OLA Workshop at BAA’s Center for Arts in Education
Last week, BAA’s Center for Arts in Education hosted Darcy Rogers for a full-day workshop on her Organic Language Acquisition (OLA) technique. I first met Darcy at her school, Crater Renaissance Academy in Oregon, and then I ran into her again at the Coalition of...
Occupy the DOE
I have just returned from Washington, DC, and the Occupy the DOE rally. Cassie Wallace, our second-year math teacher, was my impetus to go. She posted on our Teaching/Learning email conference back in February: In case anyone is interested in protesting in DC with me...
Twelfth Night
Last week was a big one for our theatre department, and for the school! Not only did theatre students make it to the semifinals at the state drama festival (the first time we’ve ever participated), but we had an amazing collaboration with Actors' Shakespeare Project...
Arts Education Needs to be Protected
Monday’s piece in the Globe by Mayor Menino and Laura Perille "Arts Education Needs to be Protected" highlights Boston’s wonderful efforts to bring access to a high-quality arts education to all of its students. As the article cites, and as I write in my recent...
Instructional Rounds
Last Thursday we hosted Instructional Rounds (IR) at BAA. Instructional rounds are the new buzzword in education, largely defined by Lee Teitel and Richard Elmore at Harvard. The purpose of the rounds is to analyze and improve teaching and learning practices at the...
Stonehill College
Last night I had the opportunity to speak to a group of emerging young educators at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. Stonehill Professor Karen Anderson (the wife of a Boston Public Schools science educator- small world!) assigns “The Hardest Questions...
Occupy the Department of Education!
I had to blog about Confessions of a 'Bad' Teacher from this past Sunday's New York Times... everyone needs to read this article so we can stop and think about how our federal and state policies are affecting teachers and kids in our classrooms. I will be joining BAA...
Reflections from Haiti
I recently traveled to Haiti with other Barr Foundation Fellows. I hope you will read my reflections on this amazing experience (though I do admit- they are long!) I look forward to hearing any comments or questions!
Reflections from San Diego and Los Angeles
In mid-December, I spent some time in San Diego and LA, visiting schools and speaking with educators. One of the most gratifying parts of this trip was reconnecting with a former graduate student of mine from the first year I ever taught my class, “Building A...
Celebrando a Margarita Muñiz
In November 2009, I had the privilege of attending the Thanksgiving play at the Rafael Hernandez School, a bilingual elementary school in Roxbury where Margarita Muñiz was the principal. This annual musical is a long standing tradition, and in 2009, the play was about...