It’s May 8. I sleep in an extra hour. I make myself a kick-ass scrambler. I pick my brother up at 9 and we drive toward I-84. There’s a bunch of teachers on an overpass wearing red and hanging their banners and I honk at them. My brother and I make our way to theContinue reading “#342: May 8, Soul Work”
Tag Archives: education reform
#341: You Do What You Need To Do
You do what you need to do. If you want to hang a banner over an overpass, you go ahead and do that. If you want to stop by the union office and write a letter to your representative, you do that. If you need to go downtown to be inside of a crowd ofContinue reading “#341: You Do What You Need To Do”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: June 12, 2018
Please excuse my absence. After 30 poems over the 30 days of April, one needs a little rest. But on top of all that, I’ve been having a transformative experience. On Sunday, May 20, I came down from the mountaintop. My hair turned white and now looks blown back by a great force of energyContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: June 12, 2018”
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”
Letter to a Colleague in Her Second Year of Teaching
Dear Friend, I don’t pretend to be able to advise you, but I can tell you what I have done to ensure that I do not become a casualty of the oftentimes insurmountable and sometimes impossible demands of the profession. In your second year of teaching, if you find yourself in a perpetual stateContinue reading “Letter to a Colleague in Her Second Year of Teaching”
#113: The Child House
The Child House is so called because the children in this building outnumber the adults about thirty-seven to one. Inside over a thousand big children are busy (or not) at some purpose which often remains mysterious to them, but never- theless is perceived by many to be of some importance. Many of the kids love theContinue reading “#113: The Child House”
Why I Am Totally Bugged By This Video
http://www.upworthy.com/student-freaks-out-in-front-of-his-class-and-says-what-were-all-thinking-about-our-education-system-3 The video making the rounds Thursday on facebook was of a young man who stands up in the middle of his classroom and goes on a little tirade against his teacher, accusing her, essentially, of malpractice, of making no effort to teach, of handing the kids packet after packet, worksheet after worksheet. He imploresContinue reading “Why I Am Totally Bugged By This Video”
Of Being Tired of Writing About Teaching
I think, at least for now, I’ve exhausted my brain and my “pen” regarding teaching, issues of public schooling, educational crisis, education reform. I know I will come back to it. It’s inevitable. But for the time being I feel like anything I have to say now will be a repeat of something I haveContinue reading “Of Being Tired of Writing About Teaching”
michael jarmer 