Pure Manaʻo

Source:   Kauffman, G. (2016, August 23). Should second-graders get homework? Maybe not, says Texas teacher. The Christian Science Monitor.  Retrieved from  http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2016/0823/Should-second-graders-get-homework-Maybe-not-says-Texas-teacher What is Sacred: This elementary teacher is saying no to homework in a video to parents that has gone viral . Basically, the only homework her students will be bringing home are the things that they do not finish in class. Radical? No. Notable? Yes. Connections to Current/Future Work: Here is the thing about secondary teachers. Our content is our god. Our content, compared to all other content areas, is the most important content IN THE WORLD. I raise my hand as one of the guilty ones who gave my students half an hour of reading every night and defended it up and down because - "hey math teacher, don't complain to me that students in your class can't read. Research shows that students read b...

     I wish I took more pictures of my classroom when I was teaching. I would have been able to use that as a reflection of my thinking. What I know after all these years is that if my seats were in tombstone rows, it was the beginning of end of the year (aka testing season and alphabetical memorizing names and training students on my classroom procedures season). If I was in quads, it's facilitation of collaboration season, and if they were in a large U or debate rows, we are performing, fishbowling, sitting on the carpet in the middle or doing independent work. This short article shares one teacher's use of tables, floors, and walls in his high school Spanish classroom. What is Sacred: I think it is always sacred when working teachers take the time to write about their process. Teachers like to learn from teachers. They like to hear about what is working for other practitioners. They like to hear confirmation of what they are already doing in print. I l...

Source: Gonzalez, J. (2017, September 24). Retrieval practice: The most powerful learning strategy you're not using. [weblog]. Retrieved from:  https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/retrieval-practice/ What is Sacred: Retrieval practice is just the art of recalling information without having it in front of  you (like rote memorization via flashcards). That is not what is sacred. What is sacred is that research backs up retrieval practice as the best practice over other study methods like review lectures, study guides and (my favorite) re-reading.  Connections to Current/Future Work: My practicum students that are in the semester before their student teaching are really preparing their reflections on their lesson to answer the following questions: what did your students learn? how do you know? Taken in a traditional context, these questions put out an expectation that every lesson will end with some kind of formal assessment (read paper and pencil qu...

I want to know how my students can be pushed to create the kinds of classrooms where their own students are safe and allowed to make mistakes and take risks. This is a mash up of growth mindset, cultural humility, third space creation, social justice. . .stuff I'm interested in.  Source: Guzman Ingram, L. (2017, September 14). A classroom full of risk takers. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/classroom-full-risk-takers What is Sacred: This is a short little blog post that just includes some advice from teachers of the year about how they create classrooms that honor perseverance, share mistakes, allow retakes, discover the power of yet, and encourage failure Fridays. Connection to Current/Future Work: I had a student that I was concerned about not because she had some odd quirks that she displayed in the classroom, but more that she did not acknowledge that she had these weird quirks which meant that she was standing in front of a classr...

Source:  Gonzales, J. (2015, September 3). 5 common teaching practices I'm kicking to the curb. [web log] Retrieved from  http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/ineffective-teaching-methods/ . What is Sacred: Students are sacred. Do no harm, even with good intentions. This article is about some of the things that I will raise my hand to say that, yes, I did that, and I apologize. I meant well. One of the things is popcorn reading, which I stopped doing over ten years ago, but that means I had it in my arsenal for over ten years. Again, I meant well. I am into coaching for fluency and prosody but I needed to give the readings to people ahead of time so they could practice.  I also used popcorn reading so that I could stop and model thinking, but again, there are other ways to model thinking, like my actually reading or again, giving people time to practice.  What I learned and still use from Linda Reif who came to work with us one year, is to create pl...