7-25-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?:

Wait What? 

Looking for a place to sign a Pelto/Murphy 2014 Petition this weekend

[Just back often - additional locations will be added] Saturday July 26th Storrs Starbucks: 8-9:30am and 10:00 – 11:00am 1244 Storrs Rd., Storrs, CT   Rocky Hill Starbucks 10-noon 412 Cromwell Ave, Rocky Hill, CT    West Hartford Barnes & Noble: 10:30- noon Blue Back Square, 60 Isham Road, West Hartford, CT    Manchester Barnes […] The post Looking for a place to sign a Pelto/Murphy 2014 Petit

4 by jonpelto / 41min 

What is this race for Governor all about – take a look at the new article from In These Times

I recently conducted an interview with Cole Stangler, a reporter for “In These Times.” Although not everyone reads “In These Times,” they should. Kurt Vonnegut once said, “If it weren’t for In These Times, I’d be a man without a country.” In These Times was created by author and historian James Weinstein in 1976.  His goal was […] The post What is this race for Governor all about – take a look at

19 by jonpelto / 2h 

7-24-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?: Wait What? A call for action – A request for helpWhether the voters of Connecticut get the option of voting for a candidate other than Dannel “Dan” Malloy or Tom Foley/John McKinney depends on whether we collect a sufficient number of signatures by the August 6th 2014 Deadline to get on the November Ballot! We have less than two weeks to reach our goal and […] The post A call for actio

by mike simpson / 7h

7-25-14 Answer Sheet

Answer Sheet:

Chris Christie to mayor: ‘I’m the decider and you have nothing to do with it’

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is consistent — at least when it comes to espousing total  indifference to what Newark residents want for their state-operated public school system. Christie just bragged (see video below) that he told new Newark Mayor Ras Baraka that Baraka’s views on education reform don’t matter a whit — and […]

1 by Valerie Strauss / 1h 

Actually, practice doesn’t always make perfect — new study

How many times have you heard that “practice makes perfect?” Well, a new meta-analysis of dozens of previous studies shows that it is not always true. In this post, Alfie Kohn explains and talks about the consequences of this when it comes to education. Kohn  is the author of 13 books about education and human […]

by Valerie Strauss / 47min 

Five U.S. innovations that helped Finland’s schools improve but that American reformers now ignore

Finnish educator and scholar Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and educational practices. The author of the best-selling “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?”and a former director general of Finland’s Center for International Mobility and Cooperation, Sahlberg is now a visiting professor of […]

by Valerie Strauss / 42min 

7-24-14 Answer Sheet

Answer Sheet: The problem with how we talk about poverty and kidsEllie Herman has had a very interesting career. For two decades she was a writer/producer for television shows including “The Riches,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Chicago Hope” and “Newhart.” Her fiction has appeared in literary journals, among them The Massachusetts Review, The Missouri Review and the O.Henry Awards Collection. In 2007

by mike simpson / 7h 

7-25-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Lily Gives Arne a Big Hug

From MicroSoftNBC:Despite the education secretary’s outwardly nonchalant reaction to the NEA vote [calling for his resignation], García says he seemed “hurt” and “surprisingly confused.” In her estimation, he didn’t realize the level of anger he had conjured up. “Arne Duncan is not a bad man,” she said. “I think he sincerely believes this stuff.” Despite their differences, says García, they ended

2 by Jim Horn / 1h 

Behning's Corporate School Money Still Flowing

by Doug Martin (See the important note at the end of this article. Patrick Lockhart is running against Behning, and needs your support.  Here is his facebook page.  Spread it wide.  It is time to take this to a truly grassroots level.  Pass this article on to your neighbors, your community members and leaders and to the people in Lockhart’s district, many of them in Indianapolis.  It is time to s

36 by Doug Martin / 1h hide  //  save

Haslam's Secret Meeting at Ground Zero of Secret Classroom Camera Project

Last year we were able to uncover details of a Gates-funded student and teacher surveillance plan that gathered classroom video data and dumped it into a corporate Cloud for sharing among, who knows?Now it seems Governor Haslam is meeting undercover with a group of "educators" in Washington County to find out "what works and what's not."  Wonder if the Gov plans to keep it all

2 by Jim Horn / 1h 

Getting to Know KnowledgeWorks, Part 1

Soon after Ted Strickland (D) was elected Governor of Ohio in 2006, he announced that he would rely on the expertise of the KnowledgeWorks foundation to "help shape his administration's education agenda."  Really not surprising, since the CEO for KnowledgeWorks, Chad Wick, served as transition team leader following Strickland's election.  What does Wick, an investment banker, know about

1 by Jim Horn / 2h 

7-24-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Our overall scores are unspectacular because of our high rate of child poverty. (WSJ)Test Scores, Students and LearningOur overall scores are unspectacular because of our high rate of child poverty.Published in the Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2014.When researchers control for the effect of poverty, American scores on international tests are at the top of the world. Our overall sc

by mike simpson / 7h 

7-25-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

July’s Best Tweets — Part Four

Every month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can

by Larry Ferlazzo / 42min 

Almost Done With My Third Book On Helping Students Develop Intrinsic Motivation!

I’m about two-thirds down with the third book in my series on helping students develop intrinsic motivation, and I think it’s looking pretty good. I might be biased, though Its tentative title is Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies for Teaching Resilience, Respect, and Responsibility , and Routledge should have it published by next Spring. In the meantime, though, feel f

by Larry Ferlazzo / 37min 

“Race To The Top Was A ‘Wasted Opportunity’”

Race To The Top Was A ‘Wasted Opportunity’ is my latest Education Week Teacher post, and comes on the fifth anniversary of the unveiling of that program. Today, educators John Kuhn and Gary Rubinstein provide response to this question. On Monday, I’ll be publishing guest responses from several more educators, as well as comments from readers. Here are some excerpts:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 7min 

Videos: “Forward Thinking Transfer Of Learning” With James Bond

© 2011 Johan Oomen, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I promise – this will be my last Transfer of Learning post for the day! Two kinds of transfers of learning are called “backward-reaching” and “forward-thinking.” In “backward-reaching,” you’re applying what you have previously learned to a new situation — that’s what was demonstrated in the Karate Kid and MacGyver videos I posted earlier today. In

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h 

7-24-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy© 2012 Shutter Stutter, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some recent useful posts on educational policy issues: The Teacher Dropout Crisis is from NPR. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The Importance Of Teacher (& Student) Wo

by mike simpson / 7h 

7-25-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

About the radio show

Join Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar 

LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST 

on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. 

Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. 

You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursday at 7PM EST.

Visit the @ the Chalk Face radio main page for more information on the show and syndication.

Drawing Upon Paul Tough to Nurture Soft Skills Not “Grit”

It is always reassuring to read about pedagogies developed in the classroom being later determined to be based on scientific principles documented by academic researchers. That is one reason why I was so impressed with Paul Tough’s New York Times Magazine article, “Who Gets to Graduate?” Tough’s article was published this spring and I immediately […]

4 by John Thompson 

Vaunted Garfield High School has a problem with sexual assault

From Al-Jazeera America. According to the article, mishandling sexual assault cases is pretty common in public schools and in higher education. There’s certainly an abundance of evidence out there for that. But I was surprised to hear that the venerable catalysts of nationwide test boycotts, Garfield High School, bungled this one. That’s a shame. The […]

2 by Shaun Johnson / 40min 

7-24-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: About the radio showJoin Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursd

by mike simpson / 6h 

7-22-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: BATS- Finding a Teacher Voice

With A Brooklyn Accent:

BATS- Finding a Teacher Voice

If there is a single contribution that BATS has made in the one year of its existence, it is to show the powers that be that public school teachers- in all their diversity and variety-- are not a silent, compliant group who can be demonized, standardized, scripted, deprived of due process, and forced to commit professional malpractice at the expense of the students and families they serve without

by Mark Naison / 4h 

7-22-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Four Reasons Why I Am Pumped Up About the BATS March on Washington

With A Brooklyn Accent: Four Reasons Why I Am Pumped Up About the BATS March on Washington1. It is a celebration of the creativity of public school teachers, parents and students as well as a protest with songs, plays, flash mobs, banners, poems and chants. What it is NOT, is a litany of boring speeches.2. It is a multiracial event which show cases our movement's growing strength in the inner city

by mike simpson / 8h 

7-25-14 The Whole Child Blog — What Happens When You Believe

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:

What Happens When You Believe

I was recently asked if I remember teachers or educators that made a difference in my life and learning and how they inspired me. Yes, for a while I was that "middle" kid. I was your student who came diligently every day to class, completes their work, and if given the choice, would have been perfectly happy blending into the background. I was eager about the world's possibilities (which

by Dawn Imada Chan / 1h 

7-24-14 The Whole Child Blog — History for Its Own Sake, and For All of Our Sakes

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education: History for Its Own Sake, and For All of Our SakesPost written by Kerry Dunne and Christopher Martell Recent national media attention on attempts by school districts to fold history and social studies into broader humanities programs has brought attention to the role of history education in today schools. This begs the question: Is the study of history

by mike simpson / 7h 

7-25-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

How Much Money Is Tenure Worth?

Economist Allison Schrager is quoted over at Yahoo putting forth the idea that tenure is worth cold hard cash.Certainly this is not the first time the idea has been introduced. She Who Will Not Be Named tried in DC to introduce a plan to have a non-tenure big-buck track. This failed to get traction, perhaps because it's hard not to see trading tenure for big bucks as being synonymous with trading

14 by Peter Greene / 1h hide  //  save

Memo to Three-Year-Old Slackers

To: American Three-Year-OldsFrom: America's Education Reform Thought Leaders'Re: Get to work, you lazy slackersIt has come to our attention that your older brothers and sisters have been showing up to Kindergarten completely unprepared for the requirements of a rigorous education. It is time to nip this indolent behavior in the bud. You probably don't even know what 'indolent" means, do you?

74 by Peter Greene / 1h 

No Shocking News About Principals In Study

In all of public education, is there a job that has gotten worse in past years than that of principals? And yes-- there are many, many truly terrible principals out there. How surprising is that, really? Who would want to sign up for a job that provides all of the responsibility with none of the power and the absolute guarantee that somebody in your district will be hating pretty much every decisi

6 by Peter Greene / 2h 

7-24-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: Racing to the Bottom: The New School Leadership ChallengeAs the assault on public education continues, school leaders face an unprecedented challenge-- how to win the race to the bottom without being too obvious about it.Occasionally, somebody notices that a district is becoming too successful in trashing its own mission. Just this week in Indianapolis, members of the school board

by mike simpson / 7h