Phil D'Elia.

Phil successful guessed that the school pictured below was the famous English private school Eton.

Phil also knew that the famous fictional villain who was said to graduate from Eton was Captain Hook!

Congratulations…

The Danger of Mindlessness

Getting teacher evaluation right

Suzanne Parker Hall who correctly determined the school below was Whittier Union High School in Whittier, CA.  It was used as the school (Hill Valley HS) in Back to the Future.  By the way, this was also Richard Nixon's high school.

If You Teach or Write 5-Paragraph Essays--Stop It!

Part I: Introduction

For  decades, too many high-school teachers have been instilling persuasive writing skills by teaching students the five-paragraph…

McGill: Rating won’t help teachers or kids

Published: May 11, 2012 12:40 PM

By MICHAEL MCGILL

Photo credit: Illustration by Christopher Serra |

The State Education Department has mandated a new evaluation scheme for New York‘s teachers. In what Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo describes as a…

Student surveys for children as young as 5 years old may help rate teachers

By Sarah Butrymowicz, Published: May 13

Kindergartners in Georgia — many of whom don’t yet read — could soon play an important role in deciding which teachers get raises or get fired. Under a new pilot program, 5-year-olds will be guided through a survey that includes such statements as “My teacher knows a lot about what he or she teaches” and “My…

Maria Trucios - a repeat winner!  Congratulations Maria (but we will now put in place the Maria Rule - no previous winners can qualify!)

Maria correctly guessed the school above was Little Rock Central High School, scene of early Civil Rights…

Value added – why its use makes me angry (OR: a good idea gone bad, again, in education)

06SundayMay 2012

The Left Wing of the Possible

Grade the Work, Not the Behavior

"You can't give a student a zero for cheating. You have to…