Here are ten commonly overused words Day-to-day communication can get boring. There are only so many “Sounds good” and “Let me know” emails, texts, and Slack messages you can send and read each day without your eyes glazing over. While there are some communications that have to use plain language to be accurate, there are ways to spice up your texts and emails while...

Revamping A Writing Curriculum Previous blogs on The Writing Revolution highlighted a study conducted a few years ago at New Dorp High School on Staten Island in New York. Nearly 10 years ago, 82% of freshmen entered the school reading below grade level and could not write more than two sentences in essay questions. Once it was determined how to help...

Part Two in this series focuses on identifying the cause of low performing students Although New Dorp (a public high school in Staten Island, New York) teachers had observed students failing for years, they never connected low performing students to specific flaws in their own teaching. They watched passively as Deirdre De­Angelis got rid of the bad apples on the staff;...

Why schools shouldn’t approach technology like businesses once did While businesses might be excused for initially adopting an efficiency objective when it comes to technology, schools cannot. This objective has already been shown to be ineffective for businesses. More importantly though, efficiencies – unlike for business – should not be the objective of successful teaching. British educationist and author Sir Ken Robinson has famously called...

Rethinking grade levels & school design for personalized learning A Chicago school’s openness to multiage classrooms gives both students and teachers extra choice and support by TARA GARCÍA MATHEWSON   CHICAGO — At the end of the first-floor hallway in the West Belden campus of the Chicago International Charter School network, across two connected rooms that used to be a library, almost 60 children spread...