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” [...]

Recently I decided to include more music into my lessons. I started this with my American Literature courses (the College in the High School and mainstream classes), and my students have reacted quote favorably. Initially, I used The Who’s “Baba O’Rily” and “My Generation” with Anne Tyler’s “Teenage ...

I posted a few days ago about the CRAFTS Process for prompt writing, and I ended my post by saying I use another type of essay which helps prevent plagiarism. I use the personal essay, much like the ones colleges ask students to compose for their college applications. When teaching a novel I focus [...]

My high school is losing an awesome math teacher (I’ll call her Math Genius), and she’ll officially announce her move on Monday. Math Genius is leaving the high school mainly for the unfortunately all-too-often-cited reason of lack of administrative support. She also cited difficulties in getting her department to jump on board with ...

Through the neon haze he sits alone at the end of the bar snacking on pretzels and nursing a light beer. Everyone knows his name, though no one sits with him. He watches the game, the bartender, the guys playing pool, the college girls who ignore him, and then he orders another beer. The girls remind [...]

I read this article about a teenager killed basically for being gay, and I continue to be amazed at the lack of support within schools for gay, ***, transgender, and bisexual students. My school recently started a group to support all students of diversity, and I admire the leaders of this group and the students involved [...]

With the popularity of the internet and the ever-increasing access to it, students are using it for less than honest reasons. Although a great many students remain honest and complete their own work, a growing number have resorted to cheating by using papers off the internet and using others’ research. According to one study on [...]

Everyone deserves a dance. And, everyone deserves a chance to dance. This story is one of those which reinforces why I love working with educators and why I have faith in our youth. Students, alongside teachers and parents, made an often overlooked group of young people feel as lucky as the Prom King and Queen. [...]

A recent article and a wonderful blog both focused on a middle school in Arlington where students receive some credit for not doing an assignment. Missing assignments are given a 50% instead of a zero grade. The logic behind this is that in a GPA scale, an A averaged with an F (for a 2.0 GPA) [...]

I came upon another article about class size and student success. According to the article’s author, “Small classes are more engaging places for students because they’re able to have a more personal connection with teachers, simply by virtue of the fact that there are fewer kids in the classroom competing for that teacher’s ...