Tag: teachers

Tracking in public schools is supposed to happen when students are placed in certain classes because of their cognitive abilities. When I started teaching in 1984, my Texas middle school had five levels of instruction for every course taught – Pre-IB (International Baccalaureate), Honors, Regular, Basic, and Special Education. Back in the day, adults enjoyed…

It seems America’s public schools aren’t the only system struggling these days. According to an article in The New York Times back in July of this year, “Some years ago, a psychiatrist named Wendy Dean read an article about a physician who died by suicide. Such deaths were distressingly common, she discovered. The suicide rate…

It’s Friday. Time for the Roundup. Why 20 Missouri School Districts Are Seeking New ‘Innovation Waivers’ to Rethink the Way They Test Students (The 74) According to an article in The 74 online, “A network of 20 Missouri school districts is asking the state to implement a more responsive assessment system in order to personalize…

Back in the 1990’s, I attended a school principal’s conference in Denver, Colorado. It was your typical leadership meeting, complete with keynote speakers and breakout sessions. As I perused the conference agenda, I decided to walk into a 45-minute breakout led by Dennis Littky. Littky and his partner Elliot Washor had just launched The Met,…

A Learning Tale, in Celebration of Learning Everywhere (including traditional school) From her first day, Maggie had a learning plan. One of the first meetings after Maggie was born included Maggie’s mom, her pediatrician, and a coach from the local learning center. As part of her birthing classes, Maggie’s mom received training to ready herself…

I’ve written about being absent from school before. The traditionalists would like you to believe that being absent from school is somehow being absent from learning. Not true. All the post-pandemic learning loss being measured today is based on how much classroom time a student has missed. It doesn’t consider the learning that could have…

I’ve written a lot about AI and specifically ChatGPT over the past few months. Yesterday, Washington Post reporter Pranshu Verma focused on AI and ChatGPT at the higher education level. Verma writes, “Soon after ChatGPT was released in November, Darren Keast noticed students in his college English composition class turning in essays that read as…

It’s Friday and here is your News Roundup. The Number of Students in Special Education Has Doubled in the Past 45 Years (EducationWeek) EducationWeek online published a story late last month that reported, “The number of students in special education in the United States has doubled over the past four decades, creating a rising share…

It’s perplexing to me why we can’t let kids learn, and receive recognition for that learning, when young learners are away from places called school. When we ran out personalized learning lab school in the Houston Museum District, we told our young learners and their families that “Houston, Texas was our classroom!” I read last…

I took a graduate course titled “Models of Teaching.” The class was all about exposing us to different models of classroom instruction – direct, group, and inquiry-based to name a few. It’s time to get rid of courses like “Models of Teaching.” In fact, evidence might be telling us it’s time to get rid of…