Courage

If not now, when? I’m committing to selling my art work. I’m committing to being myself. Even though, of course what that self is remains mysterious. What is a self that I can know it? This fierce creativity that burns remains mysterious. It frightens me. But denying it any longer is futile. I surrender to… Continue reading Courage

New wine, old skins #3: The core of schooling

I’m hoping to get to the point today. As I said, it’s a complicated argument. All that I’ve written so far is the same thing I’ve been saying for 20 years. But my recent experiences as a long-term substitute at an urban middle school, teaching 7th and 8th grade science, lead me to conclude that… Continue reading New wine, old skins #3: The core of schooling

Old Wine in New Skins Part 2

Yesterday I didn’t get to the point of the post. Perhaps today. NGSS and Common Core are grounded in particular assumptions about learning. These assumptions include: * All people can learn; learning is a characteristic of humans; * People learn by integrating new knowledge into existing knowledge; * Asking and seeking to answer questions results… Continue reading Old Wine in New Skins Part 2

Transformative Teaching

Today I had occasion to remember one of the best adult teaching experiences of my career. I was working as an adjunct at Cal State Northridge while I was ABD. I taught a combined math and science methods class for prospective bilingual teachers. My experience teaching elementary mathematics was using the Montessori method, pretty much… Continue reading Transformative Teaching

what is teaching anyway? (complicated argument 2)

Yesterday I ranted about politics, the reason being that education is crucial to our continued existence as a semi-democracy. The specter of a fascist, conspiracy-theory driven regime in Washington is so beyond horrifying to me. I noticed today that a group of teachers of the year have broken their own rules about remaining neutral in… Continue reading what is teaching anyway? (complicated argument 2)

a complicated argument

It’s going to take many posts to make the argument about why teacher education is “failing.” See my post from yesterday The first thing I want to say is that I respect one of the impulses that drives people to support Trump, that is, the feeling that corporations are completely in control of government. This… Continue reading a complicated argument

First Donald Trump, Now This

My good friend Charles texted me that he had read about how Finland has much better teacher education, and the NY Times had an editorial stating that low quality teacher education in the US is the cause of well, I don’t know, monumentally STUPID people? (That’s not exactly what the Times said. That’s what I… Continue reading First Donald Trump, Now This