Save Our Schools From Coronavirus Budget Cuts | gadflyonthewallblog

Save Our Schools From Coronavirus Budget Cuts | gadflyonthewallblog

Save Our Schools From Coronavirus Budget Cuts

America is one dumbass country.

We don’t do the metric system.

We don’t do universal healthcare.

And during a global pandemic, we don’t demand the government pay us to stay home and stop the spread of the disease.

Instead, we demand the government let us go out and get sick.

It should come as no surprise, then, that we deeply under-fund our public schools.

There’s always money for a new war or to subsidize fossil fuels or give billionaires another tax cut, but when it comes to teaching kids how to think critically about their world – time to take out the scissors and slash some budgets.

And now with the inevitable loss of taxes after shutting down the economy to save lives during the global Coronavirus outbreak, experts are expecting the deepest CONTINUE READING: Save Our Schools From Coronavirus Budget Cuts | gadflyonthewallblog

Teacher Appreciation Week 2020 - Network For Public Education

Teacher Appreciation Week 2020 - Network For Public Education

Teacher Appreciation Week 2020

May 4 begins Teacher Appreciation Week. The Network for Public Education is so very proud of our teachers across the country as they rise to the challenge of caring for and educating students from their own homes. As our survey results show, our teachers are working harder than ever while going above and beyond to let their students know how much they care.

We would like to help you make this year’s Teacher Appreciation Week special for the teachers you care about the most so that you can thank them for what they do every day–even in the face of a national crisis.

So many of you generously give to the Network for Public Education, and we appreciate your donations, large or small. We use those funds to fight for better public schools for our teachers and students. Frankly, we are the only national organization willing to fearlessly take on the charter industry, vouchers, and other privatization schemes that are draining resources and attention from our public schools.

For any donation of $20 or more that we receive from today until the end of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 8), Diane Ravitch will send a special note to the teacher of your choice, and tell them that you made a donation to help save public education in their name.

All you need to do is tell us who you want to honor, along with their email address, when you donate here.

By making a tax-deductible donation to the Network for Public Education, you are supporting the one national organization that has a laser-like focus on protecting and preserving our public schools.  If you make that donation this week, you can honor a teacher as well.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  Teachers, we thank you for all you do.  We will continue to let the public know about the wonderful ways that you are supporting your communities and your students.

  

Carol Burris, Executive Director

Teacher Appreciation Week 2020 - Network For Public Education

Six Feet in Schools just Will Not Work | JD2718

Six Feet in Schools just Will Not Work | JD2718

Six Feet in Schools just Will Not Work

What will it take to reopen schools?

A vaccine and a cure?  that would mean a long time. We would have to do some real work on making remote learning more productive than it is now. There are definitely people who are thinking we will wait that long. Not me.

“Flatten the curve” – that was designed to avoid the crush of cases all at once, when the ERs or ICU beds, or doctors, or ventilators, etc, etc, could not keep up with demand. We flattened the curve somewhat, not enough, people died, many fewer than if we had done nothing. But we are past that, or passing that point, in NYC.

We will be, in the not distant future, ready to open with precautions. But what will those precautions be? And specifically in schools, are there enough precautions to be ok to open? Or will schools be an exception (among many exceptions)?

Masks – not a problem in the real world. Not a problem in schools.

Sick – stay home. The advice is right. And with those new-fangled thermometers they can at least check temperatures before someone comes in – to any building, including a school. But we should be mindful about the time this takes.

Testing – the tests need to be better – and yes, it makes sense to test everyone at the start of the year. Do we have enough tests? Are they good enough? I think the answer to both of those will be yes, but not today. By August.

Reaction Protocols when Covid-19 shows up at a school – there needs to a disinfecting protocol that is CONTINUE  READING: Six Feet in Schools just Will Not Work | JD2718

JAMES BOUTIN: Working More Collaboratively in the Wake of COVID-19

Working More Collaboratively in the Wake of COVID-19

WORKING MORE COLLABORATIVELY IN THE WAKE OF COVID-19

I was encouraged yesterday by a few tweets I saw from some education leaders who wondered aloud how various stakeholders in public schools might come to work more collaboratively in the wake of COVID-19. What if we could find ways to get outside of our us vs. them mentality when it comes to the divisions that often exist between classified, certificated and administrative staff; the union and district administration; community members and schools; or even individual schools and the district. Is there some way we could all let go of long-held disputes and just work together to serve young people? What would that be like? How could we achieve it?

I greatly appreciated the questioning because it really got me thinking. What WOULD that be like? Why DOES working in public education feel adversarial so often? I mean, when I began teaching, I imagined most education professionals would probably get along pretty well. After all, we all chose this work for presumably similar reasons. But when I got into the classroom, and I began taking an interest in decisions being made that affected the schools, communities, and classrooms I worked in; I began to learn about the touchy politics related to school budgeting, boundary making, and class size. I discovered that even educators garrison themselves into opposing camps.

So, is there a way we can do things differently in the wake of COVID-19? I love the question. Any chance I'm offered to radically rethink the way we do things - I'll take it. So let's get to work. It seems to me that the first place we're going to have to start is by asking what's CONTINUE  READING: Working More Collaboratively in the Wake of COVID-19

98 Success Academy Students Accepted To College | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

98 Success Academy Students Accepted To College | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

98 Success Academy Students Accepted To College

But is that a lot?

The New York Post seems to think so.  Three times in a recent article they suggest that this is 100% of the seniors.  The title “Entire Success Academy senior class accepted to college” certainly implies it.  The first sentence “Every senior in one of the city’s largest charter school networks has been accepted to a college this year, officials said.” reinforces it.  And the second sentence “All 98 of the 12th graders at Success Academy’s HS of the Liberal Arts in Manhattan earned admission to universities — including Yale, Penn, Duke and Georgetown.” further drives the point home.

But a responsible reporter would ask the logical follow up question.  Is 98 really all the students in the class of 2020?

The answer, of course is, ‘no.’  What the actual number is depends on how you define the class of 2020.

If you go back to a New York Post editorial from just six months ago, it begins with the sentence “Seniors at the Success Academy HS of the Liberal Arts just got their SAT scores — and all 114 did great, with an average score of 1268, 200 points above the national average.”  So six months ago there were 114 seniors, which is 16 more than the 98 that are now called the ‘entire’ senior class.  For Success Academy to lose roughly one-seventh of CONTINUE READING: 98 Success Academy Students Accepted To College | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 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

SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... 

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Worrying Statistic Of The Day: Teaching Next Fall Is Going To Be Risky For A Lot Of Us

by Larry Ferlazzo / 51min

A Third of Teachers Are at Higher Risk of Severe Illness From COVID-19 is a worrying article in Ed Week. I’m adding it to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL .

Wiki-Atlas Is A Cool Way To Explore Your Local Community

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

You can use Wiki-Atlas to explore the locations in any area that are listed as Wikipedia entries. It seems to me that it would be interesting for students to see what places in their town or city were thought to be worthy of being in Wikipedia and to learn about the ones they didn’t know about previously. And, if you’re really ambitious, students could also brainstorm what places are presently om

This Week’s Resources To Support Teachers Coping With School Closures

31by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

Wokandapix / Pixabay I have a number of regular weekly features (see HERE IS A LIST (WITH LINKS) OF ALL MY REGULAR WEEKLY FEATURES ). This is a relatively new addition to that list. Some of these resources will be added to The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) – Please Make More Suggestions ! and the best will go to The “Best Of The Best” Resources To

YESTERDAY

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8h

Eight years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2019 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h

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

“Black Students Need Love Shown Through Action Right Now”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h

Black Students Need Love Shown Through Action Right Now is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Shannon R. Waite, Ed.D., writes that Black students need to be shown love during the pandemic, and that love should be demonstrated through developing “a critical consciousness in teachers and administrators.” Here are some excerpts:

Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. Of course, this is a crazy time for “classroom” instruction…. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES ON CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN 2019 – PART TWO. Here are this week’s picks: Should We Be Using Words Correct Per Minute? is from Timothy Shana

Video: “Why is Coronavirus Hitting People of Color so Hard?”

22by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

nastya_gepp / Pixabay PBS’ “Above The Noise” videos are great – they always have accompanying lesson plans and transcripts, and they cover timely topics of interest to young people. In addition, they have a direct connection to Google Classroom and offer their videos in versions on and off YouTube in case you’re in districts that make poor decisions (like ours) to have extraordinarily strict limi

Just Sent-Out Free Monthly Email Newsletter

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

geralt / Pixabay I’ve just mailed out the May issue of my very simple free monthly email newsletter . I sent out two special coronavirus-related editions of the newsletter earlier in March. This is the “regular” monthly version. It has over 3,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here . Of course, you can also join the eighteen thousand others who subscribe to this blog daily. Here Are 8 Ways Yo

April’s Most Popular Posts From This Blog

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

As regular readers know, at the end of each week I share the five most popular posts from the previous seven days. I thought people might find it interesting to see a list of the ten most popular posts from the previous thirty 

Big Education Ape: SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS UPDATE Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/05/special-coronavirus-update-larry_2.html

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