October 11th of last week was Oregon’s official teacher in-service day. In our school district, the day is unofficial, in that it’s no longer a paid work day. Somehow during negotiations that took place more than a decade ago now, the paid in-service day was bargained away in exchange for some other mysterious but beneficialContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: October 20, 2017”
Category Archives: Teaching
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: October 11, 2017
The year is cooking right along, cooking so vigorously along, in fact, that this is only my second entry in this new series I’m calling a Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year. Yes, the year is cooking right along, interrupted briefly on only two occasions and constantly punctuated by a third. WeContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: October 11, 2017”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: August 29, 2017
One of my favorite words in the English language is the word “penultimate.” It’s a great word. And this school year I will likely overuse it. Consider yourself forewarned. Today began the (sort of) first day of the (maybe) penultimate school year of my teaching career. I say “sort of” in light of the factContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: August 29, 2017”
Dispatches from Writer’s Camp: The Next Frontier
Remember that on July 3rd we campers were treated here at Mt. Holyoke College to a fireworks display of stupendous proportions. Yesterday, on the 4th of July, it was quiet. I’m not kidding. After the reading I sat on an Adirondack chair in the dark sipping whiskey in the middle of the lawn and IContinue reading “Dispatches from Writer’s Camp: The Next Frontier”
Educational Fantasy #3: Two Teachers in Every Classroom
In 1984 and 1992, respectively, Ted Sizer, in his seminal works Horace’s Compromise and Horace’s School, argued that there was such a thing in a teacher’s class load as an optimal number of students for educational gains and teacher effectiveness. That number was 75. That’s right. 75 students per teacher. In those days, early in my career, English teachersContinue reading “Educational Fantasy #3: Two Teachers in Every Classroom”
Educational Fantasy #2: Real and Effective Interventions and Alternatives for Students Who Do Not Function Well in School
Public schools take all comers, don’t they? And that’s as it should be. Those of us who support and desire a healthy public school system believe that this is a fundamental principle that makes a democracy viable, that all our citizens deserve equal access to an educational experience that will grow them into literate, responsible,Continue reading “Educational Fantasy #2: Real and Effective Interventions and Alternatives for Students Who Do Not Function Well in School”
Educational Fantasy #1: The Gradeless Classroom
This spring I have the good fortune of having a competent and enthusiastic teacher intern who is taking responsibility for a number of my classes. It has afforded me some time: some time to do especially good work for the students that remain solely my responsibility, some time to write a poem or two orContinue reading “Educational Fantasy #1: The Gradeless Classroom”
#278: When I Was Away, Before I Was Born, I Have Never Been
I attended a writing workshop last weekend taught by the Oregon Poet Laureate Emeritus Paulann Petersen where I was asked to participate in a generative process very much unlike the process I am used to in my own creative work. It was a very particular kind of brainstorm activity she called “priming.” Now, as aContinue reading “#278: When I Was Away, Before I Was Born, I Have Never Been”
Finding My Way Back to Courage
At the turn of the new year in 2016, I resolved to live more mindfully, and in January I joined a local meditation group. A year and some months later, the group still meets every other week, is facilitated by a super competent, compassionate and knowledgeable guy who earns his living as a hypnotherapist. We spendContinue reading “Finding My Way Back to Courage”
#244: On Listening to Students Talk about Seamus Heaney’s Poetry
Over three days I listened to 24 young people talk for 20 minutes a piece about literature, and 10 of those 20 minutes were dedicated to speaking about a single poem by Seamus Heaney. Most of them did fine work, but I couldn’t help recognize and remember and then start to record particular phrases or beginnings thatContinue reading “#244: On Listening to Students Talk about Seamus Heaney’s Poetry”
michael jarmer 