Every week at TLAC Towers we watch and analyze video of teachers. This week, though, we did something that we’ve never done before. We watched video with students–Ziyanique Wells and Ayianna Texidor, two inspiring scholars at North Star’s Washington Park High School in Newark. Ziyanique and Ayianna are interested in teaching so English teacher Ashling…
To Parents Who Have Opted Out of State Testing I’ve read about and heard the anger and frustration you feel towards a school system that requires your child to participate in state testing. You believe testing is invalid or unhealthy or that it distorts the purposes of schooling. In opting out you have chosen to do…
My littlest daughter and I just started the 8th book in the Little House on the Prairie series. She loves that series- just as her older sister did. In fact their shared love of Little House led to a useful realization last week.. My mom was in town and had just finished telling us that…
Norman Eng is a doctor of education with an unusual background. As an advertising executive prior to his teaching career, he helped clients realize their communication goals and took away a major lesson—know your target audience. This informed his understanding of teaching as an elementary school teacher and then as an adjunct assistant professor of childhood…
Last night, after reading aloud to my daughter and tucking her in, I was mopping up a bit of work from the day and came across this observation by Isabel Beck: “The source of later vocabulary learning shifts [as students get older] to written texts–what children read [as opposed to what they hear]. The problem is…