Life.

This Saturday I have an 8 a.m. final for Adolescent Psychology, and I just really wish Saturday School hadn’t ended for the middle schoolers last week. I’d much rather be with them. For closing ceremonies they did a skit on the theme “What would happen without Saturday School?” (it was difficult to convince them to come up with BAD things instead of fun ones) and they made me so proud. And we all got these cute souvenirs and the head of the program took all the teachers out to eat and
sigh
the end of the school year always brings mixed feelings, doesn’t it?

My poster is cute, okay?
And all the visual aids are attached with Velcro so I can detach them when we’re talking about them.
Clever,I know.

Found this really great resource with videos and curriculum for how to generate discussions and debates with your students to support cross disciplinary vocabulary and comprehension building.

I thought this was a nice little summary

Where did public education begin in the U.S. and how has it progressed?
“With public K-12 education free to every child in the United States, it is hard for modern Americans to imagine a world where public schools did not exist. Yet, 150 years ago in many places throughout the country, not even elementary education was provided publicly; in fact, even by the turn of the 20th century, some young people still did not have access to free public high schools. Luckily, today, every American can get a free education and obtain a high school diploma, thanks to the efforts of our civic-minded predecessors. Let’s take a look at the developments that made this possible…”

So, I rocked my mini lesson in my Cognition and Reading in Content Areas class today.
I did on las frutas, and it went perfectly.
I had a super cute slideshow, a review, a fun game with a catch song, and an exit card, all while wearing my fruit hat. Soooooo, boom.
Señorita Lugo is happy.

Failing the big Spanish test is never fun, but receiving the bad news doesn’t have to feel like such a drag.

That’s why Justin Barney, a Spanish teacher at Valley Lutheran High School in Phoenix Ariz., turns Spanish #fails into pretty funny memes.

“Telling a student they got a C- has never been more fun,” Barney told the Huffington Post. “I have discovered that it definitely lightens the mood & softens the blow of getting a less-than-desired grade. My students love them…”

Increasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply quitting because they have had enough. Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J. Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse, N.Y…

A++ for the #education tag for promoting stereotypes.

After the recent moves by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Education against states that use disciplinary measures like suspension and expulsion to excess, districts around the country are reconsidering the way their schools discipline students. In part, this change is a realization that after many years the punitive approach doesn’t appear […]

In a statement Wednesday night, she said, “for too long children in certain parts of Chicago have been cheated.” President Karen Lewis of the Teachers Union issued a statement predicting “chaos” and destruction, declaring “one school closed is one too many.” The union plans what it calls “massive civil disobedience” to protest

“Oregon graduated nearly 6% of its high schoolers last year despite their failure of the state reading exam, The Oregonian reports. The nearly 1,700 students failed the exam and chose to avail themselves to another method of proving competency, according to public education records. Last year was the first time that the test was required […]

…There is some concern, however, that the latitude allowed to schools in grading the reading exercise could have been used by teachers to pass students who didn’t have the reading skills required for graduation.”

polygonal-lasso:

Hey all! As per the recent discussion about ways that we can get more out of the #education community, a few of us worked on putting together a form to compile a list of non-teacher #education community members.

So if you’re not a teacher, but you still care about education, blog about education, and enjoy talking about education in a community of people that also care, fill out this link! This includes students, education activists, parents, and just general concerned citizens.

As soon as we figure it out, we’ll post the link to the actual spreadsheet so you can start connecting with other people. Stay tuned.

(via teamteachers)