Teaching

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to return to remote learning on Tuesday January 4, 2022. In turn, the district decided to close classes and cancel after school activities. Chicago Public School (CPS) district is the third largest in the nation. CPS operates 636 schools. CPS serves 340,658 enrolled students for the 2021-22 school year. There are 22,317 teachers employed by CPS. 73% of...

Teachers have another problem in an ongoing splurge of challenges to their performance in classrooms, from limited budgets, international rankings of their students' test scores, Federal legislation to leave no child behind regardless, and now Common Core State Standards (CCSS). As one public high school teacher said to his department chair, "I get it. My students do not measure up to state, national, or international competition. Will someone please...

A Strategic Data Project Human Capital Diagnostic of LAUSD suggests teachers with advanced degrees do not have effects, on average, as their peers. This conclusion is based on math scores and not ELA scores. According to the publication (no authors), "This report illuminates patterns of teacher effects in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and compares these patterns across a combination of teacher,...

The average temperature outside drops in the days following Halloween. Up to that point, temperatures usually sit around 80 to 90 degrees. The temperature outside my home right now is 44 degrees. The quick change in the weather brings two immediate challenges: ants and colds. Ants My classroom can be heaven for ants making it past the door. Inside the room, students leave food wrappers, candy wrappers,...

Teachers should not speak out publicly about poor working conditions, poor morale, poor administrators, poor parents, or poor students. Speaking out is just interpreted as whining. It becomes fodder for the critics. Therefore, I will not whine or complain. Instead, I'll describe an incident and you will decide on your own whether you would take a teaching job in our modern public schools. During the period...

Training ended on Friday and after returning home, I went to bed. I just woke up. Oddly, after 11 hours of sleep, I'm still in a fog. Project Lead the Way training is known as bootcamp. The program started on a Sunday evening and continued every day - in class and in the dorms with homework. The intent of the course is for each teacher to...

I've never skinned a moodle theme until I started to organize the moodle installation for the Green Enterprise Academy. Work started with the standard green theme (a child theme of the standard theme). Next, the header design included inserting a logo, lowering the login area, and adding a heavy green line. Tonight the width was changed to max-width 980px, margins were added so that a solid...

2011 was a great year to introduce the Apple iPad into the classroom. Most teachers first consider keeping a calendar and taking notes during workshops. Students are drawn to the iPad for taking notes during lectures. My students also use the iPad to review for their AP exam in May of this year. Interestingly, despite a plethora of applications, a single note taking application does...

Join Gregory Klee, assistant principal and math instructor, as he discusses why administrators at Chaminade High School, Mineola, NY decided to implement a one-to-one program, how they discovered DyKnow software and why it has become an integral part of the school’s one-to-one program. Rachel Morgan, English instructor, will demonstrate how she uses DyKnow software to create engaging, interactive and collaborative exercises to facilitate deeper...

Here's a reintro to ways to improve teacher performance pay reviews. It seems timely given the financial status of some public school districts and their state reimbursements. As we all know today, reviews are competitive for teachers. This competition is about student learning outcomes first, second, and last. If the emphasis on outcomes hasn't reached you yet, it will sooner than later. So, here's...