Like It Never Even Happened
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Mar
- 09
- 2010
You have a student that’s rough. If you’re unfortunate and like the majority of us, you have more than one. This is a student who just keeps pushing your buttons and making life difficult for you. Or maybe this is a student who doesn’t do anything. That kind of passive aggressive behavior is taxing, too. This could be a student who is obnoxious, acting far younger than she should.... read more
Commercial Poetry
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 11
- 2009
I mentioned the VW commercial that uses a Dylan Thomas piece (not a poem, but it’s rather poetic prose) a while back. There are also these Levi’s commercials with some Whitman poetry. I’m not exactly sure what to do with them, but there’s a connection between these commercials... read more
New Test Items
In a stack of papers called Testing.
- Oct
- 10
- 2009
Every time you create a new test item, a new way to assess knowledge, what do you do? How do you step kids into that new item type, one they may not have seen before, in order to make sure you’re assessing exactly what you want to assess (content-area skill) and not something accidental (test-taking prowess)? I spent about two hours on Wednesday figuring out how to handle this situation. What... read more
Ten Minutes
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Sep
- 26
- 2009
I feel like I’m going to be able to breathe again so writing more often will come after that. We all have our struggles. I have a bunch of ideas to share and am starting to lose track of where to start. Here’s my first contribution to your school year that’s already well underway, but maybe you still have time to implement this. Consider doing it in October.
Students read for... read more
Moments Like These
In a stack of papers called Connections.
- Aug
- 23
- 2009
The Do First for the day is this: How would you define a moment? Or maybe it’s this: Finish the story “The moment was…” Or maybe it’s a (cheesy) quotation: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” But maybe you don’t have a Do First topic at all. Maybe you just show the video and see what the class makes of... read more