Screentime, lockdown and COVID

Recent events have forced children to spend more time in front of a screen and the first results or studies should be coming out soon. I have a suspicion as to one of the things we will learn.

Why do teachers teach?

I saw an interesting study a few years ago about the average educational level of teachers 50 years ago compared to today. It was higher then.

How young is too young?

Education based on birthdays is just bizarre and I suggest is anti-child. Children should learn, do activities, join classes based on their appropriateness and not on some calendar square.

Apologies for the silence

You may notice a gap in time between my last post and this, and you may even be asking yourself, "why?".

Another angle to the Zuckerberg LLC

Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he is donating his vast fortune to and through an LLC instead of a non-profit like a 501-c-3. He says that this is to allow him to invest these funds rather than simply to give them away. However, he may well have another reason.

Where evaluation meets merit pay

I have written previously about merit pay for teachers, and about teacher compensation in general. Today I read an article, based on the results of a serious UK study and analysis, which provides recent and concrete evidence of the problems of linking pay to student "performance".

Teacher retention

Business sees value in customer retention; studies have shown that new customer recruitment costs 5 - 30 times as much as keeping an existing customer. Surely the same is true of teachers, especially when the processes of understanding and adapting to a new school and a new culture and of developing relationships with superiors, colleagues, students and parents, all of which can take two years, are taken into account. So how can schools improve teacher retention?

The Vahey Report Two

Further to my earlier post on the William Vahey pedophilia case at a school in the UK, I have read a report of the official report. Unsurprisingly, the blame was attached to the Principal for a failure of supervision and action. However, I think some blame should also be apportioned to teachers' common rejection of a Principal's efforts at supervision and action.

Again, what is a school to do?

I was prompted to write earlier following news reports of a three year-old's repeated preschool suspensions. I was reminded of a situation where I was forced to expel a young student for his behaviors. He was only five.

What is a school to do?

There have been a number of shock / horror stories and reactions to a recent story about a three year-old who has been suspended from preschool five times. All have focused on his age and his color. None that I have seen have considered the position in which the teacher(s) and school have found themselves.