Living with Paradox

Raising children requires me to live in the tension between life’s natural paradoxes.  A paradox happens when two separate and opposing life truths are in simultaneous operation in one day in my life. Yesterday I picked up my daughter from school.  As I heaved her 20 lb. backpack (no lie, I weighed it) into the [...]

Kirstie Truluck: Seniors get back to school – explicitly

Today I saw the marriage of formative assessment, research supported instructional methods, and character education. Hyde Schools have a common language we use to understand and discuss our self discovery process, our parenting principles, and the Hyde philosophy.  Yet, the words and terms can become a bit cumbersome and resist rolling of your tongue with [...]

5-minute AICR cycle

In May 2004, the NCTE published a Position/Action statement outlining what teachers of adolescents need to know about adolescent literacy. I found myself reading, as I always do, with a pencil in my hand – asking questions, summarizing ideas, and making connections. I made a connection to both our work in senior English and to [...]

Othello meets Eno

Today was a win-win-win day for Shakespeare’s Othello, Eno board technology, and wiggly students.

Measuring What Matters Most @ ASCD

I collaborated with a colleague to make the case for assessing learning attitudes and dispositions in schools. We developed a presentation that fuses Hyde School’s ideas and practice with educational research, and I presented to public school administrators at the national conference for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development in San Antonio this March. [...]

Publication of Student Fiction

Sequel to “Let them Write Fiction” and “Take Off the Teacher Hat”

We spent the winter term in Junior English writing fiction and narrative memoir. Emilie Rose worked on the following bit of fiction throughout the term. She completed in the neighborhood of 10 drafts including revisions and edits. Just when she thought she was done, I would question her and push her to improve her work even more. Each time she embraced the challenge and never complained, because she cared for this story. She developed persistence as a writer. I encourage English teachers to shift the focus of short story reading – make the authors mentors to study and mimic rather than experts to analyze and revere.

“Character” Education

As a seventeen year Hyde School veteran, I hold strong opinions about the how and why of character education, but in Texas, at the annual conference for the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), I enjoyed the opportunity to see what other folks mean when they tout “character” education.

Preparing for ASCD

I have many blog topics swirling around my brain, but lately my writing energy goes to developing the presentation my partner and I will give at the national Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development conference in San Antonio this March. Since we are newbies to the conference, we present on the final day. However, I [...]

This I Believe

My senior English students tackled the personal essay and struggled to put into words some personal philosophy or belief. Since modeling and sharing in the struggle is the best way to teach (see Take off the teacher hat), I wrote along side them, asked for their feedback and have published my own personal essay. Some of my student’s essay will follow soon.

Building a relationship with Potential

Teachers can feel uneasy using their own authority with students; however, we should be neither cruel nor timid when exercising our authority…

Take off the teacher hat

When you feel like a flop, fraud, or failure, forget a new lecture format, new content, or lesson. Just share yourself as a learner. For days, my juniors had drifted and fidgeted. They took the fiction writing semi-seriously. I feared losing them. Therefore, I went to the lessons I learned in graduate school on writing [...]

Bloom’s Secret Gift

“If the teaching purpose is to change attitudes/behavior rather than to transmit/process information, then the instruction should be structured to progress through the levels of the Affective Domain:”

the way my brain thinks

Do not let the phrase “According to Truluck” fool you into thinking I have it all figured out. What follows is a classic example of the kinds of questioning and searching I do daily on any bits of paper I can find. This is how my brain really works:

Learning from Reading and Conflict

I tend to look for patterns and connections. The other day I discovered that the skills I train students to use for engaged and active reading are the same skills students can use to engage in conflict and actively learn from confrontation.

English-isms for the classroom and life

In case you missed on Mal’s blog, I share my thoughts on how to study English and live life… yep, same ‘rules’ apply…