Believe it or not, I’m still here and I still intend to keep this blog alive. I blame my first semester of law school for my lack of writing. Now that I’m on break, I finally have time to put away the massive casebooks and return to pleasure reading. Boy, did I miss that.
Given that I’ve been away and that my writing muscles are rusty, I thought I’d restart ABCDE with a post on legal education, a timely topic. Indeed, the New York Times chose “Legal Education Reform” as a recent editorial subject, declaring American legal education as “in crisis.” Another critic considered whether law school was a “losing game.” The recession certainly put tremendous pressure on the market for legal services, making law school a less obvious “bargain” than it once was. Perspectives abound.
I avoid the social, political and economic debates here. Instead, I focus on the pedagogy of legal…
I recently watched “Whatever It Takes” as part of an event sponsored by an education advocacy organization here in law school. (Note: this documentary has no connection with the Paul Tough book of the same name on the Harlem Children’s Zone.) The 2007 documentary examines the progress of the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics…
read more »Despite the lack of a new post in over a month, please know that this blog is still alive and well. I’m no longer a classroom teacher, so I won’t be able to provide up-to-date anecdotes. But know this: I will continue to use this space to comment on issues in education, for whatever it’s…
read more »I received an email recently that looked a lot like spam. No subject line; a string of numbers followed by “@qq.com” as the sender’s address; poor sub-par writing mechanics. But thank goodness I looked more carefully–I was looking at an email from one of the students I worked with in China!: Im Polly,I hope that…
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This is part 2 in a series on my experience teaching in China this summer. Part 1 is here. Today’s theme: exchanges. ***** As I was boarding my flight out of mainland China, I picked up a copy of China Daily, the local English newspaper. Until then, I had missed any chance of reading the…
read more »I met it on day one of Institute, when I was as eager as I’d ever be to tackle the achievement gap, even though I had no idea how I might do so. It stood by my side, always loyal, even during the hardest of times, times when I felt like giving up (there were…
read more »In this series, I’ll be reflecting on my experience teaching and working with Chinese high school students, using the photos and videos I took to supplement my reflections. Today’s theme: libraries. ***** Members of our group’s construction team spent the week building, essentially from scratch, an English language library for the local high school where…
read more »I feel like I’m at TFA Institute. The odd thing is that I’m actually in Xiuning County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, China. It’s main drag looks like this: 7,000 miles from the nearest actual TFA Institute, I am waking up tomorrow and teaching new students. I am and have been preparing lesson plans, gathering supplies,…
read more »I love the freedom of summer. This summer feels particularly unique because I know that I will be going back to the classroom as a student, rather than a teacher, this fall. But I’ll still be in my role as a teacher for a bit. A text conversation between a student and me shows that…
read more »Imagine for a second that you’re a student (“pupil”) in the United Kingdom today. You wake up and, ready to face the challenges of the day, select clothes to wear, scarf down breakfast and run out the door, eager as always to leave the house, see friends, learn something. Soon enough you arrive at the gate…
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