Schoolwide Blog

Yetta Goodman On Testing Pressures & Professional Motivations

 

 

I think that what I was saying {in earlier posts} link here about the teacher who knows a lot about reading and learning and who has a strong belief system also goes for teachers who have other motivations like:

"I need to stay in this classroom because this is my job and I have to work so I'm going to do what I'm told to do. I'm not going to question very much.  If somebody gives me a text book and tells me that somebody at the university of Oregon wrote it, I'm going to assume that it's a good textbook and I'm going to use it."

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What kind of teaching do you do out of the classroom? On Obama's Race To The Top. By Yetta Goodman

 

I used to be a day camp counselor many many years ago. In fact my husband and I met as day camp counselors at the Jewish centers association in Los Angeles and we saw kids doing all kinds of learning when they were hiking, when they were doing all kinds of projects in outdoor situations More...

Teach, Tape, & Win $5000 In The Schoolwide Network Video Contest

Win a $5,000 gift certificate form teacherwide.com for books and educational materials for your Classroom, School, or District! Judged by an esteemed panel of educators, which includes Angela Johnson, Doreen Rappaport, Dr. Linda Bausch, Georgia Heard, and more, the Schoolwide video contest guarantees the same quality we have provided to teachers for almost two decades.

Learn more about our judges here and preview this great video by judge Robin Cohen.

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Are we listening? What Matters Most To You?

As we have been developing this teaching community project and our forthcoming video site, we have been trying our best to provide teachers with not only interesting and useful content but also a tool to foster communication and express their concerns about the rapidly changing educational landscape. We have been closely monitoring not only the teachers inside the Schoolwide family but elsewhere on the web. Topics like resistance to reading, 21st century learning, literacy, and writing skills are just a few of the issues that emerge.  The video below, with an interesting intro from the Library of Congress talks about how Colorado educators began asking why 21st century learning matters about a year ago. What do you think about this issue? More importantly: are we doing a good job of addressing the issues you care about?  In other words, what matters most to you?

Carpenters, Tools, and Teaching: Technology Doesn't Replace The Teaching

If its a poor carpenter who blames his tools what does this say about our teachers?

As we explore what technology can to to aid the professional development efforts of teachers as well as how teachers might use it in the classroom, it's important to note that with teaching along with any tech. . . is about the endusers not the tool. This is to say no technology can ever replace the innovative teaching minds who use them--or the less than inspired folks who use them badly. There was a great post on this yesterday on the Edurati Review from 4th grade teacher Kelly Hines.

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