Ten Things I Used to Think I Used to Think was a writing and thinking prompt developed for students, part of the work done by Project Zero . Lately, we haven’t been all that interested in what students think , or how their thinking might change, given more information, dialogue and cogitation. Instead, we’ve been interested in raising their test scores by asking them to simply reproduce knowledg
Being White Is a Handout My 4.5 year journey as an undergraduate and the first five years teaching high school English were spent mostly in the Reagan era. While this was many decades before terminology such as “fake news” or “post-truth,” I literally lived during those years a painful and now embarrassing conversion from white denial and ignorance (believing in reverse discrimination, for examp
Schools bring mindfulness to the classroom to help kids in the Covid-19 crisis Mindfulness in schools is increasingly being used to help students with mental health and academic performance, but research on its effectiveness is not yet conclusive Doug Worthen guided his small class of ninth graders at Middlesex School through an exercise designed to focus their attention. On his screen, he saw t
Two School Districts Had Different Mask Policies. Only One Had a Teacher on a Ventilator. Eleven states let school districts decide whether students and staff must wear masks. One Georgia middle school where masks were optional became the center of an outbreak. On a balmy August morning in Emanuel County in eastern Georgia, hundreds of children bounded off freshly cleaned school buses and out of
What American teachers are telling their students about what Trump is doing Civics is a fundamental part of every American primary school curriculum. Yet there is no living American who has experienced a political moment as polarized as this one, where even teachers cannot speak of Trump or Biden without accusations of impartiality from either direction. Particularly now, as America’s democracy
A NEW NARRATIVE ABOUT THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, TOO [MEDIUM] For EduColor’s Medium blog, I wrote a bit more about the Secretary of Education using some inspiration from Vanessa Siddle Walker’s The Lost Education of Horace Tate , a must read: “I’ve witnessed how the narrative of public schooling and education writ large has forced parents to run towards alternatives, even when those alternative
Schools and the Economy–Not Yet a Faddish Idea Fashions in ideas, like clothes, change with the times. But when they are in fashion, they become the wisdom of the moment. Supply-side economics, embraced by the Republicans during the Reagan presidency, cut taxes and ran up unparalleled deficits. It was group-think wisdom. Sure there were critics but GOP champions called them nail-biting nay-sayer
What Is The Actual Purpose of Social and Emotional Learning I'm increasingly convinced that one of the reasons social and emotional learning (SEL) is such a matter of contention in education (and it has been, every time it has been it has been brought up under one guise or another) is that it requires us to look at the places where education bumps up against the really big questions-- what is th
Will President Joseph Biden Lead Us Toward Equity and Opportunity in the Public Schools? Betsy DeVos, the outgoing U.S. Secretary of Education, has been complaining about the public schools again. The public schools are, of course, the schools she is supposed to be supporting through the operation of her federal department. But as a lifelong promoter of vouchers for private and religious schools
The Skills That Will Make Tomorrow "Let's play Tiger Babies." "I want to be a polar bear baby." "You can't because tiger babies would eat polar bear babies." "That's not true! Polar bear babies eat tiger babies!" "That's not true!" I stepped closer because it was the sort of argument that could escalate, which is always the case when "truth" is at stake. And truth is always at stake when childre
A Lesson for Those Who'd Vilify Teachers It's always edifying to get the libertarian point of view, and it's not at all surprising to find it in the pages of the NY Post . Writer Matt Welch sheds copious crocodile tears over how schools are failing poor children. You know who they are. They're the kids UFT teachers wake up every single day to help and serve. Meanwhile libertarians fight to make
Close Connecticut’s Schools Now Stephen Singer, a teacher, calls on Connecticut to close its schools to save the lives of teachers and to keep students and their families safe. Hundreds of teachers have died from Covid-19. More than 1 million children have been diagnosed with the disease. Yet a bipartisan group of seven state Governors said in a joint statement Thursday that in-person schools ar
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/11/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_21.html This Week’s Resources To Support Teachers Coping With School Closures by
TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES West Ada case dredges up debate over whether teacher strikes are legal in Idaho - https://idahoednews.org/IKXBm via @idahoednews Stuck on Mute: Kids in Juvenile Lockups Can’t Be Seen or
