Author: Matt Underwood
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Will the next APS superintendent “tinker” or truly influence teaching and learning?
The other day I was pulling a book someone wanted to borrow off of my bookshelf, and it was right next to my copy of an almost 20 year-old book titled Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform by Larry Cuban and David Tyack. I pulled it off the shelf as well and began…
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“Student as worker, teacher as coach”
For this week’s blog post, you can read the ANCS “Principles in Practice” newsletter for October, focused on how our school tries to practice the concept of “student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach”, one of the common principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools.
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What are “charter schools” and what can be learned from effective ones?
Charter schools have been in the news quite a bit in the past year, especially here in Atlanta: the unfunded pension litigation involving APS and all Atlanta start-up charter schools, APS board candidates being asked their views on charter schools, the constitutional amendment passed last fall to create a state commission in Georgia that could…
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Thoughts from (co)lab Summit: How do we foster innovation in schools?
This past Sunday and Monday I was fortunate to attend the (co)lab Collaborative Leadership Summit. Billed as a “summit, where today’s executives and tomorrow’s leaders from our business, education and civic communities connect, communicate and collaborate on issues vital to a thriving Atlanta region”, (co)lab featured a variety of speakers within three different “strands”: attracting…
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Are smart boards, smart tables, and smart phones really a smart investment for schools?
As the new school year approached, a friend forwarded me an email from another school announcing with great excitement that the school had purchased new “smart tables” for all of their classrooms. “Does your school use these?” my friend asked. We don’t–and probably never will–have many–if any–“smart tables” at ANCS. After checking them out online,…
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ANCS Principles in Practice Newsletter
In lieu of a blog entry this week, you can check out the first monthly “Principles in Practice” newsletter from ANCS, highlighting the ways in which we use the Coalition of Essential Schools common principles in our work. Back to a regular blog post next week–only so much time I can spend writing things in…
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How much does experience matter in teaching?
I got my first teaching job at a large, suburban public high school, standing in front of a room full of high school juniors about two months after I’d graduated from college. Thinking back to that first year of teaching, I cringe at how little I knew about what I was doing (and the fact…
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Georgia’s new teacher evaluation system: its flaws and why you should care about them
This is the first of what will (I hope) be weekly posts to this blog, each one aimed at exploring a relevant issue in schools, whether ANCS or all schools. I’ll do my best to watch for any comments and respond as I can. This week’s post is on the new teacher evaluation system that…