The final chapter of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design is a summary of the research presented in refutation of three common reasons educators give for why they do not implement UbD: 1) “We have to teach to the test”; 2) “We have too much content to cover”; and 3) “This work [backward…
Some time ago, the publishers of John A. Sarkett’s book Extraordinary Comebacks, asked me if I would like an advance copy of the book. I haven’t had a chance to read it, embroiled as I was in the end-of-the-year chaos. The book contains 201 vignettes — “stories of courage, triumph, and success” — from a…
My copies of Jim Burke’s The Teacher’s Daybook, 2007-2008 and Understanding by Design, 2nd Ed. by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe arrived from Amazon today, and I’ve already begun working out my calendar in the daybook. If you haven’t used this planner before, you might want to check it out, provided that your school doesn’t…
I am cross-posting a review I wrote of Sena Jeter Naslund’s Ahab’s Wife here because I think other English teacher geeks out there might enjoy this book. From one brief mention of Ahab’s wife in Moby-Dick, in the manner that God fashioned Eve from Adam’s rib, Sena Jeter Naslund has fashioned Ahab’s Wife: [W]hen I…
Hipteacher has a new post full of great advice for new teachers. I wanted to comment on a couple of pieces of advice and add my own. There is no one lesson plan format. If someone wants “lessons” from you ahead of time, you could be turning in anything from red Sharpie scrawl across a…
The Education Wonk has published the Carnival of Education #106. Thanks to EdWonk for including me. Go check it out! [tags]Carnival of Education[/tags]
The other day, one of my students made a special trip to my classroom to give me a folded newspaper clipping. He asked me if I had read the paper — and as I’m remembering it, I can’t recall the day he asked about — and I hadn’t, so he shyly handed me the article….
This afternoon, I finished reading Frank McCourt’s third memoir Teacher Man. When asked by new friends why he waited until he was 66 before publishing Angela’s Ashes, he explains, I was teaching, that’s what took me so long. Not in college or university, where you have all the time in the world for writing and…
My article, “Toward “Moral Perfection”: Integrating Judiac Concepts and Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography,” is now available to subscribers of English Journal online. If you are not a subscriber, you may purchase the article here. If you subscribe to the print edition, you should be receiving your copy in the next week or so.
I think moments like this are why we teach. Make sure you let those who inspired you in your life — teachers, parents, grandparents, whoever they are — actually know how they impacted you. There is no greater gift that you can give a teacher. Having been the recipient of this only on a small…
