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suffocating in rules

Our principal sent an e-mail with a list of ten things we need to change. It was one of the shaming lists sent out to get everyone on the same page. It's not that the list is all bad (don't leave kids unattended in class, clean up the trash on the floor), Read More...
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2008 12 8

John Spencer

9 Comments

what are high expectations?

Last year, the Solutions Team from the Department of Education offered a long analysis of why our school is failing. First on the list was "low expectations." Similarly, when the district hired a man to conduct a climate survey the previous year the number Read More...
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2008 09 26

John Spencer

3 Comments

teaching about 9-11

"How many of you remember September 11th?" About twenty hands go up, while another fifteen look around. "What can you tell me about it? What can you explain about that day?" Each kid begins telling the story of being in school and watching the planes Read More...
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2008 09 13

John Spencer

3 Comments

something I've noticed about most teachers

I remember having a few bad teachers. Actually, I really just remember having about three. Three out of forty is a pretty low number when I think about it. Maybe I grew up in a "good school" or maybe I was a teacher's pet. Yet, when I think about it, Read More...
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2008 07 31

John Spencer

7 Comments

should we teach kids to be patriotic?

Sometime after 9-11, I lost all sense of patriotism. It might have been the way people used the American flag to sell beer (not unlike Jesus Breathmints and granola bars). Perhaps it was when I first heard a country singer telling me we should stick a Read More...
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2008 07 4

John Spencer

9 Comments

what happens in Vegas . . .

I wrote this while I was at a PLC Conference last week. They charged fourteen bucks for internet access (the equivalent of twenty-four tacos at Jack in the Box) so I waited until now to post it: In every era of American history, there is an archetypal Read More...
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2008 06 19

John Spencer

8 Comments

I've made a lot of mistakes in my mind

I'm listening to a soft, subdued version of "Chicago," but Sufjan Stevens. It's a life studio set taped on an indie station, KCRW, in Los Angeles. Somehow, with the lone guitar and trumpet, I can hear the words echoing the sentiments of this school year. Read More...
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2008 05 15

John Spencer

19 Comments

sneaky parent

I read the following on ABC's website after seeing a short video clip on yahoo. Diana Mijares, a Houston mom, got suspicious when her normally mild-mannered 4-year-old, Megan, was suspended four times from preschool for bad behavior. So she did what any Read More...
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2008 02 28

John Spencer

30 Comments

can I reach the iGeneration?

In our English Language Development class (a thirty minute mandated period where I am supposed to offer scripted, factory-direct instruction) I posed the question, "Why don't kids read?" Students discussed the difficulty of reading text that has been Read More...
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2008 02 13

John Spencer

6 Comments

should we be paid for performance?

In listening to the State of the Union, I noticed Bush touting the need for measurable results. He cited improved test scores as evidence that NCLB was working. It is always hard for me to listen to a guy ramble on about education when he makes up words Read More...
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2008 02 1

John Spencer

24 Comments

gender-based education

Gender-based education, once relegated to parochial schools and stodgy prep academies, is now becoming a popular trend in education. Parents swear by the need to separate adolescents to help ease concentration. (Some would argue in favor of sending all Read More...
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2008 01 24

John Spencer

15 Comments

don't tell me how to teach

"Teachers are usually just lazy. They get tons of vacation and don't even have to put in a full work day," remarks my brother's friend. He's an arrogant fire-fighter; the type of lazy jock who never had to do work in school because he had a hell of an Read More...
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2008 01 10

John Spencer

33 Comments

Are we dumbing down education?

"Kids these days just aren't being challenged enough," a veteran teacher laments to me. "It used to be that they had hard work. You could expect them to rise to high expectations. Now I have to water down everything." Are we really dumbing down our education? Read More...
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2008 01 4

John Spencer

4 Comments

teachers and myspace

Recently, a local news channel ran a "gotcha" segment about Phoenix teachers and their myspace pages, so I checked it out on Youtube. Combining scary-movie-music (some kind of a minor chord) and images of blurred out flesh, the newscasters announced that Read More...
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2007 12 15

John Spencer

16 Comments