Core Principles for Great Teaching

Core Principles for Great Teaching

In this audio file, "Tom Newkirk, author of "Holding on To Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones", talks with Nancie Atwell, author of "In the Middle", about the core principles in their teaching."

I wanted to share this link, and will post my response shortly.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I have recently started to read Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, as a part of my Language Arts 6-12 course.  My partners and I have decided to focus on tolerance and acceptance of others through adolescent literature that deals with characters with autism. 
As I began reading this book, I found myself really entering the mind of a young man with autism.  The main character, Christopher, is a young man with autism.  He is dealing with the unexplained murder of his neighbor's dog and the accusation that he had something to do with it.  Though he knows that he is not guilty, he cannot help but become involved with the mystery.  His father, a man who deals with the strain of a son with a disability, makes him promise to leave the neighbor alone and not continue his hunt for the murderer.  Unfortunately, Christopher cannot keep himself from the search.  As we join him on the difficult task of finding the killer, we find out more about Christopher and his family.  His mother passed away a few years ago, but emotionally, Christopher really is not bothered.  Christopher is more concerned with what is going on with his life.  He has an obsession with colors, and focuses on how his day will be based on the color of the cars he sees on the way to school.  Red is good, yellow and brown are bad.  This obsession with color also carries over to the rest of his life...especially his food.