I am embaressed to admit it, but I like Shakira - and not in the way that most men usually think about Shakira.  No, it's not the rock hard abs and belly dancing that impresses me.  Instead, I actually like her music. (For the record, I also like chick flicks, but I am not metro)  My wife left the cd playing in the car and I skipped ...

After reading the answers from Bell Work, I feel confident that my students know the causes of World War II.  We engage in a dodge ball type game that enables them to see imperialism and colonialism.  I allow them to break into alliances to teach the alliance system.  We discuss this and then move onto the Treaty of Versailles ...

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 (which are making a comeback based upon the assumption that students are ...

Will we lose our ability to red, I mean reed, I mean read Technology has a profound impact upon societies in ways that are often unforseen unintended.  Despite the goal of technocrats to integrate technology, there are always social and political consequences that few can predict. Technology is not a simple, neutral tool for the ...

I flip through the newspaper and notice an article about a meeting between the CEOs and founders of huge technology firms and governors of various states.  The goal was for these corporate leaders to instruct the politicians about how schools need to change.  At first, this seems like an arrogant move.  After all, I would not tell ...

In watching movies, it is interesting to see how teachers are portrayed.  Movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off or a more recent A Cinderella Story apply the stereotypes of a bland, dull, geeky teacher.  The classic role of Ben Stein fits this notion of the teacher who burns out and continues to show up regardless of whether students ...

I often rail against standardized education, holding a fist out at the McGraw Hill Company, speaking out against No Child Left Behind and publicly blasting the AIMS test.  For me, the best metaphor for standardized education is McDonalds.  Students shuffle through quickly driven by the value of effecienecy.  Teachers are ...

Like many Americans, I am not looking foward to Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home run record. There is something else beyond the steroid use that bothers people about Barry Bonds. After all, Americans could overlook the steroid use in Mark McGuire as he chased after the single season record. Perhaps it is his arrogance. Yet arrogance is common ...

It is a show which lives up to its name, embodying nearly every form of America's idolatry.  Yet, we scoop it up by the handful - the thirst for fame, the worship of celebrity, the cult of stardom, the sex, the lights, the music, the commercialism and the Coca-Cola.  We listen to the sage advice of the three great high priest, one of ...

Growing up, the show was controversial.  Parents hated it.  Groups boycotted it.  Kids reveled in it, because it was real.  Unlike the plastic, pollyana Cosby show or the TGIF line-up, The Simpsons spoke to a generation of youth who loved the satire on childhood.  Nowadays, its shock value pales in comparison to ...