History, Activism, and Goal Setting aka summer readings

My favorite articles about education that I have read this summer were (in no particular order:

"Progressivism, schools, and schools of education" by D. Labaree. This was a look at the history of teaching philosophies. It detailed the divergence of "administrative progressives" and "paedagogical progressives." It explained how the administrative types essentially won and now control most schools. It also told the story of hot the pedagogical types live on in many teaching colleges and continue to espouse their idealism. I enjoyed it because I have a weakness for history and romance. 

I also enjoyed "A letter to a young teacher" by Joseph Featherstone. I like that he uses the article to encourage the young teacher to be an activist for education. 

I think my favorite article was one on NPR's education blog by Anya Kamenetz. It detailed research about writing goals. It explained that the simple act of goal setting by students helped pretty much all students achieve those goals, and nearly erased gender and ethnic achievement gaps according to one study. I was amazed by this idea. I hope to implement written goal setting in my future classroom. I like the idea of giving my students a few minutes at the end of the day once in a while to organize their thoughts and think about their goals. From this and other research I've seen lately, it can have a profound effect.