Stevemiranda

LATEST ARTICLES ( 270 )

• Why School Shouldn’t Be Like School (from the Archives)

  

  Researchers at UC-Berkeley and MIT recently generated a fascinating set of data. Here’s an excerpt from an article in Slate written by one of the researchers,... Read more

  Posted on 08 September 2011 DEBATE, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• The Gilded Classroom

  

  The New York Times ran an interesting story on technology in the classroom this weekend called, “In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores. Read more

  Posted on 06 September 2011 DEBATE, SCHOOLING

• Ten Years from Now, I’ll Bet That Your Students Don’t Really Remember Much, If...

  

  I’ve always loved to write. When I was in middle school, I self-published a series of sports magazines and sold them to my father for $2 each. Read more

  Posted on 05 September 2011 FAMILY, SCHOOLING

• Reforming Our Schools with High-tech Cell Phones (from the Archives)

  

  Today I saw the abstract of an academic paper submitted by Roland G. Fryer, CEO of Harvard’s Education Innovation Laboratory. In “Teacher Incentives and... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Why “who” is More Important Than “what”

  

  Here’s a peek inside a staff meeting at PSCS. Remember, there are only four teachers, three administrators, and an administrative assistant, so the conversation... Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING

• We Have to Stop Daydreaming About This

  

  I’m a big fan of Sir Ken Robinson, whose TED talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” has been viewed by millions of people around the world. Read more

  Posted on 01 September 2011 DEBATE, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Freshman Boxing (from the Archives)

  

  At the big public school where I used to work, there was a phenomenon known as “freshman boxing.” I have no idea how it started or why, but at some point... Read more

  Posted on 31 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• The Best Advice I Ever Received as a Young Teacher

  

  Early in my teaching career, I ran into some trouble. I was getting interference from colleagues or administrators about things I was doing in the classroom. Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2011 DEBATE, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• “Flipping School” in a Way That Matters

  

  My sister sent me a video link to a story about two teachers in New York City who are achieving some remarkable results with an innovative strategy. Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Teacher Collaboration is Important, but Not for the Reasons We Might Think

  

  I read a story in Miller-McCune last week on the value of teachers collaborating. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Here’s an excerpt:A large body of... Read more

  Posted on 28 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• You Have to Let Go (from the Archives)

  

  A friend of mine told me a story about her son, who was a reluctant writer as a middle schooler. In fact, she says, “When he was 12 years old, I paid him to... Read more

  Posted on 27 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• What If Schools Did Away with Transcripts?

  

  What if schools did away with transcripts? I’m not sure how much useful data we get from transcripts. For example, I received an A in my high school chemistry... Read more

  Posted on 26 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Anything You Want

  I ordered a book from Amazon last week, and I was just a few dollars short of qualifying for free shipping. So I found another title that looked interesting, an... Read more

  Posted on 25 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Make Stuff (from the Archives)

  Last winter, a group of PSCS students took a field trip to a local high-tech company, to meet some of their engineers and get a look inside a leading edge... Read more

  Posted on 24 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• No Disrespect Intended to Emily Dickinson, but . . . (from the Archives)

  I write often about how the real focus of school should not be the transfer of academic content from teacher to student, but rather a holistic program of human... Read more

  Posted on 23 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• The Lesson That I Took Me More Than a Decade to Learn

  There’s a research professor in psychology at Boston College named Peter Gray, who writes a terrific blog called “Freedom to Learn.” He posts about once a month... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• If Kids Do Well in School, Then They’ll Be Happy. Right?

  I’ve been waiting for this book for a while.Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer’s book The Progress Principle was just released, and I’m about halfway through it. Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• Why Students Cheat

  When I was a classroom teacher, I would try to build in a few field trips each semester just to keep things fresh and interesting. One of my favorites was the... Read more

  Posted on 20 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY

• The Impact of Boredom on People’s Behavior

  

  I came across a fascinating article today about a series of studies on boredom. Since the most common complaint about school is that it’s “boring,” this is a... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, HEALTH, PSYCHOLOGY

• My Little Experiment, and the Remarkable Data It Produced (from the Archives)

  I was browsing through my Facebook profile one day and, in my news feed, saw one of my students writing on the “wall” of another student:“Missed you in Miranda’... Read more

  Posted on 18 August 2011 DEBATE, FAMILY, SCHOOLING, SOCIETY