May 2011 Blog Posts (45)

whether we imagine we have one or not, there are certain people, phrases, images and events which shape our world view about the way we educate/teach/instruct/train/mentor.

I was recently reminded of mine, and so thought i'd share.  Whilst it includes a great proverb about learning, it is the title of the exhibition that has stuck with me as my…

students worry whether you’ll still come in, after you take off from work in the morning?



the way they greet you excitedly when you finally arrive?…

Lynn Mikel Brown wrote an article for Education Week several years ago which I recently came across while doing research for the blog. Brown was the co-founder of a nonprofit organization created to provide a safe space for young girls to learn and grow with the emphasis being on developing resiliency to thrive in the complex social fabric of the 21^st century.

In the article, Brown expresses her concerns about the current bully prevention movement and its increasingly…

My teacher partner and good friend, Tammy Erickson, summed it up perfectly when she said “I don’t think I have a single bully at my elementary school, based on the definition of bullying as a coercive relationship based on power and control. I think we need to stop arbitrarily using the word bullying in elementary school. What I do have to deal with are a lot of naughty, rude and socially challenged students who struggle academically and take it out on each other”.

Science Daily…

Webster defines bullying as A) “to treat abusively” and B) “to affect by means of force or coercion”. I’m not an expert in linguistics but that seems like a significant difference. It reminds me of President Obama’s speech the other day where he referred to himself as a former victim. Of course, I don’t know the whole story and there may be more to it, but on the surface it sounds like he was experiencing definition A rather than B.



Yes, it’s tough when kids make fun of your ears…

May 22, 2011

Every Year, our church, WACC, coördinates a Serve Weekend Project in May. This year I choose to partner with a Non-Profit organization in our community, WRHAP, and be the SERVE Leader on this project. This event was scheduled to be held on Saturday, May 21.

The clients that are served by …

www.ehabernig.wikispaces.com

resources for teachers by grade level and subject

Somewhere along the way we created an educational mindset around practice and homework that determined that if we don’t count it, the students won’t do it. This idea that everything counts is wrought with misrules and situation that make accurate grades a near impossibility. In so many other aspects of life – fine arts, athletics - we value the impact and importance of practice.  It seems odd that in…

Here is my issue with Late Penalties being applied to student work. If we are going to reduce an entire course worth of work down to one symbol for the purpose of reporting, should we not at the very least ensure that the grade is accurate?  Late Penalties lead to inaccuracy, which leads to deflated grades, which distorts the students’ achievement; their true ability to meet the intended learning outcomes.  In most…

What is Animoto?…

…that you wouldn’t hear in any other profession!

Every profession has a way of doing business that makes the profession unique; education is no different.  That said, every profession can also become insulated, then isolated and then develop habitual ways of thinking that don’t make sense in other walks of life.

Over the years I’ve thought about a few of things we say as educators (not all of us, of course) that don’t really make sense in other professions.   These examples are…