Classroom Mangement Misc.

Do Teachers Own Their Lesson Plans?

A New York Times article reports on teachers selling their lesson plans online and raises ethical questions about the practice. Both the article and the letters to the editor in reaction to it are informative.  I have several thoughts about this which I’ll break down in three categories, business, ethics, and practice.  First I’ll address …

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Misc.

For E-Mail Subscribers: Newsletters Resume

In preparation for going to back to school, e-mail delivery of Creating Lifelong Learners resumes today. I hope my readers have had a restful summer.  As a reminder, this is the official blog of Open Court Resources.com (not the publisher of Open Court Reading but a teacher created resource) as well as the personal expression …

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Misc.

How to Save A Newspaper

I had a conversation with a friend about the possiblity of the L.A. Times eliminating their printed editions and becoming an exclusively online newspaper. I visit the L.A. Times web site every day but I still find that there are articles in the printed edition that I somehow miss online. I also find that reading …

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Misc.

5 Music Podcasts Worth Subscribing To

Wrapping up this music themed mini-week on Creating Lifelong Learners, here are three music related podcasts I subscribe to: Sound Opinions from National Public Radio (home of This American Life) comes what they call the world’s only rock ‘n’ roll talk show. Based in Chicago, they’re the Siskel and Ebert of pop music. My favorite …

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Media Literacy Misc.

Interesting Reads on Michael Jackson

Michael and Branding How Michael Became a Brand Icon What we should do to brand ourselves, our schools, our businesses Death by an Overdose of Showbusiness What we should not to to ourselves, our schools, our businesses Humanizing Michael Robert Hilburn Remembers Long time L.A. Times critic reflects Quincy Jones Remembers After “Bad” the rest …

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Misc. Movie Reviews

Wilco (The Album) Review

Like many people, the iPod has drastically changed my music listening habits.  When I got my first iPod (five years ago and free via freeipods.com) my mission was to make it so that hitting shuffle would never bring up a bad tune.  Finally, I was able to extract just the songs I liked from albums …

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Misc.

L.A. Times: Homework is Busywork

Some schools are cutting back on homework says the L.A. Times… “As adults, if every book we ever read, we had to write a report on — would that encourage our reading or discourage it?” asked Eileen Horowitz, head of school at Temple Israel of Hollywood Day School. “We realized we needed to rethink that.” …

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Misc.

Merit Pay for Teachers

cross-posted in In Practice. I’m not opposed to the theoretical idea of merit pay. However, I have not read of any fair plan to address who would earn it. I have the following concerns… Having worked with several principals, I have found that all of them tend to have favorites on staff. I would not …

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