Retired HS teacher, unapologetic defender of traditional methods of instruction, & outspoken critic of educational fads & those who chase them
Chandler, AZ
Joined December 2012
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Rather than being a means-to-an-end tool in promoting student achievement, the increasing emphasis on relationship-building so common in schools today is becoming the end in and of itself - the overriding focus of education.
realcleareducation.com/artic…
“Stated bluntly, If school leaders are serious about understanding teacher burnout and fixing the current staffing crisis, they should welcome all the brutal honesty they can get.”
What happens when a retiring curmudgeon is invited to sit on the new principal hiring committee? @Edwinivich buff.ly/xqfmEaa
Non disruptive students (I didn’t say “perfect angels”) are the ones currently experiencing trauma
& whose needs aren’t being met
Rich Ullman retweeted
New from yours truly for @thedispatch
We’re asking schools to do two things at once:
• include everyone
• tolerate almost every behavior
At some point, those goals collide and order breaks down. And soon, so does every other shared space.
thedispatch.com/article/publ…
Rich Ullman retweeted
Email from admin: “Please document your plan and anticipated challenges for students who failed the last grading period.”
My plan: teach
Challenge: The student hasn’t been here since December
Next steps: Call the truant officer… oh wait, we don’t do that anymore
Rich Ullman retweeted
Actual quote I’ve heard: ‘We can’t just exclude him. He has a right to an education.’
What about the Year 7 boy’s right not to be physically assaulted? The Year 11 girl’s right not to be sexually harassed? The teacher’s right not to be verbally abused?
Inclusion has become perhaps the most used word in education today. But what’s interesting is how many children aren’t actually ‘included’ in the conversations about inclusion - the quiet, hard working, under the radar, polite, always respectful children who just get on with it day after day. But whose needs and wants are often ignored, or not included, because they aren’t loud enough to warrant it. The whole thing needs flipping on its head as these children, and there are loads of them, deserve a way better deal than having all their lessons ruined and their ability to exist in school feeling safe and not being bullied diminishing.
Rich Ullman retweeted
Challenging public schools: things are fine as long as kids aren’t beating each other up
Affluent schools: things are fine as long as the kids are happy
Do we care about the learning, or are we just going through the motions?
Rich Ullman retweeted
Fix the behavior and the subs come back.
Fix the behavior and the teachers come back.
Fix the behavior and parents come back.
Rich Ullman retweeted
Who cares if a school handed out the ‘most suspensions in a day/week/month’, if they needed to do that to secure the future of ALL the children in the school, then absolutely the right thing to do, no?
“Safe” means removing students who are REPEATEDLY dangerous & disruptive.
Do you support alternative placements, suspensions, expulsions?
Maslow before Bloom, right?
Strengthen , do not abandon public schools. Students deserve a safe, welcoming, relevant, and engaging place in which to learn and grow. theatlantic.com/politics/arc…
Rich Ullman retweeted
There are more wellbeing, burnout and ‘help you stay in the classroom’ coaches than ever before. Common denominator - they’ve all left the classroom 😂
Approximately 1 out of every 3 U.S. students has their instruction upended by REPEATEDLY disruptive classmates who non teachers refuse to remove from the classroom.
“The problem is not that teacher-centered instruction doesn’t work, it’s that those in the pedagogical correctness echo chamber don’t want it to.”
edweek.org/teaching-learning…
Time for some edu-terminology overhaul:
The “most vulnerable” students are the vast majority of teachable kids (I didn’t say perfect angels) who suffer when we fail to remove the REPEATEDLY dangerous & disruptive from the conventional classroom setting.
Apologies to none
Rich Ullman retweeted
Your daily reminder that Direct Instruction is the most efficient way to learn.
Rich Ullman retweeted
Schools are always chasing "more"—more than learning, more than what's written in the curriculum, more than what can be contained within four walls. This kind of romantic sloganeering should be exhausting, yet it reliably earns undeserved applause at education conferences.
Rich Ullman retweeted
If you think teachers have it easy, you’re in luck. America is currently short more than 320,000 teachers. Give it a try! 😏
Or give subbing a try…to get a taste.
Rich Ullman retweeted
Every student’s education matters. We aspire on behalf of them all. But when one student’s behaviour endangers the safety, dignity or education of others, the rights of the majority for these things deserve to be protected. That shouldn’t be controversial. It is the rationale for exiting, parking, suspensions etc.
Literally no social endeavour is possible if one or more participants decide to wreck it. No workplace, library, or conversation could survive someone bellowing and swearing, or attacking others. If a patient in a general ward constantly got out of bed and sexually harassed the nurses, and tipped over the other patients’ gurneys, they might still be entitled to medical treatment, but that might temporarily take second place to the safety and treatment of others.
