Do you really know where your child’s data is being stored by your local system? Do you know what data is being collected? Do you know your local board policy about student data privacy rights? Do they have a clear policy defining what data is being collected and how that […]
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Great Teachers Are Born, Not Made
I sat down with a fantastic principal. We talked about various things. She then said something that I wasn’t expecting. She said, “Rob, great teachers are born. They aren’t made.” I was taken aback. I had always been taught that you could go to college, choose a degree, work hard, […]
The Nazarene is Alive
He created the world in six days. He sealed the door of Noah’s ark. He brought forth the flood waters. He showed the stars to Abraham – one of them was for you. He protected Joseph while in Egypt. He parted the Red Sea. He brought His people home. He […]
It is springtime, and that means it is time to plant our gardens!
I have written three articles as part of this blog about incorporating gardening into school culture. This is kind of a fourth article in that series. This blog entry is more about my own personal backyard garden this season. You have heard me talk about experiential learning, a term which […]
International Studies Day
This was always one of my favorite days. We didn’t do it enough. Basically, each classroom(or grade level) in the school drew the name of a country from a hat. Classes were required to learn about that country and prepare an immersive, cultural classroom experience for International Studies Day, aka […]
The Library of Alexandria
Every, once in a while I come across ideas which would make for great student learning. Here is one of those ideas… I have been wanting to write about this ancient center of learning for quite some time. I believe that in order to inspire our students, we should teach […]
March Madness, a Changed Life, and a Question
What exactly is the end outcome that we want from the public education process as our students leave our schools and school systems? I have railed against standardized testing until I am blue in the face. It is a process which is miserably failing our students. It is robbing them […]
The Value of Publishing Student Work
We were in Livingston, Montana, a couple of years ago. After cooking for ourselves all week in a cabin which sat high on a mountain ridge of the Paradise Valley, we decided to traipse into town for some “real food.” Mainly, we were looking for a good place to have […]
The Promise: A Movie Review and Remembering the Armenian Genocide
I didn’t know much about the Armenian genocide until I watched The Promise(2016) several years ago. This weekend, I rewatched it again. It has a 91% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. From the years 1914-1923, between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were systemically murdered. This event is often not […]
Johnson City Schools Names Three Superintendent Finalists
Dr. Joshua Carter(Principal Science Hill), Dr. Corey Gardenhour(Principal of Robinson Middle School/Former Superintendent of Elizabethton City Schools), and Dr. Erin Slater(Superintendent Fort Madison Community School District in Iowa) have been named as the three finalists for the superintendent’s job in Johnson City. https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/news/candidates-identified-in-jcs-superintendent-search/article_3ceba09c-f89c-11ef-849a-9f878412361d.html This is a sweet and sour deal […]