TLN Writes Stuff

TLN members were busy freshening up the Web with new content this past week.

Anthony Cody dips into his Best Practices bag of tricks in this essay for Teacher Magazine. "Here we are in May, testing is done, and we are breathing a sigh of relief, looking forward to a few months of rest. The students need a change of pace, but we do not want them going on vacation just yet! Now is the time for some creative writing." In science, no less. (You can see all our TLN-TM essays here.)

Kansas middle grades teacher Marsha Ratzel stopped by The Faculty Room, hosted by Grant Wiggins, and found her comment on a recent blog being promoted to blog status. In response to an earlier post by teacher Dan Meyer, Marsha likened teachers more to internists than surgeons who simply assess and repair. The best teaching professionals, she said, take student performance data and "blend it with what we know as contextual information about that student, all the ins and outs that reflect who that student is as a learner and as a person."

Susan Graham, a Family and Consumer Science teacher in southeastern Virginia, offers a vignette to demonstrate the high level of teaching and learning going on in her classroom. Don't Be Quick to Label Me is the tagline for her newest post at her Teacher Magazine blog. "Do we stitch things and stir things in my room? You bet! We also do a lot of thinking, and use learning strategies...to build 21st Century knowledge and know-how."

John Holland is a pre-school NBCT in inner-city Richmond who paints professionally when he gets the chance. He dares to make the case that teaching is an art in his blog Lead from the Start.

TMAO, up for a top education blogging award, slowly reveals that he's under fire for alleged testing improprieties. Not misbehavin', he says -- in fact, just the opposite. And saving his venom for HR.