A Better Path to Learning

Tag: teachers

  • The Problem with Harold Dutton

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    I don’t know Harold Dutton well. We used to say hi to each other and talk a bit about the Houston Independent School District at our favorite breakfast hangout. I was a region superintendent at the time. Dutton was, and still is, a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing District 142 in…

  • Friday News Roundup

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    Here’s your Friday News Roundup – A Tinseltown High School Where the Syllabus is Light, Props and Makeup (The 74) “L.A.’s celebrity-back Royhal Film and Television Production Magnet program seeks to link minority students to behind-the-scenes jobs in TV and film.” Celebrities like George Clooney, Don Cheadle, and Mindy Kaling have invested in this school,…

  • A Little About a Lot

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    Are we ever going to change the school calendar? People wonder why students are struggling academically these days. Well, I have an idea or two why our nation’s test scores are now at a 50-year low. The brain is a muscle, and like most muscles in the human body, the brain needs a daily workout.…

  • What I Learned as a First-Year Principal

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    Last week, I read an article from a principal that just finished their first year leading a school campus. The principal shared what she learned from her first-year experience. Here’s what she learned: “Have a goal; adjust as necessary; stay the course.” “Take time to build relationships.” “Share your goals. Repeat, repeat, repeat.” “Find a…

  • There Shouldn’t Be a Left or Right When it Comes to Learning

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    I like to think of myself as a left of center thinker, but all of my writing about parent rights, learner choice, and my criticism of the current public education system has some of my readers believing I’m a Trump-loving, ultra-conservative intent on destroying our public schools as we know them. Well, I’m not a…

  • The Value of a Constructive Conversation

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    Here’s a skill that is part of almost all “Portrait of a Graduate” profile school districts produce across the country – Our graduates will know how to communicate and participate in a valuable conversation. But how many schools spend time allowing their young people to learn how to build their communication skills and how to…

  • Friday News Roundup

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    It’s Friday. Time for the News Roundup. Generation Meh: Students Give Schools Middling Marks, Gallup Poll Finds (The 74) What’s that old saying? “The customers never wrong?” Well, if that is true, then the American public education system is nothing more than mediocre to a majority of students inside schools right now. According to The…

  • A Little About a Lot

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    It’s summer, so school and learning news slows down a bit. So I’m going to try a new posting on Thursday called “A Little About a Lot.” The topics won’t necessarily be generated by what’s in the news, like Friday’s “News Roundup.” Instead, the stories will be about conversations or events that caught my attention…

  • A Summer School That Matters

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    I’m a historian by training. My undergraduate degree was in history, and I received a master’s pursuing the same subject. I decided to work in public education instead of higher education when I saw a comparison of a school principal’s salary and an assistant professor’s. What if we gave kids the opportunity to play around…

  • Schools Don’t Play Well in the Sandbox with Others

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    Here we go again. This time it’s Rick Hess talking about the importance of school districts “unbundling” the many roles they have joined together over the past 100 years. Hess writes about his ideas regarding “unbundling” schools in today’s EducationWeek online, “Over the past year or two, there’s been a lot of talk about educational…