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Homeschoolers Anonymous

Posted on Dec 11, 2009 - 02:31 AM by Sara Schmidt in Uncharted Parenting

My name is Sara, and I'm a former homeschool basher.

I never encountered any homeschooled kids until I went to college. Having excelled in school for the most part, I met the very idea of being taught at home with disdain. Most of the homeschooled students I met were nice, happy, pretty well-adjusted--and very, very religious. I immediately jumped onto the bandwagon driven by the people chanting, "Brainwash!" and decided that people who homeschooled their children were simply training them to be members of the Army of God, that it was such a travesty, and that the drones produced from such mind-numbing instruction would only go off into the wild blue yonder, birthing more drones to keep...

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The Day I “Couldn’t Talk”

Posted on Jan 02, 2010 - 02:15 PM by Tim Curley in ImprovEducation

One recent Monday, I did what I usually do before school. I stood outside the main entry, and greeted the kids as they were dropped off at the curb. I walked through the cafeteria and said hello to the older kids, the younger kids, and the few parents who eat breakfast at school. I do this because I see my role at school as being much more than a classroom teacher. El Verano School is a community, and I feel that we all need to share in that community.

After the bell rang and I began to walk to class, I realized that I had not yet talked to any of my students. And I got an idea.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I don't do a lot of talking in the first few minutes of class....

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Improv…with Drama

Posted on May 11, 2010 - 08:41 PM by Tim Curley in ImprovEducation

As we all know, one of the casualties of a standards-based curriculum, where THE TEST is the driving force, is the loss of teaching the arts. Performing arts are particularly hard hit. At El Verano School, we are doing what we can to lessen the hit that drama classes have taken.

For the past ten years or so, I have been putting on a stage show with the assistance and collaboration of my colleague, Craig Madison. We have not always had the same grade level, in fact, this year he teaches third grade to my fourth grade. But we still get our kids together and put on a show.

The fact that we put on a play is nice, perhaps even astonishing considering how many students are involved, but I...

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