school
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Prompt #1: The Writing on Learning Exchange: Learning About School
Welcome to the Writing on Learning Exchange! Every week or two I will publish a prompt that is meant to get us thinking and writing about some aspect of our learning and/or teaching experience. Whether you are a teacher, a learner, a parent or just a citizen who cares about the growth and development of Continue reading
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Classroom Blogging
I’m having my students keep blogs again. I’m both excited and wary. Student blogs are a lot more fun to read than papers, but they’re also more difficult to evaluate. The setup process has gone fairly smoothly so far, but it’s still been a lot of work. Reading a ton of blog posts every week Continue reading
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ClassROOM: Teaching and Physical Space
I was thrilled when I learned my schedule this semester: noon to 4 most days, a nice change from my usual 8 a.m. start. Then I learned the catch. When you teach in the middle of the day, it seems, you’re much more likely to end up in a terrible classroom. My first class of Continue reading
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Now You’ve Made Me Mad: Reprise
I don’t like this time of the semester. A couple of years ago at around this time, I summarized why. * What do you mean, “Why am I failing English?” You’ve failed EVERY SINGLE ASSIGNMENT since the beginning of the course. You handed in your first essay 2 weeks late, and you wouldn’t have handed Continue reading
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How To Fix Schools: Shorten Summer Vacation
In response to my open call on what should change about school, commenter emeraldlakesfreepress has an interesting suggestion. I think the school year schedule has to change. Long summers mean that children have months to forget what they have learned. 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off, with a slightly longer break in the winter and Continue reading
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Ongoing Open Call: What Should Change About School?
I’ve just begun reading Nikhil Goyal’s One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School. Goyal is an American high-school senior who has made a name for himself talking to the media about educational change, and although I’m not far into his book yet, I am already intrigued. I’ll write more on his ideas Continue reading
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How Literature Will Save the World: Reprise
Why should we keep reading? Why should my students learn to love reading? I began asking myself this question in 2010, and I keep asking it, of myself and others. Below, some of my initial thoughts on the matter. * Lately, I’ve been thinking about reading. Last summer I published a post in which I mourned Continue reading
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One Minute of Solitude: Reprise
We are six weeks into the semester, and I’m starting to pinpoint small classroom management issues and think about appropriate responses. Nothing major has arisen so far (fingers crossed), but whenever I am confronted with hints of passive-aggressiveness, defiance or rudeness, I start evaluating what I need to do: ignore? Confront? Defuse in some other Continue reading
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The Uses of Boredom: Reprise
An earlier version of this week’s reprint appeared in July of 2009. It tells the story of how and why I became a reader. And it asks: how do we learn to like challenging tasks if we live in a world where boredom is impossible? * I became a reader because I was bored. I Continue reading
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What’s In a Name?
What do your students call you? Would you rather they called you something else? A couple of years ago, a reader named “Viceroy” left this baffling comment on a post that had nothing to do with his observation. I notice that your students, who appear to be 17 & 18 years old, are required to Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 