One of the blogs on my blogroll that I suggest that you visit is Spencer’s Scratch Pad by John Spencer, a social studies teacher in Arizona.  He actually has several blogs, that you can visit here, here, and here.

Today, one of his postings was in reference to the shooting of more than a dozen people in Arizona, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  I think you will find his comments important in the context of the arrogance and bigotry that seems rampant in our nation.  Read his comments here.

But I also encourage you to explore this teacher’s ideas and visions, and the kind of work that he does with his students.  He and I must be on the same page, as we have the same viewpoint of Bill Gates and his unknowing wandering into education.  Here are his views on Gates.

In my own blog, I have criticized the film Waiting for Superman (one of Bill Gates favorite films, by the way).  Waiting for Superman paints a false picture of teaching and learning, and hedges the future of education on private schools, well funded academies, and believes that kicking the “bad” teachers out of school will all of a sudden turn around schools, and leave “good” teachers in our schools.  John Spencer has written a book, Teaching Unmasked: A Humble Alternative to Waiting for a Superhero.  You can can get it as a free book (pdf), a kindle or a real book.