Gearing up for the day

  

It's 7:50, and one colleague is blowing his whistle that sounds eerily like our evacuation alarm and another is retorting with conch blasts--a la Lord of the Flies.  Another day in 8th grade paradise.

Book Talk Redux

Julie Anderson--old friend, engaged citizen, public servant--hosted a wonderful evening in support of The Normal Accident Theory of Education.  Thanks, Julie.

Picking Nits...

The fine volume on How to be a Gentleman notes that, unless he's an English teacher, a gentleman does not correct others' grammar.  Well, I am an English teacher.  I was a bit surprised to find this in one of the millions of white papers, working papers, position papers, review papers, etc., about Common Core, sponsored by several highfalutin education organizations.  (Go here for the paper).

Strong school culture results faculty and staff who are:

 More adaptable to change; 

 Higher motivation; 

 More commitment; 

 More cooperation and collaboration; 

 Better able to resolve conflicts; 

 Greater capacity for innovation; and 

 Effective in achieving goals. 

There is something called parallel structure, which this list does not maintain.  Read the sentence--from Strong school culture--through to the end of each bullet point, one at a time.)

...faculty and staff who are higher motivation?

More of the bullets don't work than do.

Oh, and never mind the "results faculty."  I assume they left out a word there.

Let's give them a pass on the grammar.  What does this even say, after all?  What is strong school culture? How would we know it when we see it?  

I don't mind mistakes...I make plenty of them, and they're good learning devices.  I am distressed, however, that the people so adamantly telling us they've got all this figured about with Common Core would make such mistakes.

Book Talk

   
Thank you to all who came out to hear the first talk on The Normal Accident Theory of Education.  This was at Pioneer Middle School, where I teach 8th grade.  Thanks, too, to my Superintendent, Kathi Weight, for hosting the event.