At TLaC Towers, high above the teeming streets of our tiny little upstate hamlet, summer vacation means time to kick back, relax, and, well, analyze video of great teachers. In that sense it’s just like the rest of the year except there are flip-slops and people get sassy with the ironic nicknames… well, Jen Kim, one of…
My team and I have been on a vocabulary binge, watching lesson after lesson to pick up best practices and commonalities among teachers. We see brilliant things but even so, we can’t use all of the video. One single factor makes more vocabulary lessons unusable as exemplars than any other. Want to guess what it is?…
At Troy Prep, one of our Uncommon Schools, graduating 8th graders traditionally write thank you notes. They write them to anyone they want–teachers, parents etc.–for anything they want. Principal, Lauren Catlett, recently shared a few with me. The notes are lovely and gracious. They include comments like: “Mr. Belanger, Ms. Hernandez and Ms Strand, thank you…
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending an hour or so with Daisy Christodoulou. She was stateside for a conference and had taken the train from New York to spend the morning watching and discussing video of teachers with me and my team. We had a little time between train and meeting and…
This year, when my wife perfunctorily asked me, “Is there anything you need for Father’s Day?” and started to turn away (there’s never been a “yes” to this question), I surprised her…. “Actually…” This year I realized there really was something that I wanted and my kids were the only people who could give the gift….