Back To Oakland - EducationEast Bay POVtag:backtooakland.com,2005:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/educationTextpattern2023-06-25T22:48:33+00:00Markhttp://backtooakland.com/Mark2019-12-11T21:04:05+00:002022-12-27T20:29:58+00:00I'm running for School Board in Oaklandtag:backtooakland.com,2019-12-11:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/3568ab795f7cd62da50d01882f390c93I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while. The district that provided me with an education, where our sons Justin and Nate started their educations, and where I taught during my Teach For America corps service needs some love.
http://backtooakland.com/i-m-running-for-school-board-in-oakland]]>Mark2018-11-10T19:50:12+00:002022-12-27T20:37:29+00:00Seeking Peace and Justicetag:backtooakland.com,2018-11-10:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/d6b6f100c4bf67127f97c56f1d5f198cA very generous funder of EducationSuperHighway sent us to Montgomery last week so we could experience the National Monument for Justice and Peace. This monument was conceived and created by the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization (founded by Bryan Stevenson) devoted to making America live up to its ideals. The memorial is a stark and overwhelming reminder of the nation’s failure to stomp out white supremacism and the persistent scourge of injustice towards people of color.
http://backtooakland.com/seeking-peace-and-justice]]>Mark2017-04-26T19:12:19+00:002017-04-26T19:14:05+00:00Graduatingtag:backtooakland.com,2017-04-26:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/7067f124406800bb42416ef1e6317e7aAs I settled into my seat on the NL bus for the morning commute to San Francisco a young man stepped up next to me and touched me on the shoulder. I looked up and saw a face exactly like a slightly older version of the face of one of my sixth grade students from Edna Brewer Middle School. He reached out to take my hand and leaned over to wrap his other arm around my shoulder in a gentle hug. Huge smile on his face.
http://backtooakland.com/graduating]]>Mark2012-08-22T15:20:30+00:002016-03-11T00:10:34+00:00Certified Letterstag:backtooakland.com,2012-08-22:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/7dbe4a214e0557473374c14cf4d7c9ceI got a pair of certified letters last Saturday transferring me to two school sites for the 2012-13 school year. It wasn’t a complete surprise. Ever since someone in Oakland’s special education department (called Programs for Exceptional Children) made a multimillion dollar accounting error, PEC has been frantically trying to solve its budgeting crisis by reducing its human resources. The first response was to fire all of the program specialists — a group of teachers who work outside the classroom to provide support to the school-site special education teachers. Most of them were rehired a few weeks later.
http://backtooakland.com/certified-letters]]>Mark2012-08-15T04:26:31+00:002016-03-11T00:13:58+00:00A Modest Proposal for the Improvement of Public Educationtag:backtooakland.com,2012-08-14:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/a43e844023689da01509bda1c026f7eaI was sitting with a few other teachers a couple of weeks ago. We were discussing the difficulties of finding common ground in the conversation about how to best educate the children of our country. A big part of the problem, we agreed, is the vilification of anyone who has a different idea than yours.
http://backtooakland.com/a-modest-proposal-for-the-improvement-of-public-education]]>Mark2012-04-17T12:00:56+00:002012-04-23T07:36:47+00:00Why I'm Running for OEA Executive Boardtag:backtooakland.com,2012-04-17:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/6d591a91a80b56f6814d61a6032736ccAs I was bicycling to school, a perfect parable about the means of communication presented itself as an illustration of why the teacher’s union and OUSD administration need to rethink their relationship. This cyclist and a pair of joggers couldn’t have been more helpful in shaping my thoughts…
http://backtooakland.com/why-i-m-running-for-oea-executive-board]]>Mark2012-02-21T00:29:51+00:002012-02-21T00:35:22+00:00Bloom's Taxonomytag:backtooakland.com,2012-02-20:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/98b7d4dd00ec1d18b1f906e6c9545d71I was looking at a collection of images of Bloom’s taxonomy today and realized that I wanted a simple but more apt drawing that would capture my beliefs about how the taxonomy relates to learning. I had read some interesting thoughts about the fact that the taxonomy was not strictly conceived as a hierarchy…
http://backtooakland.com/bloom-s-taxonomy]]>Mark2012-01-22T19:18:23+00:002012-01-23T05:22:51+00:00Missing the Forest for the Treestag:backtooakland.com,2012-01-22:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/c643057dfc5b5ef0993c739004677491One big message of Apple’s textbook announcement in New York last week was that the new iBook textbook model is going to lighten student’s backpacks by reducing the amount of paper that they have to lug around. But there’s a potentially much more disruptive use for the tools Apple released last week.
http://backtooakland.com/missing-the-forest-for-the-trees]]>Mark2011-11-15T05:45:18+00:002011-11-15T13:45:17+00:00Standardized Tests vs. Intuitiontag:backtooakland.com,2011-11-14:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/8126daf49dd2492482038052e56beb1dThis post is about education, but you’ll need to bear with me as i begin with a lenghty digression. I’ve been reading Steve Jobs biography. In it I’m meeting an intuitive genius who had deep interpersonal challenges.
http://backtooakland.com/standardized-tests-vs-intuition]]>Mark2011-11-06T18:26:03+00:002011-11-06T21:10:14+00:00Random (Possibly Related) Thoughtstag:backtooakland.com,2011-11-06:648776b7c4c72ca064f43fdc74308ee7/edfe49bee701a553f4c0f64e4631bf23I’ve been dreaming and daydreaming lately about education. Here are some random thoughts that are rambling around in my mind.
http://backtooakland.com/random-possibly-related-thoughts]]>