We take the data-collection piece of our work as a true and valid thing. It is not. We are serving a monster – the data collection business that makes millions of dollars off of us and our kids each year. It is sucking our souls, vampire-like, and we are letting it. COVID is here as
We have discussed the importance of the artists and their work. Here is some further discussion on this important subject: One morning I was doing my morning routine of sitting at the kitchen table answering emails, the usual. My eye caught the mess on the sink and countertops of my kitchen and my brain said,
If you are pushing the CI now, doing the Star, etc. I would say to wait a bit. If you are not your own department, and you have to align with someone else to prepare for common assessments, etc. make sure you do that. You want to have your kids exactly where your traditional grammar
I refuse to let the molders of my world, esp. right now, influence my mood. We will eventually break down – to dust – the old curriculum, and happiness and unforced communication will define our days doing our jobs. Yes, we have been slaves to the corporate suck-need, their view of education, their need to
Some kids engage at the right amount. Some too much. What about the kids who withdraw? It is my position that, generally, kids who withdraw from interacting in a CI class have a reason to do so. We all know that kids withdraw in traditional textbook classes from pure boredom. But when things are interesting
I’m enjoying reading some of what Robert has written here over the years. It’s a ton. Here is something he wrote in 2016 on assessment: Hi Ben, Relative to the discussion about assessment, I thought I would share the following e-mail exchange I had with a student today. Since the student asked, I decided to
A repost: Here are some quotes from the documentary on Mr. Rogers’ life that resonated in my own mind with the work we do. They point to the way in which we might design future curriculums, with more interest in what the child is really experiencing in our classrooms and less on the subject matter
The mental health of many people in our profession is unraveling before our very eyes. Many are retiring early, quitting, etc. There is no small amount of suffering involved. You know what is happening because you are in the middle of it. My prayer in this post is straight to our Creator who doesn’t want
Some may remember a month ago when I kicked those three guys off the PLC because they weren’t able – no blame – to wrap their heads around the truth and the new heightened levels of awareness around the George Floyd murder. There was that stink those guys brought. I chose to kick them off
Even the best scripts cannot approach the levels of engagement that are generated by a problem that emerges from the students right in front of us. If we can somehow find the courage to allow our students, through their characters, to guide our storytelling boat through the waters of metaphor and into the depths of
For those who have been reading here for years, you may remember that the pro-NTCI points in a series of articles that began appearing here about ten years ago keept growing. We’re up to 75. That’s a lot of points to support NTCI! Here’s the newest list: Below are 75 points worth reflecting on: NTCI
Nobody at ACTFL has ever said anything about you having to communicate with your students while using certain words. Try doing that in English at the dinner table. It’s not so easy! In fact, I find it impossible and after trying it for 15 years when I was doing TPRS, I finally gave up five
