I recently received the email below from a colleague and friend. It caused me much sadness and not a little anger. Debbie Franks, Editor Hi There, This whole morning thing just ick. Our instructional coach has delusions of grandeur and a superiority complex. Ugh. To sum up the morning our instructional coach had the audacity to […]
Twenty-six days to go. Well, it’s time. It’ll all be in good hands with Tanner here, and whoever would have thought, in the year 1998, that I would be saying that? Well, he straightened himself out; most of the time I guess they do. Guess I did the same thing myself, for that matter, although […]
I knew it was going to happen that way. Seven people, all sitting in a circle looking up at me, and even though I’d taken my pill an hour ahead like Dr. Merrill prescribed, my hands started sweating and shaking as soon as I walked in. I wasn’t sure who to look at, and it […]
At the alternative high school in a midwestern city where I’d been working for five years, I had developed a unit on social activism through letter writing, introducing my students to various issues in the U.S. and around the world in which I’d hoped they’d take an interest and feel moved to speak out. Each […]
At every faculty meeting we discuss: how to get the Twos to Three? That’s what it comes down to in AYP. We hardly even whisper any more: it’s all a bunch of crap. It’s meaningless. By 2014 every public school in the country will have Failed, not having moved a large enough percentage (100) […]
In the late 60’s, the Federal government was pushing the Teacher Corps program. In return for a two year commitment to teach in inner city schools, you would receive a tuition free Master’s degree in urban education in evening classes. I was finishing my year as a Vista Volunteer in West Virginia, and the thought […]