Once upon a time I believed I possessed agency as an educator/teacher. Maybe I did, or perhaps it was just an illusion. And now I am wondering, with all my personality flaws and creative, meandering ways of planning instruction: should we still be teaching whole-class novels? And is there something “wrong” with me if I… Read More Rethinking Teaching Novels
My son struggled with ADHD in school and because teachers didn’t know how to deal with it, it destroyed his love of reading. But there is hope.
… Read More Runs in the family.
We’re not a football family in our house. And like many areas of fandom, it’s okay–no judgment on those who love football, and as far as we know we aren’t judged by others. Wouldn’t matter. So forgive me for not knowing who Emmanuel Acho is. Turns out, he’s pretty amazing! And I am so grateful… Read More Series: White People Homework- What’s in a name? (14) (Updated)
My big question this morning: how do we teach, and learn, to think critically? Not the surface-level fluff–but the hard questions, the wrestling with the trifecta of intellectual stagnation: cognitive dissonance, justification, and rationalization? Do we need heroes/heroines? What would happen…if…we…didn’t? What if…we were good to each other, did no harm, and made our classrooms, lecture… Read More Heroic measures: teach critical thinking
I am not a fan of Ayn Rand. At all. Clearly, this is not an image of Ayn Rand. It’s Colin Kaepernick. There is a name on this T-shirt of someone I have seen. I didn’t know him, but my colleagues did. His name is on our gymnasium wall as an athlete of the… Read More the devastating abyss
Things I think about in the middle of the night: What was that noise outside? What are the best ten to twenty best, time-tested lessons for middle and high school students? The noise was nothing. Probably just a small monster or trashcan panda. The best lessons, now that’s something else. The first post in this… Read More series: the good stuff
Is it just me or does one become a veteran teacher far too soon in one’s journey? Meaning, how did I get so old?! Well, as scary as that is, it’s better than the alternative, right Poe? Allow me to present the context: through December I have a student teacher, and boy oh boy am… Read More Something wicked +1
Last year one of my students had one of those lightbulb moments, that eureka shake up, awesome anagnorisis, where she completely understood what I meant by the concept of the difference between topic and theme. This is a biggie. It’s important because it means I can do it. Because teaching theme…teaching it well that is..isn’t easy. So… Read More Thematic Thursday
This morning I promised myself not to touch either hand-held device, my cell phone or i-Pad, for at least five hours today. So far, so good. Lately I’ve acquired the odd habit of setting up arbitrary goals for myself, little mind games where only I know the rules. For example, in June, I told myself… Read More Match up: texts, teachers, and students
//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mrsk06-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=0325050805&asins=0325050805&linkId=d12e1b280c1386c7821e7588c08506cf&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff Noticed: I belong to the Notice & Note Facebook group, and it’s marvelous. Teachers helping other teachers, all grade levels (but predominately K-8), finding books, helping with lessons/units, etc. The big focus is on Kylene Beer’s and Robert Probst’s new book, Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies. I haven’t had a… Read More Read the book, dummy.
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