School talk. With whom do you talk to share your school doings and air your thoughts? You know – the things that raise your ire or get under your skin and nag on you until you can release their toxin … Continue reading
Daily Conversation – Prosper with it or decay without it
Bad Behavior – What is this about?
When school became parentis in absentia, educators co-opted the need to understand and respond to student behavior. School was no longer just about reading, writing and arithmetic. Quickly, we learned that when “Johnny was good, he could be oh so … Continue reading
Brief – Practice Paves the Road to Learning
When I pick up Izzy, a Kindergarten granddaughter, at her school to take her home and she is buckled in, I begin. “What is the letter of the week, Izz?” Yesterday she said, “P, Gramps.” “Izz, please tell me five … Continue reading
Brief – Collaborative Group Skills Benefit Students and Teachers
Group work. What shall we think of it? Walk down a school hallway any day and I bet you will see multiple classrooms attempting one or more components of group work. Some children thrive in group work and others are … Continue reading
Brief – If you want children to learn, plan to reteach
Words and terms matter. Reteaching is synonymous with instructional intervention. However, the word intervention today is mired in the policies and politics of RtI. If we use the term intervention to mean reteaching, too many colleagues will immediately focus on … Continue reading
Remembering Is More Likely When We…
I am a senior citizen who spends a lot of time with his grand daughters who are a Kindergarten student and younger. I am in awe of their capacity to see, listen, do and remember. Izzy and Aly are so … Continue reading
Teach Less Well
Inferential commentary abounds. Talk radio. Op ed pieces in the press. Blogs. Chat in the store check-out line. The President. The economy. Taxes. A quarterback who threw three interceptions. The climate. These are background noises to my ears. In almost … Continue reading
Tell Less; Collaboratively Demonstrate More
I always envied my colleagues in art and music. They were experts in growing a child’s skills and understandings so that the child changed from an “I don’t know how to do this” to an accomplished “doer.” Time and again, … Continue reading
Rearview Mirror Time
Public Education as a Schmoo. If educators must conform to all demands, how can a school be anything more than a schmoo? Tony Wagner’s article in SchoolAdministrator, September 2012, asks the right questions and, when connected with Pasi Sahlberg’s article … Continue reading
Strategic Planning and Then?
A review of two works published in the 1990s indicates that strategic planning as practiced by most in public education may have strengthened a school’s public relations but may not have led to improvements in school performance, in particular in … Continue reading