Consider the “Turning the Ocean Liner” metaphor to describe school change. I have described and have heard many people describe changing a school to be like trying to turn the QE2: “it might turn,” we say, “but it will not turn quickly.” My issue with this metaphor is that it implies that everything has to […]
Another Essay Prompt Headed to Retirement (Part 2)
[This post and the one preceding it contain high school essay prompts ready to be retired for awhile from my teaching. While they were a good fit for my seniors, they seem less appropriate for my ninth graders.] Pathos is an element in art or literature that evokes feelings of compassion in the viewer or reader. Great […]
Another Essay Prompt Headed to Retirement
[This post and the one to follow contain high school essay prompts ready to be retired for awhile from my teaching. While they were a good fit for my seniors, they seem less appropriate for my ninth graders. The first is a poetry prompt from a final exam.] Poetry Essay. Respond […]
Using the Mountains for a Re-start
“I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Psalm 121.A couple of times a year I reach a point where I become tired beyond the remedy of a single night’s sleep. This is how I feel today. If sleep is the ultimate passive way to recover from tiredness, these […]
Police Beat « Bionic Teaching
Police Beat « Bionic Teaching. An intriguing writing assignment…
How Summer Camp Should Inform School
Over the next couple of months, they will open up the musty storage sheds where they stacked the mattresses in mid-August. They will pull the canoes out to count and inspect even though the weather is not yet warm enough to spend much time on the lake before mid-morning. They will walk the docks with […]