Twenty students claim their favorite seats within minutes of the lunch bell ringing.  The skeptic in me initially assumes that it is a first week rush, a desire to get out of the one-hundred and ten degree heat. The students will find out that our Student Leadership Meeting is actually pretty difficult and the numbers will diminish.  I ...

Birthdays are important to me.  Unlike other American holidays, they do not require reciprocity.  There is no give-and-take, no social contract; nothing that says, ''our gifts better be equal, because if they don't, I'll either feel gyped or guilty.''  Unlike the stressful holidays that require months of planning and occassionally ...

On the first day of school, students completed a metaphor of school.  School is a _______ and I am a _________.  Many students chose prison, because, like prison, the school tells them what to wear, when to speak, when to pee, what to eat, what to study and (a few of them argued) what to believe.  It was interesting what others ...

I met with a group of young teachers.  They remind me of people who are newly married, in the way they exude a certain idealism and passion.  I love being around new teachers, because that energy is contagious. I know that the daily grind of paper work, grading and meaningless staff development meetings will all take there ...

After reading a recent blog, suggesting that teachers should self-censor and stay politically inactive, I feel compelled to write this blog.  Telling teachers to shut up and focus on their classrooms is like telling Martin Luther King Jr to shut up and preach or Schindler to shut up and run a factory.  The truth is that, if we want to ...

After taking so many theory classes this summer, I am left with a mental overload.  I enjoy the dialogue and debates, yet I can't help but feel that none of the ''isms'' really worked for me.  Constructivism was great, but often unrealistic.  Behaviorism seemed to treat kids like robots.  I loved parts of the critical pedagogy, ...

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 ...

 The current buzzwords in the educational community are ''effectiveness'' and ''data-driven,'' as if students are robots that can be programmed to crack codes.  We quanitfy them and categorize them until they are androids who fill in bubbles on mindless tests.  I for one don't believe that students are androids.  I don't ...

Over the last few weeks, we began drawing a mural that will span an entire building.  Students stay after school, recieving no money, no extra credit; just the satisfaction of excercising their creativity.  It's hard, at times, for me to step back and let them make mistakes.  I'm a recovering perfectionist.  Last week, for ...

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 ...