What is the school that children deserve? It is not a difficult question. Children can answer the question. Teachers can answer the question. Parents can answer the question. Employers and college admission personnel can answer the question. Interestingly, each of … Continue reading
Children Deserve Better Schools Than They Get
Read This Summer or Fall Further Behind
It’s mid-May and everyone at school is counting down the days. Zero is the last day of school or the first day of summer vacation; it depends upon your goals. Summer officially starts for children and their families, and teachers … Continue reading
The Parent Side of Educational Reform
In the movie Moneyball, Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, says to Art Howe, the team’s coach, “If you don’t win the last game of the season, nobody gives a damn.” Coach Howe responds, “So, now it’s on … Continue reading
Growing a Teaching Tool – Task Analysis
What am I supposed to think about this and where do I begin? This question finds its way into our thinking on many occasions, especially when we are responsible for the success of children. Often the words of others assist … Continue reading
Growing a Teaching Tool – Critical Attributes of What Is To Be Learned
If you are ready and prepared to do something important, the doing is much easier and the result is much more likely to be exactly what you anticipated it would be. Readiness points a person toward success! We can learn … Continue reading
Time, Tide and the Common Core Standards Wait for No Teacher!
Have you ever had that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that a small disaster is imminent? The dream is real. I woke in a sweat the other night. A consistent dream of incompetence haunts my sleep now … Continue reading
Growing a Teaching Tool – Readiness for Next Learning
Do you really know if a child is ready for the next instruction? Teaching Tool – Conceptualizes and connects appropriate instructional designs to the learning needs of a diverse array of children, including motivation for learning, reinforcement, retention and transfer … Continue reading
The Need to Grow Teaching Tools
In 1970 the baby boom bulge was in full bloom and there was a national teacher shortage. Recruiters from all over the United States visited the University of Iowa campus with employment contracts in their pockets. By May 1, I … Continue reading
Connecting Great Teachers with Children is Getting More Difficult Everyday
Perhaps Charles Dickens gazed into a crystal ball and squinted at public education in Wisconsin in 2013 when he penned these words to begin A Tale of Two Cities in 1859. “It was the best of times, it was the … Continue reading
Snow days are a tough call
When I was a working school superintendent, I would rise in the dark on mornings when significant snowfall was predicted and drive the back roads to discern if school buses would be able to drive their morning routes. My priority … Continue reading