Aug

29

Any principal’s kids out there?

August 29, 2006 | 3 Comments

So my son enters ninth grade this year, in my building. Hmmm. Any ideas on what we can do to make this work? We have a great relationship and I’d pretty much like that to continue.
In the scope of what my some of my students have to deal with, being the principal’s kid hardly compares. I’m just [...]

Aug

29

Who’s going to own the responsibility of technology integration?

August 29, 2006 | 7 Comments

After a long weekend, I thought I would sign on tonight and just read through everything on my Bloglines. No time to write, just read what everyone else is thinking about as school begins. And of course there was a Will Richardson post on Weblogg-ed.com that got me thinking and then responding.
Will writes about technology integration, “I [...]

Aug

23

I’m really tired of managing spam!

August 23, 2006 | 3 Comments

Someone please tell me what I can do about spam! I tried the auto-close plug-in, better yet one of our terrific tech support people tried to set it up for me, and it didn’t work. I’m realizing that as school starts, I’m going to be more irritated by the spam that I have to manage [...]

Aug

23

Blogging as I present it to teachers

August 23, 2006 | 1 Comment

I read a great article in the September 2006 issue of Classroom Connect’s Newsletter by Bud Hunt entitled “Blogging for Professional Development”. I’ve been thinking about my opening day meeting with teachers and wondering how I can succinctly describe blogging to a varied audience.  A very few of my teachers are still struggling with email. So [...]

Aug

17

Student apathy? Not today.

August 17, 2006 | 2 Comments

This is the second August that we’ve offered the Regents exams to our students, free of charge. For those outside of New York State, these are the state exams that our students must pass to graduate. Also, the scores achieved and Regents courses/exams taken indicate the diploma type for graduation. The exams include Comprehensive English, Math B, [...]

Aug

15

How many students may I leave behind?

August 15, 2006 | 3 Comments

So how many dropouts does it take to deem a school a failure? Really. I get the NCLB requirements and the close focus New York State has on graduation rate. I pay close attention to our data, but more important, to our students. We all spend a great deal of our time and energy keeping [...]

Aug

9

Let’s just ignore the whole technology gig.

August 9, 2006 | 3 Comments

So I stopped in at one of Will Richardson’s sessions with teachers this morning and I was trying to imagine what those who were quiet were thinking. I imagine some were thinking there’s no way I’m ever going to use this in the classroom, it’s too much work without enough benefit. I imagine others were [...]

Aug

2

And more to the point. . .

August 2, 2006 | 5 Comments

In “On Board”, published by the New York State School Board Association, President Carl Onken writes in his commentary “Said the Education Trust’s Kati Haycock, ‘The research shows that kids who have two, three, four strong teachers in a row will eventually excel, no matter what their background, while kids who have even two weak [...]

Aug

2

What do you expect of yourself?

August 2, 2006 | 3 Comments

I swear to you when my fourteen-year-old son hears me mentioning blogging, he covers his head with a pillow, his hands, anything he can get. Not that he’s adverse to the idea, he’s just sick of hearing about it.
This makes me think about fourteen year old children in general and the fact that I have [...]