Stories from School: Practice meets Policy

Interviewing for your Job

2013-05-20T02:00:00-07:00

By Mark Unlike too many schools, we are in a position to hire. Last week, we interviewed candidates for two positions in my department--one replacing an irreplaceable veteran moving on to retirement, the other filling a new position resulting from...

The Problem

2013-05-17T17:41:22-07:00

By Mark I've been having a bit of a problem lately in my classes. My students were tasked to create a visual metaphor of the allegory represented in George Orwell's Animal Farm, do research about the "factual" side of their...

Student (and teacher) Engagement: Increase the drama!

2013-05-13T16:00:00-07:00

by Maren Johnson The audience will not tune in to watch information. You wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. No one would or will. The audience will only tune in — and stay tuned in — to watch drama. ~David Mamet, playwright and...

MSP Reflections

2013-05-12T20:00:42-07:00

By Tom White It's over. My students have prepared for and taken the 2013 fourth grade Measurement of Student Progress. It's now behind us. Let me offer a few observations and reflections, based solely on my students' experiences: -The adults...

A Fool and His Money...

2013-05-01T11:51:11-07:00

By Kristin You don't have to have a lot of money to have a lot of sense about money. Say your car is an older car. If you have good financial sense, you take care of it. You replace the...

Inappropriate Jokes and Student Teacher Evaluation

2013-04-29T15:30:00-07:00

by Maren Johnson I had an outstanding student teacher this year. It was a positive experience for both of us: some lucky school in our area will be very fortunate to have her as their new science teacher. Hard working,...

One of Our Own!

2013-04-28T15:46:00-07:00

By Tom White For over half a century the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSO) has chosen a National Teacher of the Year from among the state Teachers of the Year. After meeting the president and getting a large...

RESPECT

2013-04-27T05:54:33-07:00

By Mark When some new idea surfaces in education, it gets acronymized. A general rule: if you want to make a project die, give it a clunky acronym. When the acronym makes a word, it can have subtle positive power...

Trust, Power, Change and Risk

2013-04-20T07:54:45-07:00

By Mark Change is hard, and for change to happen, trust is critical. I've been thinking often about trust lately--sitting in meetings with administrators as they strategize how to build trust within a staff. In meetings at the ESD and...

Carrots and Sticks

2013-04-12T12:22:54-07:00

By Kristin Last February a Senator from Tennessee proposed legislation that would reduce welfare benefits- "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" (TANF) - by 30% if children weren't performing in school. "Performing" was defined by one journalist as “Advancing from one...

The New 3 R's

2013-04-05T15:49:28-07:00

Stories from School would like to welcome Brian Sites as a guest-contributor to our blog. Brian Sites is an alternative educator and National Board Certified teacher, who has earned recognition at the state and national level for his work helping...

Just a Tweak? Educator Effectiveness and the Evergreen Effect

2013-04-01T14:01:00-07:00

By Maren Johnson Educator effectiveness is where it’s at right now in Washington state. Student teachers are currently filming themselves and analyzing student learning for the edTPA (teacher performance assessment). We have a challenging ProTeach evidence-based assessment for teachers trying...

A Little Common Sense

2013-03-31T13:37:20-07:00

By Kristin Are any of us really surprised by the news that 35 Atlanta Schools district officials and employees, including the Superintendent, were indicted because of cheating on state tests? Of course we are. In Washington State we're not so...

The Evergreen Effect: Another Perspective

2013-03-28T20:57:35-07:00

By Tom White Chad Aldeman, an analyst and blogger for the Education Sector, recently wrote about Washington’s teacher evaluation system. It’s an interesting read. You can cut to the chase by looking at his blog post here, or if you’re...

Keep it Close to the Classroom

2013-03-23T07:44:28-07:00

By Mark It seems like a no-brainer. If you want to evaluate my effectiveness as a teacher, you need to look at what I do in my classroom. If you want to evaluate my impact on student learning, you need...

Supporting Academic Acceleration

2013-03-20T18:55:41-07:00

By Kristin I'm the short one in the photo. That's my boat at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta in 1993, my last year of college at the University of Washington. This picture wouldn't exist, and I wouldn't be a college...

The Two-Way Mirror: Watching Colleagues Teach

2013-03-17T18:06:58-07:00

By Mark Like you probably have, I've read the books, sat through the professional development, and learned the theories. Each time I learn a little, but nothing like what I learn when I get to watch another teacher in action....

Letter Grades for Schools?

2013-03-10T18:43:35-07:00

By Tom As a people, we have a weird relationship with data. On the one hand, we love to collect it; we love to measure every possible entity from every conceivable angle so that we can arrange all those numbers...

Let’s Hijack that Spaceship: The Next Generation Science Standards

2013-03-06T15:15:14-08:00

by Maren Johnson The Next Generation Science Standards, like the Mars Rover or even some new and strange space ship hovering above a farmer’s cornfield, are about to land here in Washington and in many states across our country. Our...

It's Not Going Back to Where it Came From

2013-03-03T21:48:01-08:00

By Tom White When I was growing up my father was the city manager of Mountlake Terrace. He was – and is – a cheap man, so when it came time to purchase some additional police cars, he decided to...