Soft Technology

I had the pleasure of hearing Shannon Miller speak a couple of weeks ago and her message was simple yet profound: JUST ASK STUDENTS what they THINK, NEED, and WANT. I re-shared this message as the keynote speaker at the Texas Foreign Language Association conference last week. Sensei John Cadena was listening and provided his students that very opportunity today. I wonder if you can use his graphic organizer for gathering student feedback to improve your class room tomorrow? I hope so. Thanks for sharing, John. Check out John's blog here .

This is an open letter to teachers everywhere, but especially here in Texas, the home of the Standardized Test. It is republished here by permission of the author, who wishes to remain anonymous. Teachers: I’m on your side, I feel your pain, and I am one of you, but having a child who struggles in school has helped me see an entirely different side of things. Please listen with an open mind. Yesterday evening my fifth grade 11 year old son, let's call him Hank, told me that you said something along the lines of "You'll wish you'd paid attention when you fail the STAAR test and are back in 5th grade again next year!" then looked pointedly at him and two other students. His cheeks reddened as he told me this. He frequently complains about more than one of his teachers being speechless with rage after benchmark or common assessment scores are returned and, in his words, "Everyone fails." He’s also reported more than one teacher refusing to speak to the clas...

"If you don't like change, you're really gonna hate extinction." -Ross Shaffer Dino Photo Bomb