HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THE CURRENT THINKING CLASSROOM MODEL
I attended the Building Thinking Classroom session hosted at GL last night and wanted to share some thoughts and the questions I submitted online for the session. I will start with some of the positive aspects I took away from last night’s session. 1) The Thinking Classroom encourages students to think and behave outside of their comfort zone, pushes them...
My Thoughts on the Thinking Classroom Information Session
I attended the Building Thinking Classroom session on Mathematics at GL last night and am sharing some insights from the session. The turnout was so large that the district changed the venue from the cafeteria to the Auditorium. The session was informative but primarily focused on the model’s positive aspects and did not mention issues with the program, lessons learned,...
Thinking Classroom or Sinking Classroom
The failure of a collaborative model Virginie Delwart Thinking Classroom Mathematics is a struggle. The new way of teaching mathematics is creating a divide in my household and our community. I have two children at Governor Livingston. While my oldest is doing fine, my youngest is struggling. Discussing with a friend whose kids are at GL, I see the same...
Unnecessary “Lawsuits” and The Blame Game
In what has to be the most brilliant irony of the year, Berkeley Heights BOE Member Angela Penna penned a candidate statement which included the following: “Board members are engaging in their own forms of political posturing and grandstanding; particularly when they disagree with their fellow board members.” “We see statements in social media suffixed with “This is my personal...
BHCW Position Statement on Article Submissions
Residents and Candidates on all sides will continue to be allowed to submit articles to BHCW for free as long as they meet our terms and for as long as I manage the site. Resident names and email addresses will of course continue to be redacted from documents upon their request as our focus is not to talk about residents...
Gale Bradford’s Educational Platform Statement
Candidate Response BOE Election 2022 BHCW emailed BOE Candidates requesting a platform statement based on a request from a resident in our discussion forum. We are pleased to provide you with Gale Bradford’s response: I believe the Berkeley Heights Board of Education needs an experienced professional educator as a member. I have been a special education teacher for 35 years...
A Statement from Candidate Hemann Regarding the Most Recent BOE Proceedings
In the past months, during which I decided to make a run for one of the open seats on the BOE, I have chosen – likely to the detriment of my “campaign” – to remain quiet, especially in the public sphere, on many of the topics washing across this page. I never wanted my candidacy to be centered on what...
Angela Penna’s Candidate Statement v. Reality
I recently published a piece titled People Before Politics. In the spirit of meaningful slogans, I feel the need to discuss the misnomer of another slogan, “passion for education,” recently coined by a BOE candidate running for re-election. It’s a great slogan, don’t get me wrong – but it’s been three years, and I haven’t seen any passion for education...
Reset the Board of Education
With Berkeley Heights elections coming up in just a few weeks on Nov 8, I have been following the Berkeley Heights Board of Education. Recently it has been a chaotic and dysfunctional mess. The majority of the Board members have had ethics complaints filed against them from numerous parents. In addition, Pam Stanley, being funded by the Berkeley Heights...
Co-Teaching 2 different sections of Italian to 28 students IS acceptable…according to the district!
I received a response to my email regarding the unfavorable conditions being endured by 8th grade students (and single teacher) in Italian. You can read it in full below. Reasons provided why this practice IS reasonable and acceptable are: It’s been happening like this for over 23 years; It’s the only way to keep Italian (like French, or, it seems,...
nj21st.com (with the exception of featured images and logo) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
