Teachers sometimes get quite attached to what they teach. They work hard to develop or find curriculum and use it with children, and if they use ideas that work, they tend to want to be able to keep using those … Continue reading
Joe Oliverio
If a child hears an adult say great things about something the child has done, it can have a great effect on her/him. True, some children are cautious about accepting such praise. Some even have a policy of refusing to … Continue reading
One year when I was in high school, we had to read “Romeo and Juliet.” A few of us suggested to our English teacher that we could take a class field trip to see “West Side Story,” which we knew … Continue reading
When some things are going wrong enough, it’s easy to forget that some other things are going right. But there usually are things going right, even if they’re hard to notice in the middle of a crisis. Ignoring what’s going … Continue reading
People don’t always do what they would have done if they’d only known better. They often have reasons to wish they’d done things differently. And that can be exactly how they get to know better next time. Foolishness, reviewed intelligently, … Continue reading
Almost immediately after I wrote “Grievances,” I got feedback from several parents and teachers on my e-mailing list. Some thought that Ellen, the teacher, had done the right thing – listened to children’s thoughts and feelings. Others thought that she … Continue reading
Twenty angry children came in from gym class one day and began telling their teacher, Ellen, how unfair the gym teacher was. The gym teacher had stopped a soccer game because of the behavior of some of the children. Some … Continue reading
Most teachers I know have times when they have to “wing it” – times when either they have no plans or they have plans that don’t work, and they have to come up with other ideas on the spot. These … Continue reading
Over the years, I’ve spoken with a few teachers who seemed, to me, to hold their pupils totally accountable for what they learned. As I’ve seen it, these teachers did what they considered teaching, and left it entirely up to … Continue reading
About twenty minutes after I e-mailed my essay on lecture to the people on my e-mailing list, I got quite a bit of feedback from one of my friends, Bruce Pollack-Johnson, a teacher who works with older learners. He has … Continue reading