Playing Moneyball with Pay for Performance

March 5, 2013

Jose- Funny you should bring up baseball as an analogy for the Common Core (CC) and district leadership. As I mentioned in my post on #scrapthemap, Virginia has not adopted the Common Core. It’s general position is that VA already has strong standards why adopt more general ones. This doesn’t mean we aren’t conducting our [...]

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Common Core Implementation Versus Baseball [Let's Play Ball]

March 4, 2013

Hey John, This week, New York City English and math teachers have 23 days and 30 days (respectively) until The Big Test. The state subjects 3rd through 8th graders to half a school day of testing procedures for three straight days to see whether or not students (and teachers) have met the objectives laid out [...]

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Take This Into Consideration For Teacher Leadership

February 26, 2013

Hey John, Thank you for your latest post, and starting us on the conversation about The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Challenges for Student Leadership. One of the other major findings we see in this survey is the set of critical points made about teacher leaders: Half (51%) of teachers are at least somewhat [...]

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Points of Perception [race, leadership, growth]

February 21, 2013

Jose I have three quick points I wanted to make with you and, for some reason, they all center on the idea of perception. Thanks for highlighting Leonard Cooper’s recent win on Teen Jeopardy. I think one reason that Leonard was a come from behind hero was that our perceptions of young black males is that they should [...]

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The Curious Case of Leonard Cooper and the Perception of Intellect

February 18, 2013

Hey John, Thank you for the latest post on why you’ll be wearing red more often. Our dedication to students starts by looking at the way we perceive intelligence and learning. The struggle for how we look at learning often comes from a lens of assessing intelligence, rather than other factors that might contribute to [...]

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Another Red Letter Day For Teachers #scrapthemap

February 16, 2013

Jose- Your last post inspired me to speak out. I tend to keep my name unassociated from political discussions. Occasionally, on facebook, I might support a cause or concern but in general I don’t feel my opinion, when it comes to politics and education, is well heard. I believe in a balanced approach, especially when [...]

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Speak From The Heart And Everything Takes Care Of Itself

February 5, 2013

Hey John, First, I’m glad that you had a chance to try out a TED talk. Even if you didn’t do as well as we had hoped, you probably said your piece with conviction, calm, and an honesty that suits a man who works with kids no taller than his knees. While we wait for [...]

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My Shot at TEDxRVA

February 1, 2013

image via: @arch85la Jose- Thanks for your post on leading from behind. I especially appreciated your question. How do we create our own language that pushes back against those who seek to move us away from talking about children? I hope I did justice to this to this question last night when I had the [...]

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The Benefits of Leading From Behind

January 30, 2013

Hey John, Your post on responsive writing as a teacher leader reminds me of a quote from Nelson Mandela: “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your [...]

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Responsive Writing as a Teacher Leader

January 29, 2013

Jose- Thanks for your response to my post on accountability vs. responsibility. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea you mentioned about individual agency and collective voice. I never felt a part of a collective voice until I joined TLN. The only way I felt like I could be a part of that [...]

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