Here is an issue that I have changed my mind about as the years have passed. I used to be a strong supporter of public education. In many ways I still am, but that is tempered now. If this past week in Kingsport has driven anything home it is this….woke […]
Kickbacks and Consultants
If we want to know the priorities of a school system, then follow the money. Sometimes that trail of dollars leads down rabbit holes which are sketchy. No public school employee should be working as a consultant for a company which is doing business in their local school system. No […]
Four Day School Weeks
We almost moved to Wyoming once. I wish we had, but that is another story for another day. While researching several school districts in that region, we began to notice that at least a few districts in the Mountain West had adopted four day school weeks during the worst of […]
Effective Classroom Time Management: A Quick Word About the Beginning of the Year
Get off on the right foot by teaching the curriculum on day one. It sets the tone that your expectations are about learning. I used to spend the first day or two on procedures only. It always left me in a rush at the end of the nine weeks. What […]
New Teacher Advice Column: Find a Great Mentor
The single, greatest influence (of what kind of teacher you will be) is the person you train under as a student teacher or intern. I was blessed to work with two of the best teachers on the planet as an intern. Later, during my first years of actual teaching, I […]
Does Classroom Experience Matter When Selecting Administrators in Education?
Does courtroom experience matter when hiring a prosecutor? Would we hire a plumber who had no experience fixing pipes? Would any of us want a phlebotomist who was drawing blood for the first time? Nope, nope, and NO! Then, why are we hiring people into administrative positions in education who […]
Lake Placid (1980): An Exemplar in Teaching
Herb Brooks was an innovator. He was a someone with that rare gift of being able to see a nearly impossible dream in the distance, and build a bridge to it. With the approach of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, Herb knew that defeating the […]
Rebranding: Asphalt Paint and a Story of Surrender
Whew! In my community, our school logo(an Indian) was painted over after the first home game of the season. The logo was a massive and courageous face painted on the pavement between the stadium and field. It had been there for as long as I can remember. The logos on […]
Cell Phones in School: Pros and Cons
These cell phone bans by school systems are going to work about as well as prohibition did during the 1920s. We are trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. That technology is here to stay whether we ban it or not. Let me say that I understand the […]
Elite Minds by Dr Stan Beecham: A Book Review
How Winners Think Differently to Create a Competitive Edge and Maximize Success. If you want an out-of-the-box PLC book study topic, I think this would be a great option. That title gets my attention. I listen to a pretty wide variety of podcasts. Magnus and Marcus On Coaching is a […]