Miles O'Shea Archives
What If?
Posted on March 31, 2023
What if there was nothing called school until today? What if the concept of formal education never existed until right now? Would we create a system that has evolved to its current state in the year 2023? I think it’s easy to answer the last question and more difficult to answer the first two. But […]
Maverick Teaching – Close Your Door and Teach
Posted on March 31, 2023 Leave a Comment
A few years into my teaching career I met up with a former professor of mine. She was largely responsible for inspiring me to continue on the path to becoming a teacher. However, over the first few years in the classroom, the subtle comments from colleagues and administrators managed to push aside the inspirational messages […]
Maverick Teaching
Posted on March 30, 2023
The term Maverick has an interesting ring to it. A Maverick is simply defined as an individual who does not go along with the group. So why am I focused here on the term Maverick Teaching? This is a concept that I’ve been thinking about for some time and practicing in one form or another […]
School and Running
Posted on May 6, 2021
School always seems like it misses the mark to me. We’ve built a huge infrastructure to educate children and it doesn’t do what we need it to do. But, this system does do what it’s designed to do. The problem is simply that the design and the structure have chosen the wrong target and severely […]
Because we care
Posted on April 29, 2021
Trust and care are demonstrated, not said. Almost anyone can say that they care about someone else. However, there’s a very far space between someone saying it’s true and having the other person feel that it’s true. Research tells us that most teachers say that they care about their students and believe that their students […]
The First Day of School (and every day after)
Posted on April 22, 2021
The goal of working with students is to build positive relationships with students so that the they know that you care about them and that you are trustworthy. And, after this positive relationship has been established students will behave better and ultimately perform better academically. The first thing people usually say when they hear about […]
Teaching the Most Difficult Students
Posted on April 21, 2021
In a previous post, I Don’t Want to Be Taught, I wrote about reaching students who don’t seem to want to comply and learn. Well that was just on the surface and there’s so much more to the process than just a few simple steps. So if you’re on board with wanting to try and […]
I don’t Want to be Taught
Posted on April 16, 2021
Rationale There are some students who are very hard to teach, right? But notice that I did not write that there are some students who are impossible to teach. And, even though it’s very hard to teach some, it must be done because if it’s not, the alternative is just not good. I’ve spent most […]
School is School
Posted on December 5, 2019
I think that most would agree that there is enough available research that points to the fact that the traditional stand and deliver, industrial model of school is not what is best for learners in the 21st century. We know that students learn best when given autonomy and freedom. We know that students learn from […]
Talent and School
Posted on May 16, 2019
What is the purpose of school and what should school do for the students who attend? This is a question often contemplated but rarely answered. According to Sir Ken Robinson, the purpose of school should be to help students discover their natural talent and to develop that talent. I would tend to agree with his […]
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