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An Innocent Question
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Today my Creative Writing class held its kickoff for this year’s Children’s Books project. This project involves a neighboring elementary school. We survey 25 first grade students with a series of questions, things like: What makes you happy? What makes you sad? What do you wonder about? What is your favorite toy, movie, character, etc.? Read More >>


Banned Books Week 2023
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For Banned Books Week this year, I posted about several books that I have taught or read that have been frequently banned or challenged. Some of them I love. Some changed me as a person. If someone had banned them, I might not be the person I am today. And while I may not be Read More >>


The VAM-pire Strikes Back
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In the 2011-2012 School year, Florida introduced one of the worst of its many bad ideas for education: VAM. VAM stands for Value Added Measure. It is a statistical formula that knows your students’ past scores, predicts what their future scores will be, and then rates students based on how much “growth” they showed. Here’s Read More >>


What We Say/What We Do: Constantine’s Sword and A Student Testing Assembly
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I recently finished reading James Carroll’s epic 2001 history book Constantine’s Sword: the Church and the Jews. The book traces anti-Semitism through church history, from the very early days of the church, through the Roman Emperor Constantine’s vision of a cross on the Milvian Bridge in Rome, all the way up to the Holocaust and Read More >>


A Teacher Monologue (A Tribute to Barbie – with apologies to Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach)
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It suddenly struck me that the now-famous and oft quoted monologue performed by America Ferrera's character, Gloria, could be adapted to be about teaching and teachers. So I did. Read More>>

An Open Letter to Education Reformers, Reform Cheerleaders, and Others Who Have Tried to “Fix” Education
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I am addressing this open letter to education reformers, most of whom will never see or read it. Mostly my fellow public educators will read it, and if it brings them some comfort, it will be worth it. I hope some reformers might read it and actually listen instead of getting defensive, but my hopes Read More >>


Teaching: Openness and Responsiveness vs. Rigidness and Paranoia
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In his book, You Are Not a Gadget, Jaron Lanier, “programmer, musician, and father of virtual reality technology” examines the effect the synthesizer had on music. MIDI is the Musical Instrument Digital Interface that makes the synthesizer possible. Lanier says, “Before MIDI, a musical note was a bottomless idea that transcended definition. It was a Read More >>


The Magic of Finding Your Flow
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As I approach a new school year in two weeks, I will probably be facing a week of pre-planning that almost inevitably focus too much on data, tested standards, and compliance to curricular conformity. Our focus will be on standardized curriculum, standardized tests, and standardized out comes, with the requisite talk about meeting the individual Read More >>


I Want, They Want
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I love reading and writing and want to pass that love on to my students. I want them to love reading and writing because when you love doing something – you do it better. I want them to dive deep into pages And lose themselves in colorful worlds Created from black and white text. They Read More >>


What’s Happening In Schools?
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I see many news articles about what is happening in schools. I see social media posts from people who think what’s happening in schools is great. I see posts from people who think Satan has taken over the schools and is going to turn every students trans or gay or liberal or furry or all Read More >>


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