Category Archives: School

Teaching cursive and handwriting

My handwriting is awful. Just awful. I signed some forms at the doctor’s office last week, and the nurse looked at my signature and commented that I “should’ve been a doctor.” I guess the cursive writing instruction I got back … Continue reading

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Oklahoma!

Last week, my son’s fifth grade class put on the show Oklahoma. This show and those that had come before are part of an annual year-end ritual at our little elementary school, the fifth grade musical. The show was double … Continue reading

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Family Life & Human Development. What we once called Sex Ed.

The past few days, our 5th grader and his classmates have embarked on the district’s Family Life and Human Development unit – what we once called Sex Ed – and it’s provided for rich conversation on the car ride home … Continue reading

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From David Ginsburg: Learning and Leading by Listening

Fellow educational consultant and all-around good guy David Ginsburg has a great blog for teachers at the Education Week Teacher site, and I liked what he had to say about listening in a recent post. And so here is that … Continue reading

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More on transitioning from elementary to middle school

At this post, I re-purposed research that colleagues had done at The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, on the issue of transitioning from elementary to middle school, and I want to return to it. My wife and I … Continue reading

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Student engagement and Phil Schlechty

A school district superintendent asked me to dig into the issue of student engagement, and while I found several pieces that discuss this issue, it was this review by Elizabeth Bowen that provided some quick answers and a summary of … Continue reading

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