I try to make it a habit to participate in edchats whenever possible for two reasons: It helps me to stay ‘plugged in’. Most of the time, I genuinely enjoy the chat. Even if I don’t agree with most of what’s being said, the vibe of it all has a nice energy. Although, I believe …
Cultivating Compassion in the Classroom…and Everywhere Else
I’m not going to lie, I’m hesitant to write this article. Why? Well...I don’t really follow the fads of teaching. As a general rule, I believe the flashier the professional development, the more unneeded or gilded it probably is. I consider myself an educator whose classroom is driven by researched or evidence-based strategies. Ideas of …
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In Defense of the Curator
In the not too distant past, on Edutwitter, there was a discussion of ResearchEd. Of course, like all things education, there were supporters and detractors. One particular thread centered on the topic of researchers versus curators in the world of education. In my best estimation, researchers were defined as those actually conducting the studies...pretty straight …
Disconnect in the Classroom
Today, on twitter, I found myself reading through a somewhat comical conversation among a few edu-twitterers/teachers/researchers concerning the compiling of education research: Tom Sherrington (@teacherhead) made a comment that these compilations must help because most teachers would not be able to search for this information via researcher’s names. I agreed and commented that most teachers …
A Reply to Anya Kamenetz and nprEd
In one of your latest articles, “4 Things We Don’t Know About AP Tests”, you discuss some of the unknowns of AP classes; citing there has been little independent research on the subject due mainly to the difficulty in conducting the research successfully. You then follow with 4 important questions the experts still don’t know …
11 Life Lessons to End the Term
*The following letter was written to one of my AP Government classes a few years ago. A few edits have been made to remove any comments specific to the class. Feel free to pass this along to anyone you see fit. Hey guys/gals, You are awesome and I want you to know that. You are …
Defending the Non-Negotiable in the Classroom
I promise, I was out of my desk to pick up someone’s pencil that fell off their desk. There I was, walking the fine line of detention in Mrs. Andrews’ 12th grade Government/Economics class. You see, Mrs. Andrews was very strict, but very fair. She had one rule everyone had to follow or suffer the …
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