This is going to be American-centric. I’m sorry about that. The assumptions I make about how the world works are shaped by my environment. I know they’re not always global perspectives. And in this case, that shows more than usual. We should probably start with the primary source. Here’s the text of the first amendment to the US Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting … Continue reading Free Speech
One of the recent trends in schools has been the creation of a “portrait of a graduate.” This is a process through which a school district, with input from students, teachers, administrators, parents, and community members, defines the characteristics we want our students to leave us with. Usually, an outside consultant is brought in to help the school through this process. The consultant helps brainstorm … Continue reading The Problem of the Portrait
I’ve been a little obsessed with Corwin’s Visible Learning MetaX since Matthew Mays shared it at a conference last month. I’ve been skeptical of Hattie’s work in the past, and to some extent, I still am. Recall that Hattie’s work centers around distilling all of the research around education, and analyzing meta-analyses to draw conclusions about what works in education. When you keep summarizing and … Continue reading What Should We Stop Doing?
Two years ago today, Ohio had its first three confirmed Covid cases. Two days later, Ohio reported that we now had four cases. No one was saying that we had one new case; the reporting centered around the total. “But how do we know if things are getting better or worse?” I wondered. If we’re only reporting the totals, we don’t know how fast the … Continue reading Tracking Covid Cases
I carry my work life in my backpack. I try to make sure it has everything I need, everywhere I go. If I’m in a school or at a meeting or in a coffee shop, my backpack has all the stuff. If I’m at home and something comes up that needs my attention, I can grab whatever I need from my bag. It works well … Continue reading Cleaning Out the Backpack
A few weeks ago, I had a request to remove Zoom from our student devices, and block students from reinstalling it. “We’re never going back to that,” the teacher explained. Apparently the fifth graders are using the chat function in Zoom to talk to one another, which she wants to stop. By “that,” she meant remote schooling. At the start of the pandemic, we leaned … Continue reading Unzoomed
Snow days are magic. There aren’t many things that remind us how unimportant we are. But that call from the school changes everything. Suddenly, that homework assignment isn’t due for another day. The test has been postponed. The faculty meeting will be rescheduled (or, maybe it won’t). Basketball practice won’t be happening. Depending on the home situation, Mom and Dad might go into a panic. … Continue reading Snow Days
Years ago, my elementary schools were very fond of Accelerated Reader. Students would read a book from the Accelerated Reader list, and then take an online quiz that measured reading comprehension. If they passed the quiz, they were awarded points for reading the book. When they reached certain levels, they received certificates, awards, and other prizes. This was much easier to manage than reading logs … Continue reading What Do Grades Mean?
As we work through plans to replace SMART Boards in our classrooms, I was reflecting today on the classroom environment that they were installed to support. In my schools, we had dabbled with interactive whiteboards for a few years, but the first major initiative to install them was in 2007. And though it took several years before they had expanded to every classroom, it was … Continue reading Smarter Boards
Apparently, today is “National Shoot Up Your School Day.” News outlets are reporting that schools are stepping up security following a rash of viral threats circulating on the TikTok platform. The ones who have spent more than 15 seconds researching their news stories are also including a statement from law enforcement saying they are aware of the issue, but have seen no credible threats. Schools … Continue reading How Do You Know?
I received a letter in the mail from my car’s manufacturer. They’re issuing a safety recall to repair a condition involving the Smart Junction Box: The Smart Junction Box software logic may not properly interpret the signals received from the multifunction switch in certain circumstances. As a result, the turn signal may intermittently activate in the opposite direction of what was intended by the driver. … Continue reading Software Update
“Why does the wifi go down every day?” I was caught off-guard. The wifi doesn’t go down every day. The wifi doesn’t really ever go down. Occasionally, we’ll have a problem with an access point, but one of the other ones just picks up the slack automatically until the problem is fixed. I checked the logs. The wifi is fine. “It must be the Internet, … Continue reading Wicked Problems
Taste of Tech 