Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Big Education Ape: 5-4-11 AM Teachers Rock Everyday Edition

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Tweeting Jo Anderson. « Fred Klonsky's blog

preaprez.wordpress.com - There was a tweet on the Catalyst-Chicago Twitter site that said, “Anderson: Unions’ survival depends on involvement in #edreform . Otherwise, unions that lose on “bread & butter” issues will be ir...

fklonsky

Timothy D. Slekar: The Shock Doctrine Case Study: Pennsylvania Public Schools

huffingtonpost.com - In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein pushes the concept of how the public can be manipulated during times of catastrophe or perceived crisis. Lately, it has been argued that the "financial crisis" is...

DianeRavitch

Teachers Question U.S. Education Secretary's Respect For Them

huffingtonpost.com - It may be Teacher Appreciation Week, but if online comments and blog posts indicate anything, some public school teachers don't feel the love from their employer, the federal government.On Monday, ...

coopmike48

Rahm still thinks there's a "miracle" down in Texas

michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - "The data shows that the longer you stay in the classroom learning, you'll learn more..." -- Rahm EmanuelWhile you mull that one over, I want to know who the genius was that told Chicago mayor-ele...

mikeklonsky

Students, teachers sweating high-stakes tests as parents rebel against constant prep

nydailynews.com - Pearl Gabel for News Erica Perez stands with her children Evangelina and Joseph who begin taking standardized tests this week. Many parents are concerned about the amount of time devoted to test pr...

mikeklonsky

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coopmike48 John Kasich's intentions are to bust Ohio's unions | Lancaster Eagle Gazette | lancastereaglegazette.com -http://goo.gl/gPzSnabout 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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#edu Read this paper 49 MORE ARTICLES

Shanker Blog » Mixed Messages

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Shanker Blog » Mixed MessagesMixed Messagesby Matthew Di CarloToday is National Teacher Appreciation Day, as well as National Teacher Appreciation Week. In various ways, millions of people are tha...

coopmike48

ACTION ALERT: Rally against Rhee, Scott Walker, and Tom Corbett!

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - ACTION ALERT: Rally against Rhee, Scott Walker, and Tom Corbett!ACTION ALERT: Rally against Rhee, Scott Walker, and Tom Corbett!by adminOppose the right-wing education trifecta: Scott Walker (Wisco...

coopmike48

The Education Report

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The Education ReportAn OUSD survey on working conditionsBy Katy MurphyTuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 2:54 pm in OEA, OUSD central office, elementary schools, environment, high schools, initiatives, midd...

coopmike48

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Education 135 MORE ARTICLES

The Ed Reform Backlash | Mother Jones

motherjones.com - Is a serious backlash against the ed reform community finally starting to form? Maybe. Here's Exhibit A. Here's Exhibit B. And of course, Diane Ravitch has been Exhibit C for a while now. These are...

DianeRavitch

In Honor of Teacher Appreciation Week: An Open Letter from Arne Duncan to America’s Teachers

ed.gov - I have worked in education for much of my life. I have met with thousands of teachers in great schools and struggling schools, in big cities and small towns, and I have a deep and genuine appreciat...

leoniehaimson

Writer: Toxic reform movement demonizes teachers | Rhode Island news projo.com

projo.com - Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch speaks with Governor Chafee in Providence Tuesday. The Providence Journal / John Freidah PROVIDENCE — To Diane Ravitch, one of the nation’...

DianeRavitch

Politics 18 MORE ARTICLES

Bin Laden news gives Obama 11% approval bump - Political Hotsheet

cbsnews.com - (Credit: CBS/AP) A new CBS News/New York Times poll shows President Obama's overall approval rating has jumped by an impressive 11 percentage points in the wake of the U.S. military mission which k...

mikeklonsky

Three McGill Undergrads Elected to Canada’s Parliament. Really. « Student Activism

studentactivism.net - Four McGill students, including the co-presidents of the university’s New Democratic Party Club, were elected to serve in Canada’s national parliament last night. The National Democratic Party, lon...

leoniehaimson

Cheney urges vigilance: "We're still at war"

latimes.com - Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Americans have "got to stay on our guard. We're still at war." Interviewed on Fox News Channel, Cheney, who, as part of the George W. Bush adminis...

mikeklonsky

Art & Entertainment 14 MORE ARTICLES

Jon Stewart reacts to Osama bin Laden’s death - BlogPost

washingtonpost.com - Jon Stewart. (Astrid Riecken - FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) Jon Stewart didn’t seem conflicted about his feelings over the death of Osama bin Laden on last night’s “The Daily Show.” “I suppose I should...

DianeRavitch

The Mind Of A Bronx Teacher 05/03 by Bronx Teacher

blogtalkradio.com - On April 18, 2011 Leonie Haimson, President of Class Size Matters (http://www.classsizematters.org/), and Parents Across America (http://parentsacrossamerica.org/) wrote a stunning and spot on trea...

leoniehaimson

Tweeting Jo Anderson. « Fred Klonsky's blog

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Tweeting Jo Anderson. « Fred Klonsky's blogTweeting Jo Anderson.by Fred KlonskyThere was a tweet on the Catalyst-Chicago Twitter site that said, “Anderson: Unions’ survival depends on involvement i...

coopmike48

Stories 10 MORE ARTICLES

We DO Make a Difference!(No Matter What You’ve Heard) « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - We DO Make a Difference!(No Matter What You’ve Heard) « Diary of a Public School Teacher!We DO Make a Difference!(No Matter What You’ve Heard)Just before Spring Break, I asked my 5th graders if an...

coopmike48

A Restraint On The Patriotism, Please | The Jose Vilson

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - A Restraint On The Patriotism, Please | The Jose VilsonA Restraint On The Patriotism, Pleaseby JoseI stood in my classroom on Monday morning, worn out from awaiting President Barack Obama’s announc...

coopmike48

Fishing with the Governor? Yes! Workers’ Fishing Opener AND Boat Parade, Lake Wissota Wisconsin

bluecheddar.wordpress.com - by bluecheddar Would you like to enjoy a flotilla of solidarity and fishing near beautiful Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin? On Saturday May 7, supporters of union rights will enjoy a Wisconsin fishing op...

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Historic moment sparks conversations in local schools | Democrat and Chronicle

democratandchronicle.com - Talking to children about bin Laden The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry offers tips on its website for talking to children about war and terrorism that Dr. David Garrison, medic...

mikeklonsky

You Are More Likely To Drown Than Die From A Terrorist Attack | Resurgence

bigthink.com - A friend of mine sent me a text message yesterday. “Should we be worried about retaliation?” I was in the middle of something, so I gave her a one word reply. “Yep.” It wasn’t until later that I th...

coopmike48

Argentine Teachers Blockade Oil Fields

modeducation.blogspot.com - digg_url="http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2011/05/argentine-teachers-blockade-oil-fields.html"; Teachers in the Santa Cruz region of Argentina are blockading roads to the oilfields, disrupting ...

coopmike48

Business 2 MORE ARTICLES

2nd UPDATE: DC, 11 States Named In Suit Against Education Management

online.wsj.com - (Updates to clarify role of states in whistleblower lawsuit in headline, first, third, sixth and seventh paragraphs.) NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--A day after Education Management Corp. (EDMC) disclosed t...

coopmike48

Today's Teamster News 05.04.11

teamsternation.blogspot.com - NH Teamsters Call on Lawmakers to Heed the Public IBT ...Teamsters Local 633 Principal Officer Dave Laughton today urged state lawmakers to listen to their constituents and vote against a right-...

coopmike48

Imagine If the Unemployed Helped Run the Fed

fdlaction.firedoglake.com - Imagine if five of the 12 voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee were selected exclusively by unemployed Americans, instead of the current system of having them chosen by rich bank exe...

coopmike48

The Education Report

An OUSD survey on working conditions

By Katy Murphy
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 2:54 pm in OEA, OUSD central office, elementary schools, environment, high schools, initiatives, middle schools, teachers
4 Comments »

Oakland teachers, counselors, principals and other credentialed school-based staff: Friday is the deadline for completing an anonymous online survey about what it’s like to work at each school in the district.

How much time do you spend on various tasks during the school day? Outside of the regular school day? Are efforts made at your school to minimize interruptions, or routine paperwork? How much time do you have to collaborate with other teachers?

The results will be published online, by school, in June — that is, as long as the response rate is at least 50 percent for a given school. If not, those schools will be omitted from the results. Read the rest of this entry »

California Grad Students Sit Down for Union Democracy | Labor Notes

California Grad Students Sit Down for Union Democracy

by Barry Eidlin | Tue, 05/03/2011 - 3:05pm

When incumbent leaders of the graduate student union at the University of California stopped the vote count, fearing they'd lose, members of a reform caucus responded yesterday with sit-downs at union headquarters. Photo: Chris Schildt.

Update! This afternoon the UAW Local 2865 election committee agreed to resume the vote count on Thursday, with a neutral mediator in attendance and safeguards for a fair count. Members of the reform caucus say they will continue their sit-in through the count.

Afraid you might lose the vote? Stop the count and run. That’s what incumbent leaders did in United Auto Workers Local 2865, representing 12,000 graduate student workers at the University of California.

Members of the reform caucus Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU) are staging sit-downs at their union headquarters in Berkeley and Los Angeles, demanding that their union resume the vote count immediately.

A heated election, the first real contested one in the union’s 11-year history, pitted incumbent leaders, organized as United for Social and Economic Justice (USEJ) again

“Involvement or Engagement?” | Engaging Parents In School...

“Involvement or Engagement?”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Involvement or Engagement? is the title of my lead article in this month’s issue of ASCD Education Leadership.

Schools, Families, Communities is the theme of the entire issue, which has some very useful parent engagement articles.

I’ve also written a related blog post for ASCD In Service.

The Most Effective Thing I’ve Done To Prepare Students For Standardized Tests | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Good Collection Of Web 2.0 Tools Edublogs has created a site and effort called Teacher Challenge. It has a ton of resources, including tutorials and lesson ideas on using twenty-one (the number is growing) Web 2.0 tools. I’m adding it to The Best Collections Of Web 2.0 Tools For ...

A Few More Links About bin Laden Here are a few more additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Osama bin Laden: Closing in on bin Laden is an interactive from The Washington Post. Bin Laden’s Last Hour, Mapped is an infographic. A Photo Timeline of Al-Qaeda Attacks is from ...

The Most Effective Thing I’ve Done To Prepare Students For Standardized Tests We’ve recently begun our two week session of state testing. I’ve written many posts about preparing for these tests (see The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad)). Unfortunately, because of space limitations, the ...

A Couple Of Good Bloom’s Taxonomy Resources Here are two new additions to The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom: Teaching with the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy from Northern Illinois Universityhas some very nice hand-outs. A Model of Learning Objectives ...

Student aid cuts to generate half of expected savings | California Watch

Student aid cuts to generate half of expected savings

by Erica Perez

Erica Perez

Harrison Keely/Flickr

A new California law that cuts off Cal Grants to colleges whose students default on federal loans at high rates will produce less than half of the previously expected budget savings – thanks to a data mix-up by the U.S. Department of Education.

An analysis of the new, corrected data released April 21 by the department shows the state will save an estimated $8 million, rather than the previously expected $19 million savings, said analyst Judy Heiman of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

The new rule signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on March 24 aimed to save money while also penalizing

Charter schools willing to be held accountable to higher standards | Thoughts on Public Education

Charter schools willing to be held accountable to higher standards
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Posted on 5/04/11 • Categorized as Charters

By Jed Wallace

When charter school operators accept the challenge of opening a new school, they do so knowing that every five years they must demonstrate high levels of student progress in order to keep their doors open. The renewal process – the process that all charter schools go through every five years, during which they are required to show their authorizing entity how they have met the performance benchmarks outlined in their charter documents – is a hallmark of the charter school movement. It shows how charter schools embrace the fundamental charter school proposition: higher levels of accountability than are found in other public schools in exchange for higher levels of autonomy and flexibility.

The charter school movement in California is experiencing a period of positive momentum, with unprecedented numbers of new schools opening, promising trends in overall academic performance, and an impressive increase in the awareness of and support for charters from

Jersey Jazzman: Crazy Talk

Crazy Talk

by Duke

E.D. Kain is talking crazy talk!

Okay, for the sake of argument let’s accept each of Matt’s premises here. Let’s say that Last In, First Out and seniority and compensation schemes based on experience and education don’t make sense (even though much of this is unofficial practice in many other industries). Even accepting these premises I fail to see how implementing a complicated, controversial, financially burdensome and ultimately counterproductive testing regime is the correct answer to getting rid of the bad teachers while attracting good people to the profession.
Here is my alternative plan: make teaching fun and rewarding. Treat teachers as

NYC Educator: The New Spirit of the DOE

The New Spirit of the DOE

by NYC Educator

It's a new day in NYC. We have a new chancellor, who's publicly declared that he will not say anything bad about teachers. I'm certain you won't hear him do so. Walcott is a seasoned politician, and anyway, he's got the NY Post to do all the dirty work.

Even so, when you read this, about the DOE's determination to release value-added scores of highly dubious value, you have to wonder why in the world anyone would trust them. I'm sure I questioned the UFT's wisdom in making a deal to study value-added at the time, what with it having no validity whatsoever, and the DOE has made me a genius by reneging utterly on the deal.

Regrettably, we have a history of making ridiculous deals with the DOE, perhaps most egregiously this utterly unenforceable class size agreeement. I am hopeful that we will refrain from making any further such deals, as both demonstrate that the DOE is simply not

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm still thinks there's a "miracle" down in Texas

Rahm still thinks there's a "miracle" down in Texas

by Mike Klonsky

"The data shows that the longer you stay in the classroom learning, you'll learn more..." -- Rahm Emanuel

While you mull that one over, I want to know who the genius was that told Chicago mayor-elect Rahm Emanuelthat Houston schools were really great? It must have been one of the billionaire experts on the corporate-reform education team. David Vitale? Penny Pritzger? Or maybe Emanuel ran into former ed secretary Rod Paigeback in D.C., who told him there was a "Texas Miracle." That b.s. story actually propelled former Texas GovernorGeorge Bush into the White House in 2000 along with former Houston superintendent Paige as his ed

Have you thanked your teachers on National Teachers’ Day? « State of Emergency

Have you thanked your teachers on National Teachers’ Day?

by billguy

As I work today to help our wonderful California teachers and CTA members get ready for next week’s State of Emergency Week activities, I find myself inspired by the ways that so many of my former teachers where I grew up in Oklahoma touched my life. It moves me even more to encourage CTA members and my CTA staff colleagues to redouble our efforts to improve funding for public education here in California.

I’m so thankful for these former teachers: Thank you Mrs. Henry for helping me begin to love learning in the 4th grade. Thank you Mr. Allen for encouraging me to join band in the 5th grade, helping me enjoy a lifetime love of music. Thank you Mr. Holman for helping me begin to “Habla Espanol” in junior high. Thank you Mrs. Cagle for

Escondido Elementary Education Association Website Highlights State of Emergency

by billguy

Check out the Escondido Elementary Education Association’s website.

They have done an awesome job of highlighting the State of Emergency, with lots of information and links to opportunities and resources.

EEEA members will be conducting a “teach in” at Escondido’s North County Fair Mall on Tuesday, May 10, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. to help educate the public about teachers’ jobs and the current state of public education in California.

Way to go Escondido!