Great Teachers Don't Always Want to Become Principals

The Common Core and Core Knowledge

(Originally titled “Why Content Is King”)

“Text complexity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,” say E.D. Hirsch Jr. and Lisa Hansel (Core Knowledge Foundation) in this Educational Leadership article. “Simple or dense, fictional or informational, what matters most for comprehension of a particular text is whether the reader has knowledge relevant to the text.” Which student will…

Jericho Middle School, where I am proud to serve as principal, recently hosted a forum on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues in education. The forum was organized by one of our teachers, Elisa Waters along with her colleagues and students as well as the Nassau County Anti-Bias Consortium.  Over 150 educators heard presentations by experts…

Thanks to my dad for reminding me that this was the 150th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address.  Here is a video of famous Americans recounting those immortal words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndmcgAsA1aI

Happy reading,

Christine…

According to the DOD website, this is President Obama's proclamation for National Education Week:

“Education is both a pillar of democracy and a cornerstone of American opportunity. In an increasingly competitive world, it gives our children the tools to thrive and our Nation the talent to lead. During American Education Week, we reaffirm our commitment to the next generation, and we celebrate everyone who is striving to help America’s young people…

Toy Story

By BILL…

Not Feeling the Love

In this Chronicle of Higher Education article, Allison Vaillancourt (University of Arizona) tells about a colleague who is thinking seriously about leaving the university despite having an important role, being exceptionally well regarded, frequently hearing validation from colleagues, enjoying his work, and having strong ties to the university and the community. Why? Because the senior leadership doesn’t tell him that his…

Ten Pieces of Advice for a Job Interview

In this helpful Chronicle of Higher Education article, Robert Sternberg (University of Wyoming) offers suggestions for those about go before a hiring committee:

• Ask in advance if there are concerns about your record. Most interviewers have one or more questions about your credentials or suitability for the job, and it’s wise to find out about them before the…

This weekend, my children and I finished reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck.  Filled with middle school humor and Greg Heffley's continued antics, this book is just as perfect for reluctant readers as is the rest of the series.  Read it with a boy who thinks he hates reading and you'll both be clutching your bellies from laughing so hard.  For my other book picks for reluctant boy readers, click…

From my blog on Wordpress:  Mr. Pollak's Blog: Reminders of why I became a teacher over twenty years ago

The tagline for my blog is my guiding principle as I share my thoughts with you.  I am trying to focus my words on why I wanted to teach so many years ago.  My commitment to the readers of this blog was to keep my message positive, upbeat, and insightful.  I will try to make it so by the end of this post, but I must comment on my…

What Motivates Educators to Work Harder and Smarter?

In this thoughtful Education Week article, Deborah Stipek (Stanford University) says the theory of action behind America’s current accountability movement is that rewards and punishments will motivate teachers and administrators to do better work. Behaviorism is a well-accepted theory of human motivation, but decades of research have shown that for people to change, three elements must be…

I just wrote an article (I'm shamelessly proud of it) which points out that our public schools have a lot in common with Rube Goldberg contraptions. Bizarrely complicated and they don't achieve much. Seriously, this is funny.

http://www.examiner.com/article/rube-goldberg-contraption-our-public-schools

Wait, there's more:

As I was…

Here is a link to my current article on Bedtime Stories for Big Kids.

Happy reading,

Christine

bookgirlblogger.blogspot.com