For the sake of my sanity, I will only be publishing on this blog 3 times a week. This semester is looking to be very busy and complicated. I don’t want to stretch myself too thin by attempting to publish Monday-Friday. I think my posts will benefit from more reflection and preparation for writing than [...]
In lieu of the holidays, I am going to take a two week break from this blog. I need a bit of time to recharge my batteries and read all my blogs and articles. I will return at the beginning of January with some fresh ideas and comments. Look forward to sharing my ideas to [...]
Part II of What High Schools Don’t Tell You breaks down subjects into categories. Each category is then given a chapter to secrets. Being a social studies teacher, I focused on the Humanities chapter. The chapter included language, linguistics, literature, history, jurisprudence (law), philosophy, archeology, religion, and ethics. I found three interesting secrets hidden among [...]
Secret #86: Create a team atmosphere with the faculty. Secret #88: Be esepcially respectful of the teacher and administration time and labor. THANK YOU!!!!! I love these secrets! I see education as a team effort with students, teachers, administrators, and parents as the players. We should all work together to encourage, correct, guide, and generally [...]
Secret #59: Consider enrolling in college courses This is another “secret” that I see both sides. Really I think it comes down to individual students. For some students, early college classes are a great idea–a way to get through some of the required classes and/or advance subjects. I took a college psych class my senior [...]
Secret #55: Public high schools are no longer the great grounds of academic and artistic experimentation. On one level I agree with this statement. With all the recent budget cuts, schools have been cutting their “extras” such as music and art. Public schools have been pressured to standardize and regulate instead of experiment. The federal [...]
Secret #68: Never assume that the menu of clubs is limited to what already exists. Now this is a secret that I can get behind. Extracurriculars are very important. Every student should choose at least one or two things to do through the school. That was my mom’s rule when I started high school. She [...]
Secret #19: Use summers. Secret #39-44: Take summer courses. Secret #48: Summer Vacations should reinforce your child’s summer learning. Wissner-Gross has a whole section about what to do with summers. I must say I was slightly taken aback. However after a little more thought, I can see what she’s getting at. It may just take [...]
I am starting another series. This time I picked up What High Schools Don’t Tell You (And Other Parents Don’t Want You to Know) by Elizabeth Wissner. Basically Wissner lays out 309 “secrets” she has compiled from her work as an educational strategist. Wissner asserts that by following her plan, any child can have success [...]
“Mrs. Jones once cried in front of her class. A girl came running up to me in the hall after I had dismissed my class, saying ‘Come comfort Mrs. Jones.’ I didn’t know what she meant, but it sounded bad. When I got there, Mrs. Jones was at her desk sobbing, mascara running Tammy Faye [...]