Alan Lawrence Sitomer » system

It just keeps on revealing itself to me…

Alan Sitomer — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:30:22 +0000

My iPad still keeps revealing its potential to me. For example, right now I am on a cross country speaking trip doing PD in Missouri then Georgia… then North Carolina next week. Indeed, it’s been busy busy.

And when you…

Measuring teacher effectiveness: Day 1

Alan Sitomer — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:04:19 +0000

These past few days I have been blogging about this idea of measuring teacher effectiveness. To do this properly, the rule seems to me that the powers-that-be are going to have to use multiple measures.

And when I say multiple,…

What I believe measuring teacher effectiveness is all about.

Alan Sitomer — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:17:15 +0000

I am a huge fan of teacher autonomy. Trust me on this. I used to be a pariah, now I am considered an innovator. Either way, it’s my own internal teaching compass which always drives my class and if you…

The Checklist System, A Banquet of Preposterous Beauty

Alan Sitomer — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:06:23 +0000

So here’s a fear I have about national standards. I think it’s going to create too much of a checklist system.

For example, I will be given a national standard to teach. I will teach it.

Then there will be…

A-HA!! I finally figured out when the madness of NCLB will end.

Alan Sitomer — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:42:36 +0000

A-HA!! I finally figured out when the madness of NCLB will end. Now I am not sure I know how to to do the math properly, but I think it works out to something like this:

There are 26 letters…

In too many ways, August can be the tail that wags the dog.

Alan Sitomer — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:30:19 +0000

One of the biggest problems I have with our current national assessment system is that they have almost mastered the art of shaming and belittling those who do not make the cut while doing an exceptionally poor job of of…

Cracks, Crack and Cracked

Alan Sitomer — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:30:09 +0000

There is no way to work in a school today without the very clear recognition that the cracks are expanding. The question is, how do we prevent ourselves from cracking up amid the crumbling?

Kids used to just fall through…

Am I a Widget?

Alan Sitomer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:00:20 +0000

A really interesting report was just published that essentially equates me, a teacher, to a widget. By that they point out that public education views me as a replaceable cog, an indistinguishable influence on the overall productivity of public schooling…

Gatekeeping Checkpoints

Alan Sitomer — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:30:03 +0000

Social promotion is the scourge of public education today. The fact is we are simply passing our kids on up the ladder whether or not they have demonstrated any sort of comprehension of the subject matter they are supposed to…