I am again looking forward to the classroom. I feel like it was long ago when I was there. I miss the interactions between students, watching young people make meaning of the world around them. I miss the opportunities to improve compassion and skill and purpose. I miss working with teachers who, by default, are amazing people with amazing talents to impact the learning of children.
Category Archives: Education
You Can’t Teach THAT!
COME ONE, COME ALL! Share your “you can’t teach that” story. Share what caused a curriculum complaint. Perhaps it was a book, a unit, a topic, or a method of teaching. 
My Neighbor’s Bike Skills
Teachers can teach anyone, anything. Last week I taught my neighbor’s son how to ride a bike. Being a highly trained teacher, I used widely accepted educational practices, current trends in education, and data based analysis. Read about our week through my daily notes . . . .
Meme: Five Things Policymakers Ought to Know–Travis’ Take
This meme was sent out by Nancy Flanagan, a thoughtful blogger at Teacher in a Strange Land. The purpose was to get a group of people sharing their thoughts on what policymakers should know.
So, after many hours of whittling down my list of 104 items (trust me, that was down from the previous number), I have my five.
1. Forty-seven minutes is not an adequate or desirable amount of time to do deep, mature, extensive, thinking. You know . . . the level of thinking that creates meaningful learning and life-long learners.
2. . .
adminiSTRAYtion
Disclaimer to all administrators past, present, and future: I am sure you are all wonderful people. Work hard, care about students. Just wonderful. Smiley folks. Perhaps even a bit jollier than the average person. Smarter, too, I reckon. However, a colleague of mine just started his administration program and I have to admit, I felt a bit of sadness.
Merit Pay, Anyone?
By Tom
This month we’ve heard both presidential candidates address education. Nothing too surprising was said: Obama’s in favor of parents getting more involved in their children’s schools but against vouchers. McCain’s in favor of vouchers but against teacher unions. However, there was one issue that both candidates seemed to agree on, at least in principle: merit pay.
The idea of merit pay has been batted around ever since I can remember. It sounds like a great idea. A win-win. Good teachers get more money while the students get a better education. Competition leads to better products and lower prices in the retail industry, right? Athletes thrive when they compete, don’t they? It sounds like a simple solution to a very complicated problem.
Which is exactly why it won’t work, at least the way most people envision it.
Ikea Schools?
By Richelle
While reading a recent copy of the Economist, I stumbled onto an article that caught my attention – “A Swedish Model: A Swedish firm has worked out how to make money running free schools.” Hmm–making money running “publicly funded” schools? I had to read more as I wondered about the quality and support for such a model.
Clean Out Your Teaching!
I read a book recently that dealt with Lean Production, a Toyota Production System, where one of the goals is to take useless or wasted items out of the manufacturing system. The Japanese have a term for that cluttered refrigerator and the teaching for which the metaphor stands. Muda (無駄) is the Japanese term for any activity that is wasteful and does not add any value to what you are doing. I encourage you to use this summer and take out the muda in your teaching.