In the Freakonomics podcast episode How to Fix a Broken High-Schooler, in Four Easy Steps Stephen J Dubner interviews Philip Oreopolos, an economist at the University of Toronto, who had studied high school students in Regent Park, a low-income area …

But the general rule is that treating students with respect — which means we neither compel them to speak nor determine unilaterally who gets to do so — is ethically appropriate, educationally beneficial, and practically realistic … as …

The following is a colleagial observation of my AP Psychology class by Christina Wenger, librarian and English teacher.

Collegial observation by Wenger by Eric E Castro

In preparation for my appearance before the Faculty Development Board as part of our “tenure” process, the Director of Professional Development came to my modern world history class to observe. His report is reproduced below.

World History 2 …

One of the homework assignments that has changed in AP Psych over the years is “Draw a Neuron.” It began as a simple drawing & coloring activity on simple 8.5x11 paper, with students having to label the various parts of a motor neuron; but it has …

Across the thirty-odd interviews of teachers and administrators across the country that Paul Totah and I conducted for our book, one of the common threads has been student choice. I have tried to keep that in mind while designing learning experiences …

<p>In a sense every day is judgment day, and we, through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, are constantly writing in the Book of Life.</p>

<p>Light has come into the world, and every man must decide whether he will walk …

Before leaving for Christmas Break this year, I needed to submit my Reflection and Professional Development Plan to our Faculty Development Board. That submission is below.

2016 Reflection and Professional Development Plan by Eric E Castro

A few …

A number of possible explanations come to mind for this apparent positive correlation between a student’s interaction with the Canvas site for my modern world history course and their grade in the class. The more a student interacts with the course …

With only one day in between the Developmental Psych unit test and the Fall semester final exam, we were not able to give our usual week of re-assessment opportunities. The way we chose to work around that was to allow students to take the exact same …

Having now developed four blended-learning units for my modern world history course, I can say with greater confidence that the class is evolving to leverage the “rotation model.” That is defined by the Christensen Institute as

a course or subject in …

The model needs to shift from ‘seat time’ to ‘learning time’ if we are ever going to make substantial progress at education reform

Any policy about procedure, rather than performance, undermines the creation of a child-centered system.

When creating an anonymous survey for students to complete, I wanted to collect some basic demographic information for the purpose of creating a pivot table and comparing results by group membership. For example, how do the answers from 9th grade …

I explained to the sophomores in my modern world history class that the work of historians is largely finding materials, reading, thinking, and communicating their conclusions to others. As such, that is largely how I’ve developed the course. In …

“The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done—men who are creative, inventive, and discoverers.

The second goal of education is to form minds which can …

Last week, I sent the following tweet into the world:

My moral & financial support goes to @ACLU and @EFF » Renewed Calls for More Surveillance Aren’t Based in Reality https://t.co/In8n0G5eFD

— Eric Castro (@eecastro) November 22, 2015

And these …

After reading The 11 speeches Obama has made after mass shootings, I thought: “How tiring.” And then I wondered how the president – or his speech writers – could talk about the same thing, time and time again, and not become completely repetative. …

Embedded below is the write-up by a colleague who wanted to observe my modern world history class using the second display:

Collegial Observe Castro

This was the same class period as the “first iteration” discussed in yesterday’s post. It felt …

I tried something new today with my sophomores and the modern world history class/: they took collaborative notes which were mirrored on the second display in the classroom, while I lectured using the primary display.

Homework

Prior to class, …

Having already done a one-day blended-learning activity with the topic of suffrage, a two-day with WWI, it was time to scale the model to 2.5-days with WWII. This allowed me half of Day 1, an 80-minute period, to set the context and give directions …

It is always sweet when graduates send an email just to say they’re thinking of the class they had with you. I know they’re busy with their new lives, and I wouldn’t expect them to take the time — and that makes it all the more appreciated.

Hi Mr. …