“How many times must I repeat this before you will learn it?” I have heard these words thousands of times, sometimes when I was a child in school and many more times as a career educator. Interestingly, “how many times…” … Continue reading
Stop Repeating Yourself
Teach Children to Make an Academic Argument – 2.0
Make an argument = give a speech. Make an argument = write a paper. Make an argument = succeed in a debate. Make an argument = collaborate with others. Make an argument = real world skill. The ability of a … Continue reading
Teach Children to Argue Well – 1.0
Teach children to argue because they really do not know how. Sounds ludicrous! Not so much. Children know how to talk. They think that talking louder and longer and saying the same things over and over again is arguing. Standing … Continue reading
Filling In a Child’s Background Knowledge Deficit
When I say these words to an adult, “… there is a way of walking with crutches so that your arms hold your weight and not your shoulders,” I can quickly separate those who have experience with walking with crutches … Continue reading
Render Unto Caesar and Then Do the Right Work
Sir Ken Robinson is compelling. He is concise and concrete while ingeniously illuminating the concepts he very successfully develops in his publications and media presentations. He is believable and makes a believer of me. Recently, I viewed his You Tube … Continue reading
Learn Today or Lose the Day
“A day that you tarry is a day that you lose.” (Jeremiah Johnson, film -1972). Or, for a child, no time passes faster than a day of summer vacation and it is almost impossible to think about school and learning … Continue reading
A Moonlight Graham Smile
I am assigned to them and they are assigned to me. We meet at the same time every week day for almost nine months, rain or shine. I am supposed to help them; they are supposed to profit from my … Continue reading
Bad Bananas Can Rot the Bunch
Thanks to State Senator Luther Olsen for his likening the Wisconsin legislature to a banana republic, and not the clothing store. Senator Olsen referred to the legislature about face relative to its partisan decision to countermand its 2011 decision to … Continue reading
Numerically Finished
Runs. Touch downs and conversions. Two-point and three-point shots and free throws. Strokes. Goals. Percentage of correct responses. When everything is reduced to points, there always is a numerical end. Sometimes the end is when the numbers of time on … Continue reading
Real School Royalty
School royalty. Lords and Ladies of the school house. The concept of school royalty seems incongruous with public education. Yet, schoolhouse royalty does exist and it exists in every school. Ask any person who has spent significant time in a … Continue reading