Latest Dallas Morning News Article: Class Size

Texas is deciding what to do about our massive budget deficit. Among the proposed cuts in education is removing the cap of 22 students per classroom. In my latest article for the Dallas Morning News I discuss why this is a bad idea. Dallas Morning News

Great Expectations...

I was fortunate enough to be selected as an opinion columnist this year for the Dallas Morning News. It has been a great exercise in writing and editing. My first column was on the fallacies in the movie "Waiting for Superman." This time i wrote about something near and dear to me, expectations of ourselves and students. I really believe that having high expectations is vital to student achievement. I have seen any number of examples where setting high goals led to unimaginable student achievements. Too often we sell students (and sell ourselves!) short on what is possible. We put up our own roadblocks to success. We say the kids are too young, not experienced enough or we've just never tried to do it that way before. Kids will believe they can do anything if we let them. The way they perceive accomplishment depends on how we value what they do. We need to promote excellence and lead the there. Great adults are not necessarily the ones who scored well on state tests; they are the ones that found out early on that they were capable of accomplishment in all that they do. They were given the tools and guidance to believe in themselves and what they were doing no matter what facet of life they were engaged in. We are not in the test passing business, we are creating people. That is the higher calling.
Here is the link to my editorial. Feel free to add stories or comment! DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Dallas Morning News Article

The Dallas Morning news recently interviewed me for an article they were doing on Teachertube. I thought it was really good and got the word out about using online videos. You can read it here:

Doctor Loopy in DMN