AI reality

A couple of months ago, I asked a colleague to run an experiment for me. I asked her to give her students assignments and take-home tests with the regular admonitions about academic honesty but no real controls or checks. She then graded them as usual. At the end of the semester, she gave her students an in-class, supervised test on exactly those topics. I am sure you can see what's coming.

Happy Birthday

I had a coffee and dangerously delicious English muffin the other day with a former colleague. It was her birthday the day before and she showed me a video-text sent to her by former students, still at the school she left last year, wishing her a Happy Birthday and telling her she is the "best teacher ever" and that they "love" her. All very nice of course, but one thing troubles me.

Seeing the trees

A school nearby recently had to remove nearly all its trees because they were old and diseased and a risk to anyone nearby since they were likely to fall or to lose limbs at any times. They were nearly all planted at the same time so they all had to go together. When I saw all the piles of woody debris, I remembered the time I had a chance to plant a  number of trees.

It's all words

I just put in a proposal for a coaching gig with a medium-size charter school to re-orient their English Language Arts (ELA) program to one based on and around vocabulary development. Why, you ask? Well, it's a good idea and it integrates all the important elements of ELA.

Hiring consultants

For various reasons, people leave the classroom or the school or the district or the state department of education, and for various reasons some of those people then launch themselves as consultants. So far, so good. Free market. Willing seller, willing buyer and so on. However, not all who were once in education at any level good consultants make, and someone who is good at one thing may not be able to guide or to mentor in another. Some "consultants" can actually do real harm.

Nothing new under the sun - now it's equitable grading

Yesterday I was sent this article* and was not surprised to see yet another example of re-inventing the wheel in education, re-naming it, claiming credit and then monetizing it. This time it concerned evaluation and grading and the new name for the old hat is equity or equitable grading.

A lot of this is our fault

I have recently been watching Youtube videos, and this morning "the algorithm" suggested a commentary on US and international media, and in particular media literacy. Several of the speaker's points seemed accurate or at least sensible, however I was left asking about the thing of most interest to me as a teacher, school leader and I hope at least to some extent, as an educational influencer. She did not mention the role of schools and school programs in the various things of which she spoke.

Right Revisionism

As you know, I like to steer clear of non-educational politics and while what follows is prompted by politically-driven positions, my point is educational. And what rang my bell? A right-wing commentator this morning who alleged multiple times that the US / Trump must do x,y,z to Iran because they have done bad things vis-a-vis nuclear weapons in the last few years, and other bad things in and since 1979. Separately, others have said Israel can do and should do x,y,z to Palestinians because they were brutally attacked on October 7. 

Another reason reading is important

I had dinner the other evening with an old friend and she invited her neighbors who for some reason felt the urge to proclaim loudly and longly about their delight with the recent election results. But one of their claims required pushback. 

Dirty Play

I was just sent this article and it made me laugh and cry. Well, not literally, but perhaps you get my point. Children play. Yay. Children get dirty. Ok. School apologizes. Huh?

The importance of entry-level programming

Now that I am (kind of) retired, I have begun doing some consulting and I have the luxury of being able to choose projects which I find of interest. So the other day I began a short series of methodology-linked sessions with lower elementary teachers at a nearby public charter school group. It was interesting.

Floppy flopping

I was catching up with a former colleague the other day about early reading and the struggles her district is having. She was tasked with investigating several off-the-shelf plug-and-play programs, both US and foreign. One of the most famous and most successful around the world comes from the UK, Floppy Phonics, of which I had never heard.

We think it's learning; they think it's a grade

A school with which I am familiar is making a huge effort to change its focus from evaluation to learning (think NCLB in reverse). One of their strategies has been to move to outcomes and thus skills (or competencies) instead of simple recall and "stuff". Another has been to using performance statements (rubrics) rather than grades. The is to describe what a student has done so that s/he can see what can be done in addition to show improvement. Guess what happened.

Moving with the clouds

I wrote earlier about my colored preschool water initiative* which reminded me of my solar panel plan. About 25 years ago, when solar panels where quite rare, I devised a scheme aimed at our preschool and elementary students. The scheme would have made us the first school in the state to have a solar array, but instead of being economically-driven, my motivations were educational.

Yellow and red water with glitter

As I was washing some dishes this morning, I was reminded of something I once did in a preschool which lead to the barthrooms having yellow, red, mud-colored and sparkly water causing the students endless delight. 

Teacher questions

I consult to several schools and the other day. whilst rambling on about one of my favorite topics, I thought I should share my pearls here. To wit, the importance of teacher questions. I know that this hugely significant tool in the toolbox has been widely covered elsewhere, but my spin on it is slightly less widely-covered. You see, I think teachers should be asking fewer questions.

Condemn the transgression not the transgressor

This morning I was in my local supermarket and heard a stentorian admonition to the effect of, "You are a bad boy! You are very naughty!" Sure enough, I rounded the aisle-end to see a clearly-frustrated mother with a 5-ish year-old boy. I have no idea as to what he might have done, but I do recall a philosophy and set of practices I attempted to implement throughout my career.

High Quality Pre-School

I am doing a couple of consultancies at the moment in the Pre-School area, one with a new PS Director and the other with a Head of School who is planning on launching a PK - K program next year. Inevitably the question arises as what is a quality pre-school and or pre-school program.

Chat GPT

This artifical intelligence (AI) chat bot is really cat-amongst-pigeoning in the international community and while none of my friends or former colleagues have raised it with me, I have seen much clutching at pearls and wringing of hands in the media. Again, some of these concerns are misplaced.

Music and longevity

For years, I have been saying that music makes a child's brain bigger. Apparently, music also makes his/her brain live longer. This is another reason why music should be a core subject, at least in elementary school.