How Do You Evaulate Teachers Who Change Lives?

What a question!  But I can answer it.  You don't.  You can't.  You shouldn't.  The kind of impact that a life-changing teacher has simply cannot be measured by a standardized test score achieved by students who are not themselves accountable for the score.

This article - How Do You Evaluate Teachers Who Change Lives? - is a must read for anyone who has thoughtfully considered this question.  If you do read it, I'd love to hear what you think!

For the past twelve years I have had the great privilege to teach on a team with Bob Downs, a man that I greatly respect, a man who makes every student feel special and cared for, who brings out the best in young adolescents.  He doesn't care much for the latest swings of the educational pendulum and doesn't have time for things that don't pass the "what's best for kids" test.  He has changed lives for more than forty years and he is retiring at the end of this school year.  I am very sorry to see him step back, and I'm sad that more kids won't have a chance to feel the magic in his classroom.  I am a better teacher for having worked with him.

Armed and Dangerous

Sorry NRA.  I don't want to have a gun in my classroom.  And furthermore, I think it is lunacy to suggest that the solution to the problem of gun violence is more guns, and that the way to keep children in schools safe is to arm teachers.  The article I am writing about is satire, but is nonetheless disturbing.

Many of my middle school students come from families that have strong  the classconnections to hunting or target shooting.  Great.  But I don't see any need to own "assault" style weaponry for these kinds of activities.  And the idea that citizens need these weapons to arm themselves against their own government is further lunacy.

I'd like my students to be safe in my classroom, but I don't think that armed guards in the schools or guns in the hands of teachers is the answer.  I believe that the key to safety is the sense of belonging and inclusion, a feeling of community, that "we're all in it together" and that "everyone does well when everyone does well" ideas that transcend the classroom. 

I'm Not Scared

I came across this short video on Facebook today (What Lots of Teachers Think but are Scared to Say) and was intrigued by it.  I wish that all parents understood the incredible time, effort, and passion that I and other teachers put toward educating their children.  Teaching energizes me and feeds my soul, but it is demoralizing to be demonized by politicians and individuals who see us as "lazy" and/or "overpaid".  Spend a day in my shoes.  I am worth far more than I am paid.

A Fun Web 2.0 Tool

My Science X class is required to two two current event reports each trimester.  My colleagues and I really tried to make sure that these were meaningful exercises that kept kids' eyes open to the science around them. conscious of science-related stories in the news.  Students not only have to find and summarize a news article or report, but they have to make and articulate a personal connection with the story, including an opinion about the story as well.  We hoped that our students would find creative ways to present the current event that were not the typical typewritten paragraph.  

My students have been reluctant to do anything but the printed version, so I created the video below on the xtranormal site - a free resource:

 

Science X Current Event 2
by: mjonairn