Sandy wrote a great post offering some push-back about the statement teachers make that “your experience as a student doesn’t make you an expert on teaching and learning.” It was the kind of post I needed to read, because I
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Saying Goodbye to Heroes
My eight year stint as principal is coming to an end this month, and I’m finding it hard to say goodbye to my colleagues. To my friends. I am often reticent to use military analogies. Terms like “heroes” and “warriors,”
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Institutional Mindsets and Whether We Stay in Education
Let’s see, there are one, two, three, four, hmm…, five, six, hmmm…, oh right, seven, eight,…, nine colleagues, at least, including me, who have changed their professional context in this last year. I’m not counting those who have had their professional context
Read MoreThese Are People, Not Ideas
Every person employed in public education is a civil representative of the public. It’s our job to serve the public. As a teacher, I might not agree with a parent’s decisions, but it is my duty to love that family
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How About Just One Standard?
I’ve been thinking – and the current controversy involving our state superintendent only makes it clearer to me – that we should agree on a curriculum of simply one standard. I know it sounds crazy, but hey, Jack Black
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Salary and the Teacherly Mystique: My 25% Raise
A year in a new position kept me on my toes, but overall my morale this year is very good. I could name five or six major factors that have increased my morale this year. Reason #1, though? Salary. I
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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
Read MoreParents: Please Look Beyond the Snapshots to Look at the Core
In the past many months, I’m sure many of you who are on social media have noticed a certain brand of posts related to the Common Core. Most of them begin with a photo of a third-grader’s math homework. Usually,
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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
Read MoreCharacter Education
I sat in a room filled with private school teachers meeting to talk about character education. Some talked about giving badges and rewards for students that are caught showing great character. Others described the need for teachers to model great
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