This tweet came to me from Greg McVerry during this week’s #edchat conversation about promoting creativity in schools. The discussion thread was about assessing creativity. While I do not think that creativity itself can be assessed, I do think that it needs to be part of the assessment process. And I’m not talking about the…
When I first entered the world of education as a freshman in college, teaching was all about reaching my students, making connections, conveying knowledge and creating exciting learning opportunities for them. I spent a month in Tohatchi, New Mexico teaching at a boarding school on the Navajo Reservation. This experience opened my eyes to all…
Every day I seem to come across another story of a school district, a school or a teacher on the brink of calamity. Whether it be the sweeping ‘reforms’ in New Jersey, the Renaissance School Initiative in my own Philadelphia or budget cuts in Chicago , a disgruntled teacher in Florida or a Newsweek article…
Just last week my friend Chad Sansing challenged me to respond to his blog post, #EduThingsILike. In his post he listed things that he would like to see in schools, districts and education as a whole. His post was in response to Tom Vander Ark‘s post Things I Like. Here are the things I like…
I have been subscribing to Newsweek magazine for almost 5 years now. I look forward to each week’s thought provoking articles and commentary by smart, educated and well-informed journalists. This doesn’t mean I always agree with everything I read, but I enjoy the discourse nonetheless. I was appalled, however, to unfold this week’s cover as…
Recently, with all of this change coming to Philadelphia schools, in conversation with fellow educators at the Educon conference and some engaging conversation on Twitter and Google Buzz I’ve been thinking about what a good model of school reform would look like. Many of my colleagues and I agree that expanding the Charter School model…
As Obama’s inauguration approaches, I have been hearing more and more about how racism in the US has ended, is on its way out, or is no longer an issue. This unprecedented event has me thinking a few different thoughts, but not one of them includes the idea that racism is ‘dead.’ The election of a…
Let’s take a look at a 21st Century School…. These are the conditions in the school my students attend every day. What does this tell them about how their education is valued?