In June I successfully defended my dissertation at Northeastern University. My research focused on grading and assessment, which will likely not surprise anyone who has been reading this blog for a while, as I have written about grading and assessment frequently. My dissertation was qualitative action research, a dissertation in practice grounded in the Carnegie…
This evening I listened in on a webinar with the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), The Conversation Ignored for Too Long: Race and Racism in Education and Society with a remarkable panel including José Vilson, Liza Talusan, Cinnamon Kills First, and Tia Brown McNair. I joined late and my internet cut out partway into…
One of the many reasons I haven’t had much time to blog lately is the fact that I went back to grad school in September. I’m working on my doctorate at Northeastern University. Working full time and going to school has meant all the writing I’ve had time to do has mostly been for school,…
I want to discuss an article my friend Robert tweeted about yesterday. Student shaming: Check. Only way to teach is lecture: Check. Only thing missing here is a laptop ban. https://t.co/Ciz97126RK — Robert Talbert (@RobertTalbert) December 8, 2017 This paragraph in particular: First and foremost: From kindergarten on, students spend thousands of hours studying subjects irrelevant…
My thoughts in this blog post are incomplete, as I am still trying to figure out how to articulate what I am feeling about teaching in our current climate. I finished reading both Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time this week. Thinking about the implications for the future of education and for our country…
I was recently asked which private schools in the Atlanta area had 1:1 laptop programs, and I honestly had no idea, so I contacted two colleagues, and I discovered that of the schools who have 1:1 programs, most use Macs. I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m a Mac fan. I wanted to upgrade…
I went to see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the theater the summer before I started ninth grade. We had just moved to Maryland Heights, MO, and I would be attending school at Parkway North High School in Crève Coeur in a few weeks. I didn’t know anyone. I remember feeling scared and stressed. How…
I work in a private school and don’t have any plans to change that””certainly not anytime soon. I feel like I am on the sidelines in this great education debate. I see the comments on Twitter and read the blogs. But I have some questions. If teachers’ unions are horrible organizations who protect bad teachers…
I recently downloaded an app on my iPhone called Appsaurus. What this app does is recommend other apps based on your interests””a little bit like Apple’s Genius. I think it might be a bit buggy because I keep blocking some types of games apps, and I even turned off those types of app recommendations in…
Several colleagues at work and I had a discussion today about whether it is acceptable to be friends with students on Facebook. I held the minority opinion that it was fine, but my colleagues’ fear is that being friends with students will potentially expose teachers to illegal or just plain stupid behavior on the part…
