After An Educator's Journey
Out of the classroom & into the universe
recent posts
about
Once upon a time, I taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Now I’m retired and working on new ventures.
Category: The Craft of Teaching
-
Recently I happened upon a video of Steve Jobs giving the 2005 Commencement address at Stanford University. Having sat through a number of such addresses – and well aware of how rare is the speech that is remembered 30 minutes afterwards – I was curious what, beside the celebrity of the speech-maker, might be the…
-
This week my principal approached me with an intriguing question – would you be willing to loop to fourth grade with your students? I needed a little time to think about that, but not for the reasons you might assume. My hesitation had nothing to do with a repeat year with my students, some of…
-
Teaching in an urban educational setting has many challenges. Of course, there are challenges associated with trauma and with poverty and other social problems. One of the greatest challenges, in my opinion, is to work with students whose primary language is not English. In my current classroom, the ratio of native English speakers to English…
-
This morning’s Washington Post carried an Op-Ed piece by Deborah Kenney, founder of Harlem Village Academies. Unlike many charter schools run by large (overseas) conglomerates trying to turn education into cash cows, this charter appears to have pedagogy and students at the center. The question Ms. Kenny poses? Is the Common Core causing school experiences…
-
I have always thought it important for students to learn to work cooperatively. When I worked in the private sector, we worked as teams or groups – almost never without some kind of interaction with colleagues. Kids need to know how to work in collaborations, too. And so, we set out this week to…
-
In a past life I was a musician and a music teacher. While I lacked the talent and drive to become a professional musician, music has always been something I’ve enjoyed. In our classroom, when students need to complete a transition from one activity to the other – for example, universal breakfast clean up to…
-
A friend of ours posted this article from the Washington Post yesterday. The Post article largely relies on a piece by Arthur H. Camins, and in my opinion rightly so. Mr. Camins explores two essential questions that should be driving the dialogue about education and teaching: when do you persist to do your best and…
-
Just before the holiday break, our new technology – Mobi 360 – arrived. Hopefully the wireless projector that is part of this system will have been installed before Wednesday when we return to school. Hopefully I will be able to make it all work the way it was intended. We tried out the system the…
-
Last Friday as I watched one of my favorite weekly shows (Greater Boston‘s Beat the Press segment), I heard panelist Margery Eagan describe the atmosphere at the Boston Globe as the “joyless pursuit of excellence”. In our local newspaper world, there is no doubt that the Globe is a superb paper and even when I don’t agree…
-
I have to touch the third rail: is education today more assimilation into a one-size-fits-all or is it about reaching a baseline of standards for learning? I ask this because lately it seems that there is an underlying expectation that we plan or are given one lesson and asked to apply it to every student…
After An Educator's Journey 