A Better Way to Ask Questions about Texts
On a recent classroom visit, I overheard a teacher asking the question, “Why did Brent decide to try to commit suicide?” The class was reading the book Whirligig, and the teacher was pushing students to understand the main character’s motivation in narrative texts....Legendary Coach and Mentor
This past holiday break, I visited my hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota and got a chance to sit down with an incredible coach and human being, Mike Berg, who spent 38 years coaching football and teaching young men and women not just X’s and O’s on the field but...Over or Under Prepared? It doesn’t matter. It takes time.
Like most teachers, I struggled my first year. My mentor, a veteran teacher, told me before my first day of classes to not show too much emotion, be overzealous, or do too much on the first day. As I walked away from his classroom door, he shouted, “Don’t smile until...Stop with the yes’s and no’s: how restating every response can buy teacher think time
“Okay, so how can we describe Kenny’s brother Byron?” the teacher asked. The class had just started reading Christopher Paul Curtis’s amazing novel “The Watsons Go To Birmingham–1963.” They were in the middle of the first chapter, and the...Pop quiz: What do the teachers in the Atlanta cheating scandal have in common with Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, and Tonya Harding?
Pop quiz: What do the teachers in the Atlanta cheating scandal have in common with Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, and Tonya Harding? Answer: They all wanted results. As an educator, I have a unique perspective on the mess unfolding in Atlanta. While I don’t condone...