School Talk

Imagine someone visiting and videotaping teachers  who make a huge difference with youngsters  - producing very positive, orderly classrooms with large gains in student skills, knowledge and test scores.  That's what New York educator Doug Lemov did - producing a remarkable book and accompanying CD.

Despite its critics, the new movie “Waiting for Superman”  (WFS) is well worth seeing and acting on.

For me, the movie, which I have seen twice, is about part of what’s most right and what’s most wrong about American public education.  The title comes from Geoffrey Canada,  a New York school reformer who is interviewed in the movie.

Over the last two weeks, I talked with school leaders and supts in 25 suburban and rural Mn communities, asking them what advice they would give to parents who wanted to help their youngsters do well this year.  I interviewed suburban and rural educators because I write regularly for their papers.  So no disrepect is intended to urban educators.  Below  is som

Their brochure asks youngsters, "Do you want fries with that job, or do you want something more?" A fascinating new program named Genesysworks encourages high school seniors to go for something more. There are so many good things about this organization, it's hard to know where to start.