I believe that one of my most important tasks as a teacher is to stimulate intellectual curiosity. Of course, to do so, I must first experience intellectual curiosity myself. Secondly (and as a logical consequence of first experiencing intellectual curiosity), I must reveal my curious intellect to my students.
Read MoreIn a major AI experiment, China has elementary school students “begin their lessons not by opening textbooks, but by putting on headbands” so their brain waves and “focus” can be monitored by computers. Students are then encouraged to compete with each other to be the most focused.
Read MoreWe’ve become so obsessed with these scores – a set of discrete numbers – that we’ve lost sight of what they always were supposed to be about in the first place – learning.
Read MoreClasses in Chicago’s public schools were canceled starting Oct. 17 as more than 25,000 teachers in the nation’s third-largest school district went on strike in what they’re calling a fight for “justice and equity” for their students.
Read MoreIf we want kids to have the best chance possible to adapt to a constantly changing environment then we must nurture their creativity. Merging the arts with social emotional learning and academic learning helps create students who care about the world in which they live.
Read MoreThis is a first-person essay in response to recent PublicSource stories on the racial achievement gap in Allegheny County school districts.
Read MoreHistorically and currently, public education—as well as charter schools and private schools—serve well the students with the most race, class, and gender privileges and mis-serve inexcusably the most vulnerable students. Accountability does not and cannot address that gap.
Read MoreTry not to get distracted. You may well not end up exactly where you envisioned at the start, but with luck and skill and effort and good partners and carefully applied expertise, you can end up someplace great and wonderful and rewarding.
Read MoreActive learning is not a specifically defined teaching technique. Rather, it’s a spectrum of instructional approaches, all of which involve students actively participating in lessons.
Read MoreBetsy DeVos rarely makes a statement without referring to her idea of Education Freedom. She is, of course, referring to school vouchers. But as education secretary she has been more about denying students true education freedom. DeVos stands for the opposite of educational freedom.
Read MoreThe false curtain of objectivity we’ve set up in our assessments may also be hiding from us what authentic learning is taking place and it may even hinder such learning from taking place at all.
Read MoreTo be blunt, there is little any of us can do about writing instruction being messy and complicated, but one way to help those realities not unnecessarily impede good instruction and robust learning is to be aware as a teacher of the “why” and “what” before designing the “how.”
Read MoreThe more notes students record the higher their achievement. But many students are incomplete note takers, usually recording just one-third of important lesson ideas in notes.
Read MoreThe ultimate reckoning for the inexcusable must include setting aside the distractions and facing so that we can address directly the inequities that plague our students and their families both in their communities and the schools that serve them.
Read MoreThe idea that someone can parachute into a district and suddenly reverse years of problems (including problems they ignore) quickly and easily is either naivete or a cynical mask for a hostile takeover.
Read MoreBurnout is a stress-related state of exhaustion and often leads to feelings of isolation, low accomplishment and even depression. Although research has long shown that burnout affects employees, we now know burnout also affects students.
Read MoreWriting-intensive courses where students are learning to write and not just being assigned essays are also demanding because many times students must rethink their behaviors, less like traditional students and more like writers.
Read MoreIn general, I think we have become too reliant on technology in schools. We’ve welcomed and incorporated it without testing it, or even reflecting upon whether it promises to offer better pathways toward student comprehension and discovery or whether it merely offers flash and novelty devoid of substance.
Read MoreYou can’t raise expectations while taking away resources, union protections, and fair ways to evaluate their work. And to his credit, state Sen. Ryan Aument seems to have finally seen the light.
Read More
