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Evaluating Teachers with VAM: Variable Ambiguous Mistake
Anyone who has read this blog before is probably aware of my position on the use value-added measurement for teacher evaluation. I have argued many times here, and in Teacher Magazine, that politicians, self-styled education reformers, and members of the general public are ill-informed if they believe that we can use state tests to determine [...]
Continue reading...A Teacher’s Field Guide to Parents
13. August 2010
Teachers would be foolhardy to label parents as either good or bad. Not all parents are created equal and cannot be categorized on a single spectrum. To do so would jeopardize a teacher’s ability to survive. Literally. I mean, I’m talking life or death here. You see, when normally mild mannered and reasonable people become [...]
Continue reading...Emerging Trend: Teachers as Advocates
15. June 2010
(This piece was originally published at Cooperative Catalyst.) I keep waiting on the invitation: Who: Teachers What: Education Reform Policy Party Where: Wonk Circles All Over When: NOW! Why: We want YOU to help envision & shape the next generation of schools. The paradox, of course, is that as the reformation of education garners greater [...]
Continue reading...The Acronym’s Missing a Letter: W(riting)
28. May 2010
I’m proposing something radical. I’m recommending we consider something that may not fit into a nifty acronym. For some time, educators and those interested in influencing schools’ curricular foci, have suggested significant instructional redirection, often with an acronym that supposedly creates education’s needed compass. The most famous of these, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), has [...]
Continue reading...Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution
24. May 2010
The next installment of Sir Ken Robinson’s take on schooling, learning, teaching, and the revolution (not evolution) of education. He softens his deconstruction of our education system with humor, though he looses non of his poignancy. Among the insights: We are building our education system around a fast food model, where everything is standardized, yet [...]
Continue reading...Collaboration Agent
14. May 2010
This post is cross-posted from www.joebower.org Collaboration is a very important skill to have. If you are a teacher or parent, you know how cumbersome group projects can be. Sometimes the project itself is the least of our concerns. But is it possible to collaborate too much? I took some class time to show my [...]
Continue reading...Coming Soon to a School Near You: Big Ed
12. May 2010
Corporate America has given us Big Banks (banks too big to fail) & Big Pharma (a pharmaceutical industry too big to fight). Coming soon to a school near you, courtesy of corporate America: Big Ed
Continue reading...What Makes a Master Teacher?
10. May 2010
This post was originally written by myself, George Couros, on my blog, “The Principal of Change”, on April 24, 2010. I am honored to have been asked to cross-post this to the Ecology of Education blog. Hope you enjoy it! The term “master teacher” seems to get thrown around a lot, but is something that [...]
Continue reading...The Problem with Infinity
6. May 2010
In his book The Dip, Seth Godin writes, “the problem with infinity is that there’s too much of it.” He ends up talking mostly about business and markets, but his point is not lost on education. The trouble with focusing on content as the primary role of education is that there is an infinite amount [...]
Continue reading...In Teaching, Impact Matters
23. April 2010
1986. That was a big year for me. I was 12, in sixth grade, liked Garfield, Opus the Penguin, was “going” with a boy named Kevin, liked Zingers and Corn-nuts, loved my class and my friends, and had suffered a pointed moment of tween angst when my mom made me wear a training bra to [...]
Continue reading...The Multi-Dimensional Job of Teaching
22. April 2010
Today, a guest repost from Trudy Norton, from her site Mrs. Norton’s Blog. She wrote this insightful piece about a day/life of a public school teacher in response to FL Senator John Thrasher’s comments following Crist’s veto of his bill, SB6. However, this piece speaks to all teachers, be they Floridians, Texans, Iowans, or humans. Response to [...]
Continue reading...Teacher Accountability? It’s About Time!
20. April 2010
Once upon a time teachers assigned grades, and that was pretty much that. Oh, occasionally a kid would argue that a particular grade was unfair, or complain so loudly that parents or an administrator would get involved, but that was relatively rare. About a generation ago, acceptance of teacher judgment about the quality of student [...]
Continue reading...Why Florida Schools Were Left Behind in the Race to the Top
5. April 2010
It came as quite a surprise for some when Florida was not listed among the winners of Race to the Top. What went wrong? A look at Senate Bill 6 & House Bill 7189, reveals Florida’s failure to collaborate.
Continue reading...How to Use Classroom Assessment Techniques in Your Classroom
2. April 2010
Nathan Grimm is a full time program manager for SR Education Group, a organization that helps professionals make wise education choices through online degrees and online college reviews. You can follow me on Twitter @n8ngrimm. Joe Bower just did a great post questioning the educational system’s current emphasis on summative assessment techniques. He raises some [...]
Continue reading...10 Gaps in Education (that don’t get enough press)
24. March 2010
Not all gaps are created equal. Here is a handy guide to 10 gaps in education that not everyone knows about, but have a major impact on schools, teachers & students.
Continue reading...Intrinsic Motivation and Autonomy
22. March 2010
Teachers and parents complain regularly that their students or children show a lack of initiative. They aren’t self-starters and seem to need more and more kicks-in-the-ass to get motivated. What we may not realize, is that we may to blame.
Continue reading...Destructive Grading Schemes
15. March 2010
Teachers have what seems like an infinite number of assessment schemes at their disposal, and unfortunately most of these schemes revolve more around managing grades than encouraging learning. Today, I wish to debunk a certain kind of scheme. Have you ever heard of a teacher who subscribes to this kind of assessment practice? Good morning [...]
Continue reading...The Folly of Rubrics and Grades
11. March 2010
Before I abolished grades, I went through my rubrics stage. I was convinced I could solve my assessment problems if I could just fine-tune my rubric production. I struggled for months trying to create ‘student-proof’ rubrics that would allow me to consistantly assess their learning. I can’t say that the time I spent on rubrics was a waste – because I learned a lot – but what I learned is that rubrics have little to no place in the classroom…
Continue reading...Critical Transformations: 15 Tools
10. March 2010
Major seismic shifts can transform educators, and by proxy, instruction. However, more often than not, it’s just the opposite. Here are 15 implementable small steps that lead to transformation.
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29. August 2010
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