As we approach the last several days before exams, I think one little episode best encapsulates this year for me: Several weeks ago, I checked out the school credit card from our banker in my capacity as a student council advisor. I left the office and then had one of those discombobulated moments: why had [...]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
School Daze
Posted in Education on May 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Mean Mr. Huston
Posted in Education, Humor on May 14, 2012 | 3 Comments »
A student turned in a reading response journal a while back, supposedly picking apart an article I’d provided for that purpose. He didn’t like it. At one point, he wrote, “You made me read two pages of awful writing filled with weak arguments.” I was tempted to write in the margin, “I know how you [...]
Must Be Fourth Quarter…
Posted in Education, Humor, tagged CCSD, Las Vegas on April 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »
It’s probably not a good thing if the most popular page on your school district’s web site is the one that teachers use to say that they’re not coming in to work today…
Annual Rituals
Posted in Education, Humor, tagged CCSD, Las Vegas, newspaper, teachers, unions on April 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ah, Spring. Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, allergy sufferers are sneezing. Also, in another cycle of nature for this time of year, the local newspapers are piling on scary stories about the teachers’ union vs. the school district, where the outcome this time will certainly be massive teacher layoffs, horrific student deprivation in a [...]
Archimedes: Scholar, Teacher, Owl
Posted in Education, tagged books, Disney, reading, Sword in the Stone on April 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
It breaks every rule of modern teaching, but…
“I’ve never heard of that yet, therefore it can’t be important”
Posted in Education on March 20, 2012 | 3 Comments »
I’ve been very lucky this school year–working at a performing arts magnet school, students seem to be far more pleasantly disposed towards English, which gets less respect in general. It’s the class where students sometimes come in thinking, “I already speak this language. What else do I really need to know?” I’ve heard kids say, [...]
A Retiring Veteran Teacher Looks Back
Posted in Education, tagged administrators, history, retiring, teachers, teaching on March 13, 2012 | 3 Comments »
A few months ago a veteran teacher and administrator I know retired. When she left, she sent out a wonderful, long message to the staff, sharing a lot of experiences and feelings. I thought people might like to see some of these, so below is an edited version of that email. Impossible to read this [...]
Public Schools Teaching Ethics?
Posted in Education on February 7, 2012 | 2 Comments »
In 1938, a Mormon apostle spoke at a training for teachers of religion classes in the church, and asked if their job was merely to instruct students in good behavior. He said: The teaching of a system of ethics to the students is not a sufficient reason for running our seminaries and institutes. The great [...]
Just Another Excuse to Talk About Aardvarks
Posted in Education, Humor on January 25, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Sometimes, school work will include questions where the correct answer is “none.” For example, “Identify any subordinate clauses in this sentence: The movie was too long.” Today, I started telling my classes that workbook assignments that ask them to write “none” as the answer to a question are boring. Instead, I asked them to start [...]
The Value of Term Papers
Posted in Education, Language and Literature, tagged Mark Bauerlein, teaching, writing, writing process on January 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The brilliant professor Mark Bauerlein scores yet another direct hit in a recent post about the value of those old-fashioned writing assignments: In my classes I include both types of assignments, short, one-page writings and longer 7-page papers (I rarely go over 10 pages these days, but I try to make the class have 25-30 [...]
Me Quoted On Writing
Posted in Education, tagged effective teaching, teaching, technology, writing on January 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A couple of months ago, a student at my school came in and asked my opinions about student writing. I thought she was just writing for the school newspaper, but a couple of weeks ago her story ran in the local paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal. It’s quite good. She got some good material [...]
Remedial Higher Education in California
Posted in Education, tagged California State University, college, educational standards, remedial classes on December 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The California State University system has succumbed to the overwhelming needs of underprepared students: Wracked with frustration over the state’s legions of unprepared high school graduates, the California State University system next summer will force freshmen with remedial needs to brush up on math or English before arriving on campus. But many professors at the [...]
Fall Finals Freshmen Follies
Posted in Education, tagged English 98, remedial classes, teaching, UNLV on December 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I had some spectacular deja vu two weeks ago as my college classes were studying for finals. I took them down to the building’s huge main lobby, where I hung butcher paper on the walls, with titles I wrote in the center, based on the major units of the semester. I broke them into teams, [...]
Two Great New Articles About Education Standards
Posted in Education, tagged City Journal, educational standards, lowered expectations, personal responsibility, Wall Street Journal on December 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
An article just posted in the new City Journal exposes the problem of lowered expectations in No Child Left Behind’s obsession with “proficiency.” I worry that students now graduate high school thinking that that word denotes some amazing accomplishment, not realizing that it only indicates bare minimum competence. The law of unintended consequences at work, [...]
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