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why the district is nearly always ineffective

Posted Monday, April 14, 2008 8:37 PM by jtspencer
I don't believe in the notion that the district is run by a bunch of pricks. I don't think that they are part of a vast conspiracy to make sure that we fail. I don't even believe in the lie that they are cruel, heartless vindictive people. However, I Read More...
2 Comments

thoughts on problem-based learning

Posted Friday, April 04, 2008 10:27 PM by jtspencer
For the last two weeks, students in my class have explored multiple facets of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. They have analyzed sources for bias, posed intelligent questions, created metaphors for the conflict and developed solutions. I admit that Read More...
6 Comments

digital ghettos

Posted Monday, February 25, 2008 5:13 AM by jtspencer
The Digital Divide is not a large chasm separating the "haves" and "have nots." The notion that we can simply fill this chasm with resources and make a bridge is a failure in metaphor. Technologically, lower-income and middle-income students live in separate Read More...
3 Comments

can I reach the iGeneration?

Posted Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:08 PM by jtspencer
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...
6 Comments

tips on using the internet for research

Posted Sunday, January 27, 2008 3:27 PM by jtspencer
The internet is a virtual anarchy of information. There is no sense of peer review, which means anyone can publish anything. Critics, seeing that students often plagiarize or accept any information as valid, simply dismiss the internet as a bad idea for Read More...
1 Comments

changing professional development

Posted Friday, January 18, 2008 5:04 AM by jtspencer
For me, the term "professional development" conjures up images of sitting in a stale library, watching PowerPoint slides as I perfect the art of cartoon-making. I hate spending an hour and a half every week listening to things that feel irrelevant to Read More...
3 Comments

10 Helpful Sites for Tech-Integrated Classroom

Posted Thursday, December 27, 2007 3:27 AM by jtspencer
I've written before about my current classroom configuration. Using old (and I mean old!) computers, I was able to speed them up really fast using the xubuntu operating system. ( xubuntu.org) I am not a techno-geek by any stretch of the imagination. I Read More...
0 Comments

a whole new vocabulary

Posted Wednesday, November 28, 2007 2:43 AM by jtspencer
For the current unit relating to Civil Rights, students have to choose four of the ten homework options. I deliberately use academic language and a higher vocabulary so that they can grow accustomed to the "grown up world" and because academic language Read More...
6 Comments

one hundred blogs of solitude

Posted Monday, October 15, 2007 6:31 PM by jtspencer
Solitude is missing from current educational system. Students, while they are at school, must plough through book work, handouts and lectures in a ridiculous pace. Everything is disjointed and disconnected, often taught in subjects that are irrelevant Read More...
2 Comments

forging our space in a myspace world

Posted Tuesday, October 09, 2007 4:21 AM by jtspencer
Someone once told me that the way to find out what a society worships is by searching for the highest building and to find out where people dress the fanciest. In the classical Greece, it was in their temples and their gymnasiums. In Rome, it was the Read More...
2 Comments

before buying software . . .

Posted Sunday, October 07, 2007 6:05 PM by jtspencer
In our school, it is a given that teachers "need" proprietary software such as KidSpiration, Microsoft Office and GradePro. Indeed, I have watched as teachers unplugged "obsolete" computers with OS 9 or OS 8 systems, because nothing has been updated. Read More...
3 Comments

Is blogging just another fad?

Posted Tuesday, September 11, 2007 9:12 PM by jtspencer
Every few years, the educational community chooses a catchy new trend and markets it as the greatest method students will ever experience. When I was a child, the trend was writing in journals. As I grew older, it was graphic organizers. Later, Word Walls Read More...
2 Comments

making a class website more interactive

Posted Friday, September 07, 2007 8:25 PM by jtspencer
When I first began teaching, I used the class website as a way to communicate with students. It was very teacher-oriented and I was proud of the work I had accomplished. When I realized that I wanted student involvement, I decided that I would allow them Read More...
4 Comments

online community(?)

Posted Tuesday, September 04, 2007 5:34 AM by jtspencer
Yesterday I wrote a blog where I vented. To my surprise, fellow teachers offered positive feedback and encouraging words. I think that's a sign that it is slowly emerging as an online community for teachers. I'm not sure what to think of this. I feel Read More...
3 Comments

five words that shook the world

Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 5:20 AM by jtspencer
It was a simple concept, really, the notion that how something is done might be as important as what was done. After all, people knew it intuitvely in everyday speech. The tone of voice, the body language, the spatial proximity all contributed toward Read More...
1 Comments
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