ariel sacks | Teacher Leaders Network

English Teachers Looking for Authentic PD? Try the English Companion Ning!

For years now, fellow English teacher and blogger, Renee Moore, has been singing praises of the English Companion Ning, a site where English teachers can help each other and talk shop. I am finally there, and oh, what I have been missing!

Could This Be a Turning Point for Education Testing?

I'd love to think so, but really can't say. Here are a few points for the "things might be changing" team.

ELA Lesson Sequence for the Common Core: Saying More With Less

One thing I like about the new Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts is the emphasis on looking closely at language choices authors make.

We Should Have More Arguments About Teaching Practice

When it comes to conversations about teaching practice, I feel like I have known two different types of schools. I will simplify them here, making them polar opposites, to make a point:

Low-Key List of Resolutions for 2013

I'm not a big resolution-maker, and I'm not for setting myself up to be a big resolution breaker either. Here are a few low-key resolutions--or reminders--to myself on the eve of 2013.

1. Listen longer before responding.

2. Ask more questions.

3. Listen to more music. Buy a few good albums.

Teacher's Journey to Discover What Sticks With Students

Florida teacher of fifteen years, David Menasche, has brain cancer in advanced stages. At the end of years of treatment, he's decided to spend what are likely his last days travelling the country, meeting his former students. He wants to see what became of them and find out what kind of difference he made in their lives.

Extremes of Constructivism and Data Driven Instruction: Dream Meeting?

Fellow TransformEd blogger and co-author of Teaching 2030, Renee Moore, makes an argument in this recent post, Learning Unchained, for getting rid of class schedules and grade levels! I've heard Renee talk about this before, and, as jarring as this may sound, I totally agree with her. At the end of her post, she asks readers if we know of schools that have replaced these models with more fluid ones.

2013 Ed Policy Wish: Change "Obama's Approach to Education"

I woke up this morning from a strange dream in which my students were participating in a presentation on "Obama's Approach to Education." I was upset because I had planned to teach classes that day, only to find my students had gone to this bizarre assembly--and I had not been invited.

Teachers Observing Teachers (My first radio gig at BAM!)

I participated in a radio podcast segment with BAM Radio Network, ("The Voice of the Education Community") on the interesting and important topic of teachers observing other teachers.