Alan Lawrence Sitomer » student

Between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. in a student’s life

Alan Sitomer — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:00:10 +0000

How much should I, as a teacher, be expected to do between 8:00 a.m and 3:00 p.m.?

And don’t those expectations change depending on what is going on between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. in a student’s life?

Some kids…

Bust out a Blow Torch! (i.e. Marry meaningfulness to rigor through “fun”.)

Alan Sitomer — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:30:06 +0000

I work hard at trying to provide learning opportunities that can be fun. For sure it’s a “special sauce” in my teaching methodology because I deeply believe that people try harder – and that there is more “stickiness” to education…

Measuring teacher effectiveness: We Have Brought this On Ourselves

Alan Sitomer — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:02:53 +0000

Have we not brought this on ourselves? Truly, it’s our own fault we are mired in this whole “measuring teacher’s effectiveness” mess anyway.

And why? Because we, as teachers, have run amok.

We had a chance to police ourselves, we…

Measuring teacher effectiveness: Day 4

Alan Sitomer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:30:12 +0000

Okay, so for the past few days I have offered up a perspective on measuring teacher effectiveness, devising a matrix that would include…

* student test scores
* peer evaluations
* administrative evaluations
* student

…

A Bubble Test for Policy Makers

Alan Sitomer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:30:14 +0000

How about a bubble test for politicians? I mean since they are so accurate and insightful — and can be used to determine so much authentic insight into actual professionalism — why not make the people who are making our…

A student witness to murder-suicide in the age of NCLB

Alan Sitomer — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:55:09 +0000

To many students, the holiday break of 2009 is long gone. But I have a student who will never forget it. That’s because his uncle strangled his aunt to death — and then shot himself in the head in a…

It’s really hard to give a damn about a kid’s grades when a kid doesn’t give a damn themself.

Alan Sitomer — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:30:57 +0000

Let’s be honest… it’s really hard to give a damn about a kid’s grades when a kid doesn’t give a damn themself.

I know I am supposed to be mature, compassionate, professional and perpetually hopeful and encouraging but wow, sometimes…

The Conundrum of Handling Student Farts

Alan Sitomer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:30:17 +0000

So what is to be done when a student farts in class?

Hey, don’t laugh, this is a serious academic issue.

The way I see it, there are a coupla options.

1) Try to pretend it didn’t happen. Of course,…

Bullets just took another student’s life and it doesn’t make any sense.

Alan Sitomer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:30:38 +0000

In addition to doing Professional Development for schools and districts, I also do student assemblies (with my YA author hat on.) And the truth is, while I like doing to adult events, the kids just smoke the grown-ups on the…

The changing calculation of college tuition

Alan Sitomer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:30:39 +0000

The University of California is now mulling charging different rates for different majors. In this article, they cite the example of the engineering student. Because such a kid uses more tangible and costly resources in their field of study, colleges…