What if teachers had time set aside early in the year to truly analyze their pre-assessments? The first week of school is invigorating or exhausting, depending on how you look at it. There is so much to take care of:
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Common Core and David Beckham
I know what you are thinking. In Arizona, they aren’t called the Common Core Standards, they are called the Arizona College and Career Readiness Standards (ACCRS). The name change was part of an effort to disconnect the standards from conspiracy
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7 Observations About Defining Expert Teachers
My teacherpreneur work includes working on diverse teams tasked to do everything from describing the state of early childhood in Arizona to determining the skills that make a new teacher safe for the classroom to delineating the continuum of growth
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In the Midst of Testing…
It’s hard this time of the year not to get overwhelmed and consumed preparing for the state assessments. Our emails and meeting agendas are flooded with updates and reports about when the test pallets will arrive at district and when
Read MoreA Silent Testing Environment
Testing Day is silent, of course, but teachers are not even allowed to examine or discuss the state standardized assessments after the fact. I can’t see how this helps advance teaching and learning.
Read MoreTaming Godzilla, Preemptively?
Amethyst and Sandy Merz fail to truly disagree, but succeed in uncovering some compelling possibilities for Common Core Standards implementation.
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When Readers Can’t Own the Text
Online textbooks lead to frustration, and questions about reading pedagogy.
Read MoreA Cat, a Washing Machine, and a Tornado
Are you caught in a tornado? Is school a cat or a washing machine? I synthesize how ideas of embracing volatility outlined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb relate to principles of the Global Fourth Way in education outlined by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley.
Read MoreThe Obstinacy of Hope
I endeavor to explain how I see hope as essential to a teacher’s job, and yet not quite the syrupy-sweet thing that many interpret from Dickinson’s famous poem. It’s more beaky.
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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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