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Teaching SLAM Poetry Using Occupy Anger
I am in the middle of a Slam Poetry Unit, and I cannot think of a better way to teach it than by using the Occupy movement to teach social justice. Let’s be honest, Saul Williams, Mos Def, Russel Simmons, and the other founders of Slam Poetry and [...]
Khan Academy: What’s the Big Deal?
On Friday, Jeb Bush held a National Summit on Education Reform here in the Bay Area at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. Fittingly, not a single teacher was in attendance—although quite a few were outside picketing the event with members of the [...]
Crowd-Surfing on Field Trips
Part of any good college-going program at the high school level is the field trips. Time and again, the kids that actually make it to college point out the field trips as being an important motivator by allowing them to see first-hand what college [...]
The Lost Art of the Handshake
For many years now I have been conducting a social experiment in the doorway of my classroom. The subjects of my experiment have been all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some limp, others drool, many of them have trouble writing down the correct day of [...]
Dope Lessons for Urban Students: Figurative Language BATTLE
You are about to witness high schools students battling. But don't worry, it won't be them actually punching each other in the throat, like what you can find on YouTube simply by searching the name of your high school followed by the word "fights." [...]
Parent Outreach? Not in an Educational Landscape of Opposites
Oprah’s Teacher of the Year, Ron Clark, has an article on CNN.com today about the drawbacks of parental involvement. He gives examples of teachers and even principals who are leaving education because they are so annoyed at having to deal with [...]
Teach4Real’s Big Announcement
I'm back and I have something special!I took the summer off of blogging, but have still kept very, very busy. Aside from teaching at UC Berkeley, and learning how to raise a 5 month old, I have put together a soon to be LEGENDARY House on Mango [...]
One From the Vault: Teaching Against Culture
As I'm ramping up to start blogging full time again, I came across this one in the Teach4Real vault. I don't know why I didn't run it in April, it probably had something to do with STAR testing and wanting to pluck out my eyes with all the number [...]
Greatest Hits: A Lesson on Urban Identity
It is summer, and I have been blogging for a year. As I decompress from last schoolyear and prepare for the next, I am posting my most popular articles. The feedback I have received from educators and parents has been humbling, so if you are new to [...]
Greatest Hits: Accepting the Fact That Nothing Will Change
After a year of blogging, I'm posting some of my most popular posts here at Teach 4 Real. With the middle class disappearing as we speak, I thought this REAL assessment of the state of education is particularly timely. At some point we all need to [...]