Mr. Vilson

These posts are focused on the more professional side of my writing. They include tips, resources, and stories from the classroom.

Closing Schools In The Time Of A Hurricane [SchoolBook]

November 26, 2012 Mr. Vilson

An excerpt from my first post at the popular Schoolbook, a WNYC project: As educators, we are charged with helping our children feel that, as wild as the world may seem, we will pull through. Parents, children, and other invested adults seek asylum in our schools because of our routines, the familiarity, and the dulcet [...]

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A Letter To President Obama, On Education Working Conditions

November 15, 2012 Mr. Vilson

An excerpt from my latest at Education Week: With that said, even if we reach the lofty goal of getting 100,000 more math and science teachers into classrooms, the problem will most likely not be recruitment but retention. Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, recently cited new research re-confirming what so [...]

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Nate Silver Got Nothin’ On Me [Future of Teaching]

November 15, 2012 Mr. Vilson

An excerpt from my latest post at Future of Teaching: As a data specialist, I often find myself thinking of how hard we work to find abstractions of things we can’t quantify. We try to equate learning into achievement, because points matter so much more than the amorphous shifting of ideas into and through our [...]

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What A 55 Looks Like On This Side [Fail Is A Strong Word]

November 12, 2012 Mr. Vilson

Sifting through the multitude of ungraded papers, I looked for some sign that they actually learned something. I hate entering in 55s in my Excel sheet. A teacher can say whatever they want to the kids, and threaten them about not doing well, but most of us prefer that all of our kids do well [...]

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Teach Others How To Lead, And Other Tips [Edutopia]

November 8, 2012 Mr. Vilson

An excerpt from my latest Edutopia article: Do: Teach Others How to Lead Everyone has expertise in some way, shape or form. Some teachers have great organizing skills (who doesn’t need this?!). Others understand how to put together curriculum materials. Still others have mastered building great teacher-student relationships. Rather than focus on deficiencies, we can [...]

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If You Build The Relationship, The Network Will Come [Future of Teaching]

October 31, 2012 Mr. Vilson

An excerpt from my latest at the Future of Teaching: Nowadays, people have little qualms about making friends online and meeting them in person. To wit, the Teaching 2030 team still has strong ties, even though we rarely get to see each other collectively. Part of that came from having a common goal and vision, [...]

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Allow More Mistakes, And Other Advice for Getting Kids Into Math [Edutopia]

October 18, 2012 Mr. Vilson

An excerpt from my latest (highly shared) Edutopia article: 1) Allow More Mistakes I would suggest this to just about every teacher, but specifically math teachers, especially those of us who use the word “wrong” a lot. We should strike a balance between using direct instruction and exploration, leaning more on the exploration piece. Once [...]

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Let Me Re-Introduce Responsible Citizenship [Future of Teaching]

October 18, 2012 Mr. Vilson

An excerpt from my latest at The Future of Teaching: I propose that, those of us who’ve seen what’s happened with character education instead use the term “responsible citizenship.” I recently Googled the term “responsible citizenship” and found a plethora of definitions, but they all coalesce around the idea that we must teach children to [...]

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Don’t Let Me Down [On Opening Up When Things Go Down]

October 9, 2012 Mr. Vilson

You’re not supposed to know when your student is this close to suicide. You get up in front of the classroom, get students started on their work, and get into the routine. Whether the routine comes from you or them matters little. The room buzzes for a while as they sit, but when the notebooks [...]

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We Can Do Better Than “Wrong” [Future of Teaching]

October 3, 2012 Mr. Vilson

Excerpt: As a teacher, I have a few ways to say “that’s wrong” without actually saying it. The point isn’t to sanitize the class or soften the critique. For students, they often see the word “wrong” as a gateway to devaluing their own potential, as if their wrong answer determines their competency in the subject. [...]

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