Art
Moving Day I'm moving this operation over to Substack. For anyone out there looking for me, here's where you'll find me: https://brokenhand.substack.com.
The Normal Distribution and the Act Like a Man Box I've been thinking about "manhood" and what it means--or what we think it means--to be a man. I am not a psychologist or a sociologist or any other kind of -ologist qualified to say anything with authority. I’m just a guy, thinking out loud. I'm a guy who has been a man for his whole…
Teaching for the Stretch I wrote this eBook for Catapult Learning in 2015 on the importance of flexible thinking, better teacher-questioning, and the need to "play with your food" as a student.https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZSnsAQ09jywWWr4rSR1xThDLhubRfI4F/view?usp=sharing
Tinkering with the TextThis is a repost of an article I wrote for the Achieve3000 online magazine in November of 2020. The magazine appears no longer to be available online, so I thought I'd post it here for quasi-posterity. It focuses on topics covered in earlier of my blog posts and in PD sessions and keynote speeches I…
Two HaikuPoint towards the deep source Of mind of things of starlight There is no thing there Handwriting in smoke Invisible evidence Wind on the water
a little boy knows no tomorrow A little boy knows no tomorrow The game he has set for you Piece by piece Like a trap Like love Awaits but you breeze down the stairs brush a kiss on his head say tomorrow Tomorrow is a thing You know The assumption of more lets you open the door the breeze and the brush…
Will ChatGPT Be the Death of Writing? No.Like everyone else in Ed World, I’ve been playing with OpenAI’s new tool, ChatGPT, sometimes with excitement and sometimes with dread. I asked it to compare Bertolt Brecht’s verfremdungseffekt with Antonin Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty. Done. I asked it to summarize the core principles of trial practice for attorneys. Done. I asked it to write…
Education is an Old World and a New World, BothI know it’s liable to drive tribalists crazy, but the truth is that education is both conservative and liberal, both traditionalist and progressive. Education is conservative and traditionalist at its core, and to pretend otherwise is silly. The point of teaching content—any content—and not simply skills—is to connect our children to their cultural history and…
My AuntWe interred my aunt’s ashes this morning. It was a winter day in southern Florida—cool and grey and threatening rain for most of the morning. The mausoleum was filled with Baums and Shapiros and Leibowitzes and Friedlanders, with Stars of David carved into marble above each name. Most of the people there were of my…
Why I Am Not SurprisedWhen I was in seventh grade, my Social Studies teacher decided to hold a mock trial as part of the curriculum. I don’t remember what the academic purpose of the whole thing was, whether the trial was based on some actual, historical event. All of that is lost to me. What I do remember is…
Why Grammar Matters(originally published at www.Achieve3000.com)What we know about learning (what we’ve known at least since the National Research Council’s, How People Learn) is that when information is contextualized, it is understood and remembered better. We can memorize lists of discrete things, like vocabulary words, multiplication tables, or rules of grammar, but to truly understand those
Sliders vs. TogglesWe are ruining our world and ourselves by insisting that important issues are toggle switches instead of slide switches. You know the difference. A toggle switch has a limited number of settings—on and off, 0 or 1. A slider can be moved across a span between two extremes, and can include many states between. Toggle-thinking…
Who Needs Teachers? Your Textbooks DoIt used to be fashionable to talk about how technology was going to solve all of our educational equity and excellence problems—bringing relevant, high-quality content to all students, scaffolding instruction to meet each student where he or she was, and engaging every student in meaningful learning, even if that student didn’t have access to excellent…
Everything CountsOriginally published on the Achieve3000.com blog. How do you prepare for an important challenge you’re about to face? Whether it’s running in a race, acting in a play, or taking a test, preparation usually involves honing your skills and then applying them in practice simulations. If you’re going to run in a 10K race, you…
Reaching for the HeightsThe trailer for the movie, In the Heights, was released this week. Many people have been viewing it, sharing it, tweeting about it, and generally going bananas over it, miserable that they’ll have to wait until summer to see the movie. I remember having the same feeling when the soundtrack to Hamilton came out. In…
The Middle WayLife is hard and we try to make it easier. Every technological advance we’ve ever made, from the digging stick to the Smartphone, springs from this simple statement. Life is hard and we try to make it easier. So it has always been; so it will always be. There’s nothing very controversial about that idea,…
To Be or Not to Be EducatedOur older son is home from college—his first year of art school, studying animation—and at the dinner table, while listening to us grill his little brother about his English class’ coverage of “Romeo and Juliet,” he asked this little gem of a question: “Why does everyone have to read Shakespeare in school, anyway?” This is…
One Thing Leads to AnotherI was flipping through a poetry book over the weekend and landed by chance on “The Destruction of Sennacherib.” If you read any poetry in high school or college, you probably encountered this piece by Lord Byron. I don’t remember studying or discussing the contents of the poem at all, but I do remember talking…
All Trees; No ForestAccording to the National Center for Education Statistics, our total annual expenditures on public education (Kindergarten through Grade 12) are projected to be $654 billion this year, or just shy of $13,000 per pupil. That sounds like a lot of money, but spread across a not-quite-ten-month school year, it averages out to about $342 per…
Questions Worth Asking; Answers Worth HearingAs teachers, we ask questions constantly. “Why didn’t you participate in class?” “What’s ¼ + ½?” “Who saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell?” The questions go on and on, all day, all week, all year. We know from our teacher-training that wait time is hugely important. The great Bob Marzano has said so, and…
All Learning Time is Not Created Equal“WHAT ABOUT TIME ON TASK?” When I talk about something like engaging math students in problem-solving discourse, somebody always says, “But what about time on task?” When I write something about argumentation using textual evidence, when I do presentations on growth mindset—really, no matter what the topic might be, somebody always want to talk about…
Reaching for the PeakWhen I was a young theater student, my greatest moment of learning came not from a book or from a lecture, or even from watching a performance, but from being left on my own to work with an actress on her monologue, and then having the director put the actress through an exercise that completely…
The Importance of Shutting UpTeachers like to talk. I was a teacher, and while I think of myself as an introvert at heart….I have to admit, I like to talk. My parents were teachers. My wife was a teacher. Talkers, all. This shouldn’t be surprising. We know a lot of stuff, we’re passionate about the things we know, and…
Pesach 2018It's hard to stand up against Pharaoh and demand your physical and spiritual freedom. But we tell the story every year, because it can be done and it must be done. It's hard to pack up your things and leave a place where you have been abused and despised. It's hard to remember that you…
Feudal AmericaThis month’s Atlantic Magazine has a depressing little article about how the idea of America—the set of beliefs that animated people like Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau—appears to be disappearing with each passing generation, leaving only a dry husk of nationalism, racism, and xenophobia in its place. According to the article, on a scale of 1-10, less…
We Are UnhingedWe have become unhinged. I don’t mean “crazy,” though perhaps we are crazy. We certainly think other people are crazy. Them. The other side. And it’s the other-side-ness I’m talking about when I say we are unhinged. Un-hinged. We’ve always taken sides in political arguments, right from Day One, but the two sides used to…
Music to Read by...Friends; If you're reading my new mystery novel, "The Cat Came Back," you'll notice some jazz tunes spoken about and quoted throughout the text. Here are some versions of the tunes, to give you some music to read by... Little Brown Jug You Don't Know Me Why Don't You Do Right? Struttin' With Some Barbecue…
Non-NegotiablesI was wrong. I thought we were in agreement on the Big Things, and the fights and debates were about details, the how-do-you-get-there stuff. I thought we were on the same page about what America IS and what America is FOR. I was wrong. I was wrong—and I think that’s why this election has been…
How Much Choice Can You Handle?So. Betsy DeVos will be our new Secretary of Education. Every educator I know is freaked out about the fact and what it portends for public education in this country. Will she use her power to divert public moneys to private and religious schools? (Definitely.) Will she preside over the complete dismantling of the Department…
Is Our Room the Room Where it Happens?"If you want to build a ship...teach [people] to yearn for the vast and endless sea." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry There was a joke I used to hear quite often, growing up. In the joke, a Jewish synagogue (Reform, like the one I went to) is plagued by an infestation of rats, and the congregation can’t…
Asking Instead of KnowingThe modern idea of Democracy is rooted in the 18th century European Enlightenment and its belief in reason, rationality, and empirical evidence. The founders believed that if sound arguments were placed in front of people, people could figure out the right course of action. We would read or hear the opposing arguments, laid out cleanly…
How Do You Know?Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large. Thomas Jefferson, 1778 Our…
The Most Important ThingsThe most important things to teach children are critical thinking and problem solving skills, so that children can learn how to think. No—the most important thing to teach children is academic content across the subject areas, so that children can have something concrete to think about. No—the most important thing to teach children is how…
Teach the TensionTwo recent topics of discussion around my house have been the presidential election (obviously) and the challenges of teaching critical thinking (just as obviously, if you know my family). You will perhaps not be shocked to learn that I think the two topics are related. There used to be a saying in politics that if…
Show Your WorkWhen I was in high school, there was nothing I hated more than math. And in math class, there was nothing I hated more than showing my work. It felt like a tedious chore with for no real purpose—a hoop somebody wanted me to jump through. Math was not open to poetic interpretation; the answer…
Cultivating Student CuriosityI performed a magic trick at a recent workshop. I was working with a set of elementary-school teachers in Indianapolis: two workshops per day, over two days. With each of the four groups, I asked the teachers to show me what their students would draw if they were asked to picture a house, with a…
NAEP Results: Less “Bang for Our Buck” (But Plenty of Whimpers)“Between the idea and the reality . . . falls the shadow.” —T.S. Eliot A new report from our friends at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” provides data on student performance in reading and mathematics across multiple grade levels across the country. This latest…
The View from SXSW: Finding Innovation, Optimism, and Passion in Education“I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.” Annie Dillard The South by Southwest Education conference just wrapped up, and I thought I’d take a moment to share some notes and thoughts for anyone who might be interested. Before registering, I hadn’t…
Academic Intervention: What Does it Really Mean?Outside the classroom, the word “intervention” has pretty clear associations. Think of the literal meaning of the word—a coming between—and how it manifests itself in our culture. We all know of instances where people have had to place themselves in someone else’s pathway and make them travel in a different direction, usually because their current…
Taming the Chaos Within(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) “How can you make a world for people to live in until you’ve first put order in yourself?” Thornton Wilder, The Skin of our Teeth Early in my teaching career, my headmaster called a faculty meeting and had us watch a documentary about learning disabilities. Most of the students in our…
Connecting the Dots: The Essential Relationship between a School’s Mission Statement and Its Day-to-Day(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) At one of Catapult Learning’s recent regional leadership conferences, I spent some time with principals and teacher-leaders from our partner schools. We talked about the importance of connecting the dots from the school’s vision and mission to its values, and then all the way down to the daily tasks that each…
Preparing the Ground for Learning Something New: Part II“Behold, a sower went forth to sow…” (Matthew 13:3) A couple of months ago, I talked about the parable of the sower and the seeds. You remember the story: a man sows seeds; some of them grow, some of them don’t. The seeds that fall on stone have no topsoil to accept the roots. The…
A Man--and a School--For all Seasons(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) I didn’t intend to be an educator. My parents were both teachers—my father at a law school and my mother in a fifth grade classroom--but it never occurred to me to follow in their footsteps. I was going to be an artist—a playwright, actually. I worked for my university theatre after…
Five Essential QuestionsSometimes in your journey through life, you encounter writers or artists who speak in a language that feels like it was written just for you. The things they say or show you may be brand new, but those things resonate and reverberate with you, touching something that’s already there. They wake up something inside you…
Preparing the Ground for Learning Something New“Behold, a sower went forth to sow…” (Matthew 13:3) We all know the parable: a man sows seeds; some of them grow, some of them don’t. The seeds that fall on stone have no topsoil to accept the roots. The seeds that fall in the weeds are choked before they can reach the sun. The…
Owning the Room: A Different Look at Teacher Preparation(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) I’ve been writing and speaking recently about an idea I’m calling, “Teaching for the Stretch,” which is all about engaging students in “conceptual play” to help them reach higher and deeper levels of understanding. Part of this approach involves asking students more open-ended, speculative questions. As I’ve been speaking with teachers…
Can We Get There From Here? From Rhetoric to Real Discussion about the Common Core State Standards(first published at www.catapultlearning.com) It seems like the Common Core State Standards have devolved into yet another opportunity for the citizens of our great nation to call each other idiots. We have one bloc of people who feel that the standards present a rare, historic chance to bring some cohesion, unity, and rigor to our…
The Little Things Speak LoudlyIt may seem churlish to criticize a children’s movie—and one coming out at Christmas, no less—for its political stance—but our cultural products do speak volumes about us and the way we see the world. I took my children to see the remake of “Annie” over the New Year’s weekend, and apart from aesthetic criticisms (of…
Which Side Are You On?One of the saddest things I’ve seen during the recent horrors in Ferguson, Staten Island, and Brooklyn has been the speed with which people have been taking sides and accusing whoever disagrees with them of destroying America. Saner voices try to remind us that there are no sides—that we’re all in this together, and that…
Every System is Perfect(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) "A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect." W.E.B. Du Bois They say the political system in our country is broken because it produces nothing but partisan bickering and legislative gridlock. They say our tax system is broken because it demands too much (or too little) from…
Getting Off Autopilot: Ours is Definitely to Reason Why(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) A survey of helpful websites tells me that the opening sentence of a paper should be “attention grabbing” to “pique the interest of readers.” It also tells me that it’s my “big chance to be clever.” Sadly, I’m not feeling very clever today, so I’m going to rely on the…
Accountability for Thee, But Not For Me(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) When I lived in Arizona, there was a controversial program wherein cameras were posted on key roadways to catch people speeding. I got caught doing 50 MPH in a 40 MPH zone, and had to attend an online driving school to clear my record. I was mightily annoyed, because as…
In Defense of Poetry…or: Metaphors Be With You(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) We’ve seen countless news stories and blog posts about the importance of improving science and mathematics instruction in our country. We’ve argued about the emphasis within the Common Core State Standards on complex, informational text. Here at Catapult Learning, we’ve built professional development programs to help teachers enhance literacy
Allowing Ourselves to Learn(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) Among trial lawyers, it’s considered gospel that you should never ask a question that you don’t already know the answer to. When you have a witness on the stand in front of a jury, you don’t want any surprises. In the classroom, we often behave as though we were trying a…
Teaching for Transfer: Take Your Learning Out For a Drive(originally published at www.catapultlearning.com) Once upon a time, I worked as a secretary at a New York investment bank. There were two types of people who seemed to hold that job: Lifers—the middle-aged women who had been working as secretaries forever; and Dilettantes—the youngish painters and writers and musicians who needed a paycheck to support their…
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