How is it that the IEA and other unions endorsed Mike Bost for Congress, a Confederate Insurrectionist? – Fred Klonsky

How is it that the IEA and other unions endorsed Mike Bost for Congress, a Confederate Insurrectionist? – Fred Klonsky

HOW IS IT THAT THE IEA AND OTHER UNIONS ENDORSED MIKE BOST FOR CONGRESS, A CONFEDERATE INSURRECTIONIST?

For nearly 40 years I have scratched my head at many of the political decisions of my teachers’ union, the Illinois Education Association.

A search of past blog posts will illustrate a number of past examples.

Endorsing Congressman Mike Bost is just one example of why I long ago stopped donating to the IEA’s political action fund, IPACE.

In the case of Bost, the IEA was not the only union who endorsed him.

The IEA support for Bost was particularly offensive because aside from being a Republican Trumper, on education issues Bost supported Betsy DeVos’ education agenda.

DeVos was an unrelenting opponent of public education and teacher unions.

Now a petition is calling is calling for the expulsion of Bost from Congress.

Bost pissed off  CONTINUE READING: How is it that the IEA and other unions endorsed Mike Bost for Congress, a Confederate Insurrectionist? – Fred Klonsky

Teacher Tom: Courtesy, Politeness, and Civility

Teacher Tom: Courtesy, Politeness, and Civility

Courtesy, Politeness, and Civility

I don't wear a mask because I'm afraid of getting the virus. I'm not even particularly worried about spreading the virus to other people because I'm careful and am tested regularly. No, I wear my mask without complaint because it is the civil thing to do, or as I usually think of it, I'm being polite because I know that some people are afraid. I wear my mask for the same reason I hold doors for people, give up my seat on the bus to, or say "please" and "thank you." It's courtesy, politeness, civility. It's kindness.

I don't ally myself with those who connect courtesy to the concept of "respect," because that word is too often used as a stand-in for the word "obey." I respect many people, people who have earned my respect, but I don't obey anyone, nor should you and nor should your children (although I'm always ready to agree). No, every act of courtesy is a small act of kindness that says, I see you. I recognize your humanity. It's about, in a small way, placing the needs, or the perceived needs, of another person ahead of your own. Waiting my turn, keeping my voice down in public places, giving way in traffic: I do all of these things at my own expense, not because I'm weak or passive or a sucker, but because they are the polite things to do. I don't expect anything in return for my acts of courtesy, although I know that more often than not, it will be paid forward.

We tend to think of courtesy as a kind of code, and it is, but not like the kind found in etiquette manuals with all sorts of arbitrary rights and wrongs. Rather, for me, it is the code from which civil society is written. It says, We are in this together, and every act of civility strengthens our bonds, not to mention, making life just a little more pleasant.

Courtesy, politeness, and civility are not anything we can teach. Children will never learn it through lectures, scolding, punishment, books, or worksheets (yes, there are courtesy worksheets). As with all the most important things, the habit of doing these small kindnesses for friends and strangers alike is learned through experience. If children are treated with courteously by the adults in their lives, when the adults in their lives are civil to them, children, in turn, adopt the habit of considering how their behaviors might impact others, even people who they don't know, and make the small, unilateral self-sacrifices that are the glory of every civil society.

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Teacher Tom: Courtesy, Politeness, and Civility

Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok – radical eyes for equity

Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok – radical eyes for equity

Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok

While it now seems like generations ago, in the spring of 2008, I joined other faculty at Furman University in an organized protest labeled “We Object.” Through the university’s connections with FU graduate and former governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford, George W. Bush was invited to speak at commencement.

Recent university tradition was to have two students speak, but did not include outside speakers. None the less, students and the community (overwhelmingly conservative) seemed to welcome the opportunity to have a two-term Republican president speak to graduates.

The protest took many forms, including reaching out to the media, posting an official “We Object” statement, and wearing a “We Object” shirt, revealed from beneath professor’s gowns during the speech.

I did not yet have tenure as an assistant professor, but I was active in the organized resistance that included a wide range of reasons why professors CONTINUE READING: Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in the Era of Trump and TikTok – radical eyes for equity

Washington Post Joins NY Times to Demand Reinstatement of Standardized Tests in Schools this Spring: It Is Still a Bad Idea | janresseger

Washington Post Joins NY Times to Demand Reinstatement of Standardized Tests in Schools this Spring: It Is Still a Bad Idea | janresseger

Washington Post Joins NY Times to Demand Reinstatement of Standardized Tests in Schools this Spring: It Is Still a Bad Idea

On Friday, the Washington Post editorialized to demand the reinstatement—this spring in the midst of COVID-19—of the standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind and its successor, the Every Student Succeed Act. Betsy DeVos mercifully cancelled the testing mandate last spring as the pandemic hit.

On Friday, this blog critiqued a similar January 2nd, editorial from the NY Times‘ editors, who demanded that the new Education Secretary Miguel Cardona reinstate the annual annual standardized testing regime.

The reasoning of the Post‘s editorial is flawed, and the realities for teachers, families and children make the federally mandated state testing ridiculous this spring.  The Post‘s editors wonder: “How can schools create plans to make up for COVID-related learning losses if those losses haven’t been measured? Wouldn’t knowing which students have been most adversely affected be helpful in directing resources for mitigation efforts? Don’t parents have a right to know whether their sons and daughters are achieving?”

The Post would appear to trust big data and distrust educational professionals.  As soon as schools can be opened in person, professionally educated and prepared teachers and public school staff will be assessing what students need, adapting curricula accordingly, and helping parents support their children’s learning. Teachers have been doing their best throughout this CONTINUE READING: Washington Post Joins NY Times to Demand Reinstatement of Standardized Tests in Schools this Spring: It Is Still a Bad Idea | janresseger

The Vaccinations are Here! What to Know - SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL BLOG

http://www.southbronxschool.com

The Vaccinations are Here! What to Know

 Sometime last night during my binge watching of Family Guy I got a text from one of the many SBSB groupies. It was shared with me that sign up is available for those who qualify under group 1B for the COVID vaccination (I'll post the link at the end of this post).

Finally! This vaccination process, at least in NY State is taking too long. Cuomo has to control it. Why not use all 62 NYS county health departments. Less control for Cuomo one would hazard to guess. Heck, in 1947 NYC vaccinated about 6 million people for smallpox in about a month. Why can't this be done again? 

So for the last week or so we here at SBSB have been hearing rumors that teachers have been moved into 1B and that vaccinations are imminent. Thanks to DeBlaso for finally showing some balls to Cuomo that day has come starting tomorrow. But the rollout has not been exactly smooth. 

This morning on 880 WCBS I heard the tail end of an interview with Mulgrew in which I heard...

"Teachers who are in the classroom will be given priority"

That was a "whatcha talking about Willis" moment for me. It was time to roll up the sleeves. 

I reached out to the SBSB groupie as well as someone in the UFT. I got some decent clarification from the UFT.

If you signed up on the link provided last night with NYCHHC you are still good to go. You CONTINUE READING: http://www.southbronxschool.com

On This Insurrection, and The Next | The Jose Vilson

On This Insurrection, and The Next | The Jose Vilson

ON THIS INSURRECTION, AND THE NEXT

I wasn’t supposed to ever forget the day because it was my son’s ninth birthday. In the middle of a pandemic, we still thought it best to keep this tradition. On the news, anchors kept reiterating that the day’s proceedings wouldn’t normally get this much attention if not for the president’s consistent obfuscation about the proceedings. One by one, he and his cronies started speaking on a podium in DC in a small picture-in-picture set-up on the bottom right corner with no audio, but the events of the day weren’t supposed to get much coverage other than a demonstration and a confirmation.

Then, the insurrection struck. Just then, the America so many of us knew came into HD view. Rogue recusants made their way with ease up the Capitol steps. The crowd thought to have dissipated after Election Day had intended on discrediting the process by any means necessary. The idea that the United States of America had ostensibly descended into a “third-world banana republic” – whatever that means – seemed to flummox many of the anchors and correspondents witnessing the red caps slide through Capitol Rotunda. The “blue lives matter” chants were not to be found as they trampled and passed by Capitol police while flashing badges of their own. As the velvet ropes widened, it became more evident that many of the police in charge of maintaining security would watch along with us, unabated and unconcerned about drawing guns the way they had at the Black Lives Matter protestors all summer.

My son, nine years old and a hundred years wise, wasn’t surprised. While no person of color belongs to a tight-knit monolith, our CONTINUE READING: On This Insurrection, and The Next | The Jose Vilson

Education Matters: Duval Courts close, Duval schools stay open, um wait what?!?

Education Matters: Duval Courts close, Duval schools stay open, um wait what?!?

Duval Courts close, Duval schools stay open, um wait what?!?

Chief Judge Mark Mahone and Superintendent Greene must be looking at the same information. So what do they do? The chief Judge closes the courts until February 22nd while Superintendent Greene encourages children to return to the buildings. Greene's reckless behavior is going to get (more) people sick or worse.  

From the Times Union, 

In a Jan. 6 email to top officials in the courts and criminal justice system, Chief Judge Mark Mahon said virtually all in-person courthouse functions will be suspended until Feb. 22. Mahon stopped short of officially returning to Phase 1 Covid protocols, but his email directive is materially identical to the Florida Supreme Court's definition of Phase 1...

... “Duval, Clay, and Nassau Counties’ health conditions have drastically deteriorated over the last month to the point that the entire Circuit is now trending up faster than or exceeds the state averages for weekly new cases and positivity rates,” Mahon said in his email. “As a result, we must modify our current operations plan.”

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/01/09/chief-judge-orders-shutdown-all-person-court-functions-until-feb-22/6608868002/?

The judge is right. The situation in Duval has deteriorated, and it is bound to get a lot worse before it  CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Duval Courts close, Duval schools stay open, um wait what?!?

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/2021/01/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_9.html

Monday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h

llorcraft / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Scores of nurses with Chicago Public Schools say reopening buildings is still unsafe is from The Washington Post. As Chicago Schools Reopen, Teacher Scrambles To Keep Kids Safe is from NPR. Two new studies point to virus thresholds for in-person school is from The Hechinger Report. So

“Using Data to Support Students”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 5h

Using Data to Support Students is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Three educators write about how they use data to improve their instruction. Here are some excerpts:

It’s Nice That Gov. Newsom Is Proposing To Pay For CA Summer School, But Who’s Going To Have Energy To Teach It?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Mylene2401 / Pixabay It’s great that California governor Newsom is proposing to pay for summer school this year . So many of our schools haven’t had it for so long. When I began teaching seventeen years ago, two-thirds of our students would attend it – we had plenty of enrichment courses, as well as straight academic ones. However, this summer is going to be a different kettle-of-fish. First, it’

Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

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 INSTRUCTION IN 2020 – PART TWO . Here are this week’s picks: Formative Assessment for Remote Teaching: Understanding Learning Intentions

It Doesn’t Make Any Sense To Give State Standardized Tests This Spring OR Any Kind Of Standardized Benchmark Assessments

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay It’s a bit mind-boggling to me that we even need to discuss the topic of this post – of course we shouldn’t have standardized tests this spring and, of course we should have any kind of standardized benchmark tests (as our district is pushing). The impetus for both of these efforts is definitely not coming from educators who are teaching students everyday and who und

The Best Resources For Helping Students – & Us – Develop Good Habits

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Homegrounds / Pixabay I’ve shared a number of resources over the years on how to create new habits and stop bad ones – and how to support others do the same. I thought I’d pull them all together in one post. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT “NUDGES” 

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