I commit to not making assumptions about your intentions. In a conspiracy obsessed nation, I understand that just because I can connect the dots, doesn’t mean that they’re connected. I ask you to do the same.
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What Am I Doing Here? Looking for Me.
I’m not going to lie to you; I don’t have an inspirational line about why I decided to be a teacher. I can’t say that I “always knew I wanted to be an educator,” or “teaching is just in my
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(Un)Informed Critical Thinking?
Surprise, surprise. In a survey released this week, pollsters found that the American public is uninformed about a host of public policy issues, in particular the Common Core Standards. As educators we gasped at the numbers generated by the
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Bill Gates, Dead Squirrels, and Teacher Preparation Programs
Let’s be honest, how many people do you know who drop out of an elementary education program because it’s too rigorous? Personally, I don’t know any, but I do know quite a few who have dropped out of teaching because it’s too hard.
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Monty Python and the Metaphorical Impalement
I’m confident that Rosa Parks didn’t “begin to have the difficult conversations” about bus seating.
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The Loss of a Child
On Saturday night, I received news that one of our students was killed in a tragic car accident. Our community is devastated, the staff is beginning to grieve, and our students will need the full weight of our district’s crisis
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I Am Afraid of Babies
The word makes me shudder, cringe and cower. Unless it is preceeded by the phrase, “You’ve come a long way,” I don’t want to hear about babies. Or pregnancies. Shower? It better involve a spout, steam, and a whole lot
Read MoreArizona, Just Be Careful.
This is not about politics, it’s about making decisions based on sound reason and, most importantly, not on fear. Because if history has shown us anything, it’s that reactions based on fear tend to be misguided, ineffective, and can even cause long-term damage.
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Their, Them, Mine, and Us
I’m fortunate enough to have a staff that would be willing to have their data tied to the peformance of the whole school, support each other in improving the learning for all through flexible grouping. They are willing to sink or swim as a team. When I asked if such a unique declaration could be made, the answer was simple.
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Small Answers to Big Questions
In the coming months, I will be writing on the topics below and explaining why some must be non-negotiable for sustainable improvement. If at least a few of them do not raise your blood pressure in protest, I likely have not advanced the conversation because we’ve all got it wrong. And right. The answers aren’t nestled in a list of ideas that are designed to please or appease any one ideology.
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