Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching | radical eyes for equity

Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching | radical eyes for equity

Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching

I stood as I have many times in front of the two tea dispensers at a chain sub sandwich shop. But this time, I was suddenly struck with the choice I always make—the “unsweet tea.”
Medium Freshly-Brewed Iced Tea Unsweetened
I was born, raised, and have lived my entire life in the Deep South. My mother made tea that would rival pancake syrup and trained my sister and me in the meticulous ritual of steeping tea bags and then pouring the hot tea over a huge mound of processed sugar.
The tea pot was dedicated only to steeping tea, and the tea jar and the giant plastic sugar spoon were sacred as well.
Once I left home, my mother flirted with sun tea, but the syrup-sweet tea of my childhood later became my defining feature of what could rightfully call itself The South. When ordering tea, The South hands you sweetened ice tea; hot tea or tea without sugar are not even mentioned, or considered.
So with a great deal of shame, I must admit that only a week or so ago I was truck with the absurdity that is “unsweet tea,” which of course is just CONTINUE READING: Unsweet Tea: On Tokenism, Whiteness, and the Promise of Culturally Relevant Teaching | radical eyes for equity

4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers - Teacher Habits

4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers - Teacher Habits

4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers


By Anica Oaks
Employing just the right visual teaching tools can make a critical difference between science teachers bringing their material brilliantly to life before their students’ eyes and watching them grow frustrated and overwhelmed by the difficult concepts. Reluctant or struggling learnings may need to process information through a different channel for the lessons to stick. After all, around 65 percent of the population is comprised of visual learners. When you consider that humans visually process about 90 percent of all information in any given environment visually, that makes sense. The knowledge you present may not always inherently electrify the classroom all by itself, but recognizing and playing to your students’ strengths can keep them engaged.

Memes

Chuckle and roll your eyes if you want, but these ubiquitous visual gags are naturally sticky ideas ideal for making any notion easy to instantly recall. Try setting up a moderated classroom subreddit. Encourage students to use any of the countless online meme generators available now to creatively repurpose existing templates toward what you teach. Next, let them comment, upvote and reply with their own memes to each thread. It may sound ridiculous and even shallow to elder generations, but this is a downright devious way to sneak learning into the same motif kids choose to riff on sports, anime, video games, and life’s generally ridiculous minutiae.

Infographics

Depending on your school’s scheduling philosophy, you likely have CONTINUE READING: 4 Great Visual Teaching Tools for Science Teachers - Teacher Habits

WARNING : TRY TO KEEP UP WITH DIANE AT YOUR OWN RISK: Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

WARNING : TRY TO KEEP UP WITH DIANE AT YOUR OWN RISK: Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all



Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools


Rob Schofield: The War on Public Education in North Carolina

There was a time when Norh Carolina was widely seen as the most progressive stTe in the South. That time ended abruptly when the Tea Party took control of the state in 2010 and began to decimate public services, especially public education. The Tea Party introduced charters and vouchers, killed the state’s successful NC Teaching Fellows Program for career teachers (giving its funding to Teach for
Michael Kohlhaas: The California Charter School Association’s Secret, Reprehensible Goals

Last June, blogger Michael Kohlhaas received a huge trove of documents from the Green Dot Charter Chain in response to his request filed under the state’s Public Record Act. He has been reviewing these documents and releasing them. In this post, he summarizes a Powerpoint presentation (and provides a link to the actual document) in which the California Charter Schools Association lays out its goa
Jan Resseger: Ohio Reduces Oversight of Failing Charter Operators and Gives More Money to Attend Low-Performing Voucher Schools

Jan Resseger reports here on Stephen Dyer’s astute analysis of Ohio’s state budget. Dyer is a former legislator who is now an Education Policy Fellow at Innovation Ohio. This is Dyer’s report. Read it and weep. Ohio’s rightwing Republicans care more about campaign contributors than they care about the state’s students or the quality of education. In looking at the plums for charters and vouchers,
Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny: The Road to Unfreedom

During the protests in Hong Kong, demonstrators carried placards of Timothy Snyder’s lessons about losing democracy. On Tyranny: the Road to Unfreedom Timothy Snyder – Yale University – Nov 15, 2016. Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here a
NPE National Conference: Last Day to Get Early Bird Rate!

Register today for the Network for Public Education’s National Conference in March 2020 in Philadelphia. Today is the last day to get early bird discounted rate. Great speakers, great panels, and a chance to meet the leaders of the Resistance! Including you!

YESTERDAY

A New Year’s Greeting from Around the World

This is a lovely way to usher in the New Year 5780! Thanks to my dear friend David Berliner for sharing! And a happy New Year, L’Shana Tova, to all!
ProPublica: Trump Has Been Working the Ukraine Story in Plain Sight

ProPublica documents that Trump has been proclaiming his interest in the Ukraine investigation on Twitter for months. Why are we surprised when he has told the story out loud for months ? Conspiracy theorists convinced him long ago that Ukraine—not Russia—interfered in the 2016 election, to aid the hated Hillary. He also telegraphed his belief that Ukraine leaked damaging information about Paul M
Andrea Gabor: The Demand for A New Kind of Civics

Andrea Gabor wrote this article for Bloomberg News. Andrea Gabor, a former editor at Business Week and U.S. News & World Report, is the Bloomberg chair of business journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the author of “After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform.” The College Board, which administers college entrance exams to high school st
Red Queen in L.A.: No, We Do Not Need a Yelp for Schools

The charter Industry faction on the Los Angeles School Board wants to introduce a Jeb Bush-style evaluation system to rank and rate schools. It hasn’t worked anywhere else in the nation, so why not introduce it in Los Angeles. Every other state has demonstrated that the school grading system ranks schools by the income of parents. Schools that enroll the poorest children get the lowest grades. Sc
John Thompson: Can Online Learning Survive the Profiteers and Frauds?

John Thompson is a historians and recently retired teacher in Oklahoma. For more than two decades I’ve mourned the loss of opportunities for online instruction to augment and enhance student learning, as opposed enabling a Social Darwinian competition where charters attack traditional public schools. Educators seeking meaningful choices, such as real personalized learning, have been shackled by t
Peter Greene: Watch RAND Play “Corporate Reformy Buzzword Bingo”

Peter Greene recognizes the RAND Institution’s adroit use of the Reformy vocabulary in its latest report. Almost all your favorite jargon and buzzwords are found there, he says. Check it out and see if they overlooked any of your favorite buzzwords. RAND Corporation, with its vision to be “the world’s mos
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all


It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Diwali Takes Place Later This Month – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources
bhuwanpurohit / Pixabay Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, will start on October 25 this year. It concludes on October 29th. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About Diwali.

YESTERDAY

New Animated Video: “NASA’s Guide To Black Hole Safety”
FelixMittermeier / Pixabay Check out this neat new video from NASA:
Infographic: “U.S. Slashes Refugee Limit To Historic Low”
GDJ / Pixabay I’ve previously shared about Trump Administration policies on refugees (see Trump Administration Cuts Refugee Number To Lowest Level Ever ). This infographic, though, makes it much more clear than any text article. I’m adding it to I’m adding this info to The Best Sites For Learning About World Refugee Day . You will find more infographics at Statista
ReadWorks FINALLY Lets Students Choose What Texts They Want To Read!
ReadWorks is one of the best educational sites out there – I’ve been posting constantly about it for years , and it’s on several “Best” lists. It has zillions of texts, audio support for many of them, annotation tools, and lots more. It’a always had one major drawback, however: in order for students to read their texts, teachers have had to “assign” them – they’ve never had the ability for studen
“Classroom Management ‘Is All About Relationships'”
Classroom Management ‘Is All About Relationships’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Dr. Debbie Silver, Dr. PJ Caposey, Serena Pariser, Timothy Hilton, Dr. Beth Gotcher, Paula Mellom, Rebecca Hixon, and Jodi Weber offer their commentaries on how best to handle classroom management. Here are some excerpts:
My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On Student Engagement
The Look, Sound and Feel of Effective Student Engagement is the topic of my latest ten minute BAM! Radio Show. I’m joined in the conversation by Cathy Beck, Kathy Dyer, Sarah Said and Samantha Cortez, who have also all contributed written commentaries to my Education Week Teacher column. I’m adding this show to All My BAM Radio Shows – Linked With Descriptions .
What Impact Will Trump Administration Policies Have On Future ELL Numbers? Here Is My Guess, & I Would Love To Hear Yours
OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay The number of English Language Learners in U.S. public schools has been growing steadily over the years (see The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research ). Those numbers have been expected to grow. Some statistics have said that by 2025, 25% of U.S. public school students will be ELLs, others say 40% by 2030 . Of course, none of these projection

SEP 29

Excellent – & Short – Overview Of Culturally Responsive Teaching’s Benefits
Jenny Muñiz has written a good – and short – piece over at New America reviewing the benefits of culturally responsive teaching. 5 Ways Culturally Responsive Teaching Benefits Learners contains lots of links to research, and is the perfect piece to share with administrators and colleagues who have questions about it and are open to learning. I’m adding it to The Best Resources About “Culturally R
Pins Of The Week
I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 19,000 resources there that I haven’t shared on this blog. I thought readers might find it useful if I began sharing a handful of my most recent “pins” each week (I’m not sure if you can see them through an RSS Reader – you might have to click through to the original post). You might also be interested in My Seven Most Popular Pins In 2018
The Best Sites Where Students Can Participate In Citizen Science Projects
markmags / Pixabay Plenty of research has found that students tend to become more motivated when their work will be seen by other people in addition to the teacher (see Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience “). I’ve previously written about these kinds of opportunities for Social Studies students (see The Best Sites Where Students Can Transcribe Historical Texts ). I’ve
New Resources On Race & Racism
I’m adding these new resources to various “Best” lists. You can find links to all of those many lists that relate to race and racism at “Best” Lists Of The Week: Resources For Teaching & Learning About Race & Racism: ‘It Was Very Humiliating’: Readers Share How They Were Taught About Slavery is from The NY Times. I’m adding it to USEFUL RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF BRINGI
My Most Popular Tweets Of The Month
PhotoMIX-Company / Pixabay I used to post weekly collections of my best tweets, and used Storify to bring them together. Unfortunately, Storify went under. Fortunately, however, Wakelet was a new tool that was able to import all 
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007