I’m going to use a partner test on Friday with my College in the High School students. I’ve done this before without any trouble. Have you ever done this? How did it go? Did you have to set up special parameters?

I often comment that educational solutions cannot solely be a responsibility of the schools. Communities must take the reigns and help solve many of the dilemmas facing education, and the ETS seems to agree with me that poverty may be the largest obstacle to overcome when creating academic success. Here are some of the highlights from [...]

A Seattle teacher who opposed the state mandated test refused to administer the test to his students even though he knew his actions might cost him his job. A Seattle teacher is spending two weeks on leave without pay for refusing to give the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) to his sixth-graders this month at Eckstein Middle ...

Thanks to all of the teachers that have been using www.bubbabrain.com!!!   We are closing in on our goal of 100,000 games played.  Teachers should e-mail the brainteam if they want a screen name and password.   brainteam@bubbabrain.com   Good luck on your final exams WWW.BUBBABRAIN.COM  CHECK IT OUT AND HAVE SOME ...

I appreciate ALL of your well wishes. This time of year is really difficult because of the pollen floating and rain. It reeks havoc on my sinus’. But all is well. . . especially since I have 19 days until VACATION!!!! I have a ton of stuff to write about tonight AND the [...]

It’s state testing day number 6 today! Woo-hoo! I’m amazed how much time it takes to give our state test, the WASL. Just reading the scripted introduction and providing the instructions can take ten minutes. Then, the exam itself takes 2-3 hours per test. Yikes! Those poor kids. On the bright side, I love proctoring the WASL. ...

Been to Subway lately? Or Taco Del Mar? If you have, you may have noticed that the workers now wear plastic gloves when preparing food. A woman in line in front of me today was pretty rude to a worker when, while swamped by customers inside and in the drive-thru and working alone, he [...]

A while back I had a student, Davy, reach the final week of his final semester in high school, and he had a 40% in my senior Mythology course while maintaining an attendance rate of 60% (and I think a blood-alcohol level of 2.0 most of the semester). I wouldn’t budge on giving “extra credit” [...]

I have found that I am pretty good at putting Lego sets together.  Sure, there are directions included for a seven year old, but assembling a set of over 200 pieces into something that actually resembles the picture on the box makes me happy enough to do a cartwheel.  If I look at the finished product wrong or breathe a little too ...

A few of my teacher friends and their families are coming over tomorrow to barbecue, to watch the NCAA tournament games, and to play some games. Then the wives are having a night out while the guys take care of the kids. Should be a blast, especially after we put the little ones to bed [...]