Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/25/16
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Sunday, September 25, 2016
Do Americans Hate Teachers, Or are they Duped by Teach for America?
Do Americans Hate Teachers, Or are they Duped by Teach for America?:
Do Americans Hate Teachers, Or are they Duped by Teach for America?
Do Americans Hate Teachers, Or are they Duped by Teach for America?
With more than $75 million coming in from government at last count and another $220 million from the philanthropic community, we should be seeing more evidence of long-term student gains and far more alumni continuing their impassioned work in the classroom.
Do Americans understand that by contributing to a turnaround group of young novices to be teachers, they are destroying the American teaching profession? Do they know that sooner or later there will be no more real, qualified teachers to instruct their students?
Are they not aware that fast-track trained beginners, who focus on data, digital instruction, and classroom control, and who are never intent on becoming teachers until they recruited, are not the best individuals to lead a classroom?
Are they confused and think they are doing something nice, or are they hell-bent on destroying public education?
How Does One Boycott so Many?
Blogger and author Mercedes Schneider recently posted how the clothing company J. Crew was raising charitable donations for Teach for America.Does J. Crew think they are supporting real teachers?
Upset teachers and parents who understand the background of TFA, and their overall Do Americans Hate Teachers, Or are they Duped by Teach for America?:
Hope of a Black - Latino Educator (Evolution) | The Jose Vilson
Hope of a Black - Latino Educator (Evolution) | The Jose Vilson:
Hope of a Black - Latino Educator (Evolution)
Hope of a Black - Latino Educator (Evolution)
Come here. Please take a seat with me and let’s talk about evolution.
Your morning routine hasn’t changed in years. You roll swiftly out of bed, but your eyes have barely opened yet. You’re thinking about your students before you’re done brushing your teeth. You’re out the door before the grocery stores around the block open. The hustle to the bus then the train get your blood pumping and your feet throbbing. You swipe your MetroCard a few seconds before the train gets there. Your headphones currently blare Chance The Rapper because you need something between hard rap and gospel music. You play FreeCell all the way up to the second to last stop on the A train.
You see students in this neighborhood. Perk up, you.
You get your coffee. A dollar’s never been so valuable. You climb the set of stairs, ignoring the security that doesn’t like you for whatever reason. You’re cordial with adults as you move your card into the “in” slot. You jog up the next set of stairs into your classroom. You sniff around to make sure everything’s in place. You turn on the lights and the AC. You take a deep breath. You’re back in your element.
You have two grades and five classes to teach, each with their own set of needs. You got this.
Lesson plan 1: We will convert numbers in scientific notation to standard form. Eighth graders may or may not fully get it. We will make them care somehow someway.
Lesson plan 2: We will add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators. Seventh graders may or Hope of a Black - Latino Educator (Evolution) | The Jose Vilson:
Washington Charter Schools- Don't Ask, Don't Tell: 2 Democrats run for state ed chief | OregonLive
2 Democrats run for Washington state education chief | OregonLive.com:
2 Democrats run for Washington state education chief
2 Democrats run for Washington state education chief
SPOKANE — Randy Dorn is stepping down after eight years as state superintendent of public instruction, and two Democrats are vying to replace him as head of Washington's K-12 public education system.
The nonpartisan job pays $132,000 a year and oversees about $9 billion in education spending.
State Rep. Chris Reykdal, 44, of Tumwater has served three terms in the state House and is an administrator for the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. He believes pressure must remain on the Legislature to better fund schools.
His opponent, 45-year-old Erin Jones of Tacoma, sees the job more as setting out a vision for education. Jones is the first African American woman to run for statewide office in Washington. She works for the Tacoma School District as a teaching coach and program administrator, and this is her first time seeking public office.
"We've got to have a much clearer vision for public education," Jones said. "We need to be more visible as an agency outside the halls of Olympia."
Reykdal, if elected, would be the first superintendent in recent history with children in public school. He also has worked as a high school history teacher.
"I bring expertise in budget and policy to an agency that is good but needs to be great," Reykdal said. "I have endorsements from both sides of the aisle and both parts of the state."
A former lawmaker, Dorn was hard to miss in Olympia and made sure his views were heard by lawmakers and the Washington Supreme Court, which decided in 2012 that the way the state paid for public schools was unconstitutional. That case is called the McCleary decision, and it looms over the Legislature.
Dorn pushed hard for more money for education, which put him at odds with many lawmakers.
Among those praising Dorn is Reykdal, who said the superintendent kept lawmakers on their toes as they debated school finance. Reykdal said he will maintain an active role in the discussion about the McCleary decision.
"There is an enormous need to fully fund our system and do that more equitably," Reykdal said.
Jones said she wants to be a resource for the Legislature while working to educate Washington residents and encourage them to push lawmakers to increase education funding.
"We do need additional revenues," Jones said. "We need more teachers and new buildings."
Jones said she has a unique perspective on the state's education system because her children have experienced the inequity that the school funding lawsuit sought to fix. They were students at a high-poverty school in Tacoma and then at another Title I school that was dramatically overcrowded in Puyallup.
Reykdal also would bring a parent's perspective to the job. But while Jones' kids are now adults, Reykdal's children were still in elementary school last school year.
Both candidates would like to pull back on the state's commitment to student testing and not use the high school exams as a graduation requirement. But they do not want to eliminate testing altogether.
They want to increase the starting salaries for teachers and work to make the teacher pay system more competitive statewide. And they think the estimated $3.5 billion to finish the work outlined in the McCleary decision is 2 Democrats run for Washington state education chief | OregonLive.com: