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Monday, May 14, 2012

Big Education Ape Nite Cap UPDATE 5-14-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2




UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK  AM POSTS

BEFORE NOON HONEST!

Privilege and My First and Only Meeting with Bobby Seale


Not a year goes by without me hearing “These kids have no idea what a privilege it is to …” Usually because I’ve been the one saying it until the last year or so. The problem with having a privilege when you’re so unaccustomed to it is that you outwardly act like it doesn’t matter because you’re inwardly incapable of understanding how to show gratitude without looking subservient.
Let me expound.
College might have been the first time that I had access to people who I normally wouldn’t even get a chance to whiff their air wouldn’t have access to in other circumstances. People on campus talked about these figures like distant relatives: Angela Davis, Amiri Baraka, Kevin Powell, Elaine Brown. I mean, as the guests on campus 


Attacking Teacher Seniority in Court is Misguided Non-Solution (Video #9)

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(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

There was a press conference today in a courtyard at 1451 Wilshire Blvd. in front of an LAUSD "rubber room," where the people listed below either naively or maliciously attempted to make the litigation to eliminate teacher seniority the key issue for fixing everything wrong with LAUSD.

Critical issues ignored at the end of this rather one-sided "press conference" (which is the subject of the following video), were:

1. The primacy of no discipline - which is a crucial factor in creating a school environment completely antithetical to the education process irrespective of whether 


Every Day I Discover How Little I Know — Here’s Another Example

I periodically post about examples of my own ignorance, and now have another opportunity to do so….
As a self-styled quasi-expert on intrinsic motivation (see my book “Helping Students Motivate Themselves” and my list, The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students), one would think that I’d be pretty familiar with research on the topic. And I am, or, at least, I thought I was.
Then, in this week’s New Yorker Magazine, I read a profile of Clayton Christensen, a widely-known business thinker who, among other things, has written a lot on motivation issues. Coincidentally, he himself wrote a short commentary on intrinsic motivation today for Fast Company.
In it, he refers to a well-known article written by Frederick Herzberg for the Harvard Business Review that is the 


Fleeing the country to avoid student loans?

There seem to be a lot of people considering this option. Rest assured, if you leave the country, you will find plenty of companions abroad. In fact, there are many indentured educated Americans who have decided this option was the best for them. I call them student loan debt refugees.

I have lived abroad myself, so if folks are interested, I can share what it was like to save money, have a job 


How Did I Get This Way!?!?

I finished writing my last post, and it hit me: I'm the guy I used to wish I'd never turn into.

When I started teaching, I approached it with the energy of a five-year-old on a recent bowl of frosted flakes. I obsessed over my teaching like a doctor charged with finding the cure to an epidemic.

But here I am, six years later, saying that "I am decidedly unwilling to do everything in my power to ensure every child's success." What the hell happened?

I thought about it for a while, and I realized that my blog is a pretty valuable resource for assessing how and why I've made this transformation.

Check it out.

Example 1: Here is me in June of 2009, having just been hired to teach at Columbia Heights Educational 


Pension call Tuesday. Updated Napkin sketch. Day #2.

  • Today I made my calls to State Rep Toni Berrios and State Senator Iris Martinez.
  • I forwarded a message to Franny who sent it out to all the Park Ridge Education Association members to call the We Are One hotline number.
  • I put an info sheet into every staff member’s box.
  • Posted on Twitter and Facebook.
  • Gave a talk at tonight’s PREA retirement recognition.
On to Day #2.



Big Education Ape Nite Cap 5-14-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

James Baldwin said it best: 

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."

A Big Education Ape Nite Cap


Big Education Ape Nite Cap UPDATE 5-13-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 20 hours ago
*UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE* *BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTS* *BEFORE NOON HONEST!* What Do NAEP Scores Mean? by dianerav [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Every once in a while, a new set of test scores is released by the National Assessment Governing Board, the federal agency that supervises the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Just a few days ago, the NAEP scores for science were released for 4th and 8th grades, and once again there was woe and gnashing of teeth in the land ( http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/10/31naep_ep...more »