Clarence Fisher wrote a post called Thinking about Change in which he shared a critical thinking tool for problem solving. The idea came from a book called The Medici Effect. It’s a simple idea, which makes it versatile and applicable to any number of problem situations.
Clarence posted an example of a grid that would [...]
From looking through my referrer stats, I found that Borderland has been linked from Parade of the Edublogs: Oh look, there are clowns from NCTE. What a boost, getting linked from one of my favorite literacy-advocacy organizations. I’m going to have to start reading the other edubloggers I’m not familiar with to learn more about [...]
Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not political legislators, who implement change after the fact. Art exerts a profound influence on the style of life, the mode, range and direction of perception. Art tells us what we know and don’t know that we know. (William Burroughs)
I [...]
“I’m sorry. This is a dead end.”
I’d like to be Neo, but I’m cast as Agent Smith in this story. I’m programmed to keep order in the system. My job is to ensure predictable outcomes. I was a rule-abiding program until I got infected with a (critical) virus, and now I’m a renegade, overwriting otherwise [...]
After my students began writing on Tell the Raven, my role as a writing teacher changed. I used to teach the writing process. Now we write and use a writing process. It’s an evolving practice that my students and I work out together. This is a look at my classroom now.
Keyboarding practice. The kids [...]
Making inferences is a reading comprehension skill. I see some possibilities for this.
Google trends.
Thanks Wesley.
I was talking with a kindergarten teacher about her final report cards. She has a grid to complete for each of her students indicating which of the letters they can name and sound out. She told me that a better predictor of a kid’s readiness to read is a screening test that they give kindergartners [...]
This is the last week of the academic year. Next week I return to my domestic life in the country – full time. I become a fixer of toilets, a killer of ants, a builder a bike racks, a gardener, and a soccer fan. I also plan to read and take naps in the [...]
George Orwell wrote The Politics of the English Language in 1946. He wrote about the decline of the language, and his message is still relevant 60 years later. Orwell commented on uses of language that obscure, rather than clarify meaning. His thesis was that foolish thinking leads to sloppy language which, in turn, encourages foolish [...]
Before blogging was ever a concept for me, Gatto’s book crossed my radar, but I had no background knowledge about him. As I recall, I hadn’t developed a sufficiently critical view of education at the time, and whatever he had to say to me then was very little. I didn’t make the connection to what [...]
