December 12, 2012

Visit my Literacy Connections blog for details on a live webinar on writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy for kids and teens.  Good Luck!

We are preparing our students for life. I hear so many educators use this sentence when asked, what is the purpose of education? Many years ago I believed that to be true as well. Maybe many generation s back it may have been true. In consideration of all that I observe, even with some great innovation,  and a whole bunch of technology integration that is taking place in so many schools across the country, I don’t believe “preparing our students for life” is the focus or goal of education…

Students Evaluating Teachers

Can a Leader Be Effective and Liked?

In this Chronicle of Higher Education article, Allison Vaillancourt (University of Arizona/Tucson) describes how two new academic honchos in her university have been making bold changes without the usual moaning and groaning from the troops. When Vaillancourt described this puzzling phenomenon to a friend, the response was, “If no one is pushing back, they clearly aren’t pushing hard…

Teacher Observation

I used to welcome observations back in the olden days, because administrators would be able to see wonderful learning going on in the classroom. That was before the dawn of APPR and the race to the top of the heap. Therefore, …

The 5 Most Persuasive Words in the English Language…

How I Replaced Shakespeare

I was not worried about the American education system until after I started writing a column, because that's when I found out there are English teachers who assign my column as reading material. I regularly get e-mails from students asking about my use of anastrophe, metonymy, thesis…

Try teaching 95 children in a room for 40. That is how it was in Ethiopia when I first came in 2003. I visited primary schools in Hosanna, a rural town 240 Kilometers south of the capitol Addis Ababa. The largest primary school, Alemu Woldehanna Primary School, had 4,524 students, of courses in 2 shifts. I even saw a first grade classroom with 163 children. They were sitting in the aisles, standing in the back and 6 in a bench for 4, lucky they were small. Teachers in grades 1 to 4 had 10th…

Try teaching 95 children in a room for 40. That is how it was in Ethiopia when I first came in 2003. I visited primary schools in Hosanna, a rural town 240 Kilometers south of the capitol Addis Ababa. The largest primary school, Alemu Woldehanna Primary School, had 4,524 students, of courses in 2 shifts. I even saw a first grade classroom with 163 children. They were sitting in the aisles, standing in the back and 6 in a bench for 4, lucky they were small. Teachers in grades 1 to 4 had 10th…

 A forum designed to give perspective and help with math curriculum choices. http://www.nychold.com

Bar exams for teachers?

By Chester E. Finn, Jr.

As President of the AFT, the late Albert Shanker was instrumental in creating the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and much else in the education-reform world. Now Randi Weingarten is trying—earnestly and imaginatively—to return the organization and its (present) leader to the pantheon of real reformers.

Their new and much-ballyhooed proposal, contained in a report…

Getting real about the Common Core

By Checker E. Finn, Jr. / December 6, 2012

A foundation staffer I think well of posed these vexing questions the other day:

With the transition to the new Common Core assessments, states will have a number of decisions around how they use the new tests. Some of the most consequential are around possible use of the tests for high school exit or grade promotion. These are obviously sticky subjects. Should we be…