Monthly Archives: January 2015

My child – and yours – deserves an education equal to that of any other child in the state!

Education in the state of Maine is currently consumed by the transition to standards-based curriculum. In Maine, local districts are focused on creating graduation standards and aligning curriculum to those standards. Lots of time on the part of teachers, administrators, and school board members is being spent on this transition. We all know that time […]

Technology : are we discriminating enough in how we use it in schools?

For better and worse, our species has a new toy – technology – that consumes a great deal of attention both in and out of schools. In schools, technology is used to gather and report data about students and their learning outcomes, and as a learning tool. Compared to earlier decades, technology now gives us relatively easy access […]

Data gathering and testing in schools: how much is enough?

Humans have a new toy – technology – which can produce remarkable streams of data about students and learning – and like children given a new entertainment console, the powers-that-be who set educational policy are enraptured. The question is, how much data is enough? Yesterday, for example, a whole district of children had the afternoon off while teachers spent […]

Are devices robbing children of the riches that come from boredom?

I am sure many of us who have reached a certain age would say we regret our  neglect of the creative and productive activities that we used to pursue so enthusiastically both indoors and out of doors in the days before social media and laptops entered our lives. I do not believe this yearning is just the age-old wail of […]

Think Teaching is a Cakewalk? Think Again!

Of the constellation of characteristics needed by teachers, the capacity to endure stress is important, because teaching is a very stressful job. We rush through our days rarely feeling totally prepared for all the classes and students we will teach. In fact, we can’t be prepared all the time, as our loads are too heavy. We have […]