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Honest Speculation

Sunday, February 11, 2007

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I’ve just started reading Roger Scruton’s An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy, so this isn’t a review. However, I was struck by this passage from the preface: Philosophy is not the only subject that has been ’scientized’ by the modern university: literature has been shrunk to ‘literary theory,’ music has been colonized by set theory, [...]

Working Backwards to Assessment

Friday, February 9, 2007

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I’m saying: we should teach to the test, as long as it’s an appropriate test, and to discover what an appropriate test is for each discipline and each course, we have to work carefully backwards. I’ve thought this for a while, but the last two posts over at Friends of Dave gave me a way to [...]

Students Have Bodies

Thursday, February 8, 2007

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A few days ago, Kevin tagged me for the “layout of your working space” meme. This comes at a good time because I’ve been thinking lately about the importance of aesthetics and the affective domain in terms of the education. My basic working thesis is this: students’ brains are housed in bodies, and both brains [...]

Thougts on Context, Relevance, and School Reform

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

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I don’t even have a beginner’s grasp on what School 2.0 might mean (and maybe that’s OK), but I have been playing with a question that seems to be moving in that direction. What if teachers worked as facilitators and translators, instead of gatekeepers and repositories of knowledge? Bear with me through some thinking-aloud … Context [...]

Time Off

Monday, February 5, 2007

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A few quotes from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research about teacher pay are listed below, and I’m annoyed enough to want to list some clarifications from a personal perspective. I don’t really want this to be just a rant, though … I also hope it will be informative to people who don’t [...]

Super Bowl Holiday

Sunday, February 4, 2007

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I think all schools should be closed tomorrow, the day after the Super Bowl, but not to honor the sporting event. Instead, it might bring some tiny level of awareness to how seriously we, as a nation, take entertainment as opposed to how seriously we, as a nation, fail to take education. (This [...]

Dan and I are Having a Moment

Sunday, January 28, 2007

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This is exactly what’s great about blogging. Until a few days ago, I’d never heard of Dan Meyer. Now, thanks to my aggregator and the “edublogosphere” community, we’re in a pretty intense conversation about NCLB. I hope others will join the conversation. It’s always easy to think you’re right when you’re the only [...]

Response to “In Defense of NCLB”

Saturday, January 27, 2007

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I found Dan Meyer’s blog post “In Defense of NCLB” through Chris Lehmann’s post “A Smarter Mind than Mine Takes on NCLB.” I wasn’t planning on writing a blog post today (I have a pile of essays, stories, and scripts to read), but I just couldn’t not respond. Originally, I had planned on [...]

Rampant Stupidity

Sunday, January 21, 2007

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I don’t mean to be negative. I am, in general, a happy person who enjoys life and tends to prefer the optimistic perspective. Unfortunately, I stumble upon stupidity far more often than I’d like, and then I get angry. Here’s a recent example … One potentially valuable source of funds for reform are [...]

Freedom and Safety for All

Saturday, January 20, 2007

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Last week, my creative writing students pulled out their laptops and headed over to the eStudio that I setup on ELGGSpaces (which is designed specifically with education in mind, and for which I had just spend $99 out-of-pocket to make the space ad-free.) They were going to upload some new drafts, write some blog posts [...]

Just Juggling

Thursday, January 11, 2007

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I’ve been thinking lately about what makes a “good” teacher. I’ve met and worked with a wide range of “good” teachers during my eight years in education. Some are amazingly organized and maintain impeccable records on their interactions with students and parents; some have trouble finding their desk. Some are excited about [...]

Dreaming of a Better Education

Thursday, January 4, 2007

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Of course, having said that teachers need to “do” and be models of learning in my last post, Sarah is also right when she reminds me (in the comments of that post) that one thing learners need to do is reflect … and rest, and dream. Sleep deprivation has been linked to all sorts of bad [...]