Non-Fiction Writing

If Public School Leaders Care About Student and Teacher Success, Why Aren’t They Asking Them How to Help? Robert Hultman 2019 Whether at a public school program with fewer than 175 students or at a multinational corporation, there are significant research-backed benefits to collecting and using feedback to inform long term goals and day to day practices.  That public schools are underperforming relative to our desires and even expectations and that they often struggle to allocate and use resources effectively are not controversial notions.  So why don’t our public schools, with hundred-million-dollar operating budgets, spending an average of $12-13 thousand per student , bother to ask students and teachers what they think? I have been a teacher for a mere six years - short of half the average experience of classroom teachers - but in that brief experience, I have seen feedback collection and resulting action happen (or not happen) at both ends of the spectrum. ...

10/12/2018 As I sit in this meeting, thinking back to using the Lucy Caulkins books with prepacked anecdotes, and listen to this lady drone on about the test and how accurate and valid it is, I can’t help but feel like I’m being replaced.  I and my colleagues, as the districts prepare to replace teachers with technicians and then eventually with screens displaying a computer application. As I sit in this meeting, thinking back to using the Lucy Caulkins books with prepacked anecdotes, teaching points, and lesson phrases, listening to this unfortunate lady drone on about the recent standardized test and how accurate and valid it is, I can’t help but feel like I’m being replaced.  Not just me, but I and my colleagues, as the districts prepare to replace more and more teachers with technicians, and then eventually with screens displaying a computer application. Any Ray Bradbury fans in the house? I thought there was a lot of research about Wednesdays and how receptive pe...

Would You, But You Didn't I said something but you didn’t You knew you knew something when you didn’t I thought you knew but you didn’t I knew I heard it and you didn’t I knew her and I knew you didn’t but if I told you you would But I didn’t and I wouldn’t You try to stop me but I wouldn’t I said nothing but you didn’t I swallowed it all but I couldn't

I may not be the host with the most And I might be milquetoast But I’m down in the lyrical low-post Workin’ to make all foes ghost And hey - I’ve never murdered a man, But I’ve murdered the mic and I’ve murdered the stage Full fits of fury and rage ‘Cause I might get murdered today Murdered for being in somebody’s way Or murdered because life is cheap and some sicko wanted to play Life is murder, so they say So I’m trying to kill it Keepin’ your mother nervous Like a sinner at Sunday service I’m a musical marauder So you weak sheep who’re asleep: step up to the slaughter I’ll grip these rhymes like, “Luke, I am your father” Y’all shouldn’t bother Let the turn signal be my metronome Letting the thoughts loose from my dome Like - I don’t drink - it’s old And everything I think is bold And all my ink is gold So all the ladies let the pink unfold Applying heat until the beat gets cold

I want to make this a Halloween to remember Get obscene on the scene Go on a real bender A real, life ender Blood spraying like no lid on the blender Meat chunks and feet and hunks of flesh Fucking guts and mush and bloody mess Goop and guck and bits and shit And that's it: No more stress I want to chop off my arm and beat motherfuckers with it until I pass out Leave no doubt Show me a neck Let me cut it open give me a break I keep hopin’ Allow me a chance to enhance the dance Take off my pants and pull out the gats Twin pistols to squeeze Now they call me the breeze I’m a plague, a disease And I’ve come to infect you No one can protect you

1 Hey, you too cool for school fools and students caught in the fray everyday Listen there’s a lesson you’re missin’ It should be your mission to find your ignition and some ammunition for positive volition Improve your condition In addition, maybe end this endless rendition of self-imposed attrition. Let’s move in position Get used to the tradition and make it our own But you can’t think with your mouth moving and your brain in your phone Mental animals in digital cages it’s outrageous and seemingly contagious and it just might enslave us Your mind is prone to roam but you alone control the flow of thoughts in your dome And you took the time to leave home You take the time to show up And we all know our chances to blow up Let’s take some time to grow up Life’s hard enough already and no one’s giving handouts You don’t want to be the one always with your hand out There is not a soul alive other than your mother who cares how you had it planned out...