One article in the L.A. Times compares the “blame the teacher” movement currently popular in the U.S. with the “blame the worker” movement that failed in the 70s and 80s. A great section has this: Recall the reaction of domestic manufacturers in the 1970s as Japanese competitors began to take market share: Many managers and an army of experts ...

John Kuhn, a Superintendent in Texas, wrote what has become known as the Alamo Letter. It’s great, but even better is his Q & A here. I wish he was my education leader. Filed under: Administration, Lessons, Money, Testing

For those of you teaching Antigone by Sophocles this year, this article could be a valuable one for showing the students how art is more true to life (than reality TV even!). Apparently, students at Jamaica High School in New York City adapted Antigone to parallel their school district’s unequal treatment of students within their own school and ...

This kind of a schedule change is exactly what I fear in schools today. Taking time out of classes to create a study hall-type period is the slippery slope to lowering expectations and making changes to improve scores, not student achievement. 1. This kind of “intervention” as the assistant principal called it is really not a targeted program. ...

John L. O’Connor tells “Reformers: Stop Doing These 4 Things.” Here are the four things to avoid according to O’Connor: Discontinue Ineffective Professional Development Activities Stop Developing Massive School Improvement Plans Stop Focusing on Structural Changes as the End Goal Stop Focusing on Changing “Culture” Normally these types of ...

A quick list of what I like about the PLC process: student learning becomes the focus; teachers share data and ideas; teams are clearly defined; teachers focus on the established standards; no one can opt out; teams are autonomous and make own agendas; teachers will have to discuss how grading should be done; and products are used to measure ...

While at the PLC conference in Seattle, as I mentioned before, Richard DuFour spoke at length. One of his presentations centered on the myths of education. Here’s a very brief synopsis of some of that presentation. He called each idea a “myth” (maybe a mythstake would be better), but I would call them misunderstandings or ...

In March of this year I posted about the Emerald Ridge student newspaper and how proud I am of student journalists who raise difficult issues. Now, a small group of students quoted in the JagWire story are suing the Puyallup School District over the oral sex articles. Read the story here. While many may disagree with the content being allowed ...

I may be unable to blog for a couple days, so here is a list of some of my more popular posts from my brief blogging history. I hope these links spark some conversation and, more importantly, some thought on a range of education topics. 1. Teaching Connotation and Denotation (and its follow up post and some poems to use) 2. Using the movie The ...

How much authority should school authorities have when students use the internet outside of the school setting? In my opinion, very little. I tend to agree with an editorial that schools should not be used as internet police. In my opinion, the only reason a school official should have any say over a student’s internet use outside of ...