One of my criticisms of NCLB is that it causes too many schools to focus all of their attention on the bottom 25% of a school’s population while ignoring the middle- and upper-level students. Some of the effects of this focus in my school are: fewer upper-level course choices in order to create more lower-level courses, larger [...]

We have two more weeks of school, and I only have two senior students in danger of failing one of my classes. If I can persuade this dynamic duo to attend class, I can get the work out of them, but the key is their attendance. I’m confident they’ll be here. Originally, I had 11 [...]

I’m currently in my 9th year of full-time teaching, and I’ve learned a great many lessons the hard way as I’ve navigated my way through administrative minefields, labyrinthine bureaucracies, challenging curricula, and diverse students. Here are the five best lessons I’ve learned in the classroom as a teacher: 1. Due dates ...

Thousands of high schools around the country participate in the Day of Silence each year, which includes my own high school. However, in my state the bulk of the media’s attention centered on Mt. Si High School because Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, called for 1,000 “prayer warriors” to protest ...

Is it possible to create a culture of failure? My school is currently being asked to discover why the Freshman failure rate is so high. 1/3 of the Freshmen failed a class during their first semester in high school, and statistically speaking 30% of Freshmen who fail a course in their first high school year do [...]

I posted recently that I don’t have a set of class rules, and a responder wondered how I go without rules. This may sound overly simple, but I tell my (high school) students that I only create rules if we need to have them. We only have them in my classes if students can’t respect one [...]

In my high school the kids have a term called ''mad dogging.'' This is when someone stares across at another student with the intent to harass or bully, which often leads to a shouting match, bad blood, or even a fight. I got mad dogged in a more figurative sense by an administrator (I will call this person Mad Dog). At a staff meeting we were ...