The Blue Blog

I would like to respond to Debbie’s writing concerning an article from Cnn.com, which discusses the high dropout rates in American public high schools.  Debbie writes that at times, it seems that politicians are only worried about this problem because they would be heroes if they come up with a solution, and school administrators sometimes [...]

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I have a few things to say in response to Amy Marsh’s comments on the Burbules and Berk reading about critical thinking and critical pedagogy.  I, too, see critical thinking as a method that could have very positive results for students as they learn how to consider things from different perspectives and collect evidence to [...]

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I am glad that Amy Bastarache tackled the issue of teacher protests in her response to an article from Cnn.  I have also been reading about these kinds of events in the news, and struggling with the seeming conflict of interest between showing displeasure for my working conditions or pay and sacrificing a day of [...]

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A few weeks ago, I also read the article mentioned in Anna’s blog about a small school in New York City that has Human Rights as its emphasis.  Although I did not comment on the article at the time, I find Anna’s insights on the structure of the schools very interesting.  It is possible that [...]

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After reading the original article and Lauren’s response, I would have to agree with her opinion and say that I do not think that adding more days onto a school year is necessarily beneficial to students or teachers. The rationale behind the plan is to expand the hours students and teachers spend together as [...]

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Erica’s original writing can be found at:
http://ericaphotiades.edublogs.org/2006/02/23/
personal-reading-teachers-and-administrators-2/
This weekend I had the chance to read Erica’s response to an article about a substitute teacher who committed suicide after being manipulated and falsely accused by administrators.  While I think that administrators are generally wonderful people who are giving their all to help students, I am glad that [...]

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The original writing by Chris can be found at:
 http://cbauer.edublogs.org/2006/02/08/brophy-class-reading-rebuilding/
I would like to respond to Chris Bauer’s comments on how tracking could be used in schools to separate students by abilities.  While I do think that it is important to challenge each student according to their abilities, I am not sure that using tracking methods with [...]

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RJ’s writing can be found at: http://vellarya.edublogs.org/2006/02/02/washington-post-comment/
 

Response to RJ’s Washington Post Comment
 
            RJ’s description of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) on his blog caught my interest as I was browsing the recent entries everyone has made.  While much of the article deals with the numbers and statistics of the achievement tests in schools with [...]

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 Link to Jenni’s writing: http://morri246.edublogs.org/2006/01/29/reading-response-3-michigan-state-
board-of-education/
I would like to respond to Jenni’s comments on the Michigan Board of Education’s suggestion that all students take an online course before they graduate high school.  When I glanced over the article, my immediate response was, well, why not?  It seems to me that online course taking would be beneficial [...]

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