I recently wrote about why I love teaching, and why I think my love of teaching benefits my students. I would now like to address how this love of teaching is under attack. I won’t necessarily conjecture why love of teaching is under attack – I simply want to demonstrate that it is. I love Read More >>
I wrote recently about my love of teaching. I shouldn’t have to explain this, but I will: I think that my love of my craft is good for students. I don’t know if that’s true for every teacher. If you love teaching because you like bossing and bullying students, I suppose that’s not good for Read More >>
I been criticized for being too negative about teaching in my comics. I don’t think that assessment is fair. Mr. Fitz is really intended as a Valentine to teaching and teachers. It’s just that there is so much getting in the way of great teaching these days – and much of it is on display Read More >>
This post is about a fateful set of comic strips. They were, I suppose not particularly fateful for anyone else, but for me they were a turning point – professionally, personally, and artistically. When I was my district Teacher of the Year in 2005, I ended my 11 month reign with a speech that included Read More >>
I used to tell my students That it wasn’t about the papers they turned in The grades spread out across a digital grid The products, the GPAs. I would tell them Education is about What’s left after you take away the papers And grades Your brain should be rewired to To be smarter To know Read More >>
Wendell Berry once wrote an essay titled “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer.” I don’t go as far as Wendell Berry – I am typing this essay on a computer – but on the other hand, I think he has some valid points. Even Stephen King has a section in his book Read More >>
As the new year started, I attended a district professional learning and decided to draw a comic strip about it. The after-school workshop was ironic on so many levels, I HAD to write it. In fact I started writing this comic about the workshop while I was still sitting IN the workshop. Here is the Read More >>
Each January, I start the new year with my ninth graders with a weird activity. I know we will be working on expository writing, and I’m going to be encouraging them to write about an enthusiasm – something they love. But first, I want to build their confidence. I want to show them that they Read More >>
So… it’s almost 2024. Our politics have seldom been so fraught and, frankly, so dangerous. Our country has seldom been so polarized. Education is part of the polarization, with some of us trying to preserve public schools as a cornerstone of our democracy even as we try to save them from becoming testing and standardization Read More >>