Thank you everyone for your recent comments on whose classroom would you rather be in? Teacher A Teacher B As a blogger I’m experimenting with asking open ended questions but at the same time it’s hard not to weigh in on my own questions. I guess I have two major problems with Teacher A’s rules. …
Category: Classroom Mangement
Whose Classroom Would You Rather Be In?
Independent Work Time Rules: Teacher A Teacher B
Inspiration for the First Day of School
For teachers: A fourth grade student addresses the Dallas Unified School District to ask if they believe in him and his classmates. “You better,” he says and I’m paraphrasing, “because they’re showing up next week.” For administrators: Here’s a list of what not to do this year as an administrator (or literacy coach) from the …
NPR Article: Children’s Play Co-opted
NPR reports on the commercialization of children’s play which has shifted in the second half of the twentieth century from an emphasis on activities towards and emphasis on specific toys and rules. “(in the first half of the century) [Children] improvised their own play; they regulated their play; they made up their own rules…but in …
This I Believe Meme
I was tagged by Janice Stearns to post a few of my beliefs in education. I believe… that technology is not just for the gifted kids. that all students are gifted, it’s just that some are gifted in ways we haven’t discovered yet. all students can learn if only we could find a way to …
Symptoms Not the Cure
An Oregon teacher duct tapes a child to a chair because he couldn’t stop getting up. Although this is example is obviously extreme, it seems typical of a lot of classroom “discipline” strategies. Similar to a lot pharmaceuticals, we treat the symptom and not the cure. Our problem stops but the cause of the problem …
Smaller Classes/Greater Achievement?
Mr. Pullen wonders if smaller class sizes lead to greater student achievement as his superintendent decides the research suggests it doesn’t. It makes sense that if a teacher lectures all day that it’s not going to make a big difference whether the teacher has 20 students, 24, or 32. However, if a teacher meets with …
Differentiate This: Reflections
I’ve had some time now to reflect on my blog’s discussion about differentiation that brought about some pretty exciting comments, particularly on this post about classroom management which now has 40 comments, most of them about differentiation even though that wasn’t what the post was about. Tracking vs. Differentiation is the Wrong Argument I think …
Classroom Management: Do Something Proactive Today
When we recorded our voice overs for our movie projects last year, I’d call “Quiet on the Set” and it would need to be totally quiet. I knew that my class would do a good job of this but there was one student, “Tommy,” who wasn’t going to be quiet and he would probably get …
Classroom Management: Good Morning and Entering the Room
The way that students enter the classroom determines almost everything else that happens after. It Starts on the Yard–Pick Them Up On Time For elementary teachers who pick up their students up from the yard, it’s important that teachers arrive immediately or soon after the bell rings. In between yard supervision and the teacher’s arrival, …