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Author Archives: schooldog
Schools and Politics: A Fall Strike Pondered
Summary: What are the issues involved in the Tacoma, Washington, teachers’ strike? Greetings those reading here. School has started, or has in most places, the most notable exception being communities where teachers have gone on strike. Tacoma, Washington, is one … Continue reading
Schools and Politics: Let Us Now Praise on Labor Day
Summary: Around Labor Day, a salute to teachers and their fellow travelers, and a review of the nature of teachers unions, professional or labor, within the current political context. Though past Labor Day, I am belatedly inspired to echo the … Continue reading
Posted in School Bureaucracy, Schools and Politics
Tagged teachers' unions, teaching, teaching culture
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Teaching/Learning Lexicon: A Paradoxical Implementation
Though my last post, “Teaching/Learning Lexicon: An Introduction”, was some part whimsy and some part semantic history, at my high school the concepts in that last piece are embodied, paradoxically, in a data driven effort by our ninth and tenth … Continue reading
A Teaching/Learning Lexicon: Introduction
More by whimsy at first, but later by design, a number of years ago I began examining the derivations of words such as “teach”, and “learn”, and followed their origins into associations themselves derived from my experience teaching, and from … Continue reading
Posted in A teaching/learning lexicon
Tagged learning, meet student where he is, student motivation, teaching
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Schools and Culture: Learning as a Conversation
Summary: Learning should involve a conversation between teacher and student. Student questions ideally guide teachers to exactly where the student has lost track in the material under consideration. When I talk with my high school students about their struggles in … Continue reading
Posted in Schools and Culture
Tagged active learning, learning as conversation, student motivation
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Schools and Culture: Math and the Undermotivated Student
Summary: Mathematics learning requires consistent attention to task, which leaves the many indifferent students marooned well behind the pace of the class. The most frequent conversation I have with my students revolves around their failure to thrive in their studies, … Continue reading
Posted in Schools and Culture
Tagged indifferent students, math teaching, student motivation
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School Bureaucracy: An Honorable Enough Compromise?
Return with me now to our state’s high stakes achievement testing, the High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE), the backbone of No Child Left Behind in our state. As the counselor to this year’s juniors, I watch the results of my … Continue reading
Posted in School Bureaucracy
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School Bureaucracy: Tricia’s Testimonial
My sister-in-law, Tricia, who is an elementary teacher in another state, tells a tale in which administrators require that teachers post objectives each day in the classroom and advise students why they are doing what they are doing. Makes sense, … Continue reading
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School Bureaucracy: Don’t Think Too Far Ahead
Allen was the vice principal I worked most closely with last school year. He and I shared stewardship of the class of 2012, then juniors, and had since Allen had been hired when the class members were freshman. In his … Continue reading
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Schools and Culture: More on the Masculine Principle
My buddy Bill and I frequent sports contests. Formerly professional colleagues, we have found over the years that one way we keep in touch in our too busy lives is to set up a few games down the road that … Continue reading
Posted in Schools and Culture
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schooldog 