Planting Seeds of Belief New Teachers by Shelly Sanchez Terrell - August 16, 2010August 15, 20102 Shelly Sanchez Terrell is an English teacher living in Germany. She is also the co-organizer and co-creator of the educational projects, Edchat and The Reform Symposium Conference. Find more of her challenges on her education blog, Teacher Reboot Camp or in her free e-book, The 30 Goals Challenge. Find her on Twitter, @ShellTerrell. I remember having a lesson observed for my teacher certification. The lesson didn't go well and my observer made it a point to let me know how miserably I failed. I have gotten critiques before, but this one was different. I felt like a failure. My observer had not liked one thing I did in my lesson. I felt as if I wasn't a good teacher. No teacher likes that feeling.
No Child Left Behind Doomed To Fail? General by Joel Wagner - June 11, 2008June 19, 20168 A reader recently emailed me and pointed me to a recent article on Time.com regarding No Child Left Behind. She wanted my take on the article, so here goes... To begin with, I notice that the article is written by Claudia Wallis, a writer of incredible credentials. This is a great start. The article begins: There was always something slightly insane about No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the ambitious education law often described as the Bush Administration's signature domestic achievement. I understand this view, but to me it comes across as sounding much like every single faculty meeting I have ever been in that discussed NCLB and its "ridiculous expectations for the students." Every time I hear this, I laugh to myself. I
Efficient vs. Effective General by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2007July 5, 20101 This week, I began reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. It's an outstanding book. One of the points that he makes in the book is that of being efficient versus being effective. I have prided myself in some ways on being very efficient in most of the things that I do. There is definitely a place for efficiency. But is efficiency to be the goal of everything that we do? I propose that it is not. This can be seen in many things in life. An efficient pitcher in baseball is the one who throws the least pitches. And effective pitcher is the one who has the most results. Now, clearly being both effective and efficient should be the