Carie Juettner

Brain on Lockdown: Why Standardized Testing Is As Hard On Teachers As It Is On Students

A couple of weeks ago, I had a dream that I was monitoring a standardized test in my old classroom. The test was TAKS (because my subconscious had forgotten that we’ve moved on to STAAR) and I was being chastised for doing something wrong (I don’t remember what, probably opening a book or staring outContinue reading “Brain on Lockdown: Why Standardized Testing Is As Hard On Teachers As It Is On Students”

Goodreads Before Goodreads

I don’t mean to make a stink here, but Goodreads really owes me quite a bit of money. You see, I had the prototype for their entire platform back in 1999, long before Otis and Elizabeth Chandler launched their website. Yep. It was called My Book Journal. My Book Journal is an offline system forContinue reading “Goodreads Before Goodreads”

Things Fall Apart… Again

Today I finished Things Fall Apart for the second time. I first studied Chinua Achebe’s book my sophomore year in high school, and while I liked it then, I did not fully appreciate it until now. In this powerful African novel, the author perfectly balances the complexity of his tale with the simplicity of hisContinue reading “Things Fall Apart… Again”