I learned this morning of the passing of one of my middle school (but we called it junior high school back then) teacher who later became a colleague and mentor. He brought me in to the work I do now and advanced my career and work in ways I won’t forget. One of the projects Read More
Category: Teachers
Thinking About Social Justice Education
Social justice education is an idea that has captured the attention of teachers, scholars, leaders, and other in recent years. I have tried to find just what it means for me for some time. For context, I am a white, heterosexual male with grey hair; while I was raised in a weakly-practicing Protestant family, I Read More
How Education is Changing
With the arrival of digital electronic computers and the knowledge age late in the 20th century, the stability and predictability of necessary literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge evaporated. These technologies evolve much more rapidly than other information technologies, and this necessitates information skills to be updated constantly and for new skills to be learned Read More
One Teacher’s Experience
Teaching is a fascinating profession; it comprises individuals who were all successful as students. Implicit in our concept of teaching is replicating for our students what proved successful for us. The reality, however, is that most of our students are not on the same path we are on (there are exceptions to this especially in Read More
What We Know About Effective Teachers #2
Your professional experiences in the field will serve you well as you teach. Your examples and stories will help your students understand the context of the ideas they study, see connections, and they will make your class more engaging and effective. Your experiences will limit you, also. We all adapt to the culture in which Read More
What We Know About Effective Teachers #1
Your experience with teachers and learning has been unique to you. The strategies your teachers used and the approaches you brought to your learning worked for you; you would not be in the position of teachers otherwise. Do not be fooled into thinking your path to becoming educated is the path that will work for Read More
On Teachers, Leaders, and Technology
In locations where computers, laptops, the Internet, handhelds, and related devices have penetrated into the consumer market, ICT has become a transparent part of life making it difficult to perceive its strong sociocultural influences. From inside one of those cultures, we hardly recognize the extent to which ICT changes how businesses buy and sell, performers Read More
Competence over Compliance
In courses organized around the instructionist recitation script, the ability of students to comply with the presented knowledge and provide expected answers is the valued outcome. In deeper, active, and authentic learning environments, students who show the greatest ability to apply multidimensional capacities to propose reasonable and fact-based solutions are the most competent learners. Mehlenbacher Read More
Teachers and Mindsets
I begin this post with three stories: First, I had an hour-long conversation with a teacher (while waiting for my son at the airport). He complained about students; he complained a lot. That is not unusual; all teachers have always complained about students, but this was different. He appeared to be blaming students for all Read More
Teachers’ Web Presence
Schools have a responsibility to ensure each educator has a functioning account and sufficient access and storage space to maintain this web presence on web servers provided by the school. Thing to remember about your web presence: Vet web sites before you link. Pay attention to language, bias, and discrimination that may not have been Read More