As much as schools are modeled after businesses, I haven’t heard as many conversations about the developing, real competition of the the open source classes that are exploding across the Internet. Instead, schools are having conversations about making baby steps to the door of change to perhaps peak through, but certainly not to open it …
“Let’s just pretend,” is how I started my presentation two weeks ago in my Life and Work of the Minister class. I decided to start with that because my book was about considering a change in your ministry position. For some reason, it’s almost impossible for us, as adults, to talk reasonably through the ideas …
Happy 1 year old Birthday, iPad! I remember because I bought my iPad in April last year (when I actually got a tax refund…being a teacher without a classroom gets pretty expensive come April 17!). I am surprised at how many of the apps I have been using since day 1 and use almost daily. …
Teachers are joining forces and uniting their voices: The high-stakes testing era started with the advent of No Child Left Behind in 2002, and though NCLB has largely been discredited, the Obama administration’s policies have expanded the use of test scores as assessment tools not only for students, but also for teachers and principals. Many …
Many schools that are marketing to young parents are going to have a tough sale because they are a part of a growing number of recent college graduates who couldn’t find work in their profession after investing 4 years and thousands of dollars in the chance for a better job. Many young graduates take lower-paying …
Is college helping students prepare for professional life or reinforcing the SES? Post-secondary education is not, in fact, functioning to dissolve long-standing class hierarchies. There are various ways of examining these trends, which I’ve outlined below. However you look at it, the cultural and political implications of the deepening of the income achievement gap are …
Gaming in education is a topic that many educators are exploring, but is it even possible in the education climate that requires so many levels of approval? There needs to be a momentous change in attitude if this is to become legitimate. Recently in my university course, I wasn’t there when the topic of Scratch …
If school was like Twitter: At first, this ideas sounded intriguing. We would get together in random chats, organizing our thoughts and sharing resources according to shared categories that grow organically. I’d have the permission to speak and to listen, engaging strangers at times and somehow making close friendships in the process. When things got …
I know you’re tired. I know the weight of the school year and the expectations to increase students’ test scores has felt like a an unbearable burden that you weren’t trained to bear. I know that there has been more negative feedback than positive feedback. You are making a difference step by step in your …
There’s a great episode of How I Met Your Mother, where Marshall who always dreamed of being an environmental lawyer tells his wife that he actually likes his job as a corporate lawyer. They are attending an event in the Natural History Museum and she sees the College Marshall and sees that he is extinct. …
