An archived stack of papers: November 2007

Visual Essay: Sharing

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Nov
  • 30
  • 2007

With the Visual Essay (VE), the images need to communicate the bulk of the message because words can’t. That’s not to say that words don’t play their role, but images make up the difference between the words and the meaning. The visuals should help students come to terms with what our two authors (Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harold Bloom) mean. The VEs will serve as a resource to help... read more

Thanksgiving Day Loss

In a stack of papers called Personal.

  • Nov
  • 22
  • 2007

I ran 6.2 miles this morning. My watch read 51:56; I’ll update after the official ChampionChip time is posted. That’s all good, but I’m pissed.

In the final stretch of the race, a guy appeared next to me. I kept pace with him and had a brief... read more

A History Of Cheating

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Nov
  • 18
  • 2007

A student transfered to my school recently because he was kicked out of another school in my district. Legal issues come into play here so there’s a lot I don’t know. I do, however, know... read more

Visual Essay: Classroom Application

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Nov
  • 15
  • 2007

Before we arrived at the visual essay, we read a few texts and talked about ideas. We gathered quotations, listened to music, I drew pictures, it was a great time. Here’s what we did:

The Handouts

Emerson: from “The American Scholar” (Word) (... read more

Visual Essay: Sneak Peek

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Nov
  • 14
  • 2007

All of these grow every day. What I’m showing you is just where several groups are so far. Last Thursday was an introduction to the Visual Essay assignment (teaser #1). Friday was mostly used for planning and groups getting their feet wet with the resources for this thing (teaser #2). Mad props to Dan for a quick email basically saying “Yeah, this looks... read more

PI Means Punitive Intent

In a stack of papers called Legislation.

  • Nov
  • 11
  • 2007

punitive (pyoo-ni-tiv) adj. 1. See ESEA/NCLB

No rewards for desired behavior exist, only punishments. It’s as if ESEA/NCLB set out to doom public education. The overarching goal of 100% proficiency is almost necessarily impossible; the premise from which the law generates destines some percentage of schools to failure. Punishments the law puts in... read more

Get Down With The Sickness

In a stack of papers called Reform.

  • Nov
  • 10
  • 2007

We’re all sick, aren’t we? It’s a green monster that sits in our pockets, wallets, purses, and cars. Money makes us more ill than healthy. Schools are no exception. If they could be healed of the need for money, so much would be different, so much would be better. But schools don’t need more money, they just need to learn to manage their addiction and stop asking the public to... read more

Mean, Median, Mode

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Nov
  • 08
  • 2007

I start out many days of the school year with a Daily, usually a quotation on the board the students have to puzzle over and write about for 5 minutes, but lately they have been questions. In order to add up points on these things (and not add a whole lot of reading on my part), students count up lines they’ve filled in order to figure out how many words they’ve written. We create average... read more

It’s Only November

In a stack of papers called Instruction.

  • Nov
  • 07
  • 2007

Kid: “I’m not getting anything here. Teachers aren’t teaching me anything.” Me: “So maybe teachers do have something to show you and maybe you don’t know it all.” Kid: “Tell me one thing teachers have taught me here.” Me: “Maybe some teachers know better than... read more

BTSN Ideas

In a stack of papers called Reform.

  • Nov
  • 05
  • 2007

Back-to-school Night (BTSN) happened a while for most of us, but we just debriefed the Night. I’m all full of questions and ideas, so here’s the stream, formatted to fit this screen and edited to run in the time allotted and for content.

Numbers

How many parents show up to your BTSN? We changed up the... read more