V.A.M.: Value Added Measure:
Little Testing Bubbles
The following is a redo of Malvina Reynold's "Little Boxes." Common-Core standards seemingly seek to create assembly-line-issued standardized children, molded to fit someone's narrow conceptions of college and career ready, fully aligned, fully tested, fully data-mined and fully fit to enrich the pockets of profiteers. Little bubbles on the test sheet, Little bubbles made of gobbledygoo
Selling the Common Core with More Caramel Coating?
It seems that the supporters of Common Core are beginning to understand that the standards have left a sour taste in many people's mouths. It seems, using all the business acumen they have, they'll try to find a new way to sell it to the people, adding yet another layer of caramel coating to somehow win popular support. But what if no one really wants their product? What if all their money and i
My Third-Grader, the Common Core and How It Came to This
Why would a third grader ask her mother to use the computer and assemble the above image? The question is not an easy one to answer. First, let me try to explain the picture above as I see it. My third grader loves frogs. In pre-K, her teacher sent a letter home, telling me that we all but had to adopt some class frogs given my daughter's level of interest. (I had conveniently ignored the
FEB 20
The Terrible & Ugly Truth Behind The Common Core
Watch what happens when these young children receive their test results and overall scores for the newly implemented Common Core exam for 8th graders. Although their mothers could not be seen, they were overheard saying that Arne Duncan is indeed right, and they were lamenting the fact that failed in raising geniuses. When we reached out to Arne Duncan, for a response to this video, all his press
Arne Duncan Confronts His Many Critics
Listen to Arne Duncan's response to the question, by a reporter from the Libertarian Union Press, of whether or not he should bear the full responsibility of rolling out the poorly planned federal educational policy, known as the Common Core. He also addresses his demeaning comments about suburban, white mothers, as well as his vast ineptitude when running the Chicago public school system
RateMyReformer.Com
Sometimes, I wonder what would happen if we applied a new version of Danielson to the Ed. Deformers, or the politicians who help put them into power. What would happen if we established stack ranking for all the ed. deformers with screwy ideas, detached from realities? Imagine a website called Ratemyreformer.com. The first entry below examines some faults that parents, teachers, students and Am
FEB 19
Coming Together in the Big Apple: Defying Cuomo's "Two State" Re-election Strategy
Polls show Governor Andrew Cuomo's New York City approval rating at 68%. With the City seemingly in his pocket, he thinks he can "cold shoulder" it, along with its new mayor. He falsely identifies the interests of the City as at odds with the interests of the State and, by so doing, hopes to gain upstate support. Keeping this political strategy of divide and conquer in mind, it is of
FEB 18
The Common Court Sports Standards?
Arne Duncan raced to the top in the N.B.A. All-Star Celebrity Basketball Game last week in New Orleans. As witnessed in the video above, he made some fancy moves. Perhaps, we should call him Arne Dunkin'! On a night for the celebrity record books, he scored twenty points with eleven rebounds and six assists. Although he was not awarded M.V.P. by the fans, Kevin Hart turned the trophy over to h
FEB 17
Season 2, Episode 6 in the Twilight Zone of Educational Deformity: "The Eye of the Beholder"!
Common-Core Reformers Instruct a Teacher on How to Implement the New Learning Standards"Where is this place, and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn't make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty *is* in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years
FEB 16
The Newest Method of Teacher Evaluations
For those of you who cannot read or speak Swedish, allow me to translate.The video you watching is actually a secretly filmed documentary that takes place in the herpetology research pond at the Eva Moskowitz charter school for college and career reptile readiness. This teacher was made to wrestle an anaconda as a result of of the following: wanting a union in the school, poor student scholarship
The Newest Method of Teacher Evaluations
For those of you who cannot read or speak Swedish, allow me to translate.The video you watching is actually a secretly filmed documentary that takes place in the herpetology research pond at the Eva Moskowitz charter school for college and career reptile readiness. This teacher was made to wrestle an anaconda as a result of of the following: wanting a union in the school, poor student scholarship
The Newest Method of Classroom Teacher Evaluations
For those of you who cannot read or speak Swedish, allow me to translate.The video you watching is actually a secretly filmed documentary that takes place in the herpetology research pond at the Eva Moskowitz charter school for college and career reptile readiness. This teacher was made to wrestle an anaconda as a result of of the following: wanting a union in the school, poor student scholarship
Children First, and E4E New Teacher Training Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wdazx2YHok&sns=em
FEB 15
Don’t be such a real, big Madigan
I can assure you that this piece does indeed have to do with really bad pedagogyArticle XIII SECTION 5. PENSION AND RETIREMENT RIGHTS Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired. (
How the Snow Snafu Turned Over Into a Snow Job on the Mayor
Mayor DiBlasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina came under a lot of intense fire for their decision to keep schools open on Thursday, February 13, 2014, including apparently an epic war of tweets with celebrity weatherman Al Roker. Beyond a doubt, the situation might have been handled better, but I am most worried that the incident is a distraction from the most pressing issues at hand in N.Y.C.Chanc
Humpty Dumpty Sat On a Wall (Courtesy of a Suburban Mother Goose)
Below is an excerpt from one of two poems, referencing Greek mythology on a high-school PARCC Common-Core test (http://www.parcconline.org/computer-based-samples).Ovid's poem (and the subsequent one by Anne Sexton) captivate some audiences, but I doubt the selections will do much for my largely foreign-born students. (I'm sure they'd find the use of "regnant" on this test repugnant!)