Reflections on Teaching

I’ve been sick since last Friday, hence the anemic number of posts this week. If I were a professional blogger, I’d have a back-logged of posts to fill the space, but I don’t. Actually I do have one or two, but I was to out of my gourd to get them up. Sorry. I promise [...]

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Reggae Star Killed in South Africa Carjacking – New York Times
This story sounded familiar, after the shooting across from my school…my sympathies go out to his family, fans, and all the folks in South Africa who have to live with this level of violence on a daily basis.

Courts/Legal News – Pain, passion at court hearing [...]

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Dangerously Irrelevant: The good old days before NCLB? points to this post No good old days at Joanne Jacobs
Joanne Jacobs questions NCLB critics romance of the days before NCLB. Since the state I work in was already on a path to standards based instruction and trying to have some coherence in planning and delivery, NCLB [...]

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2006 UCEA Presentation Elmore.mp3
This piece was suggested by Scott McLeod. I found him very thoughtful, but Dr. Elmore is still convinced that education and delivery of instruction can be studied scientifically. He makes frequent analogies to how doctors do professional development, etc.
What I liked was the focus on having standards, reflection, and peer discussion/critique. [...]

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I did a mini-reflection earlier this week here.
Only thing new is this, but it’s good!
Okay, I’m sharing some student work here. First, this was NOT the final project. This was the first “practice” film I had them do. There are too many effects, etc. because I let them throw in the kitchen sink to experiment [...]

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Matthew Needleman requested that I share what I will be doing to open the second units of Open Court. First, I am not a regular classroom teacher, but instead I teach computer lab for grades 1-6. I support the inquiry part of Open Court in the lab with the students, so I do a lot [...]

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I did not get a reflection on teaching done last week in the rush of recovering from Back to School, too much PD training, etc. I wanted to share a couple thoughts and ask for some input, and for a little encouragement.
Good: Used the Scholastic Flashlight Reader site to have third graders create stories. That [...]

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So, I sign up for a course through USD so I can get units towards this stupid supplemental authorization (it’s not stupid, it’s just giving me a headache to get, if you want a laugh, ask to see the email I’ve exchanged with the Commission on Teacher Credentialing where they give me advice that contradicts [...]

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