4-9-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Video: Stephen Colbert On The Common Core

If you haven’t seen it already, check out Stephen Colbert’s clip from last night on the Common Core: The Colbert ReportGet More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive

by Larry Ferlazzo / 38min hide  //  save

Three Useful Posts On The “Flipped” Classroom

Here are three new additions to The Best Posts On The “Flipped Classroom” Idea: Modifying the Flipped Classroom: The “In-Class” Version is from Edutopia. Fixing the Flipped Classroom: @EDpuzzle is from Ed Tech Coaching. What ‘They’ Forgot to tell you When Flipping your Classroom is from Common Core and Ed Tech.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 38min 

Nice Growth Mindset Chart I Hadn’t Seen Before

I’m adding this to The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset”: Love this #GrowthMindset #Attitude pic.twitter.com/OWu0jGPuYF — Dr. Steve Gray (@sgray_NCSD) April 9, 2014

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

“What Are Dos and Don’ts of a Successful One-to-One Computing Program?”

What Are Dos and Don’ts of a Successful One-to-One Computing Program? is the latest “question-of-the-week” at my Education Week Teacher column. Response are welcome there or here….

by Larry Ferlazzo / 35min hide  //  save

Big News! Sacramento Withdraws From NCLB Waiver Granted CORE Districts

Photo: Sacramento City Teachers Association President Nikki Milevsky and School Board President Patrick Kennedy announce the District’s decision to withdraw from CORE I’ve written a lot about the awful decision made by the U.S. Department of Education to grant eight California school districts (known as CORE) a waiver from No Child Left Behind (see The Best Posts & Articles On The NCLB Waiver

by Larry Ferlazzo / 35min 

“Booktrack” Lets You Read Books With Soundtracks & Make Your Own

Booktrack Classroom has books in the public domain online to which they’ve added “soundtracks” — music, street sounds, etc. In addition, students can create their own soundtracks to books that they write. Even better, teachers can create virtual classrooms with assigned readings and/or to share their own creations. And, best of all, it’s free. You can read many of the books without having to regi

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9min 

My New BAM! Podcast Is Tragically Timely: “How Can We Help Students Handle Loss and Grief?”

Tragically, my brand new BAM! podcast is very timely with today’s stabbings in Pennsylvania. Mary Tedrow and Stephen Lazar join me in a ten minute conversation on How Can We Help Students Handle Loss and Grief? You might also find these resources useful: The Best Resources For Helping Students Deal With Grief The Best Resources On Talking With Children About Tragedies

by Larry Ferlazzo / 26min 

“Poverty-related Challenges Sap Instructional Time in High Schools”

Poverty-related Challenges Sap Instructional Time in High Schools is the headline of an article in Education Week on a new study that finds teachers in high-poverty schools like ours end up with thirty minutes of less instructional time each day than those in higher-income areas: Disruptions such as welcoming new students to the classrooms, and locking down the school during emergencies and drills

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h hide  //  save

Even More Resources On Rwandan Genocide

It’s the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, and here are even more additions to The Best Sites To Learn About Genocide In Rwanda: Remembering Rwandans Who Followed Their Conscience is from NPR. The Rwandan Genocide: 20 years later is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe. Here’s a video from NBC News:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

YESTERDAY

U.S. Department Of Ed Releases Useful Guide On Teaching Academic Language To ELLs

The What Works Clearinghouse at the U.S. Department of Education has just released an updated Guide for Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School. The recommendations are good ones, and it’s always nice to be able to tell one’s administrator that you’re following the recommendations of the U.S. Department of Education . Even though they say it’s f

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

4-8-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: The Best Posts & Videos About Sugata Mitra & His Education IdeasProfessor Sugata Mitra and is famous for his “holes in the wall” experiments where he placed computers in impoverished Indian communities and students “self-organized” their instruction. Professor Mitra was awarded the TED Prize last year, and expanded

by mike simpson / 8h 

House Passes HB1490 on Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog

House Passes HB1490 on Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog:

House Passes HB1490 on Common Core

inShare

For three years Representative Kurt Bahr has introduced legislation calling for a repeal of Common Core. Yesterday his legislation finally went somewhere. The House passed HB1490 by unanimous vote, but not before amending the bejeebers out of it.

It appears the plan was to add a number of different elements to appease the factions that had formed around the common core debate. Though everyone in the Capitol knew there are problems with Common Core, many of them remained stuck on their particular issue and would not support a repeal of the standards. Admittedly Bahr’s original bill was too narrow in scope to be effective and some changes were necessary. He filed a second bill HB1708 to correct some of those deficiencies, but 1490 became the vehicle that would move forward.

The big amendment came from Representative Bahr himself which would allow districts to continue to use all the new lesson plans they have been developing for the last couple of years that are aligned to Common Core while a review committee looks at the standards and provides the State Board of Education and the legislature with recommendations. This review board, it appears, would become a standing committee of the SBE and would consist of representatives from a number of stakeholders.

This addressed sticking point number 1, the sunk cost argument. Now districts would not feel that the time and money spent to date developing new curricula aligned to common core would be lost.

Representative Thomson added an amendment calling for teacher evaluations to remain in district personnel files and not be shared outside the district or with the state. Given that teacher  House Passes HB1490 on Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog:

4-9-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Major new study finds Connecticut Charter Schools discriminate

Connecticut Voices for Children, the New-Haven based, nationally recognized policy research organization has issued a major new report entitled, “Choice Watch: Diversity and Access in Connecticut’s School Choice Programs.” The CT Voices report is the most extensive, independent study that has been conducted about the performance of charter schools, magnet schools and other school choices […] The p

12 by jonpelto / 35min 

Hartford Courant story highlights bizarre effort to privatize Clark Elementary School.

A Hartford Courant article entitled, Hartford School Board Asks Education Commissioner To ‘Impose’ Turnaround Plan reveals some of the contradictions and bizarre actions taken by the Malloy administration, Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra, senior Hartford board of education officials, and corporate education reform industry advocacy groups in Hartford. The Hartford Courant reports, “Despite objections

12 by jonpelto / 2h 

4-8-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:   Trumbull postpones Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Testing for juniorsOnly 26 of Trumbull High School’s 530 juniors showed up to take last Friday’s Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Test of a test.  Earlier in the week, only 47 (less than 10 percent) of the town’s high school juniors participated in that day’s portion of the test. In response, Trumbull has postponed thi

by mike simpson / 8h 

4-9-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet:

How ‘colorblind’ education reform policies actually ignore racial inequality

A new critique of what are ostensibly “colorblind” education reform policies reveals that these initiatives are not, in fact, “colorblind,” and have the effect of perpetuating or replicating longtime patterns of race-based inequality. And it makes recommendations for policymakers that include promoting more diverse schools and encouraging inter-district transfers of students to promote diversity.

by Valerie Strauss / 18min 

An 8-year-old talks about test prep

Here is an online conversation that a Florida mom had with her 8-year-old daughter about school, standardized testing and test prep. The mother is Sandy Stenoff, a public school advocate in central Florida who has opposed the standardized test-based education reforms imposed in the state for years. This appeared on the Web site of Opt […]

by Valerie Strauss / 27min 

Live online education chat today

I’ll be doing a live education chat on washingtonpost.com at 1 p.m. today, so if you have any questions or comments about anything in education (or even marginally related), tune in here: http://live.washingtonpost.com/the-answer-sheet-20140409.html#submit-question Here’s a transcript of last week’s chat.

by Valerie Strauss / 24min 

Colbert’s hilarious ‘Common Core Confusion’

Stephen Colbert took on the Common Core State Standards on his “Colbert Report”  on Tuesday night, and it was hilarious. Here’s the video and below a partial transcript: The Colbert Report Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook   Here’s a partial transcript: It is no secret that President Barack […]

by Valerie Strauss / 17min

It just keeps getting worse

Just when you think this story can’t get any more awful, it does. Andrea Rediske’s effort to help families of children with severe disabilities has taken yet another frustrating turn. I’ve written several posts about Rediske’s long struggle with the Florida Department of Education over a requirement that her blind and severely brain-damaged son, Ethan, take […]

42 by Valerie Strauss / 5h

4-8-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet: Principals slam 2014 NY Common Core tests as badly designedStudents in New York have been taking state-mandated Common Core-aligned standard tests in English Language Arts in recent days and, for the second year in a row, educators are saying the tests — designed by the giant education company Pearson — were badly designed for the second straight year. Last year, the tests sparke

by mike simpson / 8h 

4-9-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

K12NN: American Statistical Association has just released a very important document on Value Added Methodologies

First published April 9, 2014 on K-12 News Network "The President of the United States and his Secretary of Education are violating one of the most fundamental principles concerning test use: Tests should be used only for the purpose for which they were developed. If they are to be used for some other purpose, then careful attention must be paid to whether or not this purpose is appropriate&

1 by Robert D. Skeels ... / 51min 

Duncan Lies to Congressional Subcommittee

Is Congress as stupid as Arne Duncan would like for them to be?  Team Obama has been pumping Common Core since Bill Gates became the real Secretary of Education in 2009.  Every state hoping for a chance at an RttT handout signed on to Common Core as a prerequisite for any chance to win.  Does Duncan really believe that his lies will save the doomed corporate testing delivery system that his team p

by Jim Horn / 1min 

Responding to Karin Klein of the LA Times' 'Why my family is opting out of the Common Core testing'

"The U.S. can do a much better job evaluating children, teachers and schools. That's why protests against standardized testing misuse and overuse are exploding across the nation."—FairTest The Los Angeles Times' long time school privatization cheerleader Karin Klein penned an interesting piece today entitled Why my family is opting out of the Common Core testing. The following is my resp

5 by Robert D. Skeels ... / 7h 

4-8-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Corporate Welfare Charter Schools--the Vampire Squid of Educationfrom Alan Singer at HuffPo:On Sunday, March 23, 2014 in a speechat Riverside Church in Manhattan, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, faced with declining public opinion poll numbers, made nice to charter school companies and their wealthy backers. He told congregants that his administration and the charter movement h

by mike simpson / 7h 

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:

Gutting of Florida’s Bright Futures Hurts Minority Students; A Sop to Testing Industry

Fresh off the story that Florida will have to pay Utah $5.4 million for piloting the state’s new tests comes news that Florida’s tremendously successful Bright Futures scholarship program will be gutted $126 million by 2017. Scott Travis provides this justification from a republican legislator in the Sun Sentinel: In 2008, one in three qualified; now it’s one in eight, according to the Florida Col

by Bob Sikes / 3h 

 

4-8-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education: Florida PTA: The Boogeyman Who Torments Step Up for StudentsDuring last year’s run-up to another failed parent trigger bid, House sponsor Rep. Carlos Trujillo attempted to marginalize PTA opponents of his bill as “there to bake cookies.” Trujillo’s problem – and that of

by mike simpson / 8h