Spiral Notebook Blogs
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Ben Johnson, education consultant
Ben Johnson is an education consultant for EduTEKS and uses his passion for engaged, aligned instruction to help small-school systems. He also teaches online for the University of Phoenix's teacher- and principal-preparation program, and is a learning coach for the Texas Principal Excellence Program (TxPEP), which helps principals of low-performing schools increase their personal leadership. He has served as an administrator in large and small schools, as principal at a charter school, and as an educational-program manager for the University of Texas at San Antonio. He most recently served as an assistant superintendent of the Natalia Independent School District, located in a small, rural community just south of San Antonio, Texas, where he helped bring about major improvements in student learning. He has a master's degree in educational administration from California State University, San Bernardino.
Subscribe to this blogger's RSS feedMaking Our Nation Great: Teaching Is a Special Calling
By Ben Johnson
9/2/08
This is an exciting time of year -- brand-new classes and brand-new students. When I was a teacher, I didn't realize that I had an advantage over every other profession. Each year, I got a fresh start, a clean slate, a tabula rasa. I had all summer to reflect on how I did and to prepare to make the next year even better.
Make Like a Goat: The Art of Distracting Unruly Students
By Ben Johnson
8/5/08I have 17 acres in south Texas, and half of the acreage is wooded. Particularly in the northern part of my property, there is an obnoxious vine in the lily family, called greenbrier, that grows everywhere.
Pride of Profession: Striving to Become a Great Teacher
By Ben Johnson
7/23/08This is the second post in a two-part entry. Read part one.
In the first part of this entry, I discussed greatness in educators. One of the nice things about my current position is that I can go into the classroom and see this greatness all around:
Outstanding in Your Field: What It Takes to Be a Great Teacher
By Ben Johnson
7/16/08I am reading a book by Steven Covey called The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, which he wrote to help organizations and individuals find their voices. The premise of the book is that if you don't do this, you or your organization will not be able to achieve greatness. I highly recommend that you read it, and I will gladly lend it to you when I am done with it, but that is not the focus of this post.
Teaching with Tangles: The Barbed Wire Model of Classroom Management
By Ben Johnson
7/9/08I had an epic battle with a tangle of barbed wire a while ago. I'm glad to report that my cuts and scratches are healing nicely, and I'd like to share with you about how this battle revealed to me a number of brilliant truths about classroom management.
Courtly Courage: Applying Athletic Tenacity to Academic Efforts
By Ben Johnson
6/10/08My family and I were witnesses to a magnificent display of courage and fortitude last year as our Natalia Independent School District girls' and boys' basketball teams faced the teams from the nearby Lutheran school.
Instant Feedback: Principles of, and Techniques for, Formative Assessment
By Ben Johnson
4/2/08The bowling analogy in my previous post is an illustration of the misunderstanding about the true purpose of formative assessments. Assessment provides needed information for the teacher to adjust instructional activities, but that is a by-product of the real reason for doing it. True formative assessment engages students and puts them in charge of their own learning, much as a bowler is in charge of how she bowls.
Bowling with Your Eyes Closed: Students Need True Formative Assessment
By Ben Johnson
4/1/08I've been bowling recently, as perhaps have some of you. There are some unusual things about bowling you can directly apply to improving classroom learning, so let's go bowling for a minute.
To Sink or Swim: Creating Effective Learning Systems
By Ben Johnson
3/27/08In an earlier post, I introduced the idea of instilling a sense of urgency in our classrooms. One of the elements to this is designing the learning system to engage students at the application level and higher of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Finding the Time, Part 2: Reclaiming Wasted Moments During the School Day
By Ben Johnson
3/19/08This is the second part of a two-part entry. Read part one.
If we evaluated how much time a student is actually engaged in learning activities in each of our classrooms, what percentage would that be? Is it 100 percent? Is it 50 percent? Or is it only 25 percent? If we want students to really learn, we, as educators, have to plan for, facilitate, and vigilantly protect the increasingly precious and extremely important engaged student learning time.
