John T. McCrann
Education Week
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by John:
Final Post: Did We Prove It?
I started this blog more than two years ago. And this last post will soon join all of the others I've done in the great Internet Archive in the sky (luckily still searchable!). But before we say goodbye (for now), I want to gather up part of what I've learned, contributed, and where I went wrong. → Read More
Final Post: Did We Prove It?
I started this blog more than two years ago. And this last post will soon join all of the others I've done in the great Internet Archive in the sky (luckily still searchable!). But before we say goodbye (for now), I want to gather up part of what I've learned, contributed, and where I went wrong. → Read More
Put Me In Coach: Reworking Social Studies for Participatory Democracy
Civic duties involve doing things in the world—pushing us to go beyond knowledge, thinking skills, and values within our classrooms. Civic education requires practice working with others to take action. → Read More
Put Me In Coach: Reworking Social Studies for Participatory Democracy
Imagine a basketball coach with no hoops and no ball who provided a textbook history of basketball, showed video of some of the greatest games, and imparted a passion for teamwork. But she never held a practice and the players never bounced a ball. How would her team do in a game? How well do our students and former students do as participants in a democracy - with all that we've taught them of… → Read More
Teaching From a Textbook Makes My Class More Student Centered
My high school math textbooks felt like a barrier preventing me from connecting with the teacher and discipline, but I think I have found a way to use the CPM resources to forge deeper relationships with my students. → Read More
Teaching From a Textbook Makes my Class More Student Centered
Instead of spending my prep periods developing linear equations that hit all the major ideas that I want students to grapple with in Algebra this fall, I will spend it looking at a set of linear equations and thinking about Brandon, Laura, Deshawn and the other individuals in my class. Where will they get tripped up? How can I group them together so that they can have productive conversations… → Read More
Two Years is the Worst Amount of Time to Teach
Instead of accepting the premise that high achieving young people won't be engaged by teaching for an entire career we ought to attack it. Share stories of the ways in which our 10th or 20th or 30th year teaching has changed our thinking or challenged ideas we used to hold. Work to make teaching the kind of profession that is sustainable and sustaining. Think creatively about ways to engender… → Read More
Two Years is the Worst Amount of Time to Teach
Instead of accepting the premise that high achieving young people won't be engaged by teaching for an entire career we ought to attack it. Share stories of the ways in which our 10th or 20th or 30th year teaching has changed our thinking or challenged ideas we used to hold. → Read More
Worth a Disruption: Prioritizing Education from South Korea to New Jersey
We need traditions that show a value for big educational moments. Ones that point younger students towards meaningful goals and reaffirm the work that we all do to raise the next generation of citizens. Learning and celebrating learning should be a priority. This means that it should take precedence over life-as-usual for ALL people in a community, not just those with direct connections. → Read More
Proud of Her Public School: A Teacher's Appeal to Secretary DeVos
Teachers play so many roles in our communities beyond teaching content to the students in our classes. We mentor, we care for, we hold accountable. Today we must also advocate. Vermont Kindergarten teacher Sharon Davison provides us a great example of how we can do this. → Read More
Proud of Her Public School: A Teacher's Appeal to Secretary DeVos
Kindergarten teacher Sharon Davison provides an example of how educators can serve as advocates in the current political climate. → Read More
Don't Cut Students Off From Their School's History
I hope that our school will be around long enough for future students to look at 100 years worth of picture in our hallway, but it won't unless we instill value for this kind of knowledge in our students and our leaders. → Read More
Family Pictures and School Closures: Connecting and Disconnecting Students from History
I hope that our school will be around long enough for future students to look at 100 years worth of picture in our hallway, but it won't unless we instill value for this kind of knowledge in our students and our leaders. → Read More
Teaching Work-life Balance: Be The Worker You Want to See
As one of the professionals whose work life they know as well as almost any other, I owe it to my students to model what healthy labor looks like. Here's an annotated list of a handful of ways I try to teach them about healthy work through example. → Read More
A Plan for Success: Have a Plan
It is a complicated world and it feels like it gets more complicated every day. I'd never suggest to a student that I know how to navigate this complexity, but I do believe that there are some etablished principles that can help. One of these is to develop a road map to use to track where you are going and evaluate whether or not you've gotten there. Requiring students to devise a plan for a… → Read More
Inspired by Pitchers to Develop a Teaching Mantra
t). Early in my career, I tried to teach with a running internal monologue. I would scroll through the various external factors that were changing moment-to-moment and search for ways to effectively respond to individuals while maintaining fidelity to my class and school goals. I needed a .mantra. The following phrase help to quiet the constant chatter and re-establish focus on a few things that… → Read More
I Used to Think...Creating Aha Moments by Proving Our Intuition Wrong
Math teachers ought to look for situations where we can leverage the "aha" power of situations that conflict with our initial intuition. This task utilizes a redirection by setting students up to intuit an incorrect solution at first glance. They then explore the context and realize that what was the "obvious solution" is not even close to the best choice.* → Read More
This Tool Fights Fascists: The World-Changing Power of the Two-Column Proof
Evidence-based reasoning provides bulwark against superstition and demagoguery. It forms the basis of most of the life-changing institutions we interact with: from science to law, journalism to business. This foundational principle is beautifully encapsulated in a simple form that starts with a "given" and moves, evidenced step by evidenced step, towards a desired assertion. → Read More
This Tool Fights Fascists: The Power of the Two-Column Proof
Evidence-based reasoning provides bulwark against superstition and demagoguery. It forms the basis of most of the life-changing institutions we interact with: from science to law, journalism to business. This foundational principle is beautifully encapsulated in a simple form that starts with a "given" and moves, evidenced step by evidenced step, towards a desired assertion. → Read More
You Got It Wrong: Combating Alternative Facts With Straightforward Evaluation
One's perspective inevitably influences one's understanding of the world. The process that you use to get to a solution is interesting, useful, and should be explained/understood; however, this doesn't mean that everything is up for debate. We can and should identify right and wrong claims even in a complex problem or world. → Read More