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This week I’m in Wickenburg, Arizona, a small western town I’ve been going to for quite some time with my family, and it got me thinking about an artifact I picked up a few years back at an estate sale ...

In yesterday's Sacramento Bee, principal Kevin MacDonald did what all principals should be doing: getting their students involved with their own learning solutions, and with solving the achievement gaps in their school.     You want success?  It MUST involve four mighty branches: ...

 Here's how I have set up this lesson:    Having been trained in the America's Choice Writer's Workshop as well as History Alive, I have my students keep a Writer's Journal with a running Table of Contents.  This is a journal that ...

The New York Times (3/23) reported, “Connecticut Schools Confronting Proficiency Demands,” But I say this: “3 is a Magic Number.”  Our government cannot successfully run without the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive Branches and their success is definitely not 100%.  My health ...

OK, I know this flowchart is old, but it is always important to go back to effective reminders of the inadequacy of our broken system.  The only ammendment, or challenge, I'd make to this contortionist-like system of firing a tenured teacher is ...

I once stood on a high horse about merchandizing in the schools for a long time.  I knew in the bottom of my heart that it was wrong.  But there's a new whiff of possibility in the air.  Could it ...

Well, Halleluah.  The Chicago Tribune reports that finally somebody thought long and hard to themselves about differentiating the NCLB-designated failing schools.  Good for them.  It's only been years that teachers have been chanting differentiation in the schools, and it's about time that ...

  "If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn."  - Ignacio Estrada    What's our goal?  Everybody say it with me: to teach students.    Unfortunately, there are many teachers who end that statement with, "...in ...

I had the honor of meeting Ted Lai at the CUE Conference in Palm Springs this past weekend. I have been a fan for quite some time and I wasn't disappointed. What a nice guy, open guy, and all-around ...

As requested, here are some of the handouts from my session at CUE in Palm Springs from my presentation, "Podcasting with 70 Middle Schoolers - RU Crazy?!"     Feel free to modify these for your classroom purposes only.