In 2008 and 2010 I published two books for teachers with Scholastic Professional Books. They are no longer available in print. Actually, I think they are no longer available at the Scholastic website at all – not even as e-books. This is not a big surprise. Teacher books don’t have a long shelf life and Read More >>
This post is about three comments I received on posts on my Facebook page in the past few months, all of them negative. All three posts upset me at least a little bit, but all three posts made me think about why we communicate and what we hope to achieve in doing so. This post Read More >>
On Friday, May 16th, I went on field trip to Blue Lake Elementary, a neighboring elementary school with 8 of my Creative Writing students. What happened next was magic. Or the finale of some long-term magic. Whatever it was, it was – I think – the opposite of what is generally being encouraged or allowed Read More >>
What are you here to learn? When you do your own writing, You learn who you are And what you stand for And what you stand against And what you love And what you makes you feel alive. When you have someone or something write for you, You learn to lie. You learn to cheat. Read More >>
My mother once saw me guest speak as an author and cartoonist at a young authors’ event at an elementary school near the house she once wintered in here in Florida. In my speech I spoke rather glowingly of my childhood full of feverish enthusiasms and creative endeavors: books, an attempted science fiction super 8 Read More >>
Two strands of the education reform agenda have never made sense to me, because they completely contradict each other: Strand One: We want excellent teachers. We should get rid of bad teachers, and hire and retain excellent teachers. Teachers are the most important determining factor in a child’s educational success. Great teachers can change life Read More >>
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 >>