ODYSSEYWARE

When Johnny comes to school tired, nobody wins. Fatigue is one of the biggest motivation killers for today’s students. With so many ways to connect with friends late into the night, many are coming to school sleep deprived and unprepared to learn. Read more »

Inspired by a series of entertaining, thoughtful articles in Reader’s Digest about the secrets of people in various careers, I thought a list for teachers might be in order. The following list of truisms surfaced through my 12 years of teaching high school English. Read more »

Every education class advocates having high expectations for all students. Unfortunately, in the trenches of teaching, sometimes it’s all too easy to expect great things from stellar students and less than spectacular things from students who underperform. During my teaching career, I learned the value of expectations in an unusual way. Read more »

Does anyone win in the Race to the Top? Does competition, by default, create losers? These are questions regarding the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) debated by delegates to the NEA convention last week. In the aftermath, Race to the Top got low marks by the teachers’ union. The “no confidence” vote not only reflects teachers’ feelings about competitive grants, standardized testing, and more aggressive teacher assessment, but also about Arne Duncan and the president. Read more »

Tuesday morning I left for work in a mad rush. Feeling the effects of a long holiday weekend in Chicago, I was experiencing guilty mom syndrome. My heart said that my not-quite-three year old son should stay home today. He was as road weary as a kid can be and wanted no part of getting up at six, getting dressed, and heading off to preschool. Actually, I think I needed a day to recover. Do sore muscles from sleeping in a too-hard bed, riding in a too-small car, and cramming five days of visiting into a too-short weekend qualify as “sick”? Read more »

In the last post, we tapped into those old feelings of being the last kid chosen to be on “the team.” Today’s digital world provides lots of resources for teachers to reject the loneliness that comes from working alone. You can create or join a professional learning team. Read more »

Those of us who went to public school can vaguely remember the feeling that began in the heart when you were one of the last kids standing as captains chose their teams for competition. If my memory serves me, teachers always chose the same kids to be in charge, others were always picked first, and still others held their breath through the process – until there was one. Read more »

There’s considerable emphasis on teachers these days, and education leaders are asking lots of questions about how they should be evaluated, paid, tenured, and guided. They are being asked to step into a data-driven world, and for many of them, that’s a big step. For others, however, it’s expected. Read more »

Busy teachers everywhere appreciate streamlined processes. That’s why ODYSSEYWARE created the batching feature. Anytime you wish to allow a student to skip an entire unit, enter the course for that student by selecting the Student tab on the left, locating the student and, moving to the right of the student’s name, click on the Grading link for the desired student. 

This opens the course view for the teacher. Read more »

There’s a new debate brewing all over America. How do you close the gender gap without promoting gender stereotyping, and is segregation by gender a viable option?

A recent article in Forbes Woman explores Foley Intermediate School in Foley, Alabama, where a gender-based experiment is taking place. The parents of fifth and sixth grade students have an option of placing their children into all-girl, all-boy, or mixed-gender classes. Read more »