Tag: teachers
-
The Slippery Slope of Parent Empowerment
Before I started writing this column, I helped launch The Education Game with a Houstonian committed to changing the way kids learn moving forward. The Education Game’s theory of action was to educate parents about how most public schools were providing a sub-par learning experience for most children, including their own. Once these parents became…
-
Dysfunctional Richmond
In late June, Alec MacGillis, a staff writer for The New Yorker, wrote an article highlighting the difficulties the Richmond, Virginia school district was having getting their students back on track after the COVID-19 pandemic. MacGillis writes, “Richmond is a particularly stark example of what education researchers say is nationwide crisis. Student learning across the…
-
Friday News Roundup
It’s Friday. Time for The Roundup. With No New Funding From the State, Texas Schools are Breaking the Bank to Pay for Teacher Raises (The Texas Tribune) Earlier this week The Texas Tribune reported that, “Texas lawmakers ended this year’s regular legislative session without giving public schools any money for employee raises – so school…
-
A Little About A Lot
A Little About A Lot When are we going to get serious about giving learning leaders the power to do what’s right for their learners? An article this week in EducationWeek online listed the following demands from classroom teachers for a better professional life, beyond the professional pay due but sadly absent all these years:…
-
Schools Don’t Understand the Meaning of Learning
Why is there so much mental and emotional trauma inside our traditional public school system these days? Why have so many kids lost their purpose, and spend their days roaming schools like zombies in a post-apocalyptic world? Are we working on the right things with our kids, or is our curriculum so outdated that even…
-
Exactly What Is a Choice School?
Recently, Rebecca Midles wrote an article for Getting Smart online, highlighting the Tacoma, Washington school district for their efforts in expanding the number of choice schools for their students and families to attend. Midles writes, “Tacoma, Washington is home to a growing number of choice schools that offer personalized learning opportunities for its students, reflecting…
-
Who’s At Fault When It Comes to Faulty Execution?
I’m back at the keyboard. I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable 4th of July. For years now, there has been a misunderstanding throughout our public school system that somehow there were policies, primarily enacted by state legislatures, that prevented the traditional school leadership across our country from inventing a better system of learning…
-
A Little About a Lot
A Little About a Lot Understanding Your Learners When it comes to personality and leadership inventories, I’ve taken my fair share of them. When I was a public school leader, some of the data was helpful as we considered who worked best on teams established to take care of our students while pushing them toward…
-
Technology and the Teacher
This summer’s EL magazine, a ASCD publication, is titled “Deepening Learning with Tech.” You can read it on your own, but I thought I would highlight some of the articles appearing in the issue. Let’s start with what might be the most startling statistic, given the reaction of some school districts to ban ChatGPT from…
-
The Problem with Elected Politicians When It Comes to Learning
Yesterday I introduced Representative Harold Dutton, a member of the Texas Legislature from Houston. Dutton, along with many other elected state officials from the Lone Star State and others, believe it is their responsibility to set policy when it comes to public education. And all of them would be right, since there isn’t one state…