On Notice!
Look out! I’m on the warpath
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Homework
I went to my eldest daughter’s curriculum night (she’s in 8th grade) tonight, and I heard a somewhat familiar refrain from each of her teachers: “I don’t give much homework.” Well, why? I don’t think 30 minutes to an hour is too much for an 8th grader, and I want her to have study skills…
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School’s in Session
You sure can tell when school is back in session again around this blog, can’t you? We started back on August 20, and I am busily evaluating summer reading, grading, and planning. I am advising National Honor Society again after a hiatus, and I am looking forward to making that a really good, solid organization…
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An 8th Grade Education
You have probably heard elderly family members or friends refer to having an 8th grade education. Going through grammar school, or 8th grade, without continuing on to high school was fairly common in the past. But what exactly was an 8th grade education? Genealogy blogger Randy Seaver posted an 1895 Salina, KS. 8th grade final…
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Teaching Meme
Hipteacher tagged me for this Teaching Meme. I am a good teacher because I am reflective of my practices and honest with myself and my colleagues about my strengths and weaknesses. If I weren’t a teacher I would be a lawyer, but not a trial lawyer. I don’t think I’d like the courtroom. I do…
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Wowing the Parents
Here in Georgia, we start school early in August for some reason I am unable to fathom. It is cooler in Georgia in June than in August, so it stands to reason that we would be better served in terms of cooling/electricity costs if we started in September and went through later in June. However,…
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Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teachers
Inspired by Stephen Covey, Mr. McNamar created a list of Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teachers. I know it no longer fits the nice number 7, but I have to add one: Learn: You will be more excited about your subject matter and teaching if you seek opportunities to learn more about your subject matter,…
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Blogging | Issues | Technology | Web 2.0 | Wikis
Administrator 2.0
Scott McLeod challenged education bloggers to post today about effective school technology leadership. In many schools in our nation, computers are not available for students. I have worked in four K-12 schools. The first had no computer lab and no access to computers even for faculty. Of course, that was 1997-1998, so I hope things…
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Understanding by Design: Teaching for Understanding
What teaching style do you favor? How do you present material in your class? When I was student teaching (many years ago now), I recall that we were required to observe another teacher in our supervising teacher’s department. I observed the man who happened to be chosen Teacher of the Year for his school by…
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Tagging
After hearing Vicki’s sensible arguments for tagging today, I have been wondering about tagging on this blog. I use a very easy tagging plugin called SimpleTagsPlus. I can use it to create Technorati, Flickr, or del.icio.us tags based on keywords I enter using certain code before and after the tag(s). I have only been tagging…