#edreform – Blue Cereal Education

Can You Teach Us?

Blue Cereal — Fri, 14 May 2021 19:44:26 +0000

Public education has been overlooking – or worse, neglecting – a golden opportunity to improve. It’s not only been right in front of us all along, it’s been kicking us and taking our lunch money! And yet, somehow, where we should have recognized an opportunity, all we’ve seen is a competitor. In some cases, maybe … Continue reading

Do I Really Look Like A Guy With A Plan?

Blue Cereal — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 15:05:38 +0000

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring… Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As … Continue reading

Solutions and Ideological Justice

Blue Cereal — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 00:49:27 +0000

Anyone in the world of public education for any length of time knows that we have a tendency to oversimplify things which are more complicated than we care to admit and to complicate things which simply don’t have to be that difficult. “It’s such a challenge to find and retain good teachers!” (We should pay … Continue reading

Weird Silence

Blue Cereal — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 23:57:40 +0000

It’s funny the things that make us uncomfortable.

Not, like, in general. It’s not funny that snakes make me uncomfortable, or anyone messing with someone else’s eyeballs. Hair anywhere other than someone’s head. Dogs in the backs of moving pickup trucks. Those things should make anyone uncomfortable.

But it’s weird what can make us uncomfortable in our classrooms. One of them happened to me today.

Hole In The Wall Education

Blue Cereal — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 01:51:56 +0000

I’m a bad person. I’m an idealist with little use for idealists. It’s not personal. I like those I actually know. But their articles, and books, and speeches make me want to break things and yell school-inappropriate yells. I resent speakers and writers who build their reputations on explaining how amazing children are and could … Continue reading

Teach Like You

Blue Cereal — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 04:35:17 +0000

I’m a fairly narcissistic fellow. I don’t mean to be, it’s just that I’m vain and self-absorbed. At least I have the skills, style, and cojones to make it work for me. I make no apologies; every rose has it’s – oh, are you still here? I hadn’t noticed. There’ve been a slew of books and … Continue reading

May I Please See?

Blue Cereal — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 15:57:56 +0000

Teachers can be a stubborn lot. To be fair, in this profession, we kinda have to be. Trying to steer 34 teenagers at a time into meaningful learning while trapped in a concrete box an hour at a time against their will requires, well… a certain amount of stubbornness. Sometimes it works, other times – … Continue reading

The Remaking of Lawrence Public Schools (Guest Blogger – Amy Berard)

Blue Cereal — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 01:03:51 +0000

Amy Berard is a graduate of Lawrence Public Schools, and taught there during the first three years of receivership.She still lives in the community, but now teaches in the nearby district of Lynn. Berard first made national #edreform waves when she did a guest post for Edushyster titled “I Am Not Tom Brady.” She has since … Continue reading

Um… There Are These Kids We Call ‘Students’?

Blue Cereal — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 02:49:40 +0000

It probably seems to non-educators that teachers are a whiney lot. Every time the state or some money-loaded national organization starts talking about assessment or accountability, we seem to lose our collective minds. And #EdReform advocates are all too happy to fixate on what we’re doing wrong NOW, what’s we’re overlooking, neglecting, or misimplementing THIS … Continue reading

Don’t Worry – I Have A Plan #OklaEd

Blue Cereal — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 23:22:16 +0000

In an #OklaEd chat a week or so ago, we were challenged by @Coach57 to not merely complain about state legislation and legislatures, but to suggest specific solutions. Fair enough. I confess my cynicism does tend to get me stuck attacking nonsense rather than offering alternatives. History teaches many lessons, but few are more clear … Continue reading