Kathleen's post for Day #5 July 18, 2008

I admit it,
I am dragging today,
and feeling like we have a lot of work ahead and I just want to process how to enter this conversation back at school.

The first part of the morning was packing and preparing to leave, finalizing the "college road trip details..."

I have arrived at the BLC, Final Day, for Pedro Noguera's keynote. I was not sure when I read the description about how relevant his topic was for Independent Schools and yet, as we sit at the nexus of Independent Schools and diversity, some portions of his talk are highly relevant!

Here are some quotables...

"Algebra is the pathway to college in low performing schools: take the time you need and give less homework to make sure they get it."

"Eliminate homework! Homework is an Equity Issue!"

"Who is the Guardian for Equity at Your School?" For us, it's Ann and IT, but I am worried...

Example of the robotics team.

"Who is in your basement?"

"Who is teaching code switching?"


"Too many high school teachers confuse teaching with talking"

"The best teachers do not expect kids to learn the way they teach, they teach the way kids learn!"

"Assessing, monitoring and learning all the time."

Good teachers go above and beyond.

Stop treating parents as irrelevant. What are you doing to enlist parents as partners? Most high performing students have parents who are involved...

Your background should not dictate what opportunities are available to you...

We need to have more courage in schools!!

This also make me wonder about how lucky we are in Independent Schools...
_________________________

He was pretty inspirational AND this was my first attempt at live blogging!