Big changes take time. They are achieved by blending many small changes through consistent and conscious effort overcoming innumerable obstacles arguing for the status quo until an aggregate of change is accomplished. Big changes are hard to accomplish because personal … Continue reading
If I Did One Thing Differently
Ready! Aim! Fire at Which Target?
This writing will start on the firing line at a local gun club and finish on the teaching line in every Wisconsin classroom. I have watched my friend Buzz when he shoots trap and skeet at the local gun club. … Continue reading
An Expert Pedagogue
Finding really strong teachers is not easy. Principals and superintendents must look closely at every teacher and teacher candidate to find expert pedagogues. If a teacher was an onion you would find that, as in a bushel of onions, teachers … Continue reading
To Cause Learning – the Power of Causation
Teachers cause students to learn. Let’s expand this. Expert teachers use their mastery of instructional strategies and learning to “cause” all students to demonstrate their incremental mastery of significant and enduring knowledge, skills and problem solving strategies and their capacity … Continue reading
Adults Muck With Education Not Learning
The discussion about public education is blessed and cursed by the fact that most adults in the United States are educated. Let’s investigate several facts regarding this state of affairs. Fact one is this – most adults have some level … Continue reading
Expert Teachers Only
“I don’t want to be my heart surgeon’s first patient,” is a way of saying “experts only wanted here.” Perhaps in the circumstance of heart failure in the high plains of Nevada on a road known as “America’s loneliest highway” … Continue reading
Competition Is the End Game of Choice
School leaders have their pants in a bunch over school choice. Get over it. The world of education is changing and it is not done changing, yet. The school of the future will be the school of choice. Be that … Continue reading
Stop Repeating Yourself
“How many times must I repeat this before you will learn it?” I have heard these words thousands of times, sometimes when I was a child in school and many more times as a career educator. Interestingly, “how many times…” … Continue reading
Teach Children to Make an Academic Argument – 2.0
Make an argument = give a speech. Make an argument = write a paper. Make an argument = succeed in a debate. Make an argument = collaborate with others. Make an argument = real world skill. The ability of a … Continue reading
Teach Children to Argue Well – 1.0
Teach children to argue because they really do not know how. Sounds ludicrous! Not so much. Children know how to talk. They think that talking louder and longer and saying the same things over and over again is arguing. Standing … Continue reading