The week in coveducation: School employee dies, two teachers resign, site hacked

The week in coveducation: School employee dies, two teachers resign, site hacked

The week in coveducation: School employee dies, two teachers resign, site hacked

School districts throughout Oklahoma are back in session while adjusting to and dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ongoing tracking has confirmed COVID-19 cases at 200 school districts around the state, including the death of a staff member at Mustang Public Schools.

The following is a brief recap of reporting done by Oklahoma news outlets over the past week regarding the intersection of education and COVID-19, as well as other top education storylines.

COVID cases confirmed at 200 school districts

According to ongoing tracking from Robby Korth of State Impact Oklahoma, more than 200 school districts in the state are reporting cases of COVID-19. This includes more than 230 students, teachers and staff testing positive for CONTINUE READING: The week in coveducation: School employee dies, two teachers resign, site hacked

CURMUDGUCATION: School Choice Is Not For Those People

CURMUDGUCATION: School Choice Is Not For Those People

School Choice Is Not For Those People

Choice fans promote the idea as one the provides each family with the school of their dreams. Everyone, declares Betsy DeVos, should have a school that provides the right fit. 

Well, almost everybody. Two recent stories underline that what families can choose is what the folks in charge of the marketplace decide they can choose.

In Indiana, a lawsuit has emerged from one of several incidents of private Catholic schools firing gay teachers for being gay. In September, the feds entered the lawsuit on the side of the schools. Their argument, which has percolated up in several different contexts, is that discriminating against certain groups falls under the school's First Amendment rights. A religious organization, argues the government, should not have to hire anyone whose beliefs don't match the organization's. So canning any LGBTQ teachers is totally okay, as far as the feds are concerned. 

The message to LGBTQ students could not be clearer--"we don't want your kind here." 

And if that wasn't clear enough, Alabama has been making it clearer. Back in January, an application from Birmingham AIDS Outreach to open up an LGBTQ charter school was turned down by the Birmingham school board. Alabama has a Public [sic] Charter School Commission  that stands ready CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: School Choice Is Not For Those People

How Is Distance Learning Going At Sac City Schools? Depends Who You Ask. - capradio.org

How Is Distance Learning Going At Sac City Schools? Depends Who You Ask. - capradio.org

How Is Distance Learning Going At Sac City Schools? Depends Who You Ask

Children in the Sacramento City Unified School District started the school year with no clear plan for distance learning during the pandemic, following an impasse between the teachers union and administrators over a contract.

As a result, schooling got off to a rocky start for many of the district’s 42,000 students and their families. But parents say the online learning experience varies from school-to-school. 

For Alina Cervantes, education couldn’t have started better for her two kids at Phoebe Hearst Elementary in East Sacramento, aside from a hiccup her younger child had logging on to a zoom classroom. 

“So far, so good,” Cervantes said, adding that she clocked more than 4 hours of live instruction time where teachers played music for kids, prompted journal exercises and initiated break out rooms for peer-to-peer learning. 

“Our teachers are so masterful,” she said.  

Gwynnae Byrd had a different story. She has 16-year-old twins, one of whom attends Kennedy High School, and the other C.K McClatchy. They were on different schedules Tuesday.  

While her daughter at McClatchy started on the 8:20 a.m. schedule from district administrators, her son wasn’t able to connect with his teacher until 10 a.m. 

Byrd said at this early stage, she hasn’t formed an opinion about the quality of education her kids are receiving under distance learning, but she’s concerned that  “things are still in such disarray” with the school district. 

The school district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association are in a “fact-finding” phase in order to reach an agreement about a distance learning plan, which could take months, CONTINUE READING: How Is Distance Learning Going At Sac City Schools? Depends Who You Ask. - capradio.org

Big Education Ape: Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 1 in Distance Learning 2020 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/09/reflections-on-teaching-blog-archive.html

UPDATE: Richard Phelps Reviews Michelle Rhee’s “Reforms,” Ten Years Later, Part 1 & Part 2 | Diane Ravitch's blog

Richard Phelps Reviews Michelle Rhee’s “Reforms,” Ten Years Later, Part 1 | Diane Ravitch's blog

Richard Phelps Reviews Michelle Rhee’s “Reforms,” Ten Years Later, Part 1

A decade ago, Richard Phelps was assessment director of the District of Columbia Public Schools. His time in that position coincided with the last ten months of Michelle Rhee’s tenure in office. When her patron Adrian Fenty lost the election for Mayor, Rhee left and so did Phelps.

Phelps writes here about what he learned while trying to improve the assessment practices of the DC Public Schools. He posts his overview in two parts, and this is part 1. The second part will appear in the next post.

Rhee asked Phelps to expand the VAM program–the use of test scores to evaluate teachers and to terminate or reward them based on student scores.

Phelps described his visits to schools to meet with teachers. He gathered useful ideas about how to make the assessments more useful to teachers and students.

Soon enough, he learned that the Central Office staff, including Rhee, rejected all the ideas he collected from teachers and imposed their own ideas instead.

He writes: CONTINUE READING: Richard Phelps Reviews Michelle Rhee’s “Reforms,” Ten Years Later, Part 1 | Diane Ravitch's blog

Richard Phelps Reviews Michelle Rhee’s Reforms, Part 2 | Diane Ravitch's blog - https://wp.me/p2odLa-rOk via @dianeravitch

Nancy Bailey's Education Website – Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

Nancy Bailey's Education Website – Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

Impact of President Trump’s Covid-19 Deception on Public Schools

The chief function of a President is to make responsible decisions and to keep Americans safe, especially children and society’s most vulnerable. Bob Woodward, in his new book Rage tells of a president who was publicly playing down the coronavirus threat without acknowledging the severity of the virus, which has now claimed over 190,000 American lives.

The President understood the danger to the American public when he twitted:

Democrats, OPEN THE SCHOOLS (SAFELY), NOW! When schools are closed, let the money follow the child (FAMILY). Why should schools be paid when they are closed? They shouldn’t.

President Trump, and his accomplice, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, know the dangers of the virus to children, teachers, and parents. Yet, instead of keeping children safe, they use Covid-19 to promote their school choice plan. They intentionally ignore the threat to children and teachers.

DeVos recently said:

You were disappointed last spring when your kids couldn’t finish the school year with their friends. You tried your best to step up to the plate and become a full-time teacher CONTINUE READING: Nancy Bailey's Education Website – Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

Silver Lining: My Students Are Okay with Wearing Masks. | deutsch29

Silver Lining: My Students Are Okay with Wearing Masks. | deutsch29

Silver Lining: My Students Are Okay with Wearing Masks.

This past week was my first with students since the pandemic hit.

So much is in flux, including whether my district will continue with the hybrid model for middle and high school given that Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, announced Louisiana’s shift into Phase 3 (“with restrictions”) just as we are getting accustomed to the Phase 2 hybrid schedule.

Meanwhile, southern Louisiana is under yet another hurricane watch.

As of this writing, I do not know if I will be at school on Monday because of the approaching storm. Also, I do not know if next Monday, I will have a classroom full of students (with social distancing not possible) as opposed to the hybrid arrangement in which I am able to place student desks six feet apart. But here is what I do know:

The students at my school are overwhelmingly compliant with the mandate to wear masks.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am about their willingness to comply with the mask requirement, which the governor is keeping in place during Phase 3.

The governor’s order also includes adhering to social distancing guidelines, which is not possible if I must have 24 students in the room at one time and all 1,600 students on our school campus each day. Our state superintendent, Cade Brumley, assumes “more students” will “return to campus” as we “transition” to CONTINUE READING: Silver Lining: My Students Are Okay with Wearing Masks. | deutsch29

Reflections on Teaching » Week 1 in Distance Learning 2020

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 1 in Distance Learning 2020

Week 1 in Distance Learning 2020

I used to do a weekly review of my week in the classroom and before that, the computer lab. I thought it might be a good time to revive that practice.

First, some background. I am teaching a fourth grade classroom that is largely comprised of students I had last year in third grade. This is my first time teaching fourth grade in a long time, but it’s after two years teaching third grade, and a lotta years teaching sixth and fifth grade. Doing a “loop” up with my kiddos and their families is a great opportunity in a situation like distance learning, so I consider myself fortunate, and I hope that my families appreciate having someone that knows them, and that they know.

This week started with a lot of chaos and confusion around scheduling that I will not belabor, but since the start time was the same and I had already established solid contact with my families, so I had 90% attendance, and have run about the same since then. I do have some concerns (which I won’t go into, privacy) but I have a supportive admin who is aware of them, etc.

Here are some tips based on this week (and prior experience last year):

1. Start with bell-work, do now, or some other piece of work that they can begin working on as class starts and they come in. We’re supposed to be doing an SEL activity, and I am doing meditation. This doesn’t work if you have kids dropping in a minute or two late (and you will) as you’re doing a focusing meditation. This gives students 5 minutes or so to “file in”. In a normal class, I’d do 10-15 minutes for this, but time is too valuable in a Zoom classroom, I move on and tell them to finish it later during our independent work time or as homework. I’m doing Daily Language Review and Daily Cursive Practice with my kids. My kids were used to DLR and CONTINUE READING: Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 1 in Distance Learning 2020

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the 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

A VERY BUSY DAY

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/2020/09/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_12.html

“Rank Country” Is A Great Site For Comparing Demographic Data Among Countries

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22min

Rank Country is a very impressive – and I mean very impressive – new tool for comparing demographic data from different countries. Here’s how they describe themselves: Research country data as never before. Powerfully insightful world maps and country list data visualizations. Search thousands of country-based indicators across all categories of the built and natural world. Interactively overlay

Building Trust With Students In A Distance Learning Environment

by Larry Ferlazzo / 39min

geralt / Pixabay Relationships are key in any kind of teaching situation (see The Best Resources On The Importance Of Building Positive Relationships With Students ), and developing trust is a key part of that (see The Best Posts About Trust & Education ). Last week, I wrote about one of the key strategies I’m using in a full time distance learning environment (see “Individual Meetings” Are THE B

Pins Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 7h

I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 22,000 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 MOST POPULAR PINS OF 2020 – PAR

The Importance Of Stretch Breaks For Students – & Teachers – During Distance Learning

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8h

I suspect a lot of teachers are already doing this, but I have to admit that in the midst of the chaotic first week of distance learning, I didn’t even think about instituting regular stretch breaks in classes before I saw this USA Today article: School at home: How to keep attending virtual classes from being a real pain in the neck. Students seem to appreciate the one minute stretch break mid-w

Sunday’ Must-Read Articles & Must-Watch Videos On School Reopening

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

Awaix_Mughal / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Teachers unions around the world clash with governments over coronavirus and school reopening plans is from The Washington Post. Will This Be a Lost Year for America’s Children? is from The NY Times.

Video: “What Pizza Is Like Around the World”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

igorovsyannykov / Pixabay This new fun video could inspire class projects to examine international varieties of other common foods. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures ;

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART ONE and THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART TWO. A

Infographic: “Global Wildlife Populations Suffer Catastrophic Collapse”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Peggy_Marco / Pixabay A new report came out this week with catastrophic news about animals. I’m adding this infographic to The Best Resources For World Biodiversity Day (& Endangered Species Day) : You will find more infographics at Statista

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier date), I will also include the top five posts that have actually appeared in th

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