So an “enlightened” student calls out a “terrible” teacher and the nation takes notice. It doesn’t bother me so much that a “terrible” teacher, teaching by packet may finally be getting his/her comeuppance so much as the belief that a minute and thirty seconds is all that we need to make a judgment. Normal.dotm 0 0 1 610 3480 ...

Yesterday, The Atlantic posted an article by Joel Klein titled ''The Case for a Teacher Bar Exam.'' On one hand he argues that American teachers are not valued as professionals and we need to make greater efforts at doing so. But, he seems to imply that teachers are not treated as professionals because they aren't. One solution- give them a test ...

Today was a good day, to quote the title of a previous post and quite an excellent piece of music by Ice Cube.  It was the first day of school.  My seventeenth first day of school as a teacher.  People asked all week ''are you ready?''  I replied honestly to some that while I looked forward to a new school year, I wasn't looking forward to the ...

On the first day of school, this original tale was sent to me to remind me of the importance of what we do for our students in spite of the many challenges that we face in the classroom. It was such an uplifting and inspirational story that I asked for permission to publish here for all of you to enjoy as well. Meet Nikki... Nikki was an amazing ...

In my last post, What's Your Superpower? Lessons Learned from Superheroes, I drew some comparisons between superheroes and educators. There is one additional lesson I feel like we can learn from superheroes that needs to be a separate post. As a general population, I think we can easily identify with superheroes because they are seemingly ...

It seems like anywhere you turn now days there is a new superhero movie with the accompanying advertising and merchandising. Who doesn't love a good story where the good guy, usually the underdog, comes back against great odds to become victorious? But, what is it about superheroes that appeals so much to us? Perhaps is the fact that they are ...

While I was at ASCD, I had the opportunity to hear Todd Whitaker speak. Some of the thoughts that he expressed have really been rolling around in my brain lately. His advice is plain old common sense, but like one of students said, ''You know, common sense isn't so common.'' Sometimes, we may need reminding of these things to give us some ...

Growth Model evaluations, loss of continuing contracts, budgetary woes getting you down?  Never fear teachers of Virginia, the Teaching Underground is ready to give you a pat on the back.  You’re doing great!  Keep up the good work and don’t let the political rhetoric and imposter reform movement ruin your day.  Here’s a short list of Virginia's ...

This weekend the Alabama NBCT Network had their annual conference. A perk to the conference was that MITCHELL20 was screened. If you are not familiar with this film here is the trailer: The Mitchell 20 Trailer from Mitchell 20 on Vimeo. When I first saw the trailer at the National Boards Conference last summer, it really struck a chord with ...

Answer quickly, do more Americans die each year from homicide or suicide? Which city has a higher crime rate, New York, NY or Aurora, IL? Most of you would say homicide and NYC.  Most of you would be wrong.  Some things just stick in our brains more vividly than others and affect our judgment for the worse.  Often, these vivid cases are not just ...