Elementary Rat

A few things you may not know: In SFUSD, teachers get three days of professional development before one work day.  This isn't enough ...

And so it begins! Here's my advice for the big FIRST DAY.  As a reminder, I am actually a teacher at a public school.  I do not merely...

I am leaving town tomorrow for two weeks of professional development, partially about writing.  And also, I'll be visiting with some of ...

As a devoted Enronista, I've been following John Arnold for years  and  years. I'm happy to say that his continued campaign to des...

For this year's 4%, District teachers are doing way more than 4% new work: We are required to use two new data systems.  Neither was r...

There has got to be a better way to handle the wait pool than a three week carousel roster.

Yay, one week of Kindergarten under the bridge.  My class is enormously cute and bright.  I am hoping that my roster is stabilizing, but I s...

Is there a Kindergarten student in your household?  Then read  this  before school starts, and think about how you can help Kindergarten be ...

In February, it seemed like a totally great idea to apply for an out-of-state professional development taking place the week before I report...

Pay for performance is a very popular education reform plan.  The fact that pay for performance doesn't seem to work very well - I give ...

Families Get Ready! Using a permanent marker, write your child's first name in a prominent location on all items of clothing your chil...

This morning, I read  this  article in the  Mercury News  about a database of school district employee salaries. The database is a littl...

It's a good thing Proposition 30 passed, because California's schools are going to need it.  Honestly, we had better start the campa...

FACT: Chi Tschang was found to have physically and mentally abused children while principal at KIPP Fresno. FACT: KIPP attempted to kee...

Soooooooo I have been enjoying this really delightful holiday from education news (well, most of the time), SFUSD factoids (haven't read...

My general method of classroom set-up is to pile everything up in the middle of the room.  This makes it easy to hang fadeless, and I make s...

My iPod died spectacularly this summer.  Having recently received my paycheck, I took myself off to replace it and found that the iPod Touch...

So I took the summer off from blogging. Truth be told, I took the summer off from teaching.  Other than two planning days at my new school...

In today's New York Times , there's an entire article on  how naughty educators aren't protecting student data . The article f...

This article - from the New York Times  series "Teachers are Crazy Lazy" - irritated me. I mean, there are some interesting cult...

For the first time in years, I checked out on Friday.  Most of my stuff is in storage; what I needed to get through the last few weeks is pi...

I am not enthusiastic about the CORE waiver.  I recognize the CORE districts believe their stance is revolutionary, but what the waiver ado...

Today I am deciding if I am keeping two or three silkie chicks.  I have been spending  a lot of time perusing  this thread at Backyard Chick...

I just found out that motion sickness can endure for a few days after the event that caused it. In my case, the trigger was our last field...

So my spraddle-legged chick lost the splay after two physical therapy sessions and has been renamed Baby Fave (from Baby Splay).  Collective...

Sooooooo I'm moving to a different school next year.  It's another high-needs school, but its particular needs are somewhat differen...

I don't get why SFUSD is proposing spending $30,000 buying ten Teach for Americans for the next school year.  SFUSD is a popular distric...

Hatch Count: Seven healthy chicks in a variety of cool, fluffy colors.  (They are all silkies). One has a splayed leg.  I'm 99% this w...

(h/t  Diane Ravitch .) Shorter  coalition of education reform organizations masquerading as civil rights groups :  If the Department of Ed...

ETA: Two chicks are fully hatched and two more were actively unzipping when I left today at 6pm.  Fingers crossed for happy living chicks dr...