Posts in Category Teaching

Teach for Humanity

This is a story about experience.  Strangely enough, experience has the power to both sever and prompt connection.  There are threads of my story—my experience—that are particular to me as a black child, a black woman, and an African immigrant.  On the other hand, there are fibers in my story that are universal, and linked to my and your human self.  I imagine that you will find things in my story that will surprise you, resonate with you, frustrate, and perhaps even anger you.  I hope that all of the above will happen.  When you arrive at the end of my story, I hope that you will be wrestling with your own experiences, struggling to understand how they have shaped you as a particular...

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Posted on Oct 31, 2011 - 06:15 PM by Esther Ohito

Knowing and I Don’t Knowing

As the coordinator for the Detroit Future Schools program, I get to visit 12 classrooms all over the Metro-Detroit area every month. Grades range from third grade up through twelfth. School focuses range from the basics to aeronautics. Class sizes ranging from ten to thirty-five students. I’m learning more right now about schooling and learning (the two are not synonymous) than I did as an undergrad earning my teaching certificate. Every class has a unique personality–a unique pulse–but one thing remains the same…

In every classroom I’ve visited, I hear the phrase “I don’t know.” It is most commonly used in response to a teacher asking a student a question and the student...

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Posted on Oct 27, 2011 - 05:22 PM by Ammerah Saidi

Links and a Theory

I was going through old email messages when I came across a link a friend sent me about a contest. The link was dead, so I decided to shorten it to the main http. I was redirected to a site by the name of "energizestudents.org." They feature videos about the things that should change in education, have a running blog roll, polls, and the "your point of view" education video contest. This site reminds me a lot of what we're doing here at IDEA. So I invite you all to check out the link - it might lend itself to a cool connection.

Other than that I've been pondering about the financial side of the education system. Schools complain that they aren't getting enough funding. Due to the issue of...

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Posted on Jun 23, 2011 - 02:53 PM by Zuleka Irvin

Teacher Appreciation Week: Reflections from my childhood

Teachers have deeply impacted my life. Ok, not a revolutionary statement, but nevertheless true.

During the school day, my third grade class and our teacher Dave took a trip to our local park just half a block down from the Governor's mansion in Albany, New York. While throwing a baseball back and forth with Dave, I experienced something I had never previously experienced in my life: a teacher talking to me as a person. We were discussing whether the Cardinals had a real shot at the pennant and it hit me, he actually wanted to know what I thought. He considered my opinions valid and wanted to have a real conversation with me. Did it matter that I was nine and he was twenty-seven?...

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Posted on May 02, 2011 - 11:51 AM by Isaac Graves

10 Things to Learn About Good Teaching from “Teach: Tony Danza”

“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.” - Haim Ginott

When I heard that a new A&E show was following Tony Danza as he spends a year teaching 10th grade English, I rolled my eyes. Tony Danza, of the 1980s sitcom "Who's the Boss?"? I expected a trashy reality show that made a mockery of teaching. At best, I thought it would be like other celebrity reality shows: like a train wreck, so awful that you can't look away.




I couldn't have been more wrong about "Teach: Tony Danza." It's a beautiful, honest portrayal of first-year teaching in a large, urban public school (Northeast High School is...

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Posted on Nov 26, 2010 - 05:23 PM by Melia Dicker

10 Elements of Good Education

In honor of today's National Day of Blogging for Real Education Reform, I'm reminded that the ideas for how education can be improved are already out there. Here at IDEA, we know that we are not pioneers of what is good in education. What IS deeply needed is to find new ways to frame, present, organize, advocate, and directly support schools and other programs working with youth so as to bring these ideas into reality.

So, on this national blogging day, I want to highlight a list of 10 features of good education from a 2002 report by Linda Darling-Hammond and the School Redesign Network at Stanford University. The report is called 10 Features of Good Small Schools: Redesigning High...

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Posted on Nov 22, 2010 - 04:00 PM by Dana Bennis

“Glee” on Schools

I'm a big fan of "Glee," I admit it. Not that it's a perfect show, but I love the variety of music, the quirky characters, and the humor. Watching last night's episode, something else stood out to me: the compelling way in which "Glee" portrays school life and particularly the message this episode sent about the role of teachers and a school in students' lives.

The plot of yesterday's episode revolved around three students: Kurt, the only openly gay student at the school; Puck, a popular and rebellious student; and a football player and bully who specifically targets Kurt.

I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. But what I was struck by was how well the episode showed...

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Posted on Nov 10, 2010 - 10:53 AM by Dana Bennis

The Homeschooling Disclaimer

Why is it that when we criticize the government or welfare programs, immigration policies, health care, or any of its other arms, it's considered valid--but when we move toward criticizing education, it's either A. taboo, something that's too sacred to dissect, or B. something that should be blamed on the children and their "lack of motivation"?

Each time I criticize the American public school paradigm or talk about homeschooling, I always feel like I have to preface it with a disclaimer about how much I support teachers, public schools that work, etc. But this little disclaimer feels so hollow; I've encountered just as many awful teachers as I've encountered amazing ones, when I add them...

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Posted on Oct 22, 2010 - 10:08 AM by Sara Schmidt

Is Testing and Quizzing Good for Learning?

According to a blog posted in the education section of the online magazine, Good, Kent University conducted a study which, scientists claim, has shown that practice tests and practice quizzes are good for learning. It's a short blog, and if you've got time, I suggest reading that before you read the rest of this blog. Just click here.

Basically, the study conducted an experiment between two groups of people preparing for a Swahili vocabulary test. One group studied for the test by whatever methods they chose, and the other group took a pop-quiz prior to the actual test, and were given a list of English words which correlated to the Swahili words in some fashion (by meaning or phonetically)...

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Posted on Oct 15, 2010 - 02:02 PM by Shawn Strader

Are we really Waiting for Superman?

In two days, one of the most well publicized education documentaries in recent memory premiers in several cities around the country - Waiting for Superman. You may have already heard about it on The Oprah Show, in Time magazine, or from any number of other sources. Most of the coverage in these media outlets has been overwhelmingly positive, and there are many big name supporters of the film, including Bill Gates and the controversial Chancellor of D.C. Schools, Michelle Rhee, in addition to the big-name director of the film, Davis Guggenheim of An Inconvenient Truth.

In short, the documentary profiles 5 children and their families who are hoping to get into charter schools as a way in...

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Posted on Sep 22, 2010 - 08:37 AM by Dana Bennis