Big Education Ape

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Texas State Board Authorizes Another Gulen Charter Chain | Diane Ravitch's blog

Texas State Board Authorizes Another Gulen Charter Chain

The Texas State Board of Education inexplicably approved another Gulen charter chain—this one deceptively called “Royal Public Schools—though the only thing public about it is its name. Its leader is one Sonar Tarim, who tried and failed to open a charter in Alabama, and who was rejected in Nevada when he tried to open a charter chain there. All Gulen schools are connected with the reclusive Imam Fethullah Gulen, who lives in seclusion in Pennsylvania. To learn more about Gulen schools, read this piece from the Washington Post written by Sharon Higgins, independent researcher. Also, see Mark Hall’s documentary “Killing Ed,” which is available online.

Like all Gulen schools, the boards and staff will be dominated by Turkish men and most contracts are likely to be directed to Turkish-owned firms. The New York Times reported on a pervasive practice by Gulen charter schools in Texas and in Georgia of directing contracts to Turkish firms.

Pastors for Texas Children opposed charter expansion, arguing that this was not the time to divert money from the state’s underfunded public schools.

PTC believes that in a time of economic fragility, when CONTINUE READING: Texas State Board Authorizes Another Gulen Charter Chain | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: No Matter How Bad Things Are, De Blasio Makes Them Worse

No Matter How Bad Things Are, De Blasio Makes Them Worse

I've been relatively quiet for the last few days. I'm shocked at the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the predictable machinations of Trump and his morally bankrupt Senate. Trump's now taken stands against science, against actual history, and essentially against humanity.

So it's harder to sit here in my little corner of the universe and focus on things like education, but I'm working tomorrow, even if the system as a whole may not be. You look at de Blasio's plan, shattered and torn, and wonder how things could possible get any worse.

But Bill de Blasio holds fast to his plan, no matter how ridiculous it is, and now says he's going to hire thousands of teachers to enable it. While we're waiting, the DOE seems to have approved unconscionable class sizes in some schools, in bizarre plans that make the original insane idea look relatively good. I'm really at a loss to explain how anyone thinks this is a good idea.

De Blasio's plan has been around for a while. Yet it's only now, days before we open schools in one form or another, that we're looking at hiring teachers to enable it. Can we find 4,500 teachers in a week? It's optimistic at best. Meanwhile, just in case a miracle doesn't happen, Carranza announced that no, in fact NYC students will not necessarily be receiving synchronous instruction every day as promised. It makes you wonder why the city embraced this plan in the first place.

So now, city students will go to physical school buildings a day or two each week. If they're extraordinarily lucky, they may go three days. They will sit masked and socially distanced, unable to substantially interact with one another. Teachers will have to enforce these unnatural conditions. If students don't run screaming in horror from this bad science fiction scenario, they'll do something or other in class. If all the stars are in alignment, they'll learn something aside from the terrifying conditions under which education takes place in 2020.

What about the three or four days when they aren't there? I'm really not clear on that. I suppose they could receive asynchronous instruction. That might be assignments. It CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: No Matter How Bad Things Are, De Blasio Makes Them Worse

Will Trump Nominate a Far Right Ideologue to Replace RBG? Will the Republican Senators Confirm the Nominee? How Should President Biden Respond? | Ed In The Apple

Will Trump Nominate a Far Right Ideologue to Replace RBG? Will the Republican Senators Confirm the Nominee? How Should President Biden Respond?

On Thursday, September 17th, the National Constitution Center presented the Liberty Medal to Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “for her efforts to advance liberty and equality for all.” (Watch the ceremony here).

The next day, Friday evening, for many of us during Rosh Hashanah services, we learned of the passing of Justice Ginsburg.

Six years ago I had the great pleasure of listening to Justice Ginsburg at the New York Historical Society (Listen to her comments here – about an hour).

Ruth Bader was a Brooklyn girl, a graduate of James Madison High School, the school at which I taught for over three decades. Madison has a Law Institute, lawyers work with the students on projects, the students visit the courts, and, each year Justice Ginsburg hosted a visit from students at the Supreme Court. She impacted the lives of untold numbers of students.

Within hours of her passing Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the Senate announced he would bring the president’s nominee before the Senate for a confirmation vote. Four years ago President Obama nominated Judge Garland eight months before the presidential election and McConnell and many CONTINUE READING: Will Trump Nominate a Far Right Ideologue to Replace RBG? Will the Republican Senators Confirm the Nominee? How Should President Biden Respond? | Ed In The Apple

Reflections on Teaching » Week 2 in Distance Learning 2020

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 2 in Distance Learning 2020

Week 2 in Distance Learning 2020

Week Two is the first, full five day week of teaching. It went good. The kids are getting from Zoom to Nearpod quicker, but it’s still taking time. Today, I’m going to talk about the SEL things I’m doing. I will admit that I have a MUCH easier time “establishing” a class community because I’ve looped with about 2/3rds of my class from last year. I think there are still some things in here that could help.

I start with what I call a morning moment. I use Mindful Kids Cards to lead students in a meditation/mindfulness exercise. I paid for these myself (although my PTA will reimburse me for classroom purposes) so this is offered without any interest on my part. If you have your own materials to suggest, drop a comment below.
I do weekly class meetings on Friday afternoon. I use Nearpod to gather concerns, ideas, etc. and I also did a pre-built SEL lesson on gratitude this week (there are a bunch of them there). After that, we do a game online. The last two weeks, it’s been hangman. I did an online version this week, but last week, I just used a white board under a document camera. Google distance learning games and you’ll see plenty of suggestions.
I did my first one-on-ones with students. Rather than doing assessment on academics, I asked them questions about what they can do online, whether they have books at home to read, etc.

I can get to Zoom (I use fist to five for kids to self-assess this CONTINUE READING: Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 2 in Distance Learning 2020

When a Kid Gets to You… | JD2718

When a Kid Gets to You…

Sometimes a kid just rubs me the wrong way. I’m not good at hiding stuff, but I really try to hide it. Sometimes I fail, but I do try.

Then there’s the kids I roll my eyes at, pick on a bit, even make fun of… the ones who I have a soft spot for, who enjoy the attention. (Plus, it masks when someone really does get to me.) There was a kid who just graduated, call him Vez. Everyone knew he drove me nuts. I adored him. Occasionally we would have interesting conversations. Never about math. Though a couple of times he confessed that I made math not so bad. High praise. And then, mid-August, he’s graduated, I got an email from him. I’m surprised. I open it. He took a project from the spring, and improved it. (at the bottom of this post). So yeah, he got to me. But not like that, if you know what I mean. This post isn’t about kids like Vez, the kind of kids I want in every class, but not too many of them…

I’m talking about kids like, well, hmm. There are those who insist that class stop any time they have a question. They do not accept “we will come back to that.” Rather than give me and their classmates a chance to explain, they argue. They are hard for me. There are those who just don’t like the class, but like to demonstrate their distaste. I am pretty good at not reacting to them. And then there are those, well, like me, when I was a teenager.

I was smart in high school. And a smart aleck. I liked showing off. I didn’t work very hard, and made it obvious. I did participate, which most teachers did like. And I got super high scores on tests in most CONTINUE READING: When a Kid Gets to You… | JD2718

R.I.P., R.B.G. – The Lesson She Lived | gadflyonthewallblog

R.I.P., R.B.G. – The Lesson She Lived

“I ask no favour for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”
–US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

There are few people known for their whole name – first, middle and last.

Even fewer known just for their initials.

And maybe no other white, Jewish, woman in history to be christened with an honorific reminiscent of martyred rap royalty.

But Ruth Bader Ginsburg was all that and more.

R.B.G.

The Notorious R.B.G.

Let it never be said that she was given that title out of public relations or pique.

No matter where you stood, she earned the designation “notorious.” Because she CONTINUE READING: R.I.P., R.B.G. – The Lesson She Lived | gadflyonthewallblog

Jersey Jazzman: Correcting the Hacks on NJ Taxes

Correcting the Hacks on NJ Taxes

Nothing makes me crazier than hacky discussions of tax and fiscal policy. And if you want the hackiest hacking about New Jersey's taxes, there's only one place to go: the Star-Ledger's opinion pages, where you'll find conservative Mike DuHaime and "liberal" (snort) Julie Roginsky hacking out the hackiest fiscal hacking imaginable:

Mike: Trenton Democrats will never let a good crisis go to waste. They are using COVID to raise income taxes, raise business taxes, raise taxes on healthcare and borrow billions. I am surprised Sweeney and Coughlin are supporting an income tax increase. The top 1% of earners in New Jersey are paying 40% of New Jersey’s income taxes. The top 10% pay 70% of the taxes. Wealthy people are leaving New Jersey, and as they leave, it is the middle class who keep getting more and more of the tax burden.

Julie: This deal fell into place because Speaker Coughlin was committed to provide real relief to working middle-class families and was finally able to spearhead an agreement that does just that by providing families with children with the money to pay for back-to-school expenses and other bills next year.

Mike: This is less than one-half of 1% of a tax credit for the average New Jersey household. Taxpayers deserve structural reforms that lower the cost of government and lower our heavy tax burden.

Julie: I agree, Mike. But in all the years a Republican governor was at the CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Correcting the Hacks on NJ Taxes

Why Zoom School Is So Awful for Parents and Kids - Esquire

Why Zoom School Is So Awful for Parents and Kids

The Crushing Reality of Zoom School

We're only a few weeks in. We can't keep doing this

"Are you muted?"

The first thing my five-year-old learned in kindergarten, set up at a tiny desk in the corner of our dining room, is to always stay muted. It's probably the wrong thing to teach a child, but not everyone remembers, and then life bleeds in. Zoom school becomes a portal into worlds you never see as a parent making awkward smalltalk at pickup.

You can hear a mom working a job doing collections for medical billing. Call after call.

A dad who calls his sister on speakerphone. They fight most days.

Grandparents asking how long it’s going to take. There are babies wailing.

TVs, so many TVs, an endless buzz of TVs. The weather. The news. Game shows and talk shows.

Are you muted?

Of course Zoom school is a nightmare—with the lack of time to properly plan and the lack of funds to make anything work, how was it going to be anything else?—but every school option right now is. Depending on where you live, school has started as an endless navigation of web logins, unmutes, and dropped connections at home; attempts at confusing part-time hybrid schedules that help only the calendar industry; or the fuck it approach that has already lead to sick kids and teachers, with many more to come.

Every choice has been terrible since the start of the pandemic, when we were told we had to choose life or an economy, a false dichotomy from the start—mass death and sickness are also bad for the economy—but the awful choices we face as parents at the start of school feel especially difficult because we’re all burnt out. The idea of facing all of this for one more day, let alone the seemingly endless months ahead, feels basically impossible. The pandemic balancing act for parents—choose two: CONTINUE READING:
Why Zoom School Is So Awful for Parents and Kids

Patriotic Education | Live Long and Prosper

Patriotic Education

The current occupant of the White House claims that American schools are teaching “a twisted web of lies” about systemic racism in America. He says that parents are going to demand that their children are no longer “fed hateful lies about this country.”

Which lies does he mean…this one, perhaps?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

As Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote in the 1619 Project, it’s an “ideal and a lie. “

The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4, 1776, proclaims that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain CONTINUE READING: Patriotic Education | Live Long and Prosper

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_19.html

“Speaky Reads” Looks Like A Nice New Site For ELLS & Other Language Learners

51by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h

Speaky Reads looks like a very useful site for language learners, and it’s free – for now (it looks like they might charge in the future. It has a library that appears for now to be comprised of literature in the public domain (hopefully, that will expand). You choose a text, and then have a few options. You can follow along as it reads to you . You could also record what you just read and compar

Everything You Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask About Animals

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

Alexas_Fotos / Pixabay I have over 2,100 frequently revised and updated “Best” lists on just about every subject imaginable, and you can find them listed three different ways in three different places (see Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists ). I’m starting to publish a series where each day I will highlight the “Best” lists in a separate category. Today, it’s on Animals: T

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

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

Everything You Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask About Active Citizenship & Social Change

by Larry Ferlazzo / 18h

geralt / Pixabay I have over 2,100 frequently revised and updated “Best” lists on just about every subject imaginable, and you can find them listed three different ways in three different places (see Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists ). I’m starting to publish a series where each day I will highlight the “Best” lists in a separate category. Today, it’s on Active Citizensh

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22h

Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in THE BEST ARTICLES, VIDEOS & POSTS ON EDUCATION POLICY IN 2019 – PART TWO ): Can Covid-19 Take School Reform in a New and Different Direction? is from Larry Cuban. DeVos Vows to Withhold Desegregation Aid to Schools Over Transgender Athletes is from The NY Times. DeVos vows to require stand

Good NY Times Interactive Shows You How Climate Change Is Challenging Your Own Community

by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

geralt / Pixabay Every Place Has Its Own Climate Risk. What Is It Where You Live? is a new interactive from The NY Times. You click on your county, and and it will least which climate challenges face your community. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Climate Change .

How Should We Respond To Those Who Say We Should Keep Politics Out Of The Classroom?