Hi Tiffany, I think a lot of your readers are tea...

2010-06-23T14:28:39.586-06:00

Hi Tiffany,

I think a lot of your readers are teachers or perhaps in some area of education and so I’m writing to suggest www.school-counselor.org as a resource link on your blog. This website provides career and licensure information for those who are interested in moving into the school counseling profession.

Hope this is helpful,

Seth Sanford

The PS was one final try at venting it out, but I ...

2009-09-06T21:43:03.400-06:00

The PS was one final try at venting it out, but I think, like you, it just fuel the frustration.

From someone else who didn't vote for "ou...

2009-09-06T18:25:03.814-06:00

From someone else who didn't vote for "our" President, I totally agree. I tried to get my frustrations out in a blog post but I think it just made me more aggrevated.

OUCH! Why must you step on my toes. I guess I do ...

2009-07-27T21:42:55.266-06:00

OUCH! Why must you step on my toes. I guess I do need to "prize the learner." Thank you for sharing and keep it up.

Tiffany, Nice first post. I have been reflecting...

2009-07-18T00:23:29.820-06:00

Tiffany,

Nice first post. I have been reflecting about similar things lately. First, I agree there really is nothing new under the sun. The principles of constructivism, project based learning, inquiry based learning, etc. were all present in the writings of John Dewey (1859-1952). Want older than Dewey? - consider the Socratic method.

We've known at least tacitly what good instruction is for a long time, and now with brain research we know how kids learn best specifically and scientifically.

I have also asked myself, "Why can't we get it right if know all this?" I believe much of the problem is systemic. I recently commented on a blog post from a book study for "Why Don't Students Like School?" by Daniel Willingham where I go into depth about what some of the systemic problems are.

I have also been reflecting on the trend you mentioned that goes from government to district admin and on down to teachers. Here are some quotes that I have come across in the last year:

"Internal accountability precedes external accountability. That is, school personnel must share a coherent, explicit set of norms and expectations about what a good school looks like before they can use signals from the outside to improve student learning. Giving test results to an incoherent, atomized, badly run school doesn’t automatically make it a better school. The ability of a school to make improvements has to do with the beliefs, norms, expectations, and practices that people in the organization share, not with the kind of information they receive about their performance. Low-performing schools aren’t coherent enough to respond to external demands for accountability. - Richard Elmore
http://snipurl.com/3ltea

And...

"… you cannot lead strangers, you can only coerce or bribe them." - Orson Scott Card

Government imposed measures of accountability and the strings attached to them (rewards and punishment) are coercion and bribery. I have come to believe that coercion and bribery, which are the true nature of external accountability measures, cannot and will not lead to lasting change.

I also agree that the pendulum does swing too far and too often in education. If education were a person being seen by a psychologist, it would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. We need to focus on best practices not programs. Programs change, but best practices do not. There is no magic bullet program that is going to fix every kid. I believe that it is this search for the magic bullet that makes our pendulum swing so wildly. I think the answer is just what you said, "... we just need to continue to learn so that we can pull what we need when we need it."

As far as the eye rolling goes... it may not be needed (or helpful), but it is often warranted and so darn hard to hold back or hide. Kick me if you see me doing it.

Learning Everyday

Hi Tiffany, I think a lot of your readers are tea...

The PS was one final try at venting it out, but I ...

From someone else who didn't vote for "ou...

OUCH! Why must you step on my toes. I guess I do ...

Tiffany, Nice first post. I have been reflecting...