Spoken to an educator recently? Opened a newspaper? Then, no doubt you’ve heard about the startling increase in remarkably cruel, insensitive & flat-out rude behavior kids are showing on a regular basis. Group-think is short-circuiting basic decency with alarming regularity. At my middle school in recent months, as in schools …
A few weeks ago, I read this Medium post by Dr. Shayla R. Griffin, which I posted my initial reflections on, and which has had an enormous impact on my thinking over the intervening weeks. My takeaway: There is a population that wants schools to open: parents working from home need space; …
When a student gets sent to my office for some misbehavior in class, I take the opportunity to have them talk to me about what went wrong. In a roundabout way, having them tell me this can reinforce community norms by bringing to the surface what they already know about …
Jennifer Gonzalez’s Cult of Pedagogy post on block scheduling is a quick dive into the block-scheduled classroom. She reviews what a block schedule refers to—1½ to 2 hour long classes, with fewer classes meeting each day—and finishes strong by quickly presenting five models for using the long block of time. …
Our grade 6 Country Fair project is getting underway in the next few weeks. Country Fair Night is a great annual event at the school—think “Science Fair” for Social Studies—for parents & other involved adults to come see the kids, and alumni often return to sample the food! For Country …
The story goes that the Athenians had defeated a larger Persian army in battle at a place called Marathon. A runner was sent back to announce the victory and he ran the whole way, about 25 miles, collapsing in death the moment after he triumphantly shouted “Nike!” the Greek word …
In his recent blog post, Thomas Martellone takes a methodical walk through the debate around data in education, and provides an excellent primer along with a rational argument. Basically, the concept is that data are useful, but get a bad rap because they are touted as the end all and …
OK, I find this article on procrastination fascinating. It’s one of those discoveries that I find myself still thinking about days after the initial read. As a degenerate procrastinator, I’m always looking for strategies to save me from myself, but this article also speaks to me as a manager thinking …
I like reading about innovative hiring & recruitment tactics because I see hiring as one of the greatest responsibilities of a manager and one of the most terrifying. We don’t hire so often in schools that it can ever become a routine, yet there’s an enormous amount riding on every …
Recently, there have been reports about another grade-schooler suspended for pointing his fingers like a gun (see the Ohio Dispatch story). I often dismiss these stories because (as anyone in education knows, with horror) the media “coverage” is usually one side of the story, or less. Schools often won’t comment due …