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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Ed Notes Online: Norm in The Wave: Education News You Can’t Live Without

Ed Notes Online: Norm in The Wave: Education News You Can’t Live Without:

Norm in The Wave: Education News You Can’t Live Without

I was going to use the final column to review the bad and ugly (there was little good) of education coverage, but with the start of summer vacation for my teacher readers I decided to pass.  But I did write a newsy story on a Stop and Frisk march held last Saturday in Rockaway organized by Josmar Trujillo, one of the very interesting people I've met out here. More about the march and Josmar in a follow-up piece later or tomorrow.

Education News You Can’t Live Without
By Norm Scott
Published Friday, June 28, 2013

It’s a lie. You can live without it and so can I. It’s that time again – the last School Scope column of the school year. And it’s been quite a year for Rockaway schools. The Wave has done a good job of chronicling the struggles and recoveries so I won’t belabor the point, but let’s hope summertime makes the livin’ easy for all our 

Eva Moskowitz Takes Control of StudentsFirstNY With Jenny Sedlis Move

From DAY ONE of the Moskowitz path of destruction, Jenny Sedlis has been at her side attached at the hip, making up whatever lies were necessary to push the evil Success machine. So making Jenny
head of StudentsFirstNY to replace the slime bag Micah Lasher, who jumps from place to place like a bedbug, is a sign that Eva wants to solidify her influence with the next mayor whoever he/she may be.

Jenny can be a nervous sort, dependent on Eva's approval that when things go wrong you get the impression it ain't pretty. I have heard stories about Jenny using hysterics to try to turn away negative stories about Eva and Success, knowing she will get blamed. So it will be interesting to watch how Jenny in charge operates -- but we know she is really not in charge.

I first met Jenny Sedlis at the end of the 2009 school year at a rally GEM supported outside PS 123 in Harlem, another Eva take-over target. She claimed she was an ed notes reader --- monitoring even the blogs for negative Eva stuff, of which Ed Notes is proud to have lead the way. Over the years we have had some nice chats at Gotham Schools parties and at confrontations with the 

Please sign petition to fire principal who called teachers “big lipped,” “nappy haired,” and “gorillas”

From Peter Lamphere who is chapter leader at this school. Let's see now, a principal gives teachers U ratings because they are black. Hmmmm, what will Tweedies do? Back the principal of course. Tweed does support racist apartheid doesn't it? Nelson Mandela would get a U rating and Walcott would bring him up on 3020a charges.
Please consider signing this petition support these teachers who have been victims of racist harassment and asking for the DOE to comply with its own anti-discrimination policy.
http://www.change.org/petitions/nyc-chancellor-dennis-walcott-city-councilwoman-julissa-ferreras-help-us-terminate-principal-minerva-zanca-of-pan-american-international-high-school

If you have media contacts, please share this story with them - we are trying to build up pressure 


Confessions of a Bad Teacher - John Owens on the demonization of teachers in NYC and elsewhere

I had read John Owen's piece at Slate and thought that for a guy with so little time in the system he seemed to get it. He contacted me asking for a blurb for his book and sent me a pdf. I haven't had time to read it all but read enough to be impressed. He was at the Skinny Awards dinner a few weeks ago where we met for the first time.

Leonie was also impressed with his book.
Everyone should pre-order this book, out August 6:

When John Owens left a lucrative publishing job to teach English at a public school in New York City's South Bronx, he thought he could do some good. Instead, he found an educational