Call the email exchange spirited. Each side marshalled evidence in the form of research. I was one side of the two-sided correspondence. I don't fear Covid-19, per se. I do take precautions; I have tried to learn from the missteps of the Pandemic of 1918. I respect the fact that Covid-19 has done tremendous damage; … Continue reading Fear? Or, Caution and Respect?
Category: Uncategorized
Is it Time to Teach Tech-Usage Skills?
My new glasses are in the making. However, thanks to the nonsense of 2020, it's going to take a bit longer for the lenses to arrive so my optician can do his magic. Consequently, I am operating with old glasses and new vision needs. I need to pay stricter attention to the 20-20-20 rule. My … Continue reading Is it Time to Teach Tech-Usage Skills?
How Might Remote Learning Impact Young Eyes?
My optometrist needs roller skates; maybe wings and roller skates. He seemed to fly down the halls of his office yesterday, along with his three partners. Eventually, he breezed into my exam room. So what brings you here today? he asked. My eyes are killing me, I said. They ache. Sometimes they burn. When I … Continue reading How Might Remote Learning Impact Young Eyes?
How Do Your Eyes Feel?
Mine are killing me, thank-you very much. I even made an appointment to see my eye doctor today! I suspect many teachers and students are feeling my same eye pain, and some other ailments, given the new world of remote learning. And there are several reasons why. When the March 2020 quarantine arrived, the focus … Continue reading How Do Your Eyes Feel?
How Might We Find Happiness?
Well, the official 100 days of THE weirdest summer ever have ended. Today is 9/11, a national pain that actually unified us in horror for moment in time. We are headed into fall with dire warnings about wave two of the pandemic. Life is heavy right now. We feel the weight in our shoulders. Let's … Continue reading How Might We Find Happiness?
Where’s Annie When I Need Her?
I have news fatigue; and coming from someone who spend years toiling in newsrooms, that might give you pause. But really. Every morning 2020 seems to deliver another moment of doom and gloom. And from where I sit, the people causing the doom and gloom seem to be the evidence supporting the Dunning-Kruger Effect. How … Continue reading Where’s Annie When I Need Her?
Can We Let Teachers Channel Miss Frizzle?
There's no denying the truth; Miss Frizzle was my role model for teaching and learning. There wasn't a question she wouldn't answer. There wasn't a field trip she wouldn't take with that Magic School Bus. She loved her students. She had fun learning alongside her students while they thought she was merely teaching. I adore … Continue reading Can We Let Teachers Channel Miss Frizzle?
Who Will Make the Profound Changes Needed in Public Education?
Ask anyone who knows me well, I am not rabidly invested in sports, despite having attended both the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland-College Park. Don't get me wrong, I will root for Carolina basketball, especially when the foes are Dook, UVa, Syracuse and NC State; but that's because I have … Continue reading Who Will Make the Profound Changes Needed in Public Education?
Can Public Education Let Old Ways Die?
My summer has been filled with meditation classes as I work my way through some challenges, including trying to finish my 200 hour yoga teacher training requirements. I have gravitated to classes offered by one very special yogi, Joshua Ansley. I call him special because he is a deep thinker. He doesn't shy away from … Continue reading Can Public Education Let Old Ways Die?
How Should We Teach Writing?
Thank you Rich Czyz for pulling my head out of a depressing news story about a new book titled: In Defense of Looting, and bringing me to a topic I love: writing. And Rich, you're right; writing in so many schools is not taught well. I don't know where the educational boxcar labeled "writing" went … Continue reading How Should We Teach Writing?