Teach Effectively!

Have you ever read or listened to Education911? It’s the Web presence of someone who identifies himself as Ed Ripple (?) and reports that he is an experienced elementary-school teacher. He’s got a few pages and podcasts presenting his views on the problems of education and how the education system should be reformed. From one of the podcasts, I got the idea that he was a special educator.

He expresses opinions about a lot of topics. His presentation is direct, so you can learn his views on

• Tenure for teachers;
• Educational accountability;
• Gifted children being overlooked while students with problems get too much attention;
• The critical importance of teachers and teacher-student relationships;
• Inclusion;
• Learning styles.

There are comments about a host of other topics, too many to list. It’s fasctinating. I had concerns about some of the content. There’s a testimonial about the benefits of giving a child words printed with sandpaper; he recommends that parents see whether teachers have lesson plans differentiated by learning styles; and he embraces inclusion pretty much unconditionally.

The presentation is a little choppy (some layers or CSS items are out of sync; be prepared for animated GIFs) and the message is a bit short on evidence. But, it has a nice, avuncular tone to it and the author clearly wants education in the US improved. It’s worth a tour to learn what someone else thinks about some of these matters.

Link to Education911.