Let us face it- in education many of us are waiting for some fairy reading tales to come true. For instance, we may be hoping to meet Prince Charming and live in his magnificent castle. However, nobody wants to walk down the street without clothes, even in our nightmares. I contend that most commercial reading […]
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Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
12th-Grade Inquiry Papers on the Topic of Heroes and Monsters
The association of midterm exams with freezing is both literal (I teach in the Northeast) and figurative (many students “freeze up” during an exam), so at the end of this semester, I took one of the writing standards from the Common Core State Standards hoping at the very least to stop the “freeze” in the […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Literacy, Uncategorized
Whit's Tips on Mentoring to Provide Individual Learning Opportunities
How should schools provide individual learning opportunities and motivation to accelerate learning while following standardized curricula goals aligned with the Common Core? One on one mentoring might be an answer. Whether schools can put together teams of five or a hundred mentors, giving students a half hour of undivided attention makes all the difference in […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Technology
Assessments: Pen Pals Part Two
Read Part I “Assessments: Upgrading the Age Old Practice of Letter Writing” here. In this time when school securities are threatened by unmitigated attacks, technology in education serves to open campuses between distant communities. A recent pen pal project entered a second phase of practice with letter writing and Skype. It has served to distract […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Guided Reading With Early Readers
Guided reading is an instructional method used in many elementary classrooms. It is an approach I use daily and without it would not be able to create successful readers. Guided reading is when the teacher works with a small group of students. During this time, the students apply and practice effective reading strategies while reading […]
Posted inLiteracy
Assessments: Upgrading the Age Old Practice of Letter Writing
Letter Writing: I was excited when my Hungarian pen pal’s letter arrived. The Cold War had ended, and I was curious to know more than textbooks could share about life under communist rule. I savored each letter as if it were a dessert and took great care in sending back a response. My pen pal’s […]
Posted inFrom the Front Lines, Opinion
The Gift of Giving: Sabbaticals for Teachers are Needed!
I just read an interesting blog on Surviving Teaching by Cool Cat Teacher, Vicki Davis and John Kuhn’s viral hit, The Exhaustion of the American Teacher. Teacher burnout is a perennial problem. It is impossible to survive with idealism, purpose and dignity intact amid changing mandates, recessions, and media inflamed paranoia about American public education. Public schools do not advertise or […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education, Uncategorized
Gaming Dialogues Serve a Vital Purpose
The majority of homework in elementary schools and high schools tends to be practice or preparation, leaving less than 30% for integration, interpretation opportunities (Brozo, 2010). The Common Core is shifting assessment from a focus on skills and gains of knowledge to information analysis, critical evaluation, and expression of new understanding (CCSSI; www.corestandards.org). This means our […]