Invisible Data

Amethyst Hinton Sainz Assessment, Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, National Board Certification

I indulge my yearning to simply immerse myself in teaching and with my students without having to collect easily-reportable data for folks not involved in my classroom. One solution is to provide funding or change the school day to allow teachers more time to gather data for public consumption and for use in the classroom.

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Protecting the Teacher AllSpark

Alaina Adams Current Affairs, Education, Education Policy, Elementary, Life in the Classroom, Mentoring, National Board Certification, Parent Involvment, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership, Web/Tech, Weblogs

I read Bill Ferriter’s blog this week about the story of Mitchell 20, a movie about 20 Phoenix elementary teachers who chose to pursue National Board certification as a way to take control of the one thing they could control:

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What Parents Really Want to Tell Teachers

Alaina Adams Education, Elementary, Life in the Classroom, Parent Involvment, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership

Personal Facebook friends of mine know that, from time to time, I post links, blogs and overall feelings about the teaching profession in addition to the usual, daily things like, “Alaina Adams is eating Frosted Flakes right now.” On September

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Reform or Deform: Which is it?

Alaina Adams Assessment, Books, Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, National Board Certification, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership

  Like its sister-term, “accountability,” the term “reform” has had a few minutes of fame in education this year (see this swell piece by blogger-extraordinaire Nancy Flanagan). Here, Flanagan blatantly opens her piece with the statement, “Hello my name is

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leaving-the-classroom

Leaving the Classroom?

Alaina Adams Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, Mentoring, Professional Development, Teacher Leadership

So I’m reading Katy Farber’s book, Why Great Teachers Quit: And How We Might Stop the Exodus, which explores the demands, challenges, and rewards experienced by classroom teachers across the country who are staying in the trenches of public education

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if-i-had-a-film-crew

If I Had a Film Crew

Alaina Adams Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, Mentoring, Parent Involvment, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership

I, rarely, watch movies about teachers – mainly because it drives my husband nuts when I yell at the screen because a teacher has pulled a karate move with inner city students, has placed chains on doors to lock out crime, or is connected

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coffee-talk

Coffee Talk

Alaina Adams Books, Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership

One of my favorite skits on Saturday Night Live was “Coffee Talk,” in which a Mike Meyers-inspired character, Linda Richman, praised the likes of Barbara Streisand, said everything “looked like butta,” and encouraged viewers to “talk amongst themselves” with a one-word command: “discuss.” Yes, the characters on this

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Blown Out

Alaina Adams Assessment, Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, Mentoring, Professional Development, Teacher Leadership

Data-driven instruction blew out the speakers in my car today.    No joke.   The day started like any other: coffee, commute, Power Point creation, teach, plan, teach, lunch, teach, and then . . . my new release period to manage

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Surf or Drown: Let’s Hunt TTWWADI’s!

Mike Lee Education, Education Policy, Elementary, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership, Web/Tech

I recently had the good fortune to hear Ian Jukes share his thoughts on education's struggle to keep pace with "Exponential Times."  I found his presentation particularly interesting because a book I recently read identified exponential growth as the most important

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