Avenue4Learning

As a teacher and parent, I’m constantly reminded that children learn at different rates. Sometimes, it’s an issue of what is developmentally appropriate and, other times, it’s about their readiness. For some kids, there are occasions when they simply are not ready to learn something new. It might be due to some current event in [...]

Today is World Teachers Day. Have you thanked your favorite teacher today? In my last post, I asked for names of teachers who make a difference. In this post I’m going to list them– as well as many of my own teachers– to celebrate their hard work and dedication to help kids learn. I would [...]

My parents brought me up to say “please” and “thank you” all the time. I insist on this with my own children as well as with my students. I also prefer to say “You’re welcome,” instead of “No problem.” But I really I love the French response, “avec plaisir,” which means “with pleasure.” Have you [...]

Recently, I overheard some educators discussing personal websites, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Although I wasn’t a part of this conversation, I couldn’t help but hear what they were saying (okay, I was eavesdropping). The most disappointing part of what I heard was this statement: “Oh, who has time for all of that garbage?!?! All those [...]

I am a teacher. By choice. Why? Because I love learning more than little kids love candy… and helping others learn makes me incredibly happy. Too altruistic? Too sappy? Sorry, but it’s the truth, and it’s been that way since I was in 2nd grade. At the age of 8, I knew I wanted to [...]

My apologies, Mr. President. It has been over a month since I wrote Part I of this post. To be completely honest, I have put off writing the second part because I’ve been too angry to write it.  I’m so frustrated with what I hear coming from our government, with so-called “experts” who have not [...]

Dear Mr. President: In the past two weeks, I have read more about schools, teachers, and accountability than I have ever seen in my nearly 20 years in education. Sadly, I can’t say that what I’ve been reading is encouraging. The one word I see over and over again is “accountability.” Accountability IS a good [...]

Do we need to protect ourselves from… ourselves? I’ve been doing a lot of research with colleagues in the last few months in the realm of public school district policies, especially pertaining to internet, web 2.0, social media, filtering, etc. What we’ve found is many schools who have vague language in their policies, and who [...]

When you think of 21st Century Learning, what comes to your mind? What are the skills that people need to succeed in the 21st Century?* Is it all about the technology, or are there different approaches to thinking and acting in the 21st Century? In addition to the core subjects, what should schools be adding [...]

A question was posted regarding how the home-to-school connection (I also like calling this “teacher-to-home communication”) is coming along with new technologies and schools. Talk about a “rock and a hard place.” I think there are a few factors that make the seemingly simple act of communicating through Web 2.0 more difficult than we would [...]