Jon Mitzmacher's Blog (9)

It is reasonable to conclude that there are various philosophies about what the purpose of homework ought to be and that there is ample research to be found supporting just about them all.  For our school, however, the conversation comes with a context.  Considering who we are and what we believe to be true about teaching and learning, what ought to be the role of homework here?

Like all preceding vital conversations, this…

Each afternoon between 1 and 1:30 PM, I receive an email from "Naomi Shemer".   Not the Naomi Shemer.  From the iPad in our school named "Naomi Shemer".

See?

One of our founding 21st century learning teachers, …

Let me begin by giving full credit to this blog post to Andrea Hernandez, our Director of  Teaching & Learning, not only for most of the ideas, but the links as well.  We are finishing up planning for next Friday's scheduled "Professional Development" Day - an annual day of school without students, dedicated to…

I was meeting on Friday with Andrea Hernandez, our Director of Teaching & Learning (formally "21st Century Learning" - we are trying to message that "21st Century Learning" is synonymous with "Teaching & Learning"), who chided me for not role modeling what was expected of all our faculty.  Namely, where was my evidence for my own summer learning!

I blogged, …

On September 13th, I will officially participate in No Office Day!

David Truss first posted a blog here, describing in words and pictures his experience with a "No Office" Day and challenging the rest of us principals and heads to do the same.  This challenge has been picked up by PEJE, whose guest blogger on August 19th, …

I spent an hour yesterday working with our Academic Resource Specialist trying to decide exactly which set of scoring results will make the most amount of sense for the battery of standardized tests our students have now completed.

One hour.

What should be cross-checked with what and which version should be sent to whom?Longitudinal data over how many different data points in which sections from when to when?  Do we err on the side of sharing too much…

Time is a zero-sum game.

Whatever time is available for one thing automatically makes less of it available for something else.  The time I spend consulting with other schools (which is now beginning to happen with some small measure of regularity) is time I am not sitting in my own classrooms.  The time I spend writing grants, planning conference presentations, and dreaming dreams is time I am not collaborating with teachers.  The time I spend Tweeting and blogging is time I…