Recently New York’s education department announced its intent to make changes to the state’s “common core” learning standards. I get that the standards need to be more user friendly and that responding to what teachers say about them is a good idea on many fronts. But as Robert Pondiscio wrote in today’s Daily News, one proposed…
In the weeks since Jen, Joaquin, and I finished wrapping up the Teach Like a Champion Field Guide 2.0, we’ve been gradually recovering from our self-imposed exile amidst pizza boxes and coffee cups in the conference room at TLaCTowers. On more than one occasion, we locked ourselves in this room so that we could devote total…
Tim Shanahan is one of the country’s foremost experts on literacy. He’s a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he founded and directed its Center for Literacy. Though he understands the research on reading as well as anyone in the field, he’s also done plenty of real-world work, having been principal…
The “Stack Audit” is one of my favorite tools teachers and leaders can use to study and learn from their work with students. I describe it more fully here but the gist of it is: You gather as many examples as you can of a specific type of work (the Do Nows or Exit Tickets given…
I read a fair number of posts and social media comments bemoaning how X or Y is ‘destroying kids’ love of learning’ or ‘destroying their curiosity’ or something similar. When I read them I wonder what data the writers have to support the assertion that kids love learning less or are less curious. Than when? How…