Walt was sitting in his graduate level class listening to a debate over the differences between school climate and school culture. Now…perhaps Walt was just angling to get an answer because he was too tired to pay attention and found it more interesting to surf the internet reading blogs! (That’s OK Walt as long as it’s this [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Miscellaneous'
Another teacher leaves the profession early…
August 10th, 2009 4 Comments
The Washington Post recently ran this op-ed piece about another young teacher leaving the profession.
This story is way to common. However, it seems to fit in with our recent discussions about teacher education programs in some ways. Are we really preparing educators for what awaits them? Excerpt follows….
The teaching itself was exhilarating but disheartening. There [...]
Tags: administration · education as a career · education preparation · new teachers · school administration · teacher colleges
Recharging the batteries!
July 28th, 2009 2 Comments
Teaching in the public schools is one of the most challenging and difficult professions there is. This summer we were interviewing prospective Masters Degree students and one of our candidates addressed the group regarding how difficult his new job as elementary teacher was. He said it was way more difficult than his previous position as policeman. [...]
Tags: pictures. Rockies · summer · summertime · vacation
Blog is back up!
July 18th, 2009 No Comments
Our apologies to all readers!! As you know the blog has been down for awhile due to technical difficulties with the servers.
We are back up and running now. Not sure what all the IT folks had to do to make it work but so far so good.
The next few days I will be up in [...]
Are you trained or educated?
March 31st, 2009 15 Comments
Each semester we bring to campus Masters and Doctoral applicants who are trying to get into the University of Wyoming’s graduate programs in Educational Leadership. During our assessment/interview day my colleague Dr. Heather Duncan noted how often the word “training” came up during the conversations.
This prompted a discussion about whether adults should be “trained” or “educated.” The [...]
Tags: education · in service · professional development · training
Standardized Testing for Dummies
March 20th, 2009 No Comments
Has anyone ever interviewed high school students after they took a series of standardized tests? Did you ever get any of them to admit that they often play “connect the dots” to see what type of cool pictures they can generate within the given time allotments?
Here is a tongue-in-cheek theory for you to consider. Maybe THIS is why [...]
Tags: bubblesheets · education · Humor · NCLB · satire · standardized testing
Educational cliches!
March 20th, 2009 6 Comments
I was over at the Higher Ed Marketing Blog reading a post titled “Words and phrases that should be buried.”
It got me to thinking about all the educational cliches that start out meaning something specific but then the educational culture grabs them and waters them down until they mean so many things to so many people [...]
Tags: best practice · educational cliches · educational humor · educational jargon · fidelity · jargon · NCLB
Ergonomic classrooms? It’s about time!
March 7th, 2009 5 Comments
Finally, someone is thinking about classroom furniture and its impact on students and the way they learn.
Check out this article about ergonomic desks and giving students the ability to adjust their classroom furniture to their own styles and needs.
Tags: classroom furniture · desks · ergonomics · Students
