Articles
Male teachers find themselves outnumbered but not out of place in area school systems
The green rubber ball with 50 flimsy tentacles is tossed between the half-dozen students. Everyone is silent except the 6-foot 7-inch giant towering over them. It’s called silent ball. Their teacher is known for it, and for turning “hell raisers” around. Getting their grades up. Improving their academic focus. He’s like a father — or […]
Read MoreTeacher of Year educates as he entertains his class
To his students, Michael B. Flynn is a one-man carnival who uses funny voices and camcorders to bring life to spelling and subtraction. To his peers, he is a blazing young teacher with a zeal for reforming the way educators teach math. These two sides, colleagues say, propelled the 32-year-old teacher at Norris Elementary School […]
Read MoreIt’s About Channeling the Right Role Models
In his new office on the second floor of Zankel Hall, the people who have influenced Jon Drescher are present in talismanic form. The name plate from his father’s office door. A pair of tap dancing shoes that belonged to the entertainer Savion Glover, who was a student of Drescher’s when he was principal of […]
Read MoreMy Favorite Teacher
Many great words have been written on behalf of teachers. I consider myself lucky to have had a least a dozen great teachers, each with their own personalitites, but one common bond, enthusiasm. That enthusiasm was infectious, whatever the subject. Grades 1-8 were spent in Catholic School. Unlike all the bad books out about a […]
Read MoreMen with Class: Beating the Stereotype
Jon White, Randy DeJaynes, James Love: They’re all teachers accused of sexually abusing their students. All of them men. Ken Paxton is the interim principal at Thomas Paine in Urbana. He took over when the school’s principal was put on leave after the Jon White case broke open. He says it forced every male teacher […]
Read MoreHelp Boys Get More Out of Elementary Education
From their elementary education through their high school days, boys are struggling to succeed in the classroom. Boys receive as many as 70 percent of Ds and Fs given in schools, create up to 90 percent of classroom discipline problems, and constitute 80 percent of high school dropouts, according to author and educator Michael Gurian […]
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