Comments (0) Hello! Tonight was our first practice run through for the presentations for the Showcase. For those who were scheduled, an AMAZING job! After tonight, we are certain the showcase will rock! I cannot wait to see the rest on Saturday! Thanks again to all!!!
Atlantic Online has a long article on teaching in the D.C. schools:
This tale of two boys, and of the millions of kids just like them, embodies the most stunning finding to come out of education research in the past decade: more than any other variable in education—more than schools or curriculum—teachers matter. Put concretely, if Mr. Taylor’s student continued to learn at the same level for a few more years, his test scores would be no different from those of his more affluent peers in Northwest D.C. And if these two boys were to keep their respective teachers for three years, their lives would likely diverge forever. By high school, the compounded effects of the strong teacher—or the weak one—would become too great.
Parents have always worried about where to send their children to school; but the school, statistically speaking, does not matter as much as which adult stands in front of their children. Teacher quality tends to vary more within schools—even supposedly good schools—than among schools.
It’s a very interesting article.
I previously posted How to Blog about formulaic blog construction. This is something about how to put together a television news story. It’s very funny, but it has a dirty word in it so you’ll not want to show it to the kiddies — or even watch it yourself if you’d prefer to avoid the fallout of an entirely gratuitous f-bomb.
If nothing else, it can spur a conversation about whether this website needs Standards & Practices.
Getting it down to this kind of formula is impressive, and very funny.
Hi all! I recently received this link from a former colleague. Haven’t gotten too deep into the site, but thought some may be interested in some of the resources. The site has quite a few links that may be of use! Let me know if you find anything good to use!
My novel writing group is doing so well. They are learning a ton about story structure just from writing. I have one that has totally wiped the floor with me and her goal. She is well past 10,000 words. I’m sadly stuck at 2,500. This has been an uber crazy month at work. Which incidently is also why I’m a little late turning in a few things. I’m not trying to be a slacker, I promise. I’m dedicating the weekend to my inquiry stuff.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Jenna
“A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow.
Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in 2009?
It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not your mother’s word or your spouse’s word or your child’s word – this is YOUR word.
I thought this had some great writing ideas for ways to incoroporate technology into the writing process, as well as some unconventional/newer forms of writing. I thought Aggie might be able to use the pictlit site for her inquiry. Enjoy = )
Jenna
This article is about jargon in the workplace, but highlights the confusing aspects of insider-only language:
Business people use jargon, thinking they’re showing off their intelligence or trying to win respect from their peers, even if it doesn’t work that way, said Michael Sebastian, a Web editor at Ragan Communications, a Chicago-based publishing and training company. Others turn to jargon to avoid offending people or appearing politically incorrect, said Chelsea Hardaway, the co-author of “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots.”
There are, of course, few fields more given to jargon than education. If you want your writing to reach a broader audience than just teachers, you need to excise jargon from your writing the way you’d swat cockroaches on a kitchen counter: with horror-fueled determination.
Hello! I have a question to pose to see if I can get some ideas. It is currently report card time (my faaaaavorite time and, lucky for teachers, it comes 4 times a year!!!). It seems as though some of my parents tend to identify spelling as identical to writing. Even worse, some uphold spelling as much more important than writing content and other writing related strategies. Why is this?!? As an elementary teacher, I find spelling instruction (by this I mean giving a list of words in which kids write each word 5 times, put the words in alphabetical order, etc.) a complete waste of time and really find it pointless. Unless the focus is on word patterns or some type of word study, I find memorizing word spellings tedious and small in the grand scheme of learning.I do think it is important to know letter sounds, blends, patterns, etc. It all comes together as the child grows as a reader and a writer. But what is the hang up?!! Is it just that spelling is very clearly assessed by noting that a set of words is spelled correctly or not? Why is spelling homework something parents feel is SO necessary? Why is it that some of my students’ parents are so critical of their child’s spelling that they miss out on the amazing writing presented by their child?!
Of course, this is definitely my own personal opinion, and maybe not all see it the same. What do you all think?
By the way, ironically, I tried to hit spell check after writing this, and it kept causing the screen to freeze!! Ha! Go figure!
(PS—I teach 2nd grade, so I apologize to anyone who is thinking that I am off my rocker for this conversation!! 
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