Clik here to view.
Exemplary Teaching: Dance Class with Avi Gold
I happened in on Avi Gold’s III Form Dance class this morning, periods 4 & 5. It was a brilliant demonstration of the art of teaching. Avi began the class with the students dancing in two lines,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Exemplary Teaching: Modeling in the Classroom
This past week — totally without design — I sat in on three teachers who were using models to showcase excellent work to their students. Gretchen Hurtt‘s English 2 classes were having orals on papers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Response to the Newtown Tragedy
Throughout the past weekend at St. Andrew’s, I have thought about this letter to you all reflecting on the tragic events that took place in Connecticut on Friday. The cruelty, desolation and despair...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching Ideas: Self-Reflection
In preparation for my visits to their classes this week, Avi Gold and Maya Cabot self-reflected on what they were doing right now in their classes that they wanted me to observe: they were already in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Art of Rescue
In our Old St. Anne’s Chapel last September, I talked about Dr. Atul Gawande’s recent Commencement talk about the art of rescue. I challenged the community to think about the implications of Gawande’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our Guiding Principles
I think it is important in this era of great challenge and opportunity to remember what principles can guide us as we seek to design and execute the best high school liberal arts program in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seizing the Teachable Moment
I encourage you to read today’s Opinion piece in the New York Times, “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools“, by David Kirp. In it, Kirp focuses on the remarkable turnaround achieved by teachers in Union...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Best Teachers Make Lists
Some of us are doing this teaching step — a combination of Atul Gawande’s book, The Checklist Manifesto, and Ken Bain’s thinking in What the Best College Teachers Do — and it’s worthy of all our...
View ArticleSometimes the best teaching is no teaching at all
Reblogged from Sabbatical in Jerusalem and Its Echoes: A few reflections I wrote on a recent class: Gilheany_NoTeachingAtAll3 The Chair of our Religious Studies Department, Terence Gilheany, recently...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reflections on the Education of Boys
Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an essay in The New York Times last Sunday entitled “The Boys at the Back.” The essay summarizes both the history...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Examining Merit Scholarships
Last month, The New York Times summarized a recent report completed by Caroline B. Hoxby and Christopher Avery on the failure of our most competitive colleges and universities to enroll students from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Starting Class with Eric Finch
Last week I sat in on Eric Finch’s problem-solving Geometry/Algebra class. How he began the class was a superb model for teaching at its finest: Students went to the board in groups of 2-3 to solve a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Muddy Headmaster
There was a moment during Saturday’s Mud Run when I thought Tad Roach was going to call it a day. We were standing with a herd of people waiting to crawl through a thin opening and over rock-laden mud...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Century of Honor and Integrity
My grandfather was born in the living room of a house he still owns on October 3, 1918, eleven years before St. Andrew’s began to take shape. We celebrated his 95th birthday yesterday over dinner with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Watching Our Own Teaching
Two weeks ago, a few teachers videotaped a number of their classes, watched them, and then came together to talk about their insights from watching their own classes. Here are some insights we can all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Accountability Dilemma
Robert Evans, a psychologist and school consultant, writes in the Fall 2013 issue of Independent School Magazine that schools are facing an “Accountability Dilemma.” Evans defines this as “the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Living Lives of Meaning, Without Regret
The St. Andrew’s community was privileged to hear two speakers this week reminding us of our connection to Delaware and the larger world around us. Both individuals gave a relevance to our classes,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Embracing Complexity
I learned how to simplify complexities during the three years I taught special education in LaPlace, Louisiana. I broke down subjects like algebra and works of Shakespeare into small, manageable pieces...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Teaching Approach
I sat in on Elizabeth Roach’s English 3 class, discussing Act III of “Hamlet” during a double period this morning. I noticed a couple of intentional directions to her teaching which greatly influenced...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Opening Moments
In this, my first essay of many to come on the art of teaching, I would like to reflect on the opening moments of a class and share a Professor James Maddox receives an honorary degree from Middlebury...
View Article
