My Philosophy On Math Pedagogy, And Other Tidbits [Edutopia]

March 21, 2013 Mr. Vilson

Here’s an excerpt from my latest at Edutopia (including a diss on Robert Marzano and the like). It’s about engaging math teachers: Keep This Rule of Thumb: Complete, Consistent, Correct By “complete, consistent, correct,” I mean we should allow multiple pathways to a correct answer that a) allow for full understanding of a given procedure, [...]

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Is Education The Same As Schooling?

March 19, 2013 Jose

In the first piece of my two-part series on Bill Gates’ interview on teacher evaluation, I found myself perplexed by this college dropout, one of many, keeping with the same old adage that kids take tests all the time and that’s just a part of getting an education, so just deal with it. Of course, [...]

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Hey, Bill Gates: You Evaluatin’ Me? (Part I) [Future of Teaching]

March 18, 2013 Mr. Vilson

Here’s the first in a two-part essay about Bill Gates’ interview with The Washington Post: He is correct in stating that students get evaluated all the time, from the first time they enter a classroom all the way through college and beyond. Getting a degree demands having plenty of tests getting thrown at you, high-stakes [...]

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Short Notes: What Is The Political Future for Teachers?

March 17, 2013 Short Notes

A few notes: How are the Common Core math standards helping or hurting our most disadvantaged students? Anthony Rebora asks a few teachers … including me. [Education Week] Arthur Wise and Michael Usdan take a look at the landscape of teaching and politics from a bird’s eye view. [Education Week] And this article says that [...]

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John Legend and the Well-Meaning Corporatists

March 13, 2013 Jose

Last Wednesday, Huffington Post Education’s Twitter feed tweeted this out: John Legend: out to save schools? huff.to/14pCkEs — HuffPostEducation (@HuffPostEdu) March 7, 2013 In the pithiest attempt at a response, I said “From what?” After a more thorough read on all the school board races around the country, I noticed a disturbing trend of pundits [...]

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Riot When You’re Black, Angry Need Not Apply

March 12, 2013 Jose

The newest truism goes: If you’re a group of color, you’re rioting. If you’re White, you’re protesting. If you’re multicultural, you’re marching. The recent so-called riots in Brooklyn serve as yet another example. For those of you unacquainted, concerned Brooklyn residents of all ages held a vigil and demonstration to protest the treatment of 16-year-old [...]

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If You Smell What I’m Cooking, Read This. [Future of Teaching]

March 11, 2013 Mr. Vilson

Clearly, we need to define what “teacher” means a little more, and “educator,” for that matter. We also need to understand what that means for teacher voice. I spark a discussion here: The term “celebrity teacher” is such a difficult one too, because it presumes that the spotlight should focus strictly on the teacher and [...]

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Short Notes: My Dreams Is Vivid, Work Hard To Live It

March 10, 2013 Short Notes

A few short notes: Dart Adams is easily one of my favorite non-education bloggers out there, and his latest entry about the Notorious B.I.G.’s legacy gives plenty of reasons why. [Bastard Swordsman] Tara Conley writes an open letter to popular feminist Amanda Marcotte, wondering aloud about the exclusion of womynists and feminists of color in [...]

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Educators, You Might Be A Good, Racist Person Too

March 7, 2013 Jose

Ta-Nehisi Coates has a message for good, honest folk. Read: But much worse, it haunts black people with a kind of invisible violence that is given tell only when the victim happens to be an Oscar winner. The promise of America is that those who play by the rules, who observe the norms of the [...]

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A Suspension of Time and School

March 5, 2013 Mr. Vilson

You weren’t supposed to come back. Even though you were on our school’s roster, rumor had it that your guardian put you in a different school, and you’d no longer half-bounce into my class, calling one of your friends a “nigga-what-the-fuck” for something they allegedly did to you. Before you came back, you only knew [...]

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