C4T Blog

Tony Baldasaro: Discuss

I wrote the following in an email today:

Just because kids will work hard and do whatever we ask them to do doesn’t [automatically] mean we should be asking them to do what it is we are asking them to do.


You make a very valid point, but what's wrong with challenging your students to see if that student or them students are the gifted one or ones. Say you give them a worksheet with Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Precalculus, and Calculus. You tell them that it is not a graded paper, but for everyone they get right they get a bonus point on the next test or what ever. I like this quote it speaks a very powerful message.

Tony Baldasaro: Culture of us

I read a lot of “my’s” in the blogs I read. As in:

I look forward to meeting my staff at our first day of school tomorrow.
I can’t wait to meet my kids this year.
My school is up for an award.
My classroom is almost ready for my kids to arrive.

Maybe I’m being picky here, but I do wonder how we build a culture of “us” in our schools if we claim personal ownership of everything.


Personal ownership is one of them things in my opinion that is like a double edge sword. On one side you want to take ownership for all the good things because i mean who isn’t proud of good accomplishments (you have to remember to claim the bad side of things as well). On the other side of the sword though you have the bad stuff from your school like lowest GPA or worst attendance in the district or something. No one ever wants to claim them things. My point is people only want to take credit for the good things and cover up or deny the bad stuff.