Posts in Category Teaching
10 Things to Learn About Good Teaching from “Teach: Tony Danza”
“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.” - Haim Ginott When I heard that a new A&E show was following Tony Danza as he spends a year teaching 10th grade English, I rolled my eyes. Tony Danza, of the 1980s sitcom "Who's the Boss?"? I expected a trashy reality show that made a mockery of teaching. At best, I thought it would be like other celebrity reality shows: like a train wreck, so awful that you can't look away.
I couldn't have been more wrong about "Teach: Tony Danza." It's a beautiful, honest portrayal of first-year teaching in a large, urban public school (Northeast High School is...
Posted on Nov 26, 2010 - 02:23 PM by Melia Dicker
10 Elements of Good Education
In honor of today's National Day of Blogging for Real Education Reform, I'm reminded that the ideas for how education can be improved are already out there. Here at IDEA, we know that we are not pioneers of what is good in education. What IS deeply needed is to find new ways to frame, present, organize, advocate, and directly support schools and other programs working with youth so as to bring these ideas into reality. So, on this national blogging day, I want to highlight a list of 10 features of good education from a 2002 report by Linda Darling-Hammond and the School Redesign Network at Stanford University. The report is called 10 Features of Good Small Schools: Redesigning High...
Posted on Nov 22, 2010 - 01:00 PM by Dana Bennis
“Glee” on Schools
I'm a big fan of "Glee," I admit it. Not that it's a perfect show, but I love the variety of music, the quirky characters, and the humor. Watching last night's episode, something else stood out to me: the compelling way in which "Glee" portrays school life and particularly the message this episode sent about the role of teachers and a school in students' lives. The plot of yesterday's episode revolved around three students: Kurt, the only openly gay student at the school; Puck, a popular and rebellious student; and a football player and bully who specifically targets Kurt.
I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. But what I was struck by was how well the episode showed...
Posted on Nov 10, 2010 - 07:53 AM by Dana Bennis
The Homeschooling Disclaimer
Why is it that when we criticize the government or welfare programs, immigration policies, health care, or any of its other arms, it's considered valid--but when we move toward criticizing education, it's either A. taboo, something that's too sacred to dissect, or B. something that should be blamed on the children and their "lack of motivation"?Each time I criticize the American public school paradigm or talk about homeschooling, I always feel like I have to preface it with a disclaimer about how much I support teachers, public schools that work, etc. But this little disclaimer feels so hollow; I've encountered just as many awful teachers as I've encountered amazing ones, when I add them...
Posted on Oct 22, 2010 - 07:08 AM by Sara Schmidt
Is Testing and Quizzing Good for Learning?
According to a blog posted in the education section of the online magazine, Good, Kent University conducted a study which, scientists claim, has shown that practice tests and practice quizzes are good for learning. It's a short blog, and if you've got time, I suggest reading that before you read the rest of this blog. Just click here.Basically, the study conducted an experiment between two groups of people preparing for a Swahili vocabulary test. One group studied for the test by whatever methods they chose, and the other group took a pop-quiz prior to the actual test, and were given a list of English words which correlated to the Swahili words in some fashion (by meaning or phonetically)...
Posted on Oct 15, 2010 - 11:02 AM by Shawn Strader
Are we really Waiting for Superman?
In two days, one of the most well publicized education documentaries in recent memory premiers in several cities around the country - Waiting for Superman. You may have already heard about it on The Oprah Show, in Time magazine, or from any number of other sources. Most of the coverage in these media outlets has been overwhelmingly positive, and there are many big name supporters of the film, including Bill Gates and the controversial Chancellor of D.C. Schools, Michelle Rhee, in addition to the big-name director of the film, Davis Guggenheim of An Inconvenient Truth.In short, the documentary profiles 5 children and their families who are hoping to get into charter schools as a way in...
Posted on Sep 22, 2010 - 05:37 AM by Dana Bennis
Goals met?
The last meeting of the year is just winding down, the walls of the classroom are bare, and there is not a single piece of paper on the floor. It is officially time to start summer, at least for me.My official evaluation was a week ago. I have my copy of it around here somewhere.... Anyway, things went wonderfully according to my vice principal. She was very happy with my performance. That is good, because I need to keep my job. She is happy, and my family has health insurance. My goals for the administration were met.
I do recall that I set different goals for myself, than I turned in for the powers that be. I wrote about my goals in my first post for IDEA. Let's see how I did....
1. ...
Posted on Jun 18, 2010 - 08:42 AM by Alison Bagg Brink
Another major language
Spanish, like every other major language, is indeed a crazy quilt of various dialects as there are countries, regions, and cities where Spanish is spoken. If so, why do we still have all of the academic research in education, and its literature, referring Spanish to us as a “minority language”?
As many agree, education research findings, and the American population at large, should begin
interacting more to further necessary critical awareness if we are to make it out of
the dualistic grip of “reformers” versus “those-who-oppose-this-reform” talking heads (cf. Dana
Bennis' “The Education Policy Debate”), who add more confusion instead of resolution to our dire public schools, and...
Posted on Jun 16, 2010 - 02:53 PM by Luis Moreno
Because I’m a part of it
School has been out for a weekend now and as soon as the last bell of the school year rang, a couple of my friends and some of my students got right to work on our presentation for the U.S. Social Forum. Our presentation is called "Urban School Awakening: Critical Elements of Urban School Reform."For our workshop, I've invited several students to help facilitate the break-out session of our presentation. I selected students who over the years have demonstrated the product of true liberating education. And what's the litmus test? I am getting wind that these students are getting in trouble in other classes for speaking up for themselves.
This is music to my ears because as our...
Posted on Jun 15, 2010 - 07:25 PM by Ammerah Saidi
Is Chaos a Bad Thing?
I am teaching two summer classes this year (my "summer vacation, ahhhh" was actually just for one week!) and in one of them we have been talking a lot lately about free schools. Of the 18 students in my class, I would say that about 75 percent of them reacted extremely negatively to the idea that kids should have freedom to learn what they wish, how they wish, and when they wish. Now, my students are definitely not in favor of our current conventional, very constrained system of education, but they seemed pretty appalled by the level of freedom that kids have at places like Summerhill, the Albany Free School, and the Sudbury Valley School. The most oft-cited opposition to these schools...
Posted on Jun 10, 2010 - 06:06 AM by Kristan Morrison
IDEA Bloggers
- admin
- Jonah Canner
- Tanya Reza
- Ammerah Saidi
- Dana Bennis
- Alison Bagg Brink
- Khalif Williams
- Shawn Strader
- Tim Curley
- Darren Schwindaman
- Melia Dicker
- Claire Russell
- Scott Nine
- Kristan Morrison
- Adam Fletcher
- Sara Schmidt
- Laura Stine
- Luis Moreno
- Zuleka Irvin
- Cian Sawyer
- Jason Lacoste
- Esther Ohito
- Laura Chytka
- Manauvaskar Kublall
- Adam Burk
- IDEC 2012
- Dana Bennis 77
- Kelly Dillon
- David Loitz
- Kirsten Olson
- Isaac Graves
- Guest
- Leigh Pourciau
- Sabrina Stevens
- Susan Chen
- David Loitz 14
- Sam Chaltain
- Jesse Bason
- Beth Sanders
- Jonathan Carlisle
- Catherine Reynolds
- Nadya Vila
- Dana Bennis and David Loitz