Here is a fascinating article on the mathematical intelligence of…. pigeons. 
(to read full article, click on the pigeons)
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http://news.discovery.com/animals/pigeons-math-animals-111222.html
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If Pigeons can do it, so can you December 24, 2011
“A good curriculum is the best classroom management” February 7, 2011
I have worked for a lot of people, but the most inspiring boss I have ever had was a principal who was strict, forgiving of human flaws, hard-working and who lived by the motto “A good curriculum is the best classroom management”.
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I’ve never been a disciplinarian and never will be. I value learning too much to stifle a kid’s personality in favor of keeping my classroom quiet. Learning is loud, it’s fun, it’s rich, it’s not a library. If learning was supposed to be done in complete sterility we’d all be able to teach ourselves in the quiet of our own homes. Learning is the push and pull between student and student, student and curriculum, and student and teacher. It should be a fun process. Do you normally do things that are not fun? The best classroom management is a good curriculum.
The article by Pamela Kripke “And You’re Out!” in the Huffington Post is very much in line with what I encountered during my years of teaching. Kids would get kicked out of their classes for doing something against the teacher’s status quo and end up in my classroom. I was constantly torn between letting them stay and being part of the “united front” against the student. I never wanted to be a part of that front and never really was. In my mind the right thing to do was keeping the kid happy and wanting to come back to school the next day. With the dropout rate as high as it is and high school degree jobs steadily dropping, it was my job to keep learning fun and school an enjoyable place to go. And that’s what I did.
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Public school? Supersize my class! January 25, 2011
There are two upsides of a larger class: more diversity among students and the drive to succeed (and/or not act out in front of peers). I found that when I was teaching if too many students were out on a day, the kids who were in school felt it should be a “free day”. Kids weren’t there to bounce ideas off each other or to push each other.
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So does class size matter? It definitely does. Even when I had less students in class and the ones who were there were less motivated to do work, I was better able to connect to the students who were there. There were less kids to reach. And isn’t that what good teaching is half about?
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Read the article The Class Size Debate on Huffington Post.
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The recession-proof Exam: When will it pop? December 19, 2010
The article by Todd Farley “Standardized Testing: The New Wild West” pretty much sums up why high-stakes testing has such a stronghold. It’s a recession proof industry! I knew that millions went into it, but I didn’t know the full extent of greed that’s going into it. Farley himself admits to capitalizing.
But like all bubbles, this one will pop. Hopefully. Then maybe our kids can go back to learning again.
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In somewhat related news, here’s a great chart of just how many math topics we throw at our kids each year as opposed to A+ countries where students excel in math…
http://zerosumruler.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/us-vs-a-countries-breadth-vs-depth-in-math-which-is-better/
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