of us on the front lines in the schools of America are bearing witness to “an awful moment” in the history of education. We are losing many soldiers, as the fight becomes too hard to bear. As many of you in education know, education is clearly supposed to be about the students. […]
Opinion
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 inOpinion
On Sickness: From a Teacher who Can’t Come to School Right Now
As teachers, we hold the fate of our students in our hands. When we’re sick, we often show up anyway because sometimes even a sick teacher outmatches a substitute who may or may not know the content being delivered. A couple weeks ago, I severely injured my leg. Let’s just say: once you’re over a […]
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 inCurrent Events in Education
Why Engaging Students with Politics is Worthwhile
One of my friends approached me last week while at church. Now an administrator, he was a teacher who taught at Dover High School at the height of the ‘intelligent design’ debate, where a school board wanted it taught instead of the theory of evolution. He taught biology, nonetheless. In initiating the conversation, he said, “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 […]
Posted inSocial Justice
Failing our Poor Students: A Crisis of Morality and Character
Our schools aren’t failing, we all are. When outcomes for our poorest students are the concern, education reform advocates like to point to”failing schools”, but it’s not just about schools. It isn’t out-of-touch middle class parents, teachers and their unions, or civil rights organizations willing to challenge the “school choice” narrative. Those are only convenient scapegoats […]
Posted inChild Development
Teenage Girl Drama: Breaking The Everlasting Gobstopper
The film Mean Girls is a lesson for anybody teaching, living with, or raising teenage girls. It’s no doubt that the line between being “popular” and being “Plastic,” as the 4 main characters are satirized, is a fine one. And, without some adult intervention, it can become an everlasting gobstopper that chokes out the functioning of […]