Laura Diamond at the AJC’s education blog Get Schooled discusses a sticky problem: teachers who use poor grammar in communication with parents. Many of us admit we have poor grammar and horrible spelling skills. So why do so many of us get concerned when we see these same faults in teachers? Can you respect a…
It is hard to imagine how F. Scott Fitzgerald’s legacy would be different today if not for the loving attention of Matthew J. Bruccoli, who died Wednesday, June 4 of a brain tumor. In the Great Gatsby Treasure Hunt that I adapted from Valerie Arbizu’s work, students are introduced to the wonderful Web site created…
I e-mailed my adviser at Virginia Tech with a question about registration. She wrote back in what I thought was an unnecessarily irritable way because I had used the wrong e-mail address to contact her, and because she was upset about that one detail, the tone of her whole reply made me feel as though…
Georgia has decided to invalidate the scores on the social studies portion of the CRCT that more than 70% of the state’s students failed. However, the scores of the 40% of 8th graders who failed the math portion will stand.
When 40% of an individual teacher’s students fail a standardized test, I imagine the teacher would be scrutinized, and rightly so. Whatever I think of standardized tests, 40% of a teacher’s students shouldn’t fail one, or something’s wrong with the teacher’s instruction. If 40% of a school’s students failed a standardized test, the school might…
Check out Scott McLeod’s post on advertising at Dangerously Irrelevant. Ditto, Scott. I have been approached by companies wanting to advertise on this blog, although to be honest, not in quite the same manner, thank goodness. I loved Scott’s response. I don’t like advertising on blogs. If you want to do it, that’s fine, but…
Teacher Magazine has a piece on bulletin boards. I admit I resemble this remark a bit too much: I love walking into a primary classroom and seeing all of the students’ work related to learning objectives. They are artistic, personalized, and appealing. On the other hand, when I go to middle and high schools, I…
It has been 25 years since the landmark study A Nation at Risk. The students described in the study would be in their 30’s and 40’s now — in fact, I am a member of that “at-risk” generation of students. My own take on this study 25 years later is that it’s somewhat alarmist. As…
NCTE Inbox‘s great post “Helping Families Support Readers” is a great resource for teachers looking for materials to support family literacy and summer reading programs. My own tips: Read by example. Let your children see you with a book in your hand, enjoying reading, and they will want to do it, too. Read to your…
I knew three of my students had formed a non-profit organization focused on ecology, but I didn’t know much about what they were doing. Frankly, it’s fairly impressive. The group’s focus is ecological activism. You can learn more about their organization, the Student Ecology Movement, by checking out the following: Student Ecology Movement Blog “Green”…
