As of this year, high school seniors in New Mexico have to pass a standardized test to get a diploma. At first glance, this seems like a good thing. A kid shouldn’t graduate high school without a certain level of proficiency in reading and math, at least, and requiring them to pass the test requires…
read more »Week one of teaching is complete. I almost missed the bus on the first teaching day. I usually get up around 4:40 to catch the bus at 5:45…I slept through my alarm and didn’t wake up until 5:30, yet somehow I made it. I was observed my first day and got mostly positive feedback. I…
read more »In my summer school classes, we have students who just finished second grade who can’t add 8 + 6, who can’t tell the difference between a card that says “brain” and a card that says “lung” even when there are pictures that go with it, and, most upsettingly, who don’t know all the letters of…
read more »Here goes: why is teaching now different from teaching in the 1950s? This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but I’m serious. Maybe my picture of ’50s classrooms is way off the mark (confession: it’s coming from movies), but I have this picture that back in the day kids sat in rows, teachers taught…
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