Monday, January 18, 2021

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Monday, January 18, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #COVIDVACCINE #Inauguration #BIDEN #HARRIS #MLKDAY #MLK #MARTINLUTHERKINGJR

THE TOP BANANA
TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES

Biden weighs options for education secretary who would face early political pressure in school reopening bid - CNNPolitics - https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/joe-biden-education-secretary-decision/index.html

Six Important New Resources For Learning About Martin Luther King, Jr. | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?p=114916 on @Larryferlazzo

Inauguration in Troubled Times: Looking Back and Looking Forward: Lincoln, FDR and Biden | Ed In The Apple - https://wp.me/p2zCG-2Q3 via @edintheapple

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?p=114899 on @Larryferlazzo

Access to college admissions tests — and lucrative scholarships — imperiled by the pandemic https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/18/sat-act-requirements-coronavirus-459797

Giving kids no autonomy at all has become a parenting norm — and the pandemic is worsening the trend https://www.salon.com/2021/01/17/giving-kids-no-autonomy-at-all-has-become-a-parenting-norm--and-the-pandemic-is-worsening-the-trend/

'I've Tried Everything': Pandemic Worsens Child Mental Health Crisis https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/18/953581851/ive-tried-everything-pandemic-has-cut-options-for-kids-with-mental-illness

¿Qué significa para las escuelas la nueva variante del coronavirus? https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/01/18/espanol/que-significa-para-las-escuelas-la-nueva-variante-del-coronavirus.html

OPINION: HBCUs build women and men who are ready to lead the nation - https://hechingerreport.org/?p=76578 via @hechingerreport

Spring term delays: New wave of coronavirus uncertainty slams higher education https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/colleges-spring-semester-coronavirus/2021/01/16/0be39db6-55d9-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html?tid=ss_tw

Climate Crisis Must Be Taught In Schools, U.S. Education Experts Tell Biden https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/climate-crisis-must-be-taught-in-schools-u-s-education-experts-tell-biden/

Wendell Pierce On Parenting, The Pandemic And Reckoning With The Past | NewBlackMan (in Exile) - https://www.newblackmaninexile.net/2021/01/wendell-pierce-on-parenting-pandemic.html

Beutner presses for L.A. schools to become COVID-19 vaccine centers https://news.yahoo.com/beutner-presses-l-schools-become-160012405.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr via @YahooNews

PROOF POINTS: Study of kindergarteners points to technology overuse - https://hechingerreport.org/?p=76567 by @jillbarshay on @hechingerreport

Education Matters: Europe says schools are vectors for spread. DCPS says we are wide open for business. - https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2021/01/europe-says-schools-are-vectors-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/iYxgC+(Education+Matters)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: The Drum Major Instinct | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-tdE via @dianeravitch

Former Flint Mayor Karen Weaver: It’s time for justice for Flint | Eclectablog - https://www.eclectablog.com/?p=72131

Big Education Ape: L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/la-schools-chief-wants-to-launch.html

Big Education Ape: Be True to Your School | Teacher in a strange land - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/be-true-to-your-school-teacher-in.html

Big Education Ape: A Word on the Special Session – Tennessee Education Report - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-word-on-special-session-tennessee.html

Big Education Ape: Whatever Happened to the National Teacher Corps? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/whatever-happened-to-national-teacher.html

Big Education Ape: MLK warned that colleges could produce ‘close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists’ - The Washington Post - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/mlk-warned-that-colleges-could-produce.html

Big Education Ape: Teacher Tom: Chaos or Community? - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/teacher-tom-chaos-or-community.html

Big Education Ape: NYC Educator: MLK and Making America Union Again - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/nyc-educator-mlk-and-making-america.html

Big Education Ape: WSJ: Europe Is Closing Down Schools for Fear of COVID Spread | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/wsj-europe-is-closing-down-schools-for.html

Big Education Ape: Education Matters: Last week there were 172 student cases, 88 staff cases and nothing but crickets from the district. - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/education-matters-last-week-there-were.html

Big Education Ape: On This Holiday Honoring Dr. King, Consider the Plight of Children Today in Pennsylvania’s Chester Upland School District | janresseger - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-this-holiday-honoring-dr-king.html

Big Education Ape: Letter from a Teacher to the Incoming Secretary of Education | Real Learning CT - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/letter-from-teacher-to-incoming.html

CURMUDGUCATION: A Really Bad Anti-Public School Analogy

by Mike Simpson / 15min

A Really Bad Anti-Public School Analogy You know I love a good analogy. I spent four decades trying to help people understand one thing by connecting it to some other thing. So I love a good analogy. This is not a good analogy. Nick Freitas is an army vet and Virginia politician, who served in the house of delegates before making a couple of unsuccessful runs for the US Congress (both House and

Student: “I Appreciate You Disciplining Me.” | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

by Mike Simpson / 15min

Student: “I Appreciate You Disciplining Me.” I expect my students to wear a school uniform shirt and an ID. It is my habit to check for these, and my students know so. Of course, that doesn’t mean they always comply. Last week, in one of my classes, I hit on a noncompliance bonanza of sorts. One had no school shirt. A second had no ID. A third had neither school shirt nor ID. So, out come the de

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

by Mike Simpson / 15min

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_16.html Must-Read NY Times Column On Miguel Cardona’s Experience As An ELL by Lar

YESTERDAY

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Well, Nothing Blew Up This Week Edition (1/17)

by Mike Simpson / 20h

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Well, Nothing Blew Up This Week Edition (1/17) Well, Nothing Blew Up This Week Edition Did we just get through a whole week without anything more than whingings based on the willful misunderstanding of the First Amendment and admittedly horrifying details from last week's insurrection? I feel like maybe we're having the equivalent of when someone screams in your ears and th

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Sunday, January 17, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #COVIDVACCINE #IMPEACHED #TWICE

by Mike Simpson / 20h

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Children’s Screen Time Has Soared in the Pandemic, Alarming Parents and Researchers - The New York Times -

Big Education Ape

L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort

L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort

SACRAMENTO — Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner is calling on state and local health officials to immediately allow the district to turn its more than 1,400 schools into Covid-19 vaccination sites, focusing on shots for teachers and school staff in what would become California's biggest education vaccine push.

California has prioritized teachers among vaccine recipients but left distribution up to counties, and there is no large-scale effort yet to inoculate school employees in the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom altered the state's vaccine course Wednesday when he announced residents 65 years and older could receive shots in a bid to accelerate vaccinations and protect a high-risk population.

It's unclear, however, when the bulk of the state's 300,000-plus teachers will have access. After Newsom paved the way for seniors, vaccinators began making appointments for older residents, but most have not yet allowed teachers or other non-health essential workers to get in line.

Beutner asked in a Monday letter to California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly and Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer to immediately authorize his school system — the second largest in the U.S. — to vaccinate its teachers and school staff.

"This will not only protect the health and safety of our essential employees but will provide enormous benefit to children and their families, leading to a faster reopening of schools and of the economy more broadly by enabling the working families we serve to go back to work," Beutner said in the letter.

California's 6 million schoolchildren have remained in distance learning for nearly a year, and it is becoming increasingly likely that teachers unions will demand CONTINUE READING: L.A. schools chief wants to launch California's largest teacher vaccine effort

Be True to Your School | Teacher in a strange land

Be True to Your School

It’s an early Saturday morning coffee-meeting on Zoom. All of us are teacher leaders—what we have in common is awards for our good teaching. What brings us together is a mutual commitment to supporting both public education in our state and the teachers who hold this threatened enterprise together.

Some of us have left the classroom after long careers and moved on to new challenges, but we know that our observations matter little on this day, as the American republic itself seems to be on shaky ground. What we want to know is: What are the kids saying? How are the kids doing? Are they OK?

Of course, they’re not.

Our colleagues working in the classroom talk of their utter mental and physical exhaustion—every week like the first week of school, instructional mastery honed over years now replaced by calling students at home to ask: Are you still in my class? Is anyone in your family sick? Do you have enough to eat?

All I can think is ‘Thank God students have teachers like these.’ Teachers who understand students’ context. Teachers who care. Teachers who are a bulwark against isolation and fear.

One of the teachers mentions talking with her students—cautiously, but necessarily— CONTINUE READING: Be True to Your School | Teacher in a strange land

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Small Things

Donors Choose Monday: Small Things

I have been trying to make a regular weekly attempt to give some small support to teachers on Donors Choose, a platform that allows teachers to solicit support for projects in their classroom. Not all schools allow their teachers to participate, and I wish there was a better way to find teachers who deserve a hand, but we work with what we've got.

Sometimes the asks are really small, simple things. The kinds of things that you'd hope school districts would fund themselves, but you already know how that goes. But I'm a big believer that small differences are what really move the needle in this world, especially from the perspective of the students who are getting the help.

So I have some small things for your consideration this week.

In Mount Airy, NC, Mrs. Fletcher is looking for bookmarks for her littles at Franklin Elementary School. It's not a big ask, but it struck a chord-- I remember how much I liked a really cool bookmark to stick in a book I was reading (it is possible that I have not outgrown this).

In Friendswood, TX, Ms. Gardner is looking for some help funding her cache of classroom treats and prizes for good work. As with many Donors Choose asks, you may be thinking, "Well, hell, all the teachers in the world self-fund their classroom prize store, and I agree. So let Ms. Gardner be a reminder and an inspiration, and help provide some teacher you know with some classroom rewards. And if you don't know a teacher who could use that, then help Ms. Gardner.

Also, I am shocked--okay, not shocked exactly, but disturbed--to see how many teachers are on Donors Choose asking for hand sanitizer, masks, basic PPE. I'm not going to put any of them up, but I am going to suggest that you could easily grab some extra of these items the next time you're shopping, and drop them off at a school near you. Should the school already be providing such things? Absolutely. But the need is still there. My old district stopped buying facial tissue a few decades ago, and many parents got in the habit of just sending a box into school with their child every so often. An absolute godsend.

CURMUDGUCATION: Donors Choose Monday: Small Things

Monday, January 18, 2021