The Value of A Great Teacher General by Joel Wagner - March 3, 2011March 3, 20110 Back in January, NPR's Planet Money podcast ran an episode entitled How Much Is A Good Teacher Worth? On the episode, they argue that the difference between the best teachers and the worst teachers is huge in terms of earning potential of the students over the course of their careers. While some of the findings may be questionable as far as correlating grades and test scores with future success, as a general rule, I think the concepts do hold true and definitely worth a listen. On today's podcast, we consider a plan to dramatically grow the U.S. economy. The plan has nothing to do with banks, stimulus, tax cuts or the Federal Reserve. Instead, the plan focuses entirely on — public school
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.
Principals Gone Wild General by Joel Wagner - March 28, 2008July 2, 20101 I like my principal. In fact, I like every principal I have worked with and for. I read a news article today that concerns me and makes me glad that I have had great administrators to work for thus far in my career. Then I got home and looked for a few more. Here's what I came up with. Teachers say principal threatened to kill them if TAKS test scores didn't improve Private school director's explicit poems draw fire Principal on leave after kids eat on floor I also found this video. Crazy stuff.