For specifics about the framework, be sure to see Dwight Carter’s (@Dwight_Carter) blog after his three-days training. Today was my first of 3 OTES days, and I’m still feeling pretty good about that “left side” (or the performance piece) of the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System framework. (The “right side,” or the student growth side, is another ...

MyWeb4Ed is now a Symbaloo Premier account and has a page dedicated to the growing collection of educational resources.  This site will give you literally thousands of resources for almost any topic from Bring Your Own Device resources to Videos 4 Professional Development.  Keep this one handy as it grows daily and will continue to [...] Related ...

And you know they would! Merit pay, how realistic is it that our pay could actually be tied to test scores? Very realistic! What is merit pay?  Noun :extra pay awarded to an employee on the basis of merit (especially to school teachers) What “think tank” thought up this idea, maybe the same one that [...]

Time for one more post before the scalpel does its work:)   “A youth, when at home, should be filial, and, abroad, respectful to his elders. He should be earnest and truthful. He should overflow in love to all, and cultivate the friendship of the good. When he has time and opportunity, after the performance of these things, he should employ ...

An old photo of the teachers of the Sharon School (Photo credit: Wikipedia) In the teachers’ lounge in our high school, there is a big sign that has a short and vibrant message: 20 days left! We can do it! Every day, some good and agitated soul changes the fatidic countdown. A layman may wonder at this attitude by teachers and ask why we keep ...

While the national conversation about education would never be the same, stunningly few of the Commission’s recommendations actually have been enacted. Now is not the time for more educational research or reports or commissions. We have enough commonsense ideas, backed by decades of research, to significantly improve American schools. The missing ...

New Report Card Ratings… On March 23, I updated you with everything I learned at the Common Core conference with Deputy Superintendent Sawyers.  Pair that with the info from the February post I did after the Fordham conference with Stan Heffner for a more complete picture of recent happenings in Ohio education. The big item of discussion the last ...

Peter (not his name) is 15, with nary a stubble on his pinkish cheeks, and yet he is already a genius with computers. Some teachers don’t even bother with tech support, a very slow and inefficient service; they interrupt a class and ask for him, the teen who can fix anything electronic, whether hard- or software. The incredible story is that he ...

A teacher in my school with 18 years of experience has an interesting technique to “enforce” discipline management in her class. Every incoming student has hand-outs on their desk which they must address immediately. No down time, no idle chitchatting before the lesson actually starts and transgressors of this rule are called to order without ...

  Do not pursue with the terrible scourge him who deserves a slight whip. Horace, Satires. I. 3. 119. The recent news regarding the death of a high school football player due to severe physical punishment for arriving late to practice is added to a long list of students who either died or were injured under insensitive coaches. What ...