teacherken at Daily Kos This Week
Don't worry - I have not YET disappeared
Seriously, I have had a number of direct inquiries as to whether something was wrong, as I have been writing so infrequently. Nothing is wrong, either with me or with my wife Leaves on the Current. I have been very busy with school-related tasks, as one semester has ended and a new one has begun, with my getting almost 60 new students. I am trying to honor some previous commitments for writing,
JAN 27
Living with cancer - one year anniversary
It was one year ago today that I posted Quakers ask people to hold them in the light through which I informed people that my beloved wife, Leaves on the Current, had just been diagnosed with cancer. At the time we were preparing to deal with the worst. The preliminary diagnosis was some kind of metastatic organ cancer, she was being sent to the Emergency room for a CT scan before she would be adm
JAN 22
important op ed on food by Mark Bittman
in today's New York Times, titled Abundance Doesn't Mean Health. Consider the following information, derived from Oxfam's "Good Enough to Eat" index rating of 125 nations: The results for the United States make a fine case for American exceptionalism, though not in the way chauvinists will find pleasing. We rank first in food affordability; food is cheap compared with other things we buy
JAN 20
"Teachers teach. Well-trained teachers teach better. Great teachers change lives."
That is a quote from page 34 of my friend Dave Greene's new book, Doing the Right Thing: A Teacher Speaks, for which I will provide a review in this space in the next week or so. It is also my new sig line here. It is for others to decide what kind of teacher I am. My intent is to change lives by challenging and empowering my students. Other than my commitment to Leaves on the Current, it is the m
JAN 18
The semester comes to a close - a teacher's reflection
on his first term back in the classroom. Yesterday was the last day of classes. We are on an A-day B-day schedule, with 4 90 minute periods a day. Students with a full load have 8 classes (I had 5 in high school). Next week, each day, there will be 2 two-hour exams, beginning Tuesday, running through Friday (assuming we are not closed for weather, which is actually possible for Friday). The la