Mr. José Vilson is a math teacher, coach, and data analyst for a public middle school in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, as part of the NYC Department of Education. He is in his 6th year as a teacher, having finished the New York City Teaching Fellows program in 2007. Mr. Vilson graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in mathematics education from the City College of New York. He served on CTQ's TeacherSolutions 2030 team, co-authoring the book TEACHING 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools… Now and in the Future. Mr. Vilson has worked on creating professional development for his colleagues on topics such as working on goals for the classroom and using the ARIS system, a data management system under the NYC Department of Education. He has spoken at Lincoln Center as part of the NYC Teaching Fellows’ induction ceremonies and writes regularly about education issues mainly at his blog. Mr. Vilson is also a committed poet, web designer and developer, mentor, and blogger for the Education section of The Huffington Post, named one of the top 20 teacher blogs by Scholastic Inc. He can be found at http://thejosevilson.com.
Blog Posts
If ever you come across a set of math teachers, whether at a common planning meeting or a bar during happy hour, bring up the conversation of calculators and watch the sparks fly. The arguments for and against calculators have the spirited vigor of a Red Sox vs. Yankees game without the animus...
Read More.Last week, the National Football League released its schedule for the 2013-14 season, to the joy of die-hard pigskin fans and the chagrin of the rest of America trying to watch their Sunday evening programming. For the last month and a half, teams had been carefully analyzing the results of the...
Read More.Robert J. Marzano doesn't take teaching, leading or anything else lightly. That's why next week, when he releases his umpteenth1 education book, he will officially change his name to The Amazing Robert J. Marzano, or T.A.R.J.M. (pronounced "Tar-Zhay-Em") for short.
Read More.I used to like Robert Marzano's ideas. Now, I couldn't possibly disagree with him more.
Read More.Every year around this time, my students come together and collect all the monies donated within our school for Penny Harvest, a program by Common Cents, Inc. that serves to help schools create service learning projects for children. It...
Read More.I have a confession to make: at some point this year, I realized that there’s a difference between the teacher I would love to be and the teacher I currently am.
Most teachers want to do interdisciplinary projects, project-based learning and every other education phrase with the words...
Read More.Confession: I spent most of my formative years wrestling with the idea of "acting white."
The term "acting white" is often used against children of color who either still struggle with their self-concept or have taken on characteristics in their personalities that may not seem original...
Read More.When I began my tenure as math coach for my middle school, I came into the position thinking I could bring something fresh to this idea of support. Four years in, I'm learning that every instructional coach forms a set of relationships and dynamics with colleagues in his or her respective...
Read More.The last month has seen a plethora of discussions about the necessity for teaching math beyond what most jobs consider necessary. Much of it started from Andrew Hacker's now infamous article on Read More.
Believe it or not, I had a bit of a freak-out before the first day of school. All summer, I had prepared my curriculum, re-thought my lesson plans, reflected on the energies I would put out to my students, and got plenty of professional development (specifically in science and math integration...
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