Why We Need Male Teachers – Repost
In part two of their series “Failing Boys”, the Globe and Mail tackles head on “The Endangered Male Teacher.” It discusses the dangers facing male teachers, but also the dangers for boys when they do not see males at the front of the classroom. “It is now possible for a child in Canada to go [...]
Is Your Classroom Sexist? – Repost
The puzzling difference between the achievement of boys vs girls in schools, serves as the intriguing topic for a six part series in the Globe and Mail. In this first article, theories are outlined in their attempts to explain the emerging and growing gender gap in education. “Theories abound to explain the new gender gap [...]
The Blame Game When Test Scores Drop
The fingers are pointing all around as teachers, administrators, and especially Alberta Education officials attempt to discern just what is the reason behind a continuous downward trend in Provincial Achievement Test scores. Some are blaming a deterioration in critical thinking skills. Alberta Education came out yesterday suggesting that “this might be due to an increased [...]
Reaching for the Stars???
This is a fantastic article in the Huffington Post by Sue Peters – asking what has happened to the way in which schools used to encourage students to reach for the stars. Instead – she argues that with too many standards and focus on tests, we are causing our children to waste their brains, squandering [...]
Bullying or Teasing?
Today we had an absolutely fantastic morning of professional development by Kimberly Eckert of the Eckert Centre on “Raising an Assertive Child.” She has many parenting workshops and this morning offered some insights to us as teachers on how we can properly handle conflict in the classroom. What an eye-opener it was for me! One [...]
Pay for Performance – An Exciting Change?
In an article on “Waiting for Superman”, Gracie Bonds Staples of the Atlanta Journal interviews director, Davis Guggenheim on the reasoning behind his movie and the hopes he for it to impact future change. His movie was motivated by the staggering discovery that so many schools were “broken,” and that not only had his mother [...]
Teachers to be Given Personality Tests???
In the United Kingdom, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary has insisted that principals “should have more confidence to tell the worst staff that “teaching is not for you”.” His credo on changing the education is entitled “The White Paper – The Importance of Teaching” and set out reforms to attempt to reinvigorate Education in the [...]
All Masters’ Profession?
This is an interesting question, brought up in an article from Britain where they too are shaking things up in the Education system. Do you think that teaching should be an all-master’s profession? In the article, it is suggested that “prospective teachers should be required to demonstrate their qualities through their academic achievements.” David Lambert, [...]
The Ugly Side of “Teacher Effectiveness” Scores
The LA Times has decided that it is the right of each and every tax-payer to know the “teacher-effectiveness” scores of the teaching professionals in their area. As a large public service, and one that commands a great deal of budgetary dollars, they believed that this heightened level of accountability would result in better education. [...]
Differentiated Salaries? Subject Hierarchies?
Unbelievable! This really grabbed my attention in the Washington Post as it commented on the fact that “New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s appeared on the “The View” this week to discuss New York City’s public schools. When the conversation turned to the issue of merit pay for teachers, he said, “Math and science [...]
