One of the struggles of teaching a “special” is meeting the needs of over 250 students a week, sometimes for one measly 45 minute period. Differentiation in this setting is hard. Today I won a simple but hugely important battle in this arena. One of my 7th graders struggles to do anything independently. She is…
As I settle down to sleep after a long day of conversation, reunions and inspiration at Educon, there is a recurring theme: Big Ideas. While sitting at dinner with friends, it was brought up that many teachers attend conferences to get practical information. They want the 5 tips or the handouts that they can then…
I’m tired. I’m tired of battling. I’m tired of defending my profession. I’m tired of the arguments and heated discussions about how education should be fixed. I’m tired of feeling like Sisyphus, rolling my boulder up the hill, only to watch it roll back down behind me again. I’m tired of pretending. I’m tired of…
Philly Teacher was down on January 18, 2012 in protest against SOPA. Let’s protect the web as an avenue of free speech. To learn more about this, watch the TED Talk by Clay Shirky below.
Until recently I counted myself among those change-minded folks who believed that true change could be enacted (and must be at some level) enacted from within ‘the system.’ Amid the discussions of many homeschoolers and unschoolers, who believe that it is time to throw the whole system out, I have always argued that there has…
As my friend Josh Stumpenhorst and I were noticing today, most of the end-of-the-year posts this week involve some kind of list. I am guilty of doing something similar on my Edutopia blog, but I felt it would be redundant to do a list here, too. It’s fairly easy to do an end-of-the-year countdown or list….
Unless you were under a rock last week, you probably saw the Washington Post article “When an Adult Took Standardized Tests Forced on Kids.” This article has spawned the Twitter hashtag #takethetest, and it has also inspired some of my favorite education bloggers to share their own thoughts. Canadian educator and blogger Joe Bower was even…
Tonight I was lucky enough to attend a community screening of the new documentary, American Teacher, with my friends Ann, Meeno, and Brian at the School of the Future here in Philadelphia. While I don’t have the energy right now (it’s now two nights this week that I’ve haven’t made it home until 8pm!) to…
I attended Edcamp Harrisburg a while back but haven’t had a chance to share my reflections, so here-goes. One of my favorite sessions was run by my friend, Chris Champion and was entitled Doing Things Differently vs Doing Different Things. It was an important conversation about how and why we use technology in our classrooms….
Many people argue that all of the stress on high stakes testing has taken the fun out of learning. Not anymore! So what if fun can’t be tested…we can still make sure our kids are having fun with this handy Fun Rubric. Through this simple assessment, you can be guaranteed to know whether your students…