Primary Source Sets

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more.…

Choose a free professional book for winter reading

 There has been a long simmering debate over cursive. The Education Establishment doesn't want it, so we are seeing less and less of cursive.

Common Core downplayed phonics and tried to drop cursive. There you have two of the reasons that Common Core is widely reviled.

 Truth is, a good case can be made for cursive, especially in the early years of schooling. It helps children learn to read. It helps children…

With the appointment of Betsy DeVos for education secretary, many are understandably predicting a proliferation of vouchers and charter schools. It is her espoused solution for guaranteeing a fair and equitable education for all students, no matter their zip code. Since that is also the goal of public education... equal access to success... and zip codes may be one of the problems that prevents success for all, why can't we get behind the voucher and charter solution? …

A LEADERSHIP LESSON FROM RUDOLPH THE RED NOSE REINDEER

Rudolph was a treasure waiting to be discovered.

Irritants become advantages in the right…

 Whether it is TV news or online, most are getting news from a screen and the younger the population the more the source is online. This past summer the Pew Foundation reported that four-in-ten Americans often get news online. School leaders have to identify their own capacity to separate true news from fake news and then ascertain what skill levels…

The Potential of Virtual Reality…

As you read this blog, in your home or office or somewhere in the world on a mobile device, chances are you are not hungry or cold or in pain. Chances are during this season you are making a list and checking it twice.  And, for many educators, it is likely you are contributing to help a family in need. Yes, educators are safe from the life realities of the students they serve. It may be literally impossible to remain openhearted and empathetic if we do not walk in the shoes of…

Our recent post Boss and Buddy: Can a Leader Be Both? provoked comments from our readers that captured our attention. We found them eye opening and wanted to respond. As we thought about them, we realized a larger reality. What do teachers think of the job their leaders are doing? Is that how the leaders think they are perceived? When we wrote …

Why I take class time to teach perseverance (and let my fourth-graders write on their desks)

4 WAYS COACHING-MANAGERS LOWER STRESS AND SUCCEED WITH TOUGH CONVERSATIONS

Discomfort often tips people toward new…

Never forget the ambition and frenzy of the Communist International circa 1930. Lenin and Stalin wanted control of the planet. In some countries, they could aim for a military coup. But in any country, they could try to take over the weak, undefended targets such as the press and education.

 At the same time that the Communists were starving 5+ million people to death in the Ukraine, their sympathizers were…