“When we confirm someone, we identify a better self and encourage its development. To do this we must know the other reasonably well. Otherwise we cannot see what the other is really striving for, what ideal he or she may long to make real.” — …
Nel Noddings: What happens when a teacher asks a question?
How do you respond to a student’s response? What do you say that indicates you are hearing the words and the being who is before you? This came up in a higher ed course last term when we were practicing some mini-lessons. It occurred to …
Nel Noddings: How can teachers help restore natural caring?
For Noddings, there is a distinction between ethical and natural caring. The act may come from “I want,” which is natural, and “I must,” which is ethical. Ethical caring comes from a belief that caring is a “right” way of responding to another human …
Think Like Authors by Sarah Dollah-Said
If you want your students to think like authors, then have them speak to authors by Sarah Dollah-Said Being a literature and writing teacher for middle school students is hard enough when you are competing with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler (whatever other social media networks …
A Week With Dewey, day 5
What does this quote by John Dewey mean to you? How does it manifest in your practice?
Memoir: The Beautiful Problem of Remembering
When we read literature about lives that seem too distant from our own, how do we minimize our tendencies to “other” the unfamiliar? In the middle school reading classroom, I have found that if we begin with the process of telling our own stories — …