Science is the belief in
the ignorance of experts.
Richard Feynman
A lot of ed gurus make a lot of money doing the circuit. Teaching well is like losing weight--there are no shortcuts, but we keep tossing money at folks who promise us THE WAY.
I'm going to save you a few bucks, and even more important for the mere mortals among us, a lot of time.
If your guru fails to meet these minimal qualifications, put away your wallet. They're wasting your time:
- Has your guru taught in a real classroom the past three years?
- Does your guru allow his research to be peer reviewed?
- Does your guru grasp statistics?
- Is your guru free from the financial interests of a billionaire?
See you later Marzano!
Hasta la vista Duncan!
Arrivederci, Gardner!
If we're even going to pretend we're a profession, we need to stop buying snake oil.
(But make sure you buy my book when it comes out.....)
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8 comments:
Your book will be quite welcomed as you meet all the minimum requirements and genuinely love learning and students. Sadly, folks like you rarely write books. So get on it!
Dear Jenny,
You're every bit as qualified as me, and like me, have little time to play guru so long as life is happening.
(If you even hint that we write a book together, though, I'm on it!)
Are you kidding? In a heartbeat!
Especially if it means I can go clamming with you.
Dear Jenny,
Yes, I'm serious--I would love to collaborate with an elementary teacher on elementary school science.
OFF TOPIC
Mike - sorry to be posting here but I don't know Lesley's email & I don't want to post on Facebook - would you like 2 tickets (hard) to Springsteen? Wed. September 19 - just charge you what I paid & you can give it to me when you want to? Let me know soon if anyone wants them, thanks
Patty
Dear Patty,
We're intrigued--here's Leslie's email: lespdoyle@gmail.com
...or click on the profile--mine's there.
I love this post!
I'm getting reprimanded left and right for things like my failure to use Marzano's vocabulary techniques to the fact that my objectives aren't "measurable behaviors."
It's been a rough year, despite the fact that the people pushing these ideas are genuinely kind people.
I'm ready to go back to social studies and simply teach what I know best in a way that I know best and say "fuck the experts and the research; fire me if you need to."
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