Reflections on Teaching

I like to think this blog is pretty ecclectic (although this may be self-delusion on my part). I’ve gotten positive responses to a variety of different posts over the last few weeks from ones where I blogged about brain science and the education of children in poverty (wow, that sounds way too passive — how [...]

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I was going to write a lot more when I did this post, but I got sidetracked by something I read here in the Bracey Report 2009. I was arrested while reading the account of a child who died for want of dental care, but it was the following paragraphs that left me both breathless, [...]

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The title comes from a trope of jokes about the hilarity that results from dissimilar groupings of people (usually a rabbi, a priest, and a minister). Sometimes the joke is how alike they all are and sometimes, the dis-congruity of groupings makes that joke. That’s how I like to think about comparisons between the U.S. [...]

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Last week was completely insane schedule-wise, and an invitation early in the week to a district town hall meeting for schools in PI (program improvement under NCLB) was the maraschino cherry that tipped it well-past being merely ambitious into Bedlam land. I did volunteer for this, but afterward I have to wonder why? The meeting [...]

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I need to thank Jon Becker for his invaluable help in doing this post. I had a big hole that lack research between my last post (based on personal experience), and the next one I’ll  do which is about how things stand now. This is about why things should not be as they are.
With the [...]

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At a social event in the last year that I attended with other educators in my district I had an interesting discussion about education and what African-American male students need. A school psychologist said, “If I had my dream, I’d build a school just for African American boys.” She said this out of fondness and [...]

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I find it amazing how otherwise progressive and liberal thinkers can start sounding like the most brain-dead supply-sider when it comes to education reform. I know it comes from a kinder, gentler place; wanting to help poor and minority students do better in school, and have a better life. Here’s a novel idea, increase TANF, [...]

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I know he won’t be the same as the old boss, who had come up through the ranks, so we had the advantage of knowing exactly what we were getting. In many ways, it was the same direction we’d been going a long time. Not every decision has been a “winner”, but my current district [...]

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