Shooting Free Throws Underhanded in School
Here are some thoughts about teacher leadership and facing discomfort when attempting to do the right thing, especially when it challenges the status quo.
Don’t Smile Until After Christmas? Nonsense!
A version of this essay originally appeared in Middle Ground magazine in October, 2008. Don’t smile until after Christmas. I’ve always been puzzled when I overhear talk of this informal… Read more Don’t Smile Until After Christmas? Nonsense! →
Student Guest Blogger: Career and Future Uncertainty
I’ve shared this blog with some of my students, an attempt to showcase how writing is “real” for me. As far as blogging goes, many students use Tumblr. I’ll admit… Read more Student Guest Blogger: Career and Future Uncertainty →
Struggling Writers: Is Personal Expression the Answer?
Glancing around the room, fiddling with his smart phone, and tapping his pencil, Michael will do anything but write. He’ll scribble a few sentences on the paper, and the chicken… Read more Struggling Writers: Is Personal Expression the Answer? →
Nothing Compares to Being a First-Year Teacher
“A student urinated on my floor when I was out in the hallway. On a day I was absent, students jettisoned textbooks and graded papers out my second-story classroom window. A computer monitor was smashed on my floor after a rage-filled overhead toss. I witnessed a basketball player punch another student in the face before school, stay in class all day, and then suit up for the afternoon’s game. No consequences.” When I reread the following essay I wrote over eight years ago about my first-year teaching in 2004-2005, I’m… Read more Nothing Compares to Being a First-Year Teacher →
A Seventh Grader Said “Poetry is Gay”
I’ve decided to post narrative e-mails from my first few years of teaching middle school. It was my way of journaling and reflecting on my craft, student behaviors, and experiences–both… Read more A Seventh Grader Said “Poetry is Gay” →
Reckless Technology Adoption?
As I left my morning session on brain-based learning strategies at the SREB High School That Work Conference, I had trouble exiting–hoards of educators flocked into room 353 at the… Read more Reckless Technology Adoption? →
The Will to Teach Black Males
We’ve got to teach them to be men, what manhood is all about. How did we go from Medgar Evers, Frederick Douglass, and Langston Hughes to Lil’ Wayne, Drake, and… Read more The Will to Teach Black Males →
A Narrative Vision for Schooling in the 21st Century
A narrative vision for schooling in the 21st Century, according to the 2012 Republican Party of Texas Platform: Every morning, little Timmy and his 4th grade classmates pledge to the… Read more A Narrative Vision for Schooling in the 21st Century →
Paul Barnwell 