Out past the printed word are dozens of modes of expression available to our students. Just as school devalues play, it devalues the accumulation of unsanctioned knowledge and “critical” thought. Standards and scores are deck chairs. Moreover, reading and writing – perhaps, one day, even as embodied by coding – will all be done through [...]
[Author's note: I'm no Junot Diaz, but I'm not going to apologize for the few instances of non-institutional language below, either. Read on at your own risk.]
So let me first say, “Brava,” to the foundations, labs, organizations, and educators of all sorts who shared their walk on/walk out work at #DML2012. I think it’s unabashedly [...]
EduCon draws near and the calendar alarms go off. I am excited.
I still wonder how EduCon and other learning spaces can involve parents and children as deeply as they involve educators. Nevertheless, I’m happy to rejoin many friends in Philadelphia and I’m grateful for the opportunity to make new friends at EduCon.
I [...]
ESEA flexibility isn’t something that can be given; ultimately we have to decide for ourselves that as teachers we will not support the status quo – we will not bully students with our authority; we will not punish, sort, or otherwise coerce them with grades and all the other scheduling mechanisms we’ve tweaked to isolate [...]
Author’s note – much of what you’re about to read is inspired by the juxtaposition of articles featured on BoingBoing.
I spent this morning sharing iCivics and its marquee title, “Do I Have a Right?”, with local colleagues. “Do I Have a Right?” is an resource management game in which the player assumes control of a [...]
Plan with kids, not adults.
Analyze data with kids, not adults.
Iterate everything.
By iteration, eliminate everything not worth iterating.
Build purposeful communities that are for, rather than against.
Teach, learn, staff, and schedule to allow for rapid prototyping of the work.
Start the work with relationships and don’t stop prototyping humane approaches to them until each kid has a healthy [...]
Transforming our schools will take a groundswell of local action rather than a downpour of educational-industrial reforms.
Moreover, transforming our schools will take teachers. However, this transformation isn’t one that comes from job security or better standards or blended learning. This transformation will come from one decision at a time made by one teacher at a [...]
In public education, we face self-imposed obstacles to change. We also face a fiscal apocalypse – one time moneys are disappearing just as local revenue has. We’re not electing politicians likely to raise taxes. We’re electing politicians likely to cut muscle and bone.
Moreover, we’re going to experience confusion as a country about what it means [...]
Chad teaches humanities at a charter school and blogs on reforming classroom practice and democratic education.
