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Amber.

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How Waterworld and a good classroom are alike

"I have to be honest. After 17 years of teaching, I can't tell you how to teach. I can't even really describe what is the best way to do something." These are the words I wanted to say to our student teacher (ST) the other day. But I didn't say them. I mean, I kind of said them. But not really. And of course, we all know what good teaching looks like. We can tell who the "good" teachers are and who the "bad" teachers are can't we? We knew when we were in school. You remember then? "Man, this teacher is bad..." we thought to ourselves. District administrators think they know who is good. They have these neat reports to go on. They have TEST SCORES for crying out loud. Parents surely know. They can see reports and TEST SCORES online and in the paper. Sometimes parents even complain about their kids' teachers to other parents. Surely we all know what good teaching looks and sounds like. But ST and I were having...
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Life moves pretty fast

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."- Ferris Bueller I was thinking about that great philosopher Ferris Bueller earlier today. I was reflecting on a conversation that I had this past Friday with our school superintendent, associate superintendent, personnel director, and IT administrator. Our school principal was kind enough to join me and support me. The topic of the conversation was the school district's recent decision to block facebook and twitter on all school employee computers. I had requested the meeting and the assembled district staff had been gracious enough to hear me out. I will spare you all the details of the meeting except to say that I have the utmost respect for everyone there and that our discussion was wide ranging, free flowing, and ultimately concerned with what was best for teachers and students. Every time I talk to the people at the district office I am impressed with how much they ...
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interview

some students who are part of our "pub club" (publications...)here at school just interviewed me for an upcoming issue of our school newsletter. they did a good job and they had some interesting questions. one of the questions they asked was "what is one of the strangest things that has ever happened to you in a classroom?" that's a good question. having been teaching now for a decade and a half, i've had a few weird things happen to me. but i'll tell you the story that i told them. one time i had a deer try and get into my classroom. i think he heard there was some real learning going on and he wanted to see what is was all about. ok, i made the second part up, but not the first. one afternoon some students and i were having quizbowl practice when i heard something smack hard against my outside window. it sounded like a big bird had just flown into it. i looked over and saw a blood smear on the window and assumed that it was, in fact, a bird. ...
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