All Week @ THE CHALK FACE
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About the radio show
Join Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar
LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST
on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio.
Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111.
You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursday at 7PM EST.
Visit the @ the Chalk Face radio main page for more information on the show and syndication.
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Video: My Six-minute WWL-TV Appearance Against Common Core
On Saturday, August 23, 2014, I participated in a six-minute WWL-TV Eyewitness Morning News segment on the controversy surrounding the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Louisiana. The link to the segment can be found at the end of this post. The segment was scheduled to precede the Tuesday’s pro-CCSS “forum.” I was the only individual […]
AUG 27
Eva Moskowitz: Wall Street Stage Mother
Hedge-funded, politically-connected New York charter pusher Eva Moskowitz is trying to paint herself as a “protector of children.” She insinuates that her charter school forcefulness is.. ahem.. “for the children,” and likens herself to to a “mama bear”: “I’d be bullied, maybe, if children weren’t at stake,” she said. “But my momma-bear instinct kicks in […]
Elizabeth Green Asks Whether True Believers in “No Excuses” Can Learn
The first rule of teachers in schools that serve every child who walks through the door is “pick your battles.” A teacher’s key skill, we’re often told from day #1, is “learn what to ignore.” A charter school teacher who does not understand the essential nature of such survival skills may claim to teach the “same […]
AUG 26
Elizabeth Green’s Building a Better Teacher, the Rabbi, and the Chicken
The first half of Elizabeth Green’s Building a Better Teacher recounts the rise and fall of modern academic teacher improvement efforts, as well as the way that Japanese elementary schools, at least, learned from this (seemingly) quintessential American movement. I am not qualified to comment on Green’s discussion of Japanese schools, but this is the […]
.@EngageNY Modules: Out of Alignment
A year ago I criticized the ELA curriculum modules found on NYSED’s EngageNY website and their “random” nature of content. I expressed concern that many elementary schools have reduced or even eliminated instruction in Science and Social Studies in favor of the tested subjects of ELA and Math in this era of accountability via test […]
AUG 25
EdNext’s Paul Peterson: Common Core Got the Bum Rap– Just Like Poor NCLB Did
Education Next is a journal that strongly promotes the privatization of public education based upon standardized-test-driven outcomes. The folks at EdNext really love charters and vouchers that drain *authentic* public schools of their funding all the while escaping the “accountability” so-called “reform” demands of those flunky, traditional public schools. The EdNext editor-in-chief is Paul Peter
1 down, 179 to go!
Inasmuch as we have so much to resist, there’s still much to feel good about. And much to feel terrified of as well. I’m still nervous. Happy First Day!Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face Tagged: first day, kindergarten, school
AUG 24
Seattle Times’ Gates-funded Education Lab Blog Experiment
Bill Gates lives in Seattle. His money buys experiments there, too. In October 2013, the Seattle Times announced that it had “sought” a grant from the Gates Foundation for a year-long “project” in partnership with Solutions Journalism Network– a blog called the “Education Lab”: Education Lab, a partnership between The Seattle Times and Solutions Journalism Network, will […]
Maybe it’s not “fidelity,” it’s just your crappy program.
I have eight different bosses now. Well, not bosses, per se, but several persons of various titles that will potentially give me feedback and suggestions this school year. You might think this is a tremendous boon to us teachers to have a team of talented people working with myself and others for the benefit of […]
You didn’t expect me, did you? #highered
No one expects the Inquisition. That’s how I feel a lot of the time because I ask a lot of questions. Is that not an educator’s job? College professors looking to do research in our schools: I’m onto you. As a former graduate student and faculty member in higher education, I’ve written numerous human subjects […]
AUG 23
The Privatizing Agenda of Survey-producing Education Next
In August 2014, Education Next released the results of its annual education poll. In a post on August 20, 2014, I wrote briefly on the EdNext survey findings specific to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). I plan to examine the entire survey more closely in a future post. However, in this post, I will examine the folks behind the […]