Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Physicians rejected hand washing as it implied if they had, patients would still be alive. The same reasoning motivates teachers to reject new methods.

Education is a field in which folks with very different and contradictory opinions work side by side, and they often don’t know they differ.

If you describe schools in terms used to describe businesses, you misunderstand school.

We could look at the curriculum and see how we add interesting and relevant problems, but that might require we abandon most of the district initiatives to standardize teaching and learning.

“I’ve got a great idea.”

“Sure… sure… but there is lots of evidence it is wrong.”

How you respond when it’s your idea being criticized tells me much I need to know.

“I read this really big book in high school back in the 1980’s. Today, I can’t get students to read it. There’s something wrong with kids today."

I hate to tell you, but most of your classmates weren’t reading them.

How do we know the answers are correct?

I used to pose that question to students who asked me to look up the answers in the teachers edition.

If you are focusing on rules and accountability rather than relationships, you don’t understand it enough to be in the classroom.

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: most problems are rooted in the actions/ reactions of adults.

SMART goals don’t help as much as folks think.

The first important lesson to take from cognitive science seems to be humans attend to things they perceive to be important.

If you alone don’t control it, leave it off you list of goals.

Seeing the obituary of a former student is strange. I think about how little we end up knowing about their lives.

I’ve join some groups dedicated to musicians lately… let’s be clear… the answer to the question, “what’s their best album?” cannot by “Greatest Hits.”

I’ve worked in IT.

When IT tries to boondoggle me the way they do others, I call them in it.

Empirical evidence. It wins every time. No matter how much you deny it.

You know that technology that makes you uncomfortable… it not going away.

“Back to basics” is rhetoric that should make us all cringe. #education

If we start insisting data and it’s interpretation be logical, some folks won’t have anything upon which to base decisions.

Teacher posts pictures of students, reasoning they have a release.

The picture becomes an offensive meme.

What responsibility does the teacher have?