Shortly after World War I, American expatriate T.S. Eliot published The Wasteland, a work that came to embody the feelings of the age. The lights had gone out all over Europe, and there was a sense that nothing had changed, that the future didn’t promise hope, but more of the same.
It’s one of my favorite [...]
Zero tolerance = zero thought.
When even school officials admit it’s ridiculous, there’s a problem.
We don’t have this challenge. The cooks in the cafeteria rock, and though much of it might be reheated, a ton is made by hand, and there’s usually something tasty made by someone with talent.
It matters. You would be amazed at the number of kids who walk into school hungry. When parents are gone before [...]
6-2 Us. A solid game.
Varsity Field Hockey didn’t do as well. I needed to head home before the game was over, but they looked competitive… though what I know about field hockey could be counted on one hand.
The last twelve days have been spent dealing with the fallout of the last major assignment—and “fallout” is the best word for it. I was not at all pleased with the after effects of my experiment in assigning real work to my students.
For my college prep students— which is full of kids who represent [...]
So my students either missed a beat, or they’re feeling more confident about the material than they’re letting on.
For the last week and a half we’ve been dealing with two main ideas—Aristotle’s Rhetorical triangles, and looking at the Early Colonial period of American literature. We’ve used one to practice the other, with my kids struggling—and [...]
One thing schools give their community is a common place to come together, to remember that which we should. We forget, sometimes, how much we need a place for us to remember the things that unite us.
From Throughlines:
A group of teachers was discussing Daniel Pink’s TED Talk on motivation, in which he argues that the key factors in motivation are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. It occurred to me as we were talking that the laptops that our students carry around with them are uniquely powerful devices for encouraging and facilitating exactly [...]
One of the wonderful things about teaching is that students don’t stop being students in June. They stick around for far, far longer than that—fortunately.
Student: “Hale, you will be happy to know that my English class in college reminds me of the way you ran your classes…minus the stories about killing animals. =)”
Me: “I’m [...]
So night school went really well.
I’ve got six students—I can’t call them kids—who dropped everything they were doing in the evening and made a commitment to their education. I couldn’t help but be impressed from the first moment, and if that holds, then it should be a great program.
I could be wrong, [...]
It’s been awhile.
It often is, after summer, though it’s been harder getting going this year. Partly because some of the reasons that I originally started writing have dissipated—things are getting better in the Monadnock district, both in the building and in the individual classroom.
But—well, I could easily find things that need to be worked [...]
I was ambushed in the halls.
Normally, I see ambushes coming. I’m not quite as paranoid as I used to be¹, so I’ll usually let someone say my name before I turn and run.
Today, this turned out to be a serious mistake. Someone called out “Hale!” and rather than fleeing in panic, I turned around. [...]
I’m taking a poetry course at Keene State right now—and they’ll be two more courses this summer. I’ve found that the best way for me to recharge my batteries is to get back into the classroom as a student, to learn something amazing and new, and to come back frothing at the mouth to share [...]
One of the things I sometimes forget—and this is a flaw, I know it is, and I admit it, and I am working on it—is there’s more to life and success than college. Despite the fact dozens of my kids are making more money than I ever will, despite the fact home-ownership has taught me [...]
Convictions.
My dictionary has it as, “a firmly held belief or opinion.”
As I point out to my kids over and over again, a belief cannot be proved—it’s quite possible to have a wrong belief. Still, we all have them, and there’s a simple reason why: They’re a comfort. Our beliefs allow us to justify and [...]
Ignoring the following post would probably be a good idea. It’s about nothing in particular, nothing of any real value, other than me talking about some of my kids who have done well.¹ Most of the points (and there are points) won’t show up until Wednesday, and skipping to then probably wouldn’t harm anyone.
Still there? [...]
About a month ago, I reported that Miss Katrina Baumgartner and Miss Natale Novak had made it to the semi-finals of the speech content.
That semi-final round of the District Four Way Test Speech contest was held May 3 at the Henniker NH Community building. Twenty four young men and women participated from across District 7870 [...]
Out of nowhere, an acquaintance of mine sent me a college philosophy textbook. Given that the arrival of the book coincided with some long thoughts I’ve been having, it seemed fortuitous.
Philosophy is one of those big, barely visible gorillas in the educational room. I remember preparing to student teach, and needing to write an “educational [...]
In case it wasn’t clear, MRHS has a number of exceptional educators. Most of us knew that already, but it’s nice when it’s recognized by others outside of the school.
In this case, Mr. Andy Harrison. Aside from being an astoundingly engaging teacher¹, Andy was also one of (if not the) driving force behind the Law [...]
