Joshua Katz describes perfectly the plight of American education, the damage it does to our lower achieving students, and the super villains behind it all. “We need to pay attention to our students and who they are. . . . How can we help them be better students? . . . How can we helpContinue reading “Joshua Katz’s TEDx Talk: Toxic Culture of Education”
Tag Archives: Parents
Friday Writing Challenge: I Miss High School
Prompt: Something you miss I miss high school—not my teenage years but the years I spent teaching high school English. A few weeks ago, I went to the local high school with my son to see his friends play a 10-minute exhibition game as the half-time entertainment for the boys’ basketball game. As soon as IContinue reading “Friday Writing Challenge: I Miss High School”
Friday Writing Challenge: 10 Interesting Facts About Myself
This week’s prompt: Ten interesting facts about yourself. I’m a first generation American, born from Macedonian immigrants. This fact, however, is not what makes it interesting. What is interesting is what I gleaned from my family and what I have tried to pass on to my children. My parents and grandparents experienced America in a completelyContinue reading “Friday Writing Challenge: 10 Interesting Facts About Myself”
The Philanthropic Experience: A Student’s Perspective
One of my current college composition student wrote a personal narrative essay that beautifully illustrates one of my ideas to reform education ( ). This is what I proposed in that post: The Philanthropic Experience For those students who don’t want to continue their formal education but aren’t ready to go out into the worldContinue reading “The Philanthropic Experience: A Student’s Perspective”
Radio Interview: Inside Education with Sid Glassner
If you missed my radio interview on Inside Education with Sid Glassner, here is the link: Inside Education: Author Introduces the “Uncommon Core”
Friday Writing Challenge: A Favorite Movie
Inside Out I know. This is a Wednesday, but when I started writing about Inside Out last Friday, I realized this movie was a post I needed to write about, not for writing practice, but to explore why it impacted me so profoundly. When I taught American Literature, I told my students that we studyContinue reading “Friday Writing Challenge: A Favorite Movie”
Friday Writing Challenge: Memories
Five childhood memories. 1968-ish: When I was about three or four (it was when we lived in our first house off Genesee Street), I remember playing with a little girl about my age at her house. I don’t remember her name or much about the house itself, but I do remember coloring with her. After weContinue reading “Friday Writing Challenge: Memories”
Kaplan’s “Path to Recess”
Excellent post about what is truly important for success. The “soft skills” Kaplan refers to are the 25 things I wrote about in my book, Uncommon Core. “Reflecting on my experiences teaching both at this school and at more traditional public schools, I find myself wondering if the methodology that enables young children to achieveContinue reading “Kaplan’s “Path to Recess””
Friday Writing Challenge: Tattoos
Writing Prompt #2: What tattoos do you have, or what tattoos would you get, and why? July 31, 2013: I’m sitting on a table watching Bryan artistically carve my children’s names into my ankle. The pain is so intense that I’m screaming out obscenities–words that explode out of my mouth even as my clenched teeth tryContinue reading “Friday Writing Challenge: Tattoos”
Blessing 27: Nelson
My father-in-law, Nelson Hawkins, was a blessing in my life for so many reasons. Even during the last few years, things between us didn’t change. Nelson continued to send me Mother’s Day cards, birthday cards, and Christmas presents–something no one would have expected him to do–yet he never stopped treating me like a daughter-in-law, andContinue reading “Blessing 27: Nelson”
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