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Thursday, August 23, 2018

A Back to School Reminder

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As teachers across the country return to school across the country over the next few days, I thought I would share this poem I wrote many ...
Friday, July 6, 2018

The 4th Annual National Give-A-Kid-A-Book Day

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Children's Activity at Fallsington Library Today, July 6, 2018, marks the 4th annual National Give-A-Kid-A-Book Day. This is the yea...
Wednesday, July 4, 2018

On July 4th: Celebrating a Nation of Immigrants

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As a young teacher, I got an object lesson in America's great legacy of immigrant achievement. My first job, in the early 1970s, was t...
Thursday, June 28, 2018

Supreme Court Sticks It To the Union, Again

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The increasingly conservative Supreme Court decided to side with the rich and moneyed in the so-called Janus ruling yesterday. The ruling ...
Monday, June 25, 2018

On the Passing of Donald Hall: Poet, Children's Book Author, Baseball Fan

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Donald Hall at work in his office (photo: Tony Cenicola, NYT) I read in Monday morning's New York Times, that Donald Hall, former ...
Sunday, June 17, 2018

Fostering a Love for Reading in Children

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A recent article in Education Week Teacher caught my attention. The article "Four Steps to Building a Magnificent Classroom Library...
Thursday, June 7, 2018

Exploding the Canon: Do Students Really Need to Read "The Scarlet Letter"?

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Raise your hand if you were assigned reading The Scarlet Letter in high school. Keep your hand up if you actually read it. Continue to k...
Sunday, June 3, 2018

A Thank You to My Readers: 1 Million Strong Today

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Today this blog attracted its one millionth reader according to the little counter that Blogger provides to users of their service. Whil...
Sunday, May 27, 2018

The Folly of Test and Punish Education Reform

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In April the NAEP Test scores were released and even the most ardent advocates of test-based education reform had to be disappointed. Scor...
Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Following the Child: What Does that Look Like?

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David Last week my post, Follow the Child, Not the Program,  discussed the importance of taking our cues from the children we are teach...
Thursday, May 17, 2018

Follow the Child, Not the Program

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I got into a bit of a twitter spat recently with a well-known literacy expert who reacted strongly to one of my posts. After a bit of back a...
Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Curiosity May Have Killed the Cat, But It Makes the Learner

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Why, oh why, oh why, oh why? Why, oh why, oh why? Because, because, because, because Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. (from Why, Oh Why, ...
Sunday, May 6, 2018

Why Teachers Must Respect Non-Standard English

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The single greatest ally young children bring to learning to read is their oral language. Oral language provides the foundation for learni...
Sunday, April 15, 2018

Expanding "No Excuses" Models is a Bad Idea

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An organization called The Future of Children came out recently with a report titled Charter Schools and the Achievement Gap by Sarah C...