Tag: culture

  • Why I wont use direct instruction

    This post is born out of a PhD class I am taking called “Models of Teaching.” It is a great class, but one of the requirements early in the semester was to write how I would use direct instruction in my classroom. I refused. I wrote a lengthy screed against DI. I attacked it, aggressively.…

  • #ObserveMe: Changing culture in classrooms

    #BlAugust is going strong so far. I am digging the morning writing for sure. Yesterday I was taking a moment after work to look at my Twitter feed and I saw this hashtag #ObserveMe with a picture of a sign outside a classroom. It was this pic.  (you can click on any picture to make…

  • High Fives revisited

    A late in the day #BlAugust post. Yesterday Jennifer tweeted this at me, and I teared up a little. Thanks to @gwaddellnvhs for the idea and inspiration https://t.co/Jv4KM6DkEb — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) August 21, 2016 And the tweet it refers to is this one: #MTBoSBlaugust post: How I Changed My Classroom Culture Through High-Fives https://t.co/YoCHLMzsF0…

  • Teaching as political activity 2

    Yesterday I posted about deciding if teaching really was a dichotomy between agency or conformity, and I decided that yes, it really is a dichotomy. It is impossible to be a teacher and straddle the ideas of teaching to change the world or teaching to reinforce the world as it is. And then Andy Pethan…

  • Teaching as political activity

    Brian Lawler posted this today: Teaching is a political act. We r either recreating what is, or critically evaluating our world & knowledge; we teach 4 conformity or agency — Brian R Lawler (@blaw0013) July 27, 2016 This statement hit me in the feels, as it is intended.*** Then my brain took over. I realized…

  • Critically evaluating Value Statements

    I chose to examine my district’s math results for my final project in my Critical Pedagogy class. It made me seriously depressed and angry. It is one thing being told that we have “gaps” in our math outcomes, it is something completely different to do the research yourself and find just how large, systemic, and…

  • Why do we throw away the first years?

    Someone in my critical pedagogy class made a very astute comment the last class. We were discussing professionalism, the fact that there are many attempts at deprofessionalizing teaching going on today, and we were having a great conversation about who is benefiting from these acts. Who is pushing the process, who is benefiting, who does…

  • Re-Writing AP Stats through Critical Theory

    As I have been examining my practice through the lens of Critical Theory, I asked myself how would I teach differently now than I did even a year ago? Great question.   It is time for me to look at AP Stats differently. The last year I taught AP Statistics, I created great connections through…

  • Why Don’t Black kids like math?

    Learning is funny. There is an entire realm of things to know out there in the real world. Yet until you start looking, it is so easy to gloss over all of those things.  I started looking with a more  critical eye at the world and at my own practices, and realized that I was…

  • My Critical Pedagogy / Theory Journey

    This is a class assignment. Not to blog about it, but to write a paper about it.  The “it” is critical pedagogy/theory. Do you know what that means? I didn’t (and probably still don’t) either. I realize that I acted in ways that inched towards critical pedagogy, but I didn’t understand the theory. When I say,…