“The Commission recommends that states help families return to work with access to K–12 education by making existing education funding student-centered and portable.” “Hell, yes!”  You can hear parents across the country yell upon reading the quote above, taken from The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission recommendation for k-12 education. For many American parents, this extended experiment […]
School Improvement
Posted inHow to Fix Education
The Ideal School Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
What would an ideal school look like? My wife and I, like many educators and parents, have had this question thrust to the forefront as part of the COVID-19 crisis. Overnight, my wife and I–both trained, veteran middle school teachers–have had to set up The Sutton School to teach our own kids. We’ve made all […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
A Pandemic Brings Opportunity to Rethink Standardized Testing
Coronavirus-canceled testing brings an opportunity. As a teacher and parent in the state of New York, news that standardized testing might be canceled this year brings mixed emotions. I suspected the closures due to COVID-19 might come to this, and for many years I have been pretty open about my personal feelings about abuse-by-test. My […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Getting Reading Right: The Education Week Online Summit
Getting Reading Right was the title and focus of the free online Education Week summit held on January 28, 2020. EdWeek reporters moderated with guest literacy specialists in six separate online chats framed by the results of the 2019 EdWeek Research Center survey on Early Reading Instruction. Online registered participants were eligible for a certificate […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
The Formal Observation: When Teachers and Administrators Dance
Every school year, teachers across the country play a sort of game. It is mostly an activity we play alone, like solitaire. We plan lessons in units to cover roughly 180 instructional days, with the intent that learning occurs. Most tenured teachers get one to two chances to demonstrate how we play this game and […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Vote for the Voteless: Off-Year Elections Do Matter
When I was in fourth grade, my class participated in the Center for Civic Education’s Project Citizen Program. Groups of students “identify a public policy problem in their community. They then research the problem, evaluate alternative solutions, develop their own solution in the form of a public policy, and create a political action plan to […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
Is Combat Pay Worth It?
We’ve all heard the term before: Combat Pay. Preface Let me preface this by saying I am a strong believer that ALL students deserve a great educational experience with highly qualified teachers. I know of teachers who ONLY apply to inner-city schools because they know how much these students need teachers who care about them […]
Posted inTeacher Burnout
5 Reasons To Consider Advising A Student Club
One’s teaching career often goes through seasons. A young teacher year is often more like summer, filled with energy, fun ideas, and optimism. However, more experienced teachers may begin the school year recharged only to hit a wall by the end of Autumn, plunging into a winter-like rut for the remainder of a school year. […]