Eric Kalenze Profile Banner
Eric Kalenze Profile
Eric Kalenze

@erickalenze

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Teacher / Author of 'What the Academy Taught Us', 'Education is Upside-Down', & 'A Total Ed Case' blog

Twin Cities, MN
Joined April 2014
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
Is it weird to find curriculum-planning really, really exciting?
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
My sweet, tough mom passed away this morning. I love this picture of her with my daughters and Louis.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
View from the classroom, 20 Oct 20.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
A former student of mine posted this on FB. Really rang for me, as it improves on the (sorry, far oversimplified) fence-equity visuals we're all so used to seeing. Thoughts?
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
I have been in Canada less than 12 hours, and have heard from many many educators that they feel scared to raise opposing views within their schools. What's going on up here, y'all? #rEDVan
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
My school's principal position needs to be hired for next year (which hurts a bit, as I really love the outgoing person), and I'm on the interview committee. So far, we've seen quite a few people with 'instructional coaching' in their background...
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
This is not to defend Lucy Calkins, but... Who is more to blame? A huckster who figures out how to sell something, or the people who don't do their homework and fully buy the huckster's snake oil?
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
@KenSheck @AccountistLisa @DeborahDitkows1 In every one of the scenes like these I've seen posted online (and I know, it's not ALL), it's the reactions of the protestors that get me most: they explode in thank-yous and hugs and handshakes. Such action-reactions are about the only thing giving me hope right now.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
...and that's a wrap on two of the most significant people in my life. Thanks, Ma and Pop. Love you and miss you always.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
Leslie Vincent Kalenze, 7 March 1947 - 14 March 2021 Love you, dad.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
6 years
A drum I bang all the time, so thank you @dylanwiliam at #rEDPhil : 'In schooling, we need to get kids to succeed with things they're not passionate about.' Again, wanted to stand & cheer.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
I see that Chewbacca is trending...on the very day I am wearing my Chewbacca t-shirt. I think it's a sign that I should buy a lottery ticket.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
My parents made me take piano lessons for 10 years, from age 6 to 16. Though that foundation allowed me to later sing in my choir, win roles in theater, and teach myself to play guitar/write songs, I really wish my folks had sent me to an inquiry-based piano teacher.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
"You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important." -James Baldwin
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 months
Sending strength today to all the teachers sticking to their scheduled instructional plans. May you maintain your cool in the face of students coming in from your movie-showing, candy-distributing colleagues' classes. Have a great break, Ed Cases.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
This is so, so clear and applicable. Once again, because I can't say it enough: a million thank-yous to all the ed consultants helping educators do their jobs better.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
8 months
If you are in a school district that spends its money on consultants to help with 'adopting a truly human-centered process to visualize what truly visionary learning environments can look like', please: Run like mad. Just RUN. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
In football terms (because football = life), @ehanford 's work for the past few years--and especially the new 'Sold a Story'--was like a 50-yard pass completion for the evidence-driven education community.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
Not feeling very Twitty, but sharing this essay from the late Leslie Lamar Parker. Leslie was a student of mine, & he died a few weeks back from Covid-19 complications. He'd always dreamed of being a published writer, but never got to see it. RIP, LP.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
'Any approach to education that does not proritise powerful, culturally rich knowledge is--wittingly or not--both adding to social injustice and discriminating against those children on the lower end of the [bell curve's] normal distribution.' - @DavidDidau , 'Making Kids Cleverer'
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
I don't do much speaking these days, but just got an invite I can't refuse: My school's seniors selected me as their graduation keynote. I got actual goosebumps when I was told.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
This just in: The experts continue to be shockingly stupid.
@USATODAY
USA TODAY
1 year
Most eighth graders' did worse on national U.S. history and civics tests in 2022 than four years ago. Experts blame a lack of critical thinking skills.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
The audience for @dylanwiliam 's #rEDPhil19 talk (1) is PACKED and (2) has more powerful ed thinkers in one space than you can even imagine. Man, #rEDPhil19 is cool.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
I look forward to when the passion currently in the Science of Reading pot boils over into math instruction. The issues are deeply similar. @megan_pauly @ehanford Here's a good voice to know in the interim, Barry Garelick: Onward!
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
So perfect.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
6 years
Hello, schools of education.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
6 years
@RobinBoleski PLEASE SAY SHE'S LEARNING AT LEAST FOUR DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OR EXPLAINING HER THINKING AFTER EACH STEP OH THE POOR DEAR
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
I'm thinking I'd like to get back to some ed blogging, but seriously wondering: Does anyone read education blogs anymore? Responses appreciated.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
Ed Folks: Respond below with something a field consultant/expert says or does that causes you to block out everything they say or do afterward.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
I will always be astounded by how consistently so many education experts [sic] demonize extrinsic motivation out of hand.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
@DTWillingham 1. Background knowledge drives effective reading comprehension & critical thought. 2. Building self-concept is a prerequisite to achievement (when it's more likely to be the other way around).
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
Getting the room ready to have students back in it Monday. Really glad to be inching back to school as we know it.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
Is anyone anywhere as ridiculous as ed-school professors who find their preferred philosophies threatened?
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
Preparing a sentence activity for school, and came across this nugget from TH Huxley: “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.”
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
And away we go... Have a great year, educators.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
Man I love it when students who have never read for class start reading...then see how much more enjoyable class is (and how much more confident they are) when they actually know what's going on. #notrocketscience
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 months
I feel like I say this annually or so... ...but man: the Ts out there who don't use textbooks because, well, they're *textbooks*, are really missing out.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
9 months
It amazes me how many teachers believe they can make their students into stronger readers by having those students build board games.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
“Secondary knowledge takes a lot of well-organised schooling.” I sure wish this weren't so hard for so many to grasp. If you're around lots of people who have a tough time getting this, you may want to show them the piece & podcast below. Useful, clear.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 months
I don't know about you, but I'm okay admitting that I don't fully *understand* many of the things I've committed to memory. I'm sure glad they're in my memory, though, as they make so many other things so much easier to do and understand.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
When I first met @EduCelebrity yesterday, he/she had 12 followers. That that number is up near 2000 in ONE DAY tells me that something good is going on. Hey: and keep doing you, EC. Yer killin' me.
@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
I don't know who you are, @EduCelebrity , but thank you for being you.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
Digging the first-snow view out my classroom window so much that I had to share.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
...they would have done it already. Simply: Some don't know how, and they need your help. Now do your job, and show them. Giving them a set of perfect guiding questions, then following up every couple of weeks, won't cut it.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 months
The class I struggled to manage most at the beginning of this year is now one of the true highlights of my day. Routines, consistency, and good curriculum do wonders, I tell ya. Have a great Wednesday, Ed Cases.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
In pre-service PDs I'll be leading this week, Ts will hear about ED Hirsch, @DTWillingham , @P_A_Kirschner , Rosenshine (with an assist from @teacherhead ), @dylanwiliam , @HFletcherWood , and others. I sure am grateful to be in a place that focuses on experts like these.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
Personal Note: Moving/throwing parents' possessions is not easy. If there is one upside to losing both parents in such a short time, it's that I only have to do this once.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
For everyone still buzzing this morning from their @researchED_US / #researchFRED experience yesterday, a quick note. Consider writing about the time you had, then putting it out there for other eds to see. For reference, here follows a few I've done after rEDs I've appeared at.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
After a mid-year resignation at my school around the holidays, I took on the open sections, giving me a total of six preps. Then, in March, my father died--6 months to the day after my mother had. Having just planned my last lesson for the term, then, feels damned good.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
Actually spotted on LinkedIn...someone speaking at an upcoming conference about 'the disruptive nature of reimagined learning environments, helping participants define the right problem to solve with an aligned learning ecosystem.' I can't even.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
More so, it's 'instructional talk therapy'.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
'If we don't let kids wrestle with the content, why do we give them the content in the first place?' BOOM. - @SonjaSantelises , #rEDPhil19
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
'Teacher self care' training is not professional development.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
'Any discussion about "equity" in education that is not first and foremost about literacy is unserious.'
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 months
Reminder, Ed Leaders: There is no guarantee that organizations called 'National Council of [Educational Whatever]', 'National Center for [Educational Whatever]', etc., are the definitive authorities on the Educational Whatever in their names.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
I cannot wait for this book.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 years
Wow is this good: 'Jo Boaler is wrong about maths facts and timed tests' - via @iQuirky_Teacher
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
Back when I was doing a lot of teacher-coaching, I was able to see this kind of thing up close day after day after day. 1/
@kyleredford
kyle redford
2 years
What?! "Children are sent off to find comfortable spots so they can practice avid reading. These are kindergarteners. Most of them don’t know how to read yet. But they’re supposed to spend 35 to 45 minutes reading independently." Ep #4 via @ehanford
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
This video is exactly what I mean when I tell folks about how the ed establishment's self-evident truths [i.e., 'Kids learn best by doing', 'Kids have to be engaged first to learn anything', &c.] can slippery-slope into horrible classroom-level actions. Just awful on many levels.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
9 months
I am currently 90% sure that I'll never attend another education conference.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
Yea verily, @rpondiscio : 'Hirsch’s work offers knowledge have-nots the language of power. That some might seek to deny access to it has long seemed to me among the greatest and most unforgivable of educational crimes.'
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
6 years
Straight up: If you work in or follow education, you should read everything @daisychristo likes to read about education. (Plus, you should read everything she's written.) We'd all be better for it if more did.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
Happiest of birthdays and much love to my wonderful friend, @MsJasmineMN . Getting to work with and know you has brought so much light to this dark year.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
10 months
One BS ed product/approach down, sooo damn many more to go. Dear Ed Journos: Please note the effect your work can have. Many have been yelling about TCRWP's flaws for years...but a single wide-platform journalist was able to make it fully collapse.
@ehanford
Emily Hanford
10 months
Teachers College Columbia announced today that TCRWP - founded by Lucy Calkins in 1981 - will be "dissolved."
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
I am not one whit ashamed to say that @tombennett71 and the movement he has marshaled have improved my professional and personal lives in more ways than I can count. If that cheeses you off, come at me. I'll gladly explain. --perhaps more important: are you ready to listen?
@tombennett71
Tom Bennett OBE
4 years
I started today feeling that social media- which I love- was beginning to feel like standing in a bin full of burning nappies, made considerably worse by a hate account set up to harass me. BUT ending the evening feeling touched and heartened by the lovely support from countless
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
Call me crazy, but I've always kinda liked Parent-Teacher Conferences.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
Hey, those of you most committed to denying 'all this stuff about the science of reading'? You're really starting to look bad.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
10 months
Well, I couldn't get through the holiday without coming up to a bit of last-minute fretting. Tomorrow, it begins...
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
Had a big lesson planned today for grade 11. A particularly newsy S walked in and declared what he knew about the Russia-Ukraine news. I pivoted, and the whole period became about the headlines, some history behind it, etc. ...and I don't regret it a bit.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
After a 9th grader asked about the 'old English' in Shakespeare, I played a few clips of actual old and middle English for the class...and their jaws dropped. There's so much kids don't know, ed cases. Don't hesitate to be the 'sage on the stage', because you ARE.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
Shocker, I know.
@EdSource
EdSource
1 year
Results suggest how schools teach reading matters more than a student's family income or English proficiency. #caedu #edchat #literacy @careads
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
Just noticed on my G Calendar that tomorrow was to be @researchED_US 2020 in Philly. Sigh. Here's to hoping we can do it next year. Take care, all. (cc @stuckinphilly1 ) (And don't forget, rED US's 'replacement', #rEDUSVirtual20 is still up...and free! )
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
9 months
Now that it's among us and everything, I gotta say this about ChatGPT (at least in present stage) and student cheating: If you can't read something and tell if it's from your student or ChatGPT, you definitely hadn't been reading your S's previous work closely enough.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
Well, today's my first Mothers Day without a mom to celebrate. Love you always, Ma.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
6 years
YES, and it ain't rocket science: The best way to 'spot fake news' is to know lots of stuff, and we've de-emphasized knowing stuff as 'lower order' for some time now.
@ClassroomWonder
Knowledge Matters Campaign
6 years
Checker Finn suggests #educators may not be supplying #students with nearly enough actual facts—fundamental #knowledge —in order to combat truth decay.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
Uh, yeah. It's time the #scienceofmath caught up to the #scienceofreading . Sure would like an @ehanford -like exposure of this to emerge, but the math side seems so much further behind. Makes me so sad for all the kids. @BarryGarelick @rastokke @rcraigen @tomloveless99 @rpondiscio
@FightFuzzyMath
Ling Huang
2 years
These math revolutionaries are Lucy Calkins equivalents in K-12 math. They have been misguiding US K-12 math, shortchanging tens of millions of American students, and endangering America's future. @minilek @boazbaraktcs @A_Allen_Jr @rpondiscio @tomloveless99
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
For years, many Twitter friends have advised me to mute/block/unfollow more liberally. I respect them, but I never really listened. Didn't want to live in a bubble, all that. Now that I am doing so, though, my Twitter life is much better. Thanks, pals. Sorry I resisted so long.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
I've done a lot in my ed career: teaching, admin, consulting, etc., etc. And as a result, not much in the field really messes w/me anymore. I've kinda seen it all. That said, I'm utterly freaked by a challenge I'll take on for the first time this fall: Teaching middle school.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
And with that, the 20-21 school year is done. While it's in the corner I hope it thinks hard about what it did, and that it doesn't come back out until it's ready to be nice.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
For a while, not sure I'll be writing or tweeting much about the sundry & perpetual disagreements in ed. I am more concerned w/our present situation: not how it will change everything after, how the past has put us here, or whatever, but just the damn RIGHT NOW. Who's with me?
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
Thanks, @ChalkboardRev & @MrDanielBuck , for this review of my 'Ed is Upside-Down'. It's been out almost ten years, but I still wouldn't change a word in it. Cheers and have good weekends, all.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
'[Too often in schools,] people carry around the baggage of unfounded or discredited ideas: Dewey, multiple intelligences & vague platitudes about learning by doing... Vygotsky’s writings from 1918 count as science.' Exactly. Thanks, @Doug_Lemov .
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
As I've used my spare time to crusade for evidence-supported ed practices for about a decade, I'm quite tickled about the recent activity RE @FountasPinnell . That said, anti-F&P-ers: Please make sure to turn some of this current fire toward your districts'/schools' T&L leaders.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
An 11th grader working on a persuasive essay is planning to cite E.D. Hirsch. #myworkisdonehere
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
Here's mom's obituary from my hometown newspaper. Thanks, everyone, for all the lovely notes and thoughts. Peace.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 years
Near end of 'Cleverlands', @lucy_crehan nailing the swimming pool-marathon learning interplay. Read this book. (Bravo, LC.)
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
2 years
I am currently watching a foreign-exchange student (a 12th-grader from Brazil) look out my classroom window at the first snowfall she's ever seen. This is a cool job. Happy Friday, everyone.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 years
Wow is this good. 'Five Things I Wish I knew When I started Teaching' - via @C_Hendrick
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
@researchED_Aus
researchED Australia
5 years
Packed house for #rEDMelb2019
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
If you are someone who has earned the mantle of 'Instructional Coach', then, please dispense with all the discovery-based practice-improvement. If the teachers you work with knew how to (1) plan lessons, (2) manage classrooms, (3) assess progress, and (4) appropriately react,...
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
In athletic coaching, as in teaching, time is of the essence--and players (teachers) need someone who can direct them toward doing what the team (kids) need, as quickly as possible.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
1 year
Several times on here, I've shared how great it's been to teach many of the same kids for multiple consecutive years. Looking at my seniors this morning, whom I've had since they were 9th graders, I know I'm really going to miss them.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
4 years
I sure regret teaching 'Lord of the Flies'. Rather than using it as a vehicle toward matters like irresponsible leadership, herd behavior, tribalism, etc., in the weeks before 6 Jan, I really should have had them read a title more relevant & interesting to them. #disrupttexts
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
5 years
Wow. Coulda never seen this coming. According to a student, 'The most difficult thing of all was the lack of teaching.'
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
I've been in LOTS of schools over the past ~25 yrs. Most of that time, I never thought I'd be much of a middle-school teacher--not patient enough, &c. Now, though, every time a middle schooler randomly hugs me or asks me for help opening their locker, I about die. It's awesome.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
One last for the recent string of tweets about closing out my folks' things: me with the buyers. Ma & Pop would love to see how thrilled these two are about their new home. Thanks for following and for all the thoughts, Twitter.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
If you believe middle-schoolers will never engage to literature unless it closely resembles they're own experiences, you really have to watch my school ( @FitCharter )'s 6th-graders working through 'Heroes, Gods, and Monsters'. Such a joy. cc: @Doug_Lemov
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
6 years
From @DTWillingham at #rEDOnt : Theories that are... Required for teachers to learn. Decades old. All wrong. And why do educators resist research? Get it together, ed schools and continuing prof-developers. cc @nctqkate
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
3 years
I made it.
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@erickalenze
Eric Kalenze
7 years
Today's trends tell me it's #nationalprematurity day, which rings a loud note. Here's my @lydiakalenze at birth (1 lb 10 oz of pure FIGHT) and at last yr's HS grad. Love you, Tinybaby.
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