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holding Micah


27 November 08 11:21 AM | John Spencer | 0 Comments   
For the last half hour, Micah sat on my lap. He wasn't sick or tired even. So I held him. Sometimes he just wants to be held. It could be a desire for attention. But it's more than that. It's the desire for human touch, for love expressed in an embrace Read More...
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art isn't meant to last


22 November 08 08:41 AM | John Spencer | 1 Comments   
A few minutes before class, two gruff, oil stained men saunter into my room. The first man scratches himself and then pulls out a sketch on a sheet of graph paper. "I don't think there's adequate plumbing. Looks like they'll have to knock out the wall." Read More...

cross-curricular


19 November 08 06:52 AM | John Spencer | 3 Comments   
Often, when people think about going cross-curricular in social studies, they automatically assume the best subject is language arts. However, I have found a few times when science and math fit well within social studies. For example, in attempting to Read More...

good and bad news


18 November 08 05:45 AM | John Spencer | 1 Comments   
The superintendent announced that Borman Middle School will shut down at the close of this school year and re-open as a K-8 school. Whether we will have the same name is uncertain. Personally, I will not feel hurt if we lose the name. Somehow both Frank Read More...

four short Joel stories


16 November 08 03:21 PM | John Spencer | 1 Comments   
These four stories have happened in the last two days. I don't want to forget them, so I'm recording them in the blogosphere. #1 Joel sits down with his stuffed animals while I clean the kitchen. Buddy the Puppy says to Sprocket, "I'm sad, Daddy." "What's Read More...
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the hardest part of running twenty miles


10 November 08 07:06 AM | John Spencer | 1 Comments   
At mile nineteen, I reach a point of near panic. I am fully hydrated. I am close to home. My shoulders are tense and my feet feel like gelatin. Yet, the hardest part is psychological. Though I feel the enjoyable "runner's high," I feel alone. It's more Read More...

how we present World War II


08 November 08 07:07 AM | John Spencer | 0 Comments   
I rarely use my textbook. However, we spent some time analyzing it for bias and propaganda. The easiest section is often considered the safest - World War II. I split them up into groups, where they analyzed any elements of bias and then we spent about Read More...

a book all teachers should read


22 October 08 08:35 PM | jtspencer | 1 Comments   
I'm almost finished with my master's degree. The Capstone Project sounds impressive on paper, but it's actually not all that innovative. All the ideas are from somebody else (research journals). Even if it is documented, it somehow feels like cheating. Read More...

kids these days


29 August 08 08:24 AM | John Spencer | 5 Comments   
I have heard that the current generation is selfish and shallow, that they are the iGeneration, that they focus on MySpace, but rarely think about OurSpace. Students meet together, but they do not entirely connect. It seems that share a physical proximity, Read More...

pulling out of burn-out


27 July 08 12:04 PM | jtspencer | 10 Comments   
I don't like "Freedom Writers." It might sound like sacrilige to mention it around teachers, but I think the movie sends the wrong message about teaching. It's a quiet, implicit message - so subtle people miss it in the midst of the melodrama and inspiring Read More...

should teachers be more confusing?


17 July 08 09:16 PM | jtspencer | 0 Comments   
I love how Socrates always ends his dialogues unanswered. The end seems to be a multifacted mystery rather than a three-point outline. Similarly, throughout the gospels, Jesus tells parables that confound and confuse his audience. It seems counterintuitive Read More...

should we teach kids to be patriotic?


04 July 08 09:05 AM | jtspencer | 2 Comments   
Sometime after 9-11, I lost all sense of patriotism. It might have been the way people used the American flag to sell beer (not unlike Jesus Breathmints and granola bars). Perhaps it was when I first heard a country singer telling me we should stick a Read More...

Is it wrong for a teacher to be boring?


28 June 08 08:59 PM | jtspencer | 4 Comments   
I walked into a language arts teacher's classroom and he vented about the lesson, "Kids just aren't at all engaged. It's just not motivating them." "What are you teaching?" I ask. "Well, it's folklore and lengend. We have to do the story of Paul Bunyan." Read More...

what happens in Vegas . . .


19 June 08 05:07 AM | jtspencer | 0 Comments   
I wrote this while I was at a PLC Conference last week. They charged fourteen bucks for internet access (the equivalent of twenty-four tacos at Jack in the Box) so I waited until now to post it: In every era of American history, there is an archetypal Read More...

the upside of procrastination


14 June 08 10:24 AM | jtspencer | 2 Comments   
So, it's the end of week one for the summer vacation. I have all eight weeks planned out and subdivided within a bulleted list. The bullets have sub-bullets. After awhile, it begins to resemble a drive-by, with bullets strewn everywhere. I suppose "drive-by" Read More...
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