OMG, y'all, I just had an awesome idea. Have youever wanted to run your own school that can take in public money but not have to follow some/most/all of the public school rules? If you have, you've wanted to start a charter, right? Well, hang on to your hats, folks, because I found a way to make your charter school even better: Start one that doesn't serve meals! In California, you see, charter schools don't 
Check out the presentation of the "Media Bullpen", the new project of the pro-charter school organization, Center for Education Reform, funded by Gates, along with the right-wing Bradleyand Walton Family Foundations, which will grade reporters and news articles as to whether they accept their pro-privatization, pro-testing 
Studies repeatedly and consistently show that a teacher’s influence is 20 times greater than any
Huckleberry Finn and Jim, Legos
“They’re doing that thing again,” racially underrepresented people in this country must have whispered to themselves (and tweeted). When news broke out that the more than 200 instances of the word “nigger” would be substituted by the word “slave” in Huckleberry Finn, most of us said, “Of the 100 things on our list that need improvement in this country for racial relations, you chose THAT?!”
Erasing the n-word from one of the literary canon’s biggest children’s books is akin to erasing the “3/5ths” in the US Constitution as it pertains to slaves. Books, whether biographical or fictional in nature, serve as documentation of a history. Because Mark Twain decided to use that language in the book, he too shone a light to the customs and history of the time, no matter how deplorable we consider it. Once we try and erase a
| ||
How do I think about what I do? How do I gauge my professional success?
It seems like everything I do disappears…good or bad. I teach a lesson. It sucks. And it’s gone.
I teach a lesson. It’s awesome. And it’s gone.
What is a successful teacher? One who has simply survived 5, 10 or 30 years? One who writes kick-ass lesson plans and turns them in on time, every time? One who has become a principal? One who executes appropriate
The superintendent of the school system in which I teach in Prince George's County, Maryland, according to the 2009 annual report, had a budget of $1.7 billion, serving more than 127,000 students, with roughly 18,300 employees, of whom about 9,000 were teachers.
In the U.S. Army a Major General, with two stars, might well command a division with 10,000 - 15,000 employees. It may consist of two to five Brigades, each of which might be led by a one-star Brigadier General.
Does the span of control of our superintendent and the budget and number of employees for which he is responsible qualify him to lead an Army
Famed historian Diane Ravitch will critique the current direction of education reform, including privatization and high stakes testing, and will introduce a new national organization, Parents Across America, that is working for positive and progressive change in our schools.