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Teach4Real Greatest Hits: Let’s Make a Deal: How to Help Fading (and Failing) Students at the End of the Year
For the next month I am going to celebrate one year of blogging with some of my greatest hits. Here is one about helping failing students at the end of the year.Everyone loves the end of the school year, especially the teachers and students. [...]
It Ain’t Easy Being Meezy
Michael Hiltzik’s recent article in the Los Angeles Times is a surprisingly moderate view of the pension issue. He talks about the difficulties in balancing out budgets at the state and federal level, focusing specifically on pensions. Hiltzik [...]
Connecting Test Scores to Teacher Pay: If It’s Not Being Done Right, Should We Still Do It?
A recent PPIC survey on education shows 69% of Californians believe student achievement should be closely tied with teachers’ salaries. This shows a greater concern about teacher quality, likely brought on by recent attacks on teachers unions. [...]
Why Are We So Worried About the Rich When They Aren’t Worried Themselves?
I listen to a lot of right-wing radio. I do this to try and understand where Republicans and Teabaggers are coming from. I honestly try very, very hard at this understanding. I am rarely successful, but I continue to put in a lot of time and effort. [...]
Tightening the High School Dress Code
LZ Granderson recently wrote an article on CNN about girls as young as 6-7 wearing push-up bras, and thong's in Wal-Mart's Junior department that say "Who Needs a Credit Card?" It is a great read that asks a great question, namely: These young girls [...]
When You’re Happy, They’re Happy
I recently had a baby boy, and during the expected lack of sleep and increased irritability on my own part, I noticed something very important. When I am in a bad mood, easily annoyed and snappy, so are the students.It’s not like I’ve been [...]
Lesson Plan: Using Facebook Profiles for Character Analysis
If Romeo Montague had a Facebook profile, who would the last four posts be from? Well, all of them might be from Juliet, saying things like, “It’s been five minutes since my last post and I still miss u <3!” Or perhaps Friar Laurence will [...]
Lesson Plan: Student Identity and Music
A few weeks ago I wrote about a senior workshop I gave about Identity. I wanted to get a group of college-going seniors to think about who they are as urban youth, and how it will affect the way they interact with others on a college campus. The [...]
Teaching Strategy: Working the Rows
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When you increase class sizes, you are reducing the number of teachers who can do the job right. There are a lot of teachers out there who can effectively teach a class of 20 urban youth. There are a [...]
Taking Away the American Dream in Wisconsin
Growing up, weren’t we always told about the American Dream? Wasn’t it a nice house, two good cars, and a little plot of land on which our children could play? Weren’t we going to pay for all of this with humble jobs, like teaching, or perhaps [...]