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Teaching in the 408

  • Ahem

    Number of comments: 19
    Scroll down, just a little. [...]
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    Posted: October 01, 2009, 12:07am EDT
    by Kilian Betlach

  • Request: Your Stories

    Number of comments: 4
    I don't know how many of ya'll still have this blog in your google reader or feedburner or just wander over from time to time, but here goes. Last summer, One Day magazine published my essay on the "reinvention" of teaching. as a profession. You can read it here.
    [...]
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    Posted: January 20, 2009, 6:41pm EST
    by Kilian Betlach

  • Teaching In The 408: Author's Index

    Number of comments: 20
    It's a strange thing, to posthumously reflect upon and involve yourself in a blog – this undertaking that chronicled an unparalleled, unequaled period of my life. It's a strange thing to have those thoughts and ideas existing outside of your direct focus and control, and outside really, what's happening now.' [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2008, 10:12am EST
    by Kilian Betlach

  • Good Ideas For Inhibiting School Growth (postscript)

    Number of comments: 7
    This blog's like that woman you keep kinda hanging on to, even though you know you should move on and stopstop thinking about her. But it's just always been so good, and the APR was made public today, and I can't help but revisit some of the good times from' [...]
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    Posted: September 04, 2008, 5:05pm EDT
    by Kilian Betlach

  • Rocking Out In One Day Magazine

    Number of comments: 19
    My essay on the "reinvention" of teaching appears in the summer issue of Teach For America's alumni magazine One Day. The original text is below; the print version, edited by One Day's staff and witty-email-composing editor-in-chief, may be slightly different.

    (I kinda wanted to complain that none [...]
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    Posted: August 22, 2008, 1:57pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Rocking Out in ASCD's Education Update

    Number of comments: 5
    I'm kinda heavily quoted in an essay in ASCD's latest newsletter entitled Taking the Fear Out of the First Year. If you're interested in such things, it's well-written and smart, and besides the self-flagellation over first year mistakes by yours truly, you can hear from Jesse Solomon, whose voice [...]
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    Posted: August 19, 2008, 12:46pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • And Another Bond Broken

    Number of comments: 14
    I have this old-school hard-shell briefcase, defaced with bumper stickers and ill-treatment, in which I keep my classroom artifacts -- smarty pants, certain pictures, student work samples, balls and bells and skill quiz binders -- that I use when I make the rounds doing workshops. When I saw the smashed [...]
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    Posted: August 12, 2008, 12:25pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • You Teach For Natalie

    Number of comments: 33
    I'm speaking at closing ceremonies for the Oakland City Teacher Corps on Friday. I imagine most of ya'll can't make it, so here is a copy of my remarks. Evaluate for yourself whether I have enough classroom teacher juice left to pull this one off. Also, give Dan cred' [...]
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    Posted: August 06, 2008, 10:16pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Rumors Of My Demise...

    Number of comments: 28

    …while admittedly self-generated, may prove to be largely exaggerated. Or at least premature.

    In a few weeks I start work with the stellar folks at The Education Trust – West, an organization doing heavy lifting on ed reform, and one I’ve admired for [...]
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    Posted: June 29, 2008, 6:57pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • The Party's Over...

    Number of comments: 25
    …a CD skipping/
    it’s the same hook repeating
    grows more grating with each passing second/
    and the walls contain a resonation
    laughter and conversation/
    it was fun while it lasted
    but now I should be going/
    -Against Me!, T.S.R.


    My resignation has been [...]
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    Posted: June 25, 2008, 10:42pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Fifty-One Minutes

    Number of comments: 49
    Dear Jake,

    So this is what you want, huh? What you told people you were going to do, what you always talked about? This is what you said you wanted, right? No, for reals – you’re gonna do this? You’re going to go be a teacher, stand in [...]
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    Posted: June 15, 2008, 8:23pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Mediums

    Number of comments: 10
    I've been writing a lot lately, in many different venues and forms, most of which is not intended for blogs. There's a particular project I've been struggling with, and finally broke through a little yesterday, ran off 2,500 words. They are good words.

    Now those words exist in the' [...]
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    Posted: June 12, 2008, 2:55am EDT
    by TMAO

  • Final Two Days (Three Years Ago)

    Number of comments: 11
    For reasons that are redacted, I can't be around for the final days of school, including the graduation ceremony. The less said on this the better, but in place of any thoughts I would have had on these experiences I will not have, here's what I wrote three years ago [...]
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    Posted: June 11, 2008, 10:56pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Causation?s Messy, Messy Goulash or? Why I?m Stepping Out

    Number of comments: 24
    I wasn’t going to do this one, originally. But then I wrote it, and it’s been sitting in my computer, waiting for current events to reach clarity and resolution. That ain't happening, so I'll go with the redacted version here.

    The system reason
    I already wrote this one [...]
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    Posted: June 02, 2008, 7:43pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Terminal

    Number of comments: 14
    I’m renaming this blog “The John Kennedy Toole Experience.”

    This is what posthumous success feels like. You announce that you’re a terminal teacher and suddenly your unremarkable little 100-hit-a-day blog is averaging 500 such hits, not counting the absurd 1,000-hit day two Fridays ago (which, interestingly enough, also holds [...]
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    Posted: May 27, 2008, 11:08am EDT
    by TMAO

  • Daaaaaaamn

    Number of comments: 20
    More Ed in 08 for your youtubing pleasure.

    This was fantastic.

    Everyone in the room stiffened, sat a little straighter, and I'm in the back corner, hidden by that lovely column in the right-hand portion of the screen, giggling and giggling, cuz I heart The Ed' [...]
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    Posted: May 21, 2008, 9:52pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Not The Reasons I Wont Be Coming Round

    Number of comments: 45

    Been looking from outside, I’ve been watching
    But I don’t know what to say/
    Changed the old backdrop, same face
    But not who it used to be/
    Trying to get out, not getting, thinking you're everything
    You said you wouldn’t be
    –Avail, Tuesday

    I completed three hundred percent of' [...]

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    Posted: May 18, 2008, 2:03pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Ed In 08 Blogger Summit...

    Number of comments: 14
    ...has come and gone, and a good time was had by all. I heard some interesting discussions, listened to some quality ideas floated (extended school days) and some silly ones (paying kids to read books), was unsurprised by the opposition that exists to both the quality and silly reforms, got [...]
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    Posted: May 16, 2008, 4:18pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Meet Jake

    Number of comments: 56
    Jake's a graduating senior at Yale, with only a few days left, which means that as you read this, he is either hungover or drunk. This is a binary condition, admitting no other possibilities.

    Jake's a smart guy, worked hard all four years on an interdisciplinary American Studies/ Sociology/ [...]
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    Posted: May 11, 2008, 5:56pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Imagine No Barriers

    Number of comments: 4
    Teach For America's Alumni Magazine, One Day, is sponsoring an essay contest.

    "Imagine no barriers. No limits. How would you reinvent the profession of teaching?"

    The deadline has already passed, so those wanting to throw down 400 words on this one are pretty much SOL -- my' [...]
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    Posted: May 09, 2008, 7:11pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • From Alan Keyes To John Edwards

    Number of comments: 4
    The writings on this site have been nominated for the Ed in 08 Best of the Blogs Award.

    Allow whatever Spirit you understand most fully to move you in whatever ways you feel are most appropriate, given this particular bit of current events.

    More:
    I did not [...]
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    Posted: May 05, 2008, 11:03pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Overkill

    Number of comments: 8
    [1] A gaggle of girls in my various classes have decided the whole tío-sobrina shouldn’t die, and we’ve pretty much abandoned using each other’s names at this point. New kid’s struggling with this like you wouldn’t believe, coming up to me and saying: “But… like… you’re not really their tío [...]
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    Posted: May 04, 2008, 1:37pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Good Ideas For Inhibiting School Growth (iv)

    Number of comments: 14
    In addition to pretty much making a sloppy mess of the first two days of state testing, next accuse one of the more talented and ardent teachers* at the site of intentionally sabotaging the testing process by encouraging students to guess, leave portions of the exam incomplete, and generally perform [...]
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    Posted: May 02, 2008, 9:56pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Mark Your Calendars: Washington, D.C.

    Number of comments: 12
    I'll be heading out and leaving the kids in the assuredly capable hands of a District substitute on May 15 & 16 to get my panel discussion on at the Ed in 08 Blogger Summit.

    Rumor has it I'll be speaking on a panel about blogging in [...]
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    Posted: April 26, 2008, 6:26pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Sound The Trumpets

    Number of comments: 21
    My team and I finally finished our Master's Degree "thesis," known locally as an Action Research Project, overcoming some pretty intense distractions along the path toward completion. Here's everything you need to know about this stellar piece of work.

    71: number of pages
    20: appearances of the word quintile
    [...]
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    Posted: April 19, 2008, 7:43pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Good Idea For Inhibiting School Growth (iii)

    Number of comments: 7
    When kids leave backpacks unattended in front of classroom doors during breakfast, brunch, and lunch, some things will inevitably go missing. Sometimes the things that go missing are candy. This is sad and certainly damages the campus environment. When grossly out of their league vice-principals tacitly encourage campus police to [...]
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    Posted: April 18, 2008, 12:04am EDT
    by TMAO

  • Mercury News Craps The Bed On The Achievement Gap

    Number of comments: 23
    Maybe you read or saw or followed a link to last week's launch of a five-part series on the achievement gap, as viewed through the lens of culture. The article posits a destructive "cool vs. smart" dichotomy in the 408's low-income, high-Latino schools, concluding "too many Latino students are" [...]
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    Posted: April 12, 2008, 7:10pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Getting Housed By The Bush Tax Code

    Number of comments: 12
    Seriously ya'll, I'm a 28-year-old public school teacher with a bucket-full of deductible expenses and I'm not within shouting distance of a tax refund. I am, in fact, currently facing substantial tax debt as a result of limping into a "higher" tax bracket last year. That's what I get for [...]
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    Posted: April 02, 2008, 12:10am EDT
    by TMAO

  • A New Light

    Number of comments: 9
    Here's E., who bears an unfortunate poultry-related nickname, sitting in the office, sullen, hood up, face a battered mess. He's got a big egg on his forehead, an eye that will turn black and blue, and the kind of scrape marks you get when someone kicks you in the head [...]
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    Posted: March 26, 2008, 6:37pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • I Am Ready To Step Up (assembly)

    Number of comments: 6
    The projector wasn't always working well, I messed up the timing a couple times, made some kids late to brunch and 3rd period, logistics could've been better, but I think I brought it.

    I show em this. There's three states on this map, California, Arizona, [...]
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    Posted: March 21, 2008, 1:48pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • 4 Da Kids

    It's 12:30 in the a.m. and I have to be awake in about four hours.

    Later today my kids will take quizzes on vocabulary, spelling, and prepositions. One group will try to figure out the four goals of the Lewis & Clark expedition; the other will be charting the [...]
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    Posted: March 20, 2008, 3:19am EDT
    by TMAO

  • Ascendte, Jaguar

    Number of comments: 5

    I take the unit exams away from them today in fifth period because they’re looking listless, tracking me as I move through the columns to address test questions instead of focusing, not re-reading, not re-checking, and I won’t have it. I take the tests back and stand in front of [...]

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    Posted: March 19, 2008, 12:21am EDT
    by TMAO

  • Getting My Panel Discussion On

    Number of comments: 2
    Last month I had the opportunity to take part in a panel discussion on education reform. Last week, the 408's paper of record printed some excerpts along with a picture where I look more than a little sleepy and jowly. I had no idea this event would be immortalized in [...]
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    Posted: March 16, 2008, 11:25pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Out Sick

    Number of comments: 4
    I'm pretty sure I have TB. Or whooping cough. Some Oregon Trail disease.

    TMAO has snakebite.

    I exist on a buffet of vitamins, mucinx, emergen-C, Halls fruit breezers, Nyquil, Dayquil, no dairy, and enough over-the-counter pseudoephedrine that I'm pretty sure los federales are gonna come crashing through my [...]
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    Posted: March 12, 2008, 3:22pm EDT
    by TMAO

  • Gratuitous Self-Promotion Sheltered By The Wafer-Thin Veil Of Analysis

    Number of comments: 13
    Former goofy-nerd student comes by looking like he'd be right at home in the hipster maze of the 415, holding this pink piece of paper and talking about how his sophomore English teacher gave him an assignment about me. Entitled Side-by-Side Essays, it is just that: two essays split down [...]
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    Posted: March 08, 2008, 12:40am EST
    by TMAO

  • The Secret To Building Positive Classroom Culture

    Number of comments: 15
    Dan started a brush fire on this issue, probably fueled in part by the gasoline I poured all over the place. Classroom management and the construction of positive class culture is important stuff, a key component to my big, unbloggable project, and I gotta say, I [...]
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    Posted: March 05, 2008, 12:49am EST
    by TMAO

  • Good Ideas For Inhibiting School Growth (II)

    Number of comments: 7
    I gotta think that not much is accomplished when a school-assigned police officer detains/ cites the push-cart vendor who, daily, plies our kids with mango and soda and those fried dough things soaked in bags of chili. See, kids don't get issues of permits and whatnot, they just go home [...]
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    Posted: March 03, 2008, 11:04pm EST
    by TMAO

  • In A Nutshell

    Number of comments: 1
    I'm feeling misunderstood, so I'll take another swing.

    Here are these data you show to this room full of people, surely not the only room you've shown them to. My thing is, what's the point? What do we do with this?

    Do teachers need to utilize more [...]
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    Posted: February 28, 2008, 10:55pm EST
    by TMAO

  • Wrong Tree

    Number of comments: 10
    The other day I was fortunate enough to attend the opening of what I'm sure will be a stellar event, one organized and run (biennially) by a fantastic organization. At the kick-off portion of the event, Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, spoke, and amid various calls to [...]
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    Posted: February 26, 2008, 8:28pm EST
    by TMAO

  • These Four Walls

    Number of comments: 9
    I'm probably not breaking any news to the folks who read this space with anything approaching regularity when I say I've been a little, uh, restless of late. Like, for a year. Such restlessness isn't going anywhere, and the continued deterioration of working conditions and corresponding rise in negativity both [...]
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    Posted: February 21, 2008, 2:12pm EST
    by TMAO

  • Insert Expected Spider-Themed Title

    Number of comments: 1
    Eduwonkette is to the world of policy blogs what the Lost Season 2 DVD extras are to the fans of well-written TV. She has created a web outlining the interconnectivity of leading education reform/ advocacy/ policy organizations. Check out the comment section, and the reactions of K.Carey [...]
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    Posted: February 18, 2008, 7:24pm EST
    by TMAO

  • Budget Cuts, Smudget Nuts

    Number of comments: 5
    While participating in my local Association rally in front of the District Office last Thursday I was asked to speak to a television reporter. We are in negotiations that are more than 10-months overdue, attempting to convince District leadership to release last year's COLA, which they currently have banked, of [...]
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    Posted: February 17, 2008, 8:50pm EST
    by TMAO

  • I'm Just Saying

    Number of comments: 4
    I was unable to provide supplemental intervention instruction to two students after school today because they had to attend court-mandated anti-tagging "classes," as a result of being caught in possession of a Sharpie.

    There's no need to belabor the obvious, but I gotta think that far less good is [...]
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    Posted: February 12, 2008, 12:46am EST
    by TMAO

  • In Contrast

    Number of comments: 7
    J. came to our school after first quarter, after her parents read that NCLB-derived letter informing them that her current school had not met performance levels for all AYP significant sub-groups. She was given the option of attending one of two other district middle schools that were not in PI [...]
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    Posted: February 09, 2008, 9:09pm EST
    by TMAO

  • The Criminalization Of Misconduct

    Number of comments: 26
    The myopic, seemingly p.r.-driven decision was made to install police officers on middle school campuses this year. About this atrocity, I wrote:
    When you bring an officer onto campus, you undermine [the teachings of inclusion and full adult control]. Rather than sending the message to kids that adults expect [...]
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    Posted: February 03, 2008, 11:13pm EST
    by TMAO

  • Battling

    Number of comments: 8
    The Past Tense Irregular Verb battles wrapped up last week, always arriving right in time to get me through some doldrums. I intro'd this year's competition with some footage of MC Battles from the 80s, the kids watching without the context I didn't provide, and after a few minutes, [...]
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    Posted: January 31, 2008, 9:35pm EST
    by TMAO

  • You Should Know Better

    Number of comments: 7
    When the kids come in all abuzz from the first day of sex ed and you forget it's the first day of sex ed, and they want to know how big four centimeters are, don't argue with them about which unit of measurement they've asked you to demonstrate, and don't [...]
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    Posted: January 29, 2008, 12:37am EST
    by TMAO

  • Sacramento Gets One Right (so far)

    Number of comments: 3
    Assemblymember Joe Coto, who reps the east 408, has sponsored a bill that makes enormous sense. AB586 calls for the institution of a weighted ADA formula, wherein districts receive 125 percent of pre-existingADA for every ELL or low-SES kid they enroll. Additional provisions weight funding for GATE and [...]
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    Posted: January 24, 2008, 11:54pm EST
    by TMAO

  • Be The Molotov Cocktail III: After Strategies

    Number of comments: 4
    KEY PRINCIPLE: Beyond Answer The Questions

    We took a strong path into the text, filled with front-loading of relevant content and priming interest, supported readers during the text with active reader strategies and strong questions, and suddenly we're done. So, uh, now what?

    Turn the page [...]
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    Posted: January 19, 2008, 7:48pm EST
    by TMAO

  • Be The Molotov Cocktail II: During Strategies

    Number of comments: 3
    KEY PRINCIPLE: Dont Read With Your Eyes

    I'm putting all this work into building anticipation, front-loading content, pre-teaching key vocabulary, and generally getting kids, if not interested, than at least less bored in the text. Like the purchase of a new car, the value of all these efforts [...]
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    Posted: January 17, 2008, 12:47am EST
    by TMAO
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