Two Sundays ago, the Las Vegas Review-Journal ran a huge story about the massive failure of local students on common assessments. I sent a letter to them responding to it. Some of their story was honestly true, much was misinterpreted and out of context, but mostly it failed to take into account the most salient factors. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘academic achievement’
The Education Letter the Review-Journal Didn’t Want You to See
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Review-Journal, parenting, personal responsibility on October 11, 2010 | 4 Comments »
My Latest Letter in the Review Journal
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, Las Vegas Review-Journal, merit pay, personal responsibility, teachers on September 30, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal ran a letter I wrote about merit pay for teachers, but which was really about celebrating the achievements of hardworking students. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they took the opportunity to insult us by giving the letter the heading “Teachers Irrelevant.” Geez. I simply said that students deserve [...]
Counseling With Counselors, part I
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, effort, homework, parents, personal responsibility on April 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On Tuesday, a counselor at my school sent an email out to all of a certain student’s teachers, asking for help with his struggling performance, at the request of the student and his mother. Though I commended them for this interest and effort, and the counselor for facilitating that, the substance of my comments was as follows: [...]
Huston For Superintendent
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, budgets, CCSD, Clark County School District, economy, effective teaching, personal responsibility, school reform, superintendent on April 3, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Last week, the Clark County School District superintendent announced that he’ll be leaving over the summer. As the school board starts searching for a replacement, I’d like to throw my hat in the ring. Below is a list of ideas that I like. I plan to be at their meeting on Thursday, April 8, at [...]
Semester Exam Follies
Posted in Education, Humor, tagged academic achievement, Bible, effective teaching, grades, Lord of the Flies, math, personal responsibility, spelling, The Grapes of Wrath, The Lovely Bones on January 14, 2010 | 2 Comments »
This week is semester exam week in my school district, which marks the halfway point of the year. As students work on their big tests, I’ve found a few nuggets of positivity or, failing that, laughter: While one class worked on their exams, I finished grading the book reports they turned in last week. The [...]
Some Sad School Stories
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, CCSD, educational standards, Las Vegas, parenting, personal responsibility, race, school, truancy, UNLV on November 12, 2009 | 11 Comments »
There are forty students enrolled in my third hour class. Thirty showed up today: one had been suspended, nine others were truant. For the previous two classes, their homework—as explained at the beginning and end of each class and posted on the board—was to get a copy of a novel from a list I’d given [...]
The First Four Weeks
Posted in Education, Humor, tagged academic achievement, class size, educational standards, Pledge of Allegiance, The Scarlet Letter, UNLV, vocabulary on September 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The first four weeks of school are over. Some thoughts: As students transition into using new vocabulary words in their own writing, they seem to have an instinct for using unfamiliar words as adjectives. I find myself reviewing parts of speech much more than I’d like to at the high school level. Most teens need to be reminded [...]
Our Greatest Double Standard
Posted in Education, Politics and Society, tagged academic achievement, cultural criticism, educational standards, personal responsibility on September 1, 2009 | 3 Comments »
It still always surprises me when a student blithely declares anything unfamiliar or which requires sustained concentration to be “boring,” and then dismisses it, as though their snap judgment is all the criteria necessary for rejecting something as unworthy of their effort. What is it about us that we’re so accustomed to labelling something “boring” [...]
New (School) Year’s Resolutions
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, effective teaching, goals, self improvement, teaching on August 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
On this eve of yet another glorious year of teaching, I want to set three goals for myself to improve my work. After reflecting on what my strengths and weaknesses are, and what I want to achieve, I’ve settled on these basics: 1. More time for independent readings in class. Each quarter will start with [...]
Summer School Follies
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, cultural criticism, special education, summer school on July 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
First of all, I like summer school. Its compacted time frame forces it to be rigorous, disciplined, and serious. Tardies and absences get hammered pretty quickly, daily quizzes and grade updates keep the kids on top of their game, and the fact that they (or their parents) had to pay for it creates an immediate [...]
50 More Things New Teachers Need To Know
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, effective teaching, school reform, teaching on July 18, 2009 | 27 Comments »
“Don’t hit the kids and don’t hit on the kids.” If I had to summarize my best advice about teaching in just one saying, that would be it. However, last summer’s post, 50 Things New Teachers Need To Know, went into a bit more detail and has now garnered thousands of hits, making it this blog’s [...]
The Great Grade Bailout
Posted in Education, Humor, Politics and Society, tagged academic achievement, bailouts, educational standards, personal responsibility, satire on May 15, 2009 | 4 Comments »
There is a great inequity in justice in our public school systems. I refer, of course, to the fact that some students have higher grades than others. This can only be the result of institutional disenfranchisement, and must be corrected by government intervention. Besides, our nation’s future faces catastrophic academic failure if we don’t artificially [...]
On Effective Education: Why Don’t Students Like School?
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, Arts and Letters Daily, Daniel Willingham, educational reform, effective teaching, multiple intelligences, teaching, Wall Street Journal, Why Don't Students Like School? on May 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I read this fantastic book review this week in the Wall Street Journal (courtesy of a link from Arts & Letters Daily–let’s give credit where credit’s due). Daniel Willingham’s new book, Why Don’t Students Like School?, gives the perspective of a cognitive scientist reviewing the research on the psychology of education. Among his assertions (as reflected in [...]
Progress At West Prep
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, CCSD, educational reform, Las Vegas, West Middle School on April 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
My first year teaching, during the 2000-2001 school year, was at West Middle School, which was arguably the worst school in Las Vegas. Located in one of the oldest, poorest parts of the city, I remember one staff meeting we had that January, so the police department could brief us on the gang war going [...]
Email About A Truant Student
Posted in Education, tagged academic achievement, CCSD, cultural criticism, educational standards, make up work, truancy on December 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The following is an email I just sent to a parent of a student. The young man in question was caught leaving school with some friends by another teacher on his prep period. Sadly, this kind of communication is not especially rare in my work experience: I send emails like this one at least a [...]
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