Coaching & Running in Saudi

Spring of 2019 I published this post. I only recently migrated to Blogger. I feel that it is not to late to add this back into my collection of stories: coaching in Saudi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anecdotal Reports are strong assessments

Image
Check this out!   Global Meeting Room for teachers by Google.  I plan to use this tonight! (After my immediate research). Moving away from grading students on single opportunities for learning has been the best change for me.  I have, over the years developed practices for survival.  I sincerely try to help kids learn, praise improvements, document failures and refusals but always offer other school time to help kids learn.  Handing out quarterly report cards has always been a tense time. Now, with Powerschool grading we are learning how powerful adding and subtracting work to a grade. Kids are motivated or panicked when they view their grades going up and down.  I used to have students calculate grades on paper each Friday.  It took lots of time but it was the equivalent of balancing a checkbook, with a conversation around missing work, excitement about high scores. etc.   Numerical scores are powerful but often the power has negative r...
Read more

Modern World Dominican- first week abroad

Image
Marc, Kata and I have left everything we know that was normal to us to plunge headlong into adventure here in the Caribbean.  I'd like to start this blog with some relativity. The Dominican Republic is relative in size to Pennsylvania or Mississippi. Vermont is relative in size to Haiti. Together the whole island is almost 60,000 square miles or a bit bigger than the state of Georgia. So far, every day is hot and humid. It's the consistency in the weather that is the hardest for me to understand. Relative to Vermont, I need only one raincoat and maybe an umbrella for shade instead of a coat or sweater for every 10 degrees of weather above and below zero. Relative to Vermont I need many shoes. Women here wear the highest impossible heels with grace and always, always dress for notice. Casual does not mean casual. I'm sorry Bernie Sanders, but I can't wear that tshirt with your crazy hair and cute socialist face to a BBQ anymore. Yes, I wore a tshirt and shorts to a BBQ w...
Read more

Parents provide the best literacy

Image
I admit becoming a parent made me more aware of what I loved and feared in education.  I went through an intense stage of self awareness when my daughter entered kindergarten.  I was so impressed by her excitement to learn.  Her teacher of 30+ years experience was engaging, entertaining and very organized.  Her mentoring led to my transformation  and a decision to improve upon a few things. This teacher communicated with parents.  Parents were not afraid or put aside.  Every interested parent found a role to play in education (at least while their children are involved).   It is difficult to organize but I will not give up on the idea that parents want to be involved in education in a positive way.  If I don't give parents a role it isn't surprising to find them airing frustrations on Facebook or in other public forums. First, I need to improve how schools acknowledge the role that parents play in the home. In the Journal for the Educati...
Read more