As I’ve said before, the saying goes that California is like the rest of the country, only sooner. The GOP in the Golden State has only remained politically relevant because of the bizarre requirement for a two-thirds majority to pass state budgets. Now they may have even lost that perk. I’ll share a couple of observations from [...]
Many educators are not happy with President Obama, most especially his education policy, and Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan. The conventional wisdom is they will be “triangulating” (moving to the center) for the 2012 re-election campaign. Daily Kos has a piece analyzing the numbers, and arguing that he would do better to shore up his [...]
This post was submitted as a response to Teachers’ Letters to Obama: It’s the depths of the Depression, and participants in a dance marathon are pitted against each other in a desperate race for prize money that is eventually revealed to be largely illusional. On realizing the hopelessness of both the contest, and her life, [...]
I’ll warn you that this post does reflect some bitterness on my part. While my own situation is settling, I can’t help but realize most of the madness I’ve lived through in just the last two months –I really can’t believe it’s only been two, it feels like ages since this mess started– came about [...]
It’s time for me to reflect on the, thankfully, outgoing administration. If you don’t like my politics post, I’d suggest skipping this one. My favorite (unintentional) visual commentary on NCLB: NCinDC’s Photostream on Flickr My favorite commentary on the Iraq War based on spin from the same folks that brought us the “Texas Miracle“: The [...]
Howdy! I teach sixth grade at an elementary school in Sacramento, CA. I started my career in Oakland, Ca, and moved here to Sacramento in 2001.
My goals are:
To help me reach my goals, I use this blog as a place for me to reflect on best practices, and the practices I’m (trying to) putting in place in my classroom.
My philosophy of teaching is pragmatic (I’ll use what works, and I’m not particularly wed to one theory or another). I want students thinking critically, and engaged in what they are learning (Constructivism), but I know that many of my students (language learners and others) need schema, scaffolding, and explicit modeling, so I’m not afraid to use those as well.
My philosophy of technology education is that teaching comes first, but technology is an awesome tool to use to engage students, and help them create stuff. I prefer that the learning goal guide the use of technology, and not the other way around.
That’s the big picture. Other salient details are that I can be sharp, but I prefer to see the positive and connect with others rather than fighting and argufying. I can be hard on others (having high expectations), but no harder than I am on myself.
I can be contacted here.
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