“I can stop talking about teaching whenever I want to,” claims educator-writer Emmet Rosenfeld, who spends much of his time—you guessed it—thinking and talking about teaching. A former English teacher at the renowned Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., Rosenfeld transitioned to a position as English teacher and Dean of Students at the Congressional Schools of Virginia in Falls Church, Va. He wrote this wide-ranging opinion blog on teaching and learning in his classroom and beyond. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: teaching & learning.
Education
Opinion
Alone Together
Last post I talked about two current group writing assignments, each using a different online writing tool. In brief, tenth graders are creating research papers using google docs, and ninth graders are writing literature reviews using a wiki-builder on our district’s online learning system.
Education
Opinion
Group Writing Online
"We're No. One" wrote my editor on the Teacher homepage last week, in the little blurb designed to drive hordes of readers to my blog. If you ignore the period, he serendipitously transcribed the actual title ("We're #1") into a reminder that it's not all about the test scores, stupid.
Education
Opinion
We're #1
In case you missed it, Newsweek’s role as the arbiter of the best high schools in the nation has just been challenged by U.S. News & World Report, which released its own tally today. Turns out TJ, where I teach, is tops.
Education
Opinion
Epic X
I know I’m supposed to keep ‘em under control, but now and then I like to whip kids into a frenzy. A constructive one, of course. It’s a release of psychic energy we all need, the closest thing you can get away with outside the xerox room to dancing nude around a fire beneath a full moon.
Education
Opinion
Lowering the Board
“Are you nervous,” asked my 3-year old son, with all the right emotion but maybe the wrong words as I sat on the couch in the depths of post-blast blues last Friday.
Education
Opinion
Apples and Fish
or, Spinning Plates II
Recently, my tenth graders finished reading novels in small groups, and this is the second of what will probably be three posts in which I share ideas for managing the class when every kid is not reading the same book at the same time. Last week, I described how kids chose books and what they did as they read. This week, I will continue talking about what they did as they read and tell about one of the assessments, called a “fishbowl.” You’ll have to wait until next week to hear you about the grand finale, “The Epic X”, featuring meditating marauders and knights with noodles.
Recently, my tenth graders finished reading novels in small groups, and this is the second of what will probably be three posts in which I share ideas for managing the class when every kid is not reading the same book at the same time. Last week, I described how kids chose books and what they did as they read. This week, I will continue talking about what they did as they read and tell about one of the assessments, called a “fishbowl.” You’ll have to wait until next week to hear you about the grand finale, “The Epic X”, featuring meditating marauders and knights with noodles.
Education
Opinion
Spinning Plates
I like to have different books going in a class at one time. Think of a circus performer weaving precariously beneath sticks balanced on his chin, nose and outstretched index fingers.
Education
Opinion
Write More, Prep Less
Or, Teach and the Net Will Appear
Oh, to be perfect. Last Thursday, a series of unfortunate events conspired to prove once again that I’m not. A Wednesday early release for kids, something I’d anticipated as a break, except I forgot that giving inservice presentations to colleagues might leave me feeling zonked at the end of the day. “You just lost your planning period,” pointed out the artful Roger.
Oh, to be perfect. Last Thursday, a series of unfortunate events conspired to prove once again that I’m not. A Wednesday early release for kids, something I’d anticipated as a break, except I forgot that giving inservice presentations to colleagues might leave me feeling zonked at the end of the day. “You just lost your planning period,” pointed out the artful Roger.
Education
Opinion
Teachers on a Plane
Grading class sets of an assignment can be compared to a snake swallowing a rabbit. There’s a large lump that moves slowly through the serpent’s body; the beast becomes rather sluggish until the digestive process completes itself.
Education
Opinion
Write More, Grade Less
Or, I Never Metacognition I Didn’t Like
After hacking our way through Beowulf in a tenth grade class, I was panting behind my sturdy linden shield wondering what to do at The End. You know, some kind of culminating activity that says, We have done this book. God forbid, one can’t just read and move on in an English class. Where’s the grade in that?
After hacking our way through Beowulf in a tenth grade class, I was panting behind my sturdy linden shield wondering what to do at The End. You know, some kind of culminating activity that says, We have done this book. God forbid, one can’t just read and move on in an English class. Where’s the grade in that?
Education
Opinion
Read and Shut Up
The title of this post might be the shortest lesson plan ever written by a traditional teacher (“Test Friday,” he could add if he felt talkative). New and improved teachers, at least those familiar with the writing process, may recognize these directions as steps one and two of how to share your paper in a workshop setting. The idea is that after reading the piece out loud, an author has to step out of the way and listen to his group’s response in order to understand what is actually coming across to the reader. This is sometimes very different than what the author himself intended to convey.
Education
Opinion
Lighting Out for the Territories
Writer’s workshop is fundamental in my teaching. A writing teacher and colleague of mine, Vic Kryston, explains perfectly why it works so well: “Vic Kryston is the most interesting person in the room.”
Education
Opinion
Brown Bagging It
I want to write a book that for now I’ll call, “Where Kids Work Hard.” The idea is to promote student-centered as opposed to teacher-centered teaching. But, I’m feeling a little intimidated by the whole idea and don’t quite know where to start. Dashing off a blog post in a sitting is one thing. But a sustained masterwork of utter brilliance…