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Author Archives: schooldog
Schools and Bureaucracy: Reflections on Survival and Other Personal Idiosyncrasies (Part A)
To summarize, the topic of the moment, derived from my just previous post, is a reflection on my survival over years of career in high school without escape, first as an English teacher, then as a counselor. How have I … Continue reading
Schools and Bureaucracy: Notes on Staying “Alive”
A younger colleague, in the midst of a discussion about some relatively minor indignity we counselors have suffered or observed, turned to me recently and asked as though to a veteran of many wars, “how do you do it?” She … Continue reading
School Politics: Is Teacher Evaluation Destined for the Rabbit Hole? (Part B)
Last post (5/18/12) I introduced an article by Jenny Anderson in the New York Times, February 19, 2012, “States Try to Fix Quirks in Teacher Evaluations”, and explored some of the ins and outs of reform efforts in teacher … Continue reading
School Politics: Is Teacher Evaluation Destined for the Rabbit Hole? (Part A)
Summary: Teacher evaluation reforms encounter headwinds to be expected amid some sentiment that we don’t know enough about what we are trying to do, and alongside worries about the cost in time to those principals doing the evaluating. Meanwhile, the … Continue reading
A Teaching/Learning Lexicon: To Instruct, to Show, to Lead
Summary: A return to fundamental constructs of teaching and learning. All this talk about NCLB (last week’s post), and how directives from the feds may or may not be successful in steering the educational ship of state, leaves me wandering … Continue reading
Schools and Politics: Fiddling with No Child Left Behind
Summary: How are we to evaluate the new Obama waivers to No Child Left Behind? Political expediency or a necessary tweak to a flawed endgame? Hard to tell. While we labor on day to day in our schools with our … Continue reading
School Culture: Comparative Life in Another Helping Profession
Summary: Your faithful blogger experiences parallels between the professional life of teachers and that of nurses. As life happens, I have just returned from a stay in the hospital following surgery. As we shall see, the timing fortuitously was on … Continue reading
School Culture and Politics: Whither the Money?
Summary: A conundrum, in which school reform will depend on application of public funds toward targeted solutions that remain elusive in a political environment highly resistive to new spending. I am a professional person. I strive to define my job … Continue reading
Schools and Politics: Teacher Evaluation Reform
Summary: Top down federal or state mandates have a role, but may also suppress professionalism on the local level. The latter, not good. About the time I wrote my last post urging union and administration alike to find common ground … Continue reading
Schools and Politics: Bargained Success in the New Haven Schools
Summary: A reflection on Nicholas Kristof’s recent column “Uniting to Oust Failing Teachers”. He leaves out a critical element. In his column, “Uniting to Oust Failing Teachers”, as published in the Seattle Times February 18, 2012, the peripatetic Nicholas Kristof … Continue reading
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