Salutations! We hope you're enjoying the last weeks of Summer — and if you're back in the classroom, we hope you're enjoying that too.
The Washington Post brings us seven things teachers are sick of hearing from school reformers. The author does a great job of slamming empty rhetoric:
Here is a compendium of common education reform clichés:
“After consulting the research and assessment data, and involving all stakeholders in the decision-making process, we have determined that a relentless pursuit of excellence and laser-like focus on the standards, synergistically with our accountability measures, action-oriented and forward-leaning intervention strategies, and enhanced observation guidelines for classroom look-fors, will close the achievement gap and raise the bar for all children.”
You can’t talk like that and expect to be taken seriously by educated adults.
Yes. Schools aren't businesses, we shouldn't talk about them like businesses, and we certainly shouldn't try to run them like businesses.
In the wake of Robin Williams's sad passing, NPR has written a piece titled "What Robin Williams Taught Us About Teaching."
The BBC also has a tribute piece, this one focusing on how Dead Poets Society inspired a great number of people to become teachers.
At Empathic Teacher, Jennifer Isgett writes about the uncertainty her students will face in the "real world" after they leave her class — and what she's doing to help prepare them to face it.
And last, Christopher DiFulvio tells us about his experiences with teaching under the Common Core State Standards and how he connects the Standards with the outside world.
Until next time . . . be safe, be well, and be happy.