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Carnival of Education #163: Spring Break 2008 Edition

957966_daffodil.jpgI know some of you have already had spring break, and others haven’t yet had it. Whatever the case, spring actually breaks tomorrow as the Vernal Equinox happens. In honor of the new season, you’ll notice a handful of spring-like pictures. I hope you enjoy.

I am spending my time off catching up on housework, doing my taxes, playing with my dogs, and doing some general maintenance with the blog. I surely don’t want to waste my spring break, the time is too valuable! So instead, I decided to host the Carnival of Education. What was I thinking?!?!?

Before I go, I wanted to mention that I have been reading a lot more blogs lately and I came across an incredibly insightful response to an article that appeared in Edwize entitled Surviving Parent Teacher Conferences. Look in the comments on Matthew’s blog for some heated discussions that are erupting.

Up until 10:45pm Central, I would have been able to say he didn’t even submit this entry into the carnival, but two minutes later (13 minutes before entries officially closed), he sent me an email requesting it be added to the carnival. Little did he know, it was already slated for inclusion. I think it is well worth consideration from all of you.

Speaking of well worth your consideration, have you seen this video yet? Have you left a comment?

For a lighter side of parent conferences, check out Mister Teacher’s take on it

Anyway, on to the entries!

Teachers teaching teachers

Teachers teaching students

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Teachers providing resources

Teachers discussing educational policies

Teachers discussing homework

Teachers discussing other stuff

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Teaching & Learning 2.0

That’s all folks. The carnival is over. We hope you enjoyed your stay here. We ask that you kindly step away from the carnival now. Oh, one more look can’t hurt you! In fact, fill out the simple one-question survey below and let us know who you are. And while you’re at it, subscribe to the feed below so we can stay in touch!

Joel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.

Joel Wagner
Joel Wagner (<strong><a href="http://www.twitter.com/sywtt">@sywtt</a></strong>) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. <strong><a href="http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/">So You Want To Teach?</a></strong> is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.
http://www.SoYouWantToTeach.com

7 thoughts on “Carnival of Education #163: Spring Break 2008 Edition

  1. Terrific carnival! I especially liked CaliforniaTeacherGuy’s “Cleaning Up the Vomit” post (such a catchy title). Also, a very important issue to address.

    Thank you so much for inclusion, and I hope I’m able to help some students with proper high school class selection to maximize their chances for college admission.

  2. Incredibly insightful entry on Surviving Parent Teacher Conferences?
    Tabor “parses” the blogger’s language as if it were to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. An anecdotal reflection on the part of Ms K becomes an imprecise rant, fraught with emotional implication. Evidently feeling that you are adequately prepared isn’t a good thing. It must be quantifiable.

    If I may point out one incident out of many, Tabor is AGHAST at the teacher’s reaction that a parent would DEMAND to find out how the teacher arrived at a score of two on a six point scale for spelling quizzes. It’s thirty percent! Why would anyone put up with being asked to explain something so utterly basic in a situation where the learning of the child is being discussed. Put this in the context of eighteen back to back parent conferences in terms of time available for pointless activity. These folks need special help.

    They weren’t asking about the school’s methodology. The parents were delaying to buy time to think during an interview. Lots of people do this. It is one that parents who are administrators often use as they try to convince their child’s teacher that they have influence over her career.

    Frankly I don’t understand why he thinks that education schools can or should teach the interpersonal skills needed for a confrontational parent interview. He may be thinking of a bag of tools recapitulating the obvious for people who think of teachers AND parents as simpletons.

    Ms K had eighteen parent conferences in one day. Is that in any way normal? Do they take a half day off to do nothing but parent meetings?

    Finally, the cell phone incident was verging on rude in terms of normal behavior. I hope the parent apologized. The teacher could easily have spoken with the father by phone at another time. (I asked six people, two of whom felt it was normal, two disconcerting, and two rude.)

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