December 2010
13 posts
“Go up to any adult with a good life, no matter what his or her station, and ask if a teacher made a difference, and you’ll always see a face light up. The human element, a magical connection, is at the heart of successful education, and you can’t bottle it.”
-Jaron Lanier, from “Does the Digital Classroom Enfeeble The Mind?” NYT Magazine, Sept 19, 2010. p 32.
rottinghaus:
John Prine - “Christmas in...
S'all about the Benjamins
Earlier this year my colleague David Leonhardt wrote about a new study that found that a good kindergarten teacher could greatly improve students’ future earnings. On that basis, an especially strong kindergarten teacher is arguably worth about $320,000 a year, which is the present value of the additional earnings that a full class of students can expect to earn over their careers.
So does...
Make Commenting on Others' Work a Meaningful...
How many times have we made comment on another piece of work, simply because we want the writer to know we have read it? There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. But why not use the writing of that comment to improve your own writing skills. Read more: http://writinghood.com/writing/make-commenting-on-others-work-a-meaningful-writing-exercise/#ixzz198iJ2jfm
I need a dog. Dogs turn my heart to pudding.
Getting all East Coast just in time for this →
“Until we start seeing assessments that ask kids to write research papers, ask...”
– NYtimes (via Ta-Nehisi)
Dear Students
I know it is really hard being a kid. I know your teachers are on you a lot about stuff you’re doing wrong. I know you probably feel a lot of things in the course of a day that you don’t understand and probably never will. I know you want adult attention at the same time you want adults to leave you alone, and that probably confuses you as much as it confuses adults.
But you...
Some days they think I am a hundred, other days...
For a lesson on what it means to be civilized vs. wild, we watched this clip from the 1912 film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde yesterday, which the kids absolutely loved. “Looks like my Mom when she’s mad,” said Anthony, after the Jekyll-Hyde transformation. “So, Ms. Cass,” said one student. “Is this like the Saw movies from back in your day?”
Yesterday, the students read up to chapter 9 in The Outsiders. We stopped at the sentence “That’s why people don’t ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent and….people usually go by looks.” Students then had to write about a time when they or someone they knew were judged by looks or some other superficial reason.
One of my students...