The Origin of the Workshop Model One of the most influential approaches to teaching English / Language Arts for the past 30 years has been the “workshop” method — sometimes called “writing workshop” or “reading workshop” or “that Lucy Calkins thing that my district forces us to do under threat of torture.” While this approach only occasionally touches American high schools, it has been hugely
It’s amazing how little we know about the words that shape our lives. It’s fascinating to me that many of the basic terms fashionable in Vermont education — terms that so dominate my professional life right now, cause me late nights trying to restructure my gradebook, long meetings with coworkers trying to redesign curriculum, and philosophical debates with colleagues and students trying to get our
Last week, I spent an afternoon with some of Vermont’s best educators talking about the topic du jour: proficiency based learning (PBL). We discussed a reservation that our students have about PBL: they can’t separate themselves as well under a 1-4 system as under the old 0-100 system. There’s a big difference between an 80 and an 89. But under the new system, those are
I was thinking the other day about Proficiency Based Learning. I was thinking about the reams and reams of data that we’re now required to assess and report. We’re spending hours and hours recording and posting data . . . But why? Who really cares? Supposedly it’s for parents, students, and us. But students are mostly indifferent, if not confused, the parents are definitely confused,
Why is anyone acting as though the FBI will not get to the bottom of this case? Seriously, I know it seems hard to imagine, but despite what Donald Trump would have you think . . . the FBI is really freaking good at what it does. No, the FBI is not going to get a definitive answer on what happened in that bedroom. But
Someone forwarded me this link the other day. It describes #outofmypocket — a movement to share how much teachers spend on classroom supplies out of their own pockets. While this didn’t take off in quite the same way as last year’s social media posts about teachers’ low paychecks and second jobs, I was taken aback by some of the stories. The site estimates that 94%
Some Thoughts on the West 1. Every year, after about my second run, I start to remember the rapids. Then I don’t come back for a year. 2. If you are with a group that doesn’t want to hike up and run the top rapid, find another group. An open boat is no excuse. 2a. Because that’s the best rapid, that top one. The dam.
For years I’ve been searching for a hobby to replace whitewater canoeing. I still haven’t found one — and I don’t think I ever will. Oh, I’ve tried quite a few: hiking, mountain biking, road biking, hang gliding, glider flying, snowboarding — even golf. Nothing comes close to whitewater. But why? For the last six years, I’ve been searching for the answer. What was it
Picture this: a powerful white man walks into a room full of African American parents. He tells them that he, the head of schools in a major American city, is going to close their neighborhood school. The parents get angry. They yell at him. One woman calls him a racist. Calmly, the man asks her what grade her child is in. “Third.” Okay, there are
Yesterday evening as I was making dinner, I found myself reading a Washington Post article about the growing shortage of doctors in the United States. Apparently, by the year 2030, we’re going to be short up to 100,000 physicians. (Oh, perfect, I thought — right around the time I’ll be having to submit to regular prostate exams, I’ll have to drive 100 miles and wait three