readwriteteach

This Book Made Me Throw Up (in a good way)

I have been sitting here staring at the screen for about 20 minutes. I have been avoiding this post for about 4 weeks. I don’t even know why. About a month ago, I read two books back to back: The Still Point of the Turning World by Emily Rapp and Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala. I … Continue reading »

Put Your Peer Review Practice to the Test

I have so much to say from the conferences I attended that it will most likely take multiple posts. AERA is a big conference for those of us who do anything that has to do with education research. The American Education Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting is huge. In fact, this year I decided that … Continue reading »

Thoughts on Booing Arne Duncan at AERA

A lot of hullabaloo has been sparked regarding Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s anger-rousing presentation at the American Education Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting last week in San Francisco. Jennifer Jennings publicly apologized to him via her blog in Education Week here. Others have mocked her apology such as here. Diane Ravitch questioned the meaning … Continue reading »

Get out of the classroom.

I just wrote about two majorly wonderful events that I initiated in our House 4 of the New Community College. Here I wrote about World Book Night, and here I wrote about an author visit by Jean Kwok who wrote our Composition I book Girl in Translation. What I didn’t write about is how damn … Continue reading »

World Book Night 2013!

I haven’t posted in a while, and while I have felt intensely guilty about my lack of posting it’s only because so many amazing things have been happening at work that I have been too too busy to put them into words. Now I will try to catch up. Last week, on April 23rd (Shakespeare’s … Continue reading »

Gratitude

I have been cleaning out email all day. So much email! Amid the mess I found a request from a dear student whom I taught almost 3 years ago. She is now at a different CUNY community college (BMCC) and applying for a scholarship. She wrote to me because she needed a letter of recommendation. … Continue reading »

Educators: Stop Using Comic Sans!

For the record, let me proclaim publicly that I hate the Comic Sans font. Loathe. Abhor. It makes me feel a tightness in my chest of rage. Comic Sans is very overused by teachers. I understand why someone who teaches K-3 might use it. After that, it should be banned. Exiled. Banished (pronounced like in … Continue reading »

Not-so-Silent Wall Conversation Activity

Wednesday was our first day back from Spring Break, and, as you might imagine, the students were lackluster in their enthusiasm at best (Minus one student, Steven, who admitted that he was bored at home and wanted to come back; I love it when students admit that!). With this in mind, I made sure we … Continue reading »

The Importance of Early Childhood Education

A not-so-curious thing is happening in education. Early Childhood Education is very hot right now. President Barack Obama even mentioned it in his inauguration address. Every talking head in the world of education is blah blah blah-ing about how an early start to reading, writing, math, and school habits is what determines future academic success … Continue reading »