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There is an interesting article in the latest NEA Higher Education publication, The Advocate.  Every once in awhile, this publication has a quality piece on specific pedagogical approaches that are supported by research. 

CRISP is an acronym for five basic issues surrounding the development/planning for a particular class period.  They are:

1. Contextualize
2. Review
3. Iterate
4. Summarize
5. Conclusion

I know, I know, this sounds vaguely like Speech Class 1.0.:  Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.

Here's the standard rap from advocates of educational reform: 

The public system needs to have some competition in order to perform better.  Post-secondary institutions exist in a competitive environment, and they represent America's highest achievement in terms of educational excellence.  We need to do the same thing in secondary and primary schools in order to jolt the public sector back to life.

So begins the argument for Charter schools, if not, depending on the agenda of the advocate, of public sponsored school vouchers for parents that would allow their children to attend private schools with public dollars.

I've talked about this before, but, at some point, you just have to keep pushing the issue out there and hope that people understand what's at stake.

Check out the latest data on how many teachers there are for early education and childcare across the United States.  According to this survey, the number is less than 10%.  That's somewhat amazing, isn't it?

The sine curve experience. Up and down, up and down. While I wouldn't say that there were as many upward curves this week, the ones that were certainly were worth celebrating. The downward curves were still very challenging, and they continue to foster significant concern, since I don't want fights and hateful language to be theme of the entire school year; however, I'm hoping my consistency helps. Focusing on the upward curves, the hills, on Thursday I successfully got through a full morning in the classroom with no preparation periods with very complete lessons, active learning, and a decent amount of retention, as many of the students remembered why squares are always rectangles but rectangles are sometimes squares. It was very exciting. I did, as Mr.

A quick note today.  I don't normally like to mix politics with teaching or education because, for me, becoming a teacher and doing my work at school has never come from a political motivation.  I just wanted to help young people learn, grow and become full human beings.

Party affiliation, political beliefs, personal speech--those things happen at schools but don't really change my approach to the job I have to do.

But, I can't help myself this morning.  In Senator McCain's speech last night, there was the unmistakable demonization of teachers and public schools.  Check it out:

Over the past two years, I've in many ways sat on the outside of the New York City Public Education System looking at it with an observer's lens. As a graduate student in a traditional certification/masters program, I student taught in a variety of New York City schools, with much of the diversity of my experience stemming from fortuitous happenings and personal action rather than my graduate educational program's intention. In my last semester of my masters program, I did not have to student teach, so I took a job as a research assistant working on a study of an intervention program at several inner city schools in Brooklyn and started substitute teaching in several inner city schools in Brooklyn as well.

Brilliant strategy on display in this very short editorial by Charlie Kite, who is head spokesman for the Minnesota Schoolboards Association.

Read it for yourself.

But, the main point is this: while business is generous in its criticism of public education, there is precious little that they contribute, in a positive sense, to the improvement of schools.

In fact, when it comes to making schools better in a tangible way, they are the equivalent of Scrooge--before his epiphany.

I know it's the middle of the summer and I have no reason to be thinking about next semester just yet, but lately it seems to be all thats on my mind. I'm going to be a junior starting next semester and my fate is sealed as becoming a teacher, which I am actually pretty happy about. The problem is that I am starting to get scared. I know that I want to be a teacher but every time I think about the road that lies ahead of me all I keep thinking that I'm not up for the task. I fear I may not know all the answers to the questions my students ask me. I fear that they will either walk all over me or that I will be too strict and they'll hate me and not participate. I'm not giving up on my dreams.

Merely everything.

Look, if even half of what Dr. James Hansen says is true about global climate change, we are in the midst of the largest educational challenge of all time.

In fact, even just given the explosion of fossil fuel prices this year, and the way we need to adapt to that, one could argue that we are in for one of the largest reorganizations of human society ever.

I see these two events--peak fossil fuel and global climate change--as meaning that, as educators, we are about to embark on the largest educational project of all time. Why? Because what this is really about is becoming much more informed about all facets of sustainability, from what we eat, to what we do, to where we go and how we get there.

June, July and August. 

It's an old joke, but actually, one that I believed in when I was deciding to become a teacher.  Without those three reasons, I might never have settled into education.

Like a lot of young people, there was a long period of time where I enjoyed being outdoors, carefree and open to whatever might come my way.  Aren't these nearly universal attributes of being between 18-30 years of age?

And, in general, summer is one of the great benefits of being a teacher, whether that means travel, performing other work, having time with family, taking opportunities to learn--it's up to the individual.

One thing we have done at this site, particularly in the New Teacher Collaborative, was to track the ups and downs, ins and outs of a school year -- from the perspective of a teacher.  

We arrive now at June:  time to wrap things up and get on with summer.

But, before break begins, let's think and talk about ending the year on a positive note. 

Endings are very important, and doing them well is not easy or automatic.  It takes skill, insight and planning to pull them off successfully--and some luck to avoid the excesses of energy and excitement within students associated with being "done" for the year.  (Yes, they will scream and throw paper at the last bell.)

This may not be the most popular entry, but I think these issues worth considering.

This weekend is Memorial Day, a time to honor veterans who have died serving our country.  My father is a WW II veteran, as are many friends and relatives, and I do recognize and honor their service, their sacrifice, their heroism.  In no way do I diminish them.

But, I also wonder if this holiday's exclusive focus on veterans does not lead to a mind-set that sees fighting war as the highest, most noble contribution one can make to society, the gold standard of patriotism.  Because, and please hear me out, I do not agree with that.

I'm hearing it a lot these days. It goes like this:

How can I stay or even go into teaching when I am being asked to do things--like prepare children for and administer standardized tests--when I know these activities are not helping them learn, are furthering an agenda that is exploitative and perpetuates a view of education and teaching which is inimical to everything I value and learned about in school?

Good question. 

Nay. This is the ultimate question, the answer to which will decide the fate of America's schools for the next decade, maybe even, given the huge conglomeration of economic and military might in this country, eventually, the fate of the earth.

So, how do we get young people to make positive and socially beneficial choices for themselves and others at school, and also, across the entire spectrum of their life?  Isn't this, in fact and in essence, the fundamental goal of education---to create intelligent, engaged, informed, socially alert and considerate choice-makers?

Can you say "mega-topic"?  One that simultaneously cuts across ethics, religion, politics, family, psychology, sociology, evolutionary theory and biology.  And, a topic which, America somehow believes its teachers can resolve with little fuss, bother or debate.

Hi, My name is LaTasha Kelly and I am a junior at East Carolina University majoring in Elementary Education. I am one of Dr. Gabbard's students who are currently taking Introduction to American Education. For this class, we had to read many chapters from a book titled Out of Our Minds. This book has raised many questions and concerns in my mind about the roles of teachers and the direction of education in today's society. I am going to focus on one of the many points in this book that disturbed me, and actually caused me to question education.

The act of knowing is a function of the imagination. All knowing has an imaginative element in it. We don't see the world as it is at all. Our consciousness always co-creates everything we see. So what you are seeing is not just out there, on its own. You are always seeing it through the lens of your own thinking. Therefore, you are co-creating the world, whether you like it or not. --John O'Donohue, Irish Poet

As an educator, I greatly appreciate reading in other fields, discovering perspectives of thinkers very different from myself.

Children today face a number of obstacles that stand in the way of a complete education.  The US government is pushing conformity in a nation that has so many different regions, people, and cultures.  Do they really think that high stakes tests and strict regulations are going to better our country?

I am a junior at East Carolina University majoring in elementary education. I am seeking the answer to one question in particular at the moment. Our teachers here at ECU never touch on this subject and maybe it is because no one knows the answer. Thus I am seeking responses from teachers around the nation who maybe have an opinion or idea they can offer.