Wow the second article in a week that reminds me to be comfortable being different, being me: He said “Stop worrying about what you’re bad at. Focus on what you’re good at and do more of that. Swim downstream. That’s how you become successful. Play to your strengths.” I’ve never forgotten that conversation. It still took …
I needed this reminder this morning. Thanks to Michael Smith, for posting it on his blog so that others like me who are heading into the second month of summer wondering and waiting for something to break for next school year. I needed the reminder that it’s not impossible to change. I needed the reminder …
It does seem that teaching is a secret clubhouse of experiences that you can only understand if you have lived them. I am shocked by the number of people who say things like, “I think I’ll go into teaching because those students could certainly use my experiences in business.” Teaching isn’t something you can pick …
Actually as teachers, you do have a choice. I know that there are so many curricular and classroom management decisions that are out of your hands, but you do have a voice and you do have a choice. When you concede and say there is nothing you can do, you are conceding your power as …
Having been in the field of teaching for the whole of my professional life, I am realizing that other fields are dealing with the same kind of issues as teachers and schools are. It’s the never-ending question of how to sustain engagement and what truly produces growth. Too often, youth ministries overlook this reality when …
If you think that you are the only one battling day in and day out (yes, I know it is summer, but I also know teachers and I know they haven’t stopped battling) for your classroom back, you’re in a bigger fight than you think you are. Within hours, social media sites buzzed with the …
Home schoolers are students too: “Because you choose a different academic path for your child, you should not be prevented from participating in the athletic side,” said Rep. Phil Owens Although this might seem like a natural progression, the issue of having home school students participate in extracurricular activities at the public school they are …
A novel approach: We address these two questions by analyzing school-district data from grades 3–8 for 2.5 million children, linked to information on their outcomes as young adults and the characteristics of their parents. We find that teacher VA measures both work and matter. Actually evaluating teachers based on their students effectiveness of success in …
Value-Added teacher evaluation is not the only option Read More »
I know I talk (or rather type) a lot about the shift occurring in education and it’s hard to comprehend until you are in the midst of it or someone close to you who is experiencing it. I heard on NPR’s Morning Edition that the unemployment rate nationwide is down to 8.1%, but that doesn’t …
It’s easy to get caught up and confused when reading about educational policy: The report is a mishmash of misleading statistics and incoherent arguments, intended to exaggerate the failure of public education. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, introduces the report with this claim: “It will come as no surprise to …
