So it’s not a bad idea:
Starting this fall, you’ll have a new reason to trust the information you find on Wikipedia: An optional feature called “WikiTrust” will color code every word of the encyclopedia based on the reliability of its author and the length of time it has persisted on the page.
My problem isn’t Wikipedia [...]
There are points I agree with, and a great many more that I don’t. I think we can make better schools without sending people into the workforce at 13. But it’s worth a watch.
Is anyone still listening to Newt? Hmm.
When I was in college, I worked at Johnathan Daniels elementary. By some odd chance, there was a first grade class that was all boys. The teacher and I were always astounded by how well everything went. In her words, “Maybe that whole ‘gender separated classroom’ idea wouldn’t be the wrong way to go.”
Boys are [...]
One of these summers, I’m going to have a vacation the way that people who aren’t teachers think teachers enjoy.
But it isn’t this one.
Upward Bound first, since it is the primary reason that I have the time to type right now and not teach. At this moment (as best I can tell from [...]
Today the students moved in, officially starting the summer at Upward Bound.
This is year two for me, and though nothing is quite as new as it was last year, I still feel like I approach everything with a fresh-eyed wonder. To some extent, this is because every year is different—always a host of new faces, [...]
After a long delay, the photos are available. As I said before, all proceeds go to the school.
The images are available at Monadnock Imaging with the event code MRHS2009.
Let me know if there are problems.
This is coming—and acting as—a weekly update, and that’s fine, though it is a little more focused than that. Certainly, it’s been a week dominated by the events that came to fruition at graduation, and this is as it should be. Although the diploma is only an outward sign of the learning that has taken [...]
One of the things I think our public school system must do well is to train men and women to be citizens in a democracy. It sounds like an easy task (all it takes is being born, right?) but it’s deceptive. One of the primary arguments against democracy and freedom for thousands of years were [...]
There will be next year.
What’s done was more than the end.
Well done, gentlemen.
I’ve been watching re-runs of The West Wing for the past several weeks, and I’ve finally gotten to season four.
I watch the show for a number of reasons, though mostly because Aaron Sorkin is an amazing playwright. The ability of the man to write dialogue makes me weep, and he’s one of the writer [...]
I’m posting this on the sixth of June, 2009. Sixty-five years ago today, more than 150,000 men, not much older than the children who sit in my classroom, stormed the beaches or Normandy.
Many did not come home.
What we do every day, we’re able to do because of the sacrifices of those who came [...]
MRHS Lacrosse has done phenomenally well, if you weren’t paying attention. After an undefeated season, they defeated Lebanon yesterday 18–3 to move into the finals.
The rain kept many people away, but I appreciate the fact that they took the time to recognize the seniors—and their parents—who played so long and worked so hard. It was [...]
Over at NYC Educator, there was an interesting post about authority in the classroom.
I’ve spent a good chunk of time in the kind of classroom where there are clear rules and they’re followed. I can say that the mood, the atmosphere of safety, of certainty that behavioral expectations will be met is wonderful—and [...]
Now is that not cool or what?
That’s a gift from three classes. That’s something that says what we’re about, what the school can and will be.
That’s not embarrassing from the road. That’s not “mondo-cock.”¹
That’s very, very cool.
1 Around graduation, might be wise to post guards… ↺
Lunch is a tough time.
Don’t get me wrong—I love the lunch period at MRHS, and always have. The lunch program is fantastic—the quality, nutrition, and speed of the program is years ahead of what it was when I was a student, and the people who are there are uniformly fantastic.
And it’s not dealing with [...]
I had a partial conversation with a student the other day.
The student in question had no real idea where I was coming, and probably didn’t see anything of deeper significance in the conversation we were having. On its face, it was about vocabulary, about the meaning of words—and the student not understanding why we were [...]
It’s nice to know that, when people can’t get a real job, they’re willing to turn to teaching. Can’t get that six figure salary? No problem—go teach. It’s like working at McDonalds—it’ll get you by until something real comes along.
I’ve no problem with service—actually, a year or two of mandatory national service would probably do [...]
A major battle ended the other day—even if nobody really noticed.
It should be no surprise that I’m not a textbook fan. I’ve spoken about them more than once, and I generally prefer—wherever possible—to use original sources. I think Einstein was a better teacher than I was—and so were most of the great minds. If and [...]
Remember that speech contest Joanne Stroshine was helping students participate in? It was a Monadnock student that is going onto the semi-finals in Henniker, Miss. Natale Novak. The semi-final rounds are on May 3, and hopefully from there Miss Novak will move onto the District Conference District Conference on May 30th.
Even better? Second [...]
From the Keene Sentinel:
Governor Lynch signed into law today legislation guaranteeing adequate funding for the state’s schools, riding a wave of bipartisan responsibility unlike anything seen before in New Hampshire politics.
“For too many years our state has pitted town against town, school against school,” the governor said at a press conference after the bill’s signing. [...]
