These are the words of a classmate of Adam Lanza.  A very bright educator once told me that no one goes through high school unaffected, and that our job is to realize the impact that we have with all of our students.

The unspeakable horror of the events in Connecticut is beyond both words and comprehension.   It is far too early to know the root cause, let alone the reason for such a heinous act of violence against the innocence of beautiful young children.  There will…

Arts Education Seen as Common-Core Partner

Michelle Grohe, the director of school and teacher programs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, leads students from the Edward M. Kennedy Academy in discussions about the works of art. In partnership with four Boston schools, the museum uses its extensive collection to help teach some of the common standards in English/language…

Feeling ill: Common cold or common core?

By Christopher Lehman on December 13th, 2012 

Smart Brief

Cultivating The Next Generation Of School Leaders

by Shael Polakow-Suransky, at 11:57 am

Gotham Schools

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December 12, 2012

Can't swing the $15,000 StubHub ticket price for tonight's 12/12/12/ concert at The Garden?  Well, you can still participate in a New York event this weekend, and learn something, too!  The Math Museum opens this Saturday. 

Visit my Literacy Connections blog for more details.

Happy reading and counting!

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, …