Author Archives: Abner Oakes

Rural school profile: Magazine School District in Magazine, Arkansas

During the course of my career, I’ve worked a great deal in very rural school districts, and one that I visited quite a bit over several years of work is Magazine School District in Magazine, Arkansas. A town of about … Continue reading

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Starting Early in West Virginia: The Common Core and Early Childhood Education

My latest article for ASCD on the Common Core, which you can also see here. And sign up for this particular ASCD newsletter here. In West Virginia, there has been a commitment to early childhood education for many years, with … Continue reading

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Revise Back to School Night

Back to School Night last week, and it felt the same as those other Back to School Nights the last seven years: Very unsatisfying. As I think is typical in other school systems, parents got the schedule of their child … Continue reading

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The Lakeland Way

And here’s my third article on the Common Core for ASCD. You can also see the article here and sign up here to get ASCD’s Common Core-focused newsletter. Enjoy! At Lakeland Joint School District 272, in Rathdrum, Idaho, teachers, staff, … Continue reading

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Whiteboards and helping students get organized

Last year, I visited a school that had teachers do something that I thought, at that time, was a little too Stepford Wives-ish: At the front of each classroom in that building, the whiteboard was configured in the same way, … Continue reading

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Tech in the classroom – looking ahead to this school year

I asked two of my favorite elementary school teacher peeps, Jennie Lopez and Claire Vincent, 5th grade teachers at Westbrook ES in Bethesda, MD, to think about this coming school year and technologies that they want to implement in the … Continue reading

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