Blogs on English Language Arts

As an inner-city elementary school teacher for 34 years, I made up and tested my original curricula in emotional intelligence, character education, values clarification, writing, reading, thinking, creativity, poetry and vocabulary. Call me an educator, developer, researcher and experimentalist in the classroom.

It's never too late to address this subject. Yes, many of us are gearing down from the epic standardized testing season, enjoying the freedom, released from the many pressures that come with the tests. However, these tests will keep happening. Whether a yearly course assessment, a six-week benchmark exam or a state-level competency test, teachers and students are inundated with testing. Because of the way that testing permeates education culture, I often hear some "pushback" from teachers and their implementation of project-based learning. Here are some tips and responses to that tension between PBL and standardized tests.

As we glide through the month of May, I know that many teachers and students are steadily dreaming of how to spend their summer vacations. Some will be off to sleep-away camp, some will travel to faraway places, and many others are still trying to figure it out. But for many families, the summer will also bring a level of anxiety. In the age of budget cuts, the opportunities for quality programs and government subsidized summer jobs will be few and far between. According to the National Summer Learning Association, many low-income and underserved students will face two to three months' summer learning loss in reading and math, while affluent and better resourced students may show slight gains in reading over the summer because of their access to summer enrichment.

What does this mean?

For my son, Max

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When I started teaching twelve years ago I found a copy of Where the Wild Things Are in the library left to me from the previous teacher. It is a 1965 edition of the book (I guess the value just went up). I remember sitting on the carpet and reading it. It was the beginning of my teaching career. Now years later I'm only realizing the true power of Wild Things. As authors and teachers, we wish to leave an impression, a footprint, behind that says, "I was here." Now I get to read Wild Things to my son and daughter and students so they too will someday pass it along as well. Thank you, Maurice. Let the wild rumpus begin!!!