Archive For The “teaching” Category
I am substitute teaching this week. Sixth-graders. I haven’t taught sixth-grade in quite a while. But after two days, I remember now. The curiosity, the energy, the silliness. That I would arrive home every evening and say, “I love sixth-graders.” And my dad would say, “You’re lucky. Not many people get up every day to [...]
I am totally depressed by rain. Gray days make me gloomy and lethargic. So when we headed out the door to go see James (and Ben) Taylor in Richmond last night, I wasn’t excited. Now I love JT, so this was kind of unusual. I found myself grumbling about how cold it was, how I [...]
As more schools grapple with Acceptable Use Policies to fit more devices and situations, I like this approach from Traci Gardner, who remixed Michael Hyatt’s reasons businesses don’t need a social media policy: Consider these Five Reasons Why Your Company Doesn’t Need a Social Media Policy, from an article by Michael Hyatt, listed with a little rephrasing [...]
What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. T.S. Elliot, Little Gidding As I sat in church Sunday, listening to the Homily on beginnings and endings and the coming of Advent, I thought, too, about teaching. Our [...]
The Zotero group started by Wendy Drexler is often where I look for research regarding issues that interest me. Today, I had a focused discussion with a friend on whether teachers’ personalities made them embrace or more resistant to change, especially related to using technology to enhance student learning. (As an aside, I should say [...]
The message
By scm | June 28, 2010
For years, I’ve been telling my students I don’t grade for effort. “It doesn’t matter how hard you work,” I’d say, “if the end result isn’t up to speed.” This I would say this after my long discussions with them about the journey–and the process–and the learning–being what mattered in my class. I mean, I’ve [...]
The rain comes steadily now. Not like last night when Heidi, David, and I sat on the steps of my house, handing out candy and chatting with princesses, lions, and monsters. During the drizzle , the eighth-grade girls dropped by to say hello and get their sugar. Seven or eight of them surrounded my front [...]
I don't think there's anything better than knowing students "get it."We are reading The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde. We have been reading in class, taking turns playing characters, but the students must also must read sections at night on their own.Today, we had reached the point when Cecily shares with Algernon that [...]
My husband gets a kick out of me.I'm glad he still finds my quirks funny and not annoying.The problem is that I love talking about how we learn, which, of course, involves how we teach. Whether it's a Tweet from The Washington Post about homework Kids, Parents and Teachers Disagree on How Much Homework Is [...]