If you walk into a parent teacher conference, are you confused about where to sit? Do you know which one is the teacher ‘s desk and which ones are the students’ desks? How? The face of the classroom hasn’t changed in 100 years. It might bring comfort to you to know your place and to …
I Elizabeth Hagan’s take here: Beyond its effectiveness for outreach, I think the church has a lot to learn from Twitter as a newly minted word in our vocabulary. First, say what we need to say and stop. The days of long typed memos addressed with a stamp on a letter in the mail are …
Danny Well makes a good point: In other words, people have to learn uncritical thinking as well; uncritical thinking is also learned activity. Therefore not all teaching and learning is good. How do we differentiate the chad from the wheat? In order to analyze what we want students to learn, we first have to analyze what students …
I think schools should seriously consider the tradition of Spring Cleaning and the first thing to go…standardized test. For students young and old, Spring isn’t about New Birth or Hope, rather it is filled with the drudgery of Spring Testing. The windows are shut to keep the bird songs out so that students can concentrate …
I do understand that student-centered education is radical at this point in our educational history: Rethinking Schools has been pressing for radical reform of public education and for student-centered, social justice education since we began 25 years ago. But with debate about education policy now sharply politicized and polarized, there are added reasons to look …
Michael Smith has it right: They’ve seen this same type of thing happen time and again in education. This too shall pass. They are the ones leading the real charge. They are the ones mumbling and looking at their watches during professional development. They gather in the hallways (often during class time) and point out what’s …
Anti-bullying programs have long been a part of schools, but recently there has been a push for these programs The documentary Bully opens in theaters Thursday, and the heated controversy over the appropriate rating for the film has frustrated many schools hoping to use it as a teaching tool. Administrators have struggled to find effective ways to …
Conflict isn’t a bad thing, it’s a GREAT thing. Those who avoid conflict just create more and more conflict. Conflict avoidant people drive everybody around them crazy! Or as my professor would say, “Lean into the tension!” Change is how our muscles grow and how a community that is slowing caving in on itself is …
I didn’t want to go running today. I didn’t want to go as I changed into my running clothes. I didn’t want to go as I put up my hair. I didn’t want to go as I tied my shoes. I didn’t want to go. But I did. And as my body creaked and ached …
This teacher wasn’t the first to think that taking things apart and putting them back together might be the perfect way to keep students engage and to help them learn. John Dewey started his first school with the idea that “learning by doing” is really the only way that students take learning with them and …
