Please Read: Yong Zhao

This is another post in a series that I wish to call Please Read. My purpose here is to randomly and inconsistently provide a handful of links on a certain topic that should be read.

I am thankful for the work for Yong Zhao. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a group that brought Zhao to Red Deer this year for our Teachers' Convention. Here are two recent pieces by Zhao that I think are worth the read.

Here's the introduction to Zhao's new book

Here's a post by Zhao on why standards and testing will be at best unhelpful and at worst harmful

Please read: Hargreaves, Kohn and Zhao

This is another post in a series that I wish to call Please Read. My purpose here is to randomly and inconsistently provide a handful of links on a certain topic that should be read.

I am thankful for the work of Andy Hargreaves, Alfie Kohn and Yong Zhao. After reading books by all three and hearing each of them speak, I've come to see them as shining lights in the dark that is education reform.

Alfie Kohn Interview: Will the Common Core Benefit Children?

Yong Zhao Interview: Will the Common Core Create World-Class Learners?

What is ailing American Schools? An Interview with Andy Hargreaves

Please Read: Diane Ravitch

This is another post in a series that I wish to call Please Read. My purpose here is to randomly and inconsistently provide a handful of links on a certain topic that should be read.

I am thankful for the work of Diane Ravitch. She provides a good chunk of the little bit of sanity mainstream media actually picks up on in regards to education policy.

Here are a couple of Ravitch's latest articles:

A test for politicians on education (with cheat sheet)

The Teacher Accountability Debate

Universities to be tested to distraction

No Student Left Untested

Please Read: Valerie Strauss

This is another post in a series that I wish to call Please Read. My purpose here is to randomly and inconsistently provide a handful of links on a certain topic that should be read.

I honestly don't know what I would do without Valerie Strauss's blog The Answer Sheet. I know no other journalist in the popular press that shows such a heightened understanding for how children learn. I am over-the-top impressed with both her posts and the brilliant guest posts she publishes in the name of real learning, good teaching, authentic assessment and progressive education. Thank you, Valerie Strauss!

In this past week, she has featured a number of must read posts:

Advice to Education Dept. on newest Race to the Top by Monty Neil

Kozol: "I'm sick of begging" Congress to do the right thing by Valerie Strauss

Why giving standardized tests to young children is 'really dumb' by David Berliner

How to do the right thing in a system that is wrong? by Marion Brady

Please read: 5 myths, 10 reclaimations

This is another post in a series that I wish to call Please Read. My purpose here is to randomly and inconsistently provide a handful of links on a certain topic that should be read.
Ten things teachers need to reclaim their profession

Five Myths about America's Schools

Please read: mental health

It's important to remember that as educators, we do not teach curriculum - we teach children; and that means we need to be aware of their (and our own) mental health. Here are a couple resources you might find helpful in regards to mental health:

www.canwetalk.ca

www.mindyourmind.ca

www.gotabrain.ca

www.anxietycanada.ca/english/youth/index.htm

Please read: Seth Godin

This is another post in a series that I wish to call Please Read. My purpose here is to randomly and inconsistently provide a handful of links on a certain topic that should be read.

Here are but a few posts by Seth Godin on education that are worth the read:

Moving beyond teachers and bosses

What you can learn from a lousy teacher

You can't say you can't play

Two kinds of schooling

The Wikipedia Gap

Please read: Huffington Post

This is the first post in a series that I wish to call Please Read. My purpose here is to randomly and inconsistently provide a handful of links on a certain topic that should be read.

Here are four articles from the Huffington Post: Education.

The Affluent, Failing, Public School: Does it Really Exist? by Martha Infante

Teachers Should Cry, Get Mad, Do Something! by Gary Stager

Why Teachers Go Bad by Larry Strauss

Studies Support Rewards, Homework, and Traditional Teaching. Or Do They? by Alfie Kohn