Friday, October 22, 2010

Superman: The Cartoon | NBC Washington

Superman: The Cartoon

Fenty, Rhee appear in animated Taiwan news report

By P.J. ORVETTI

Updated 8:18 AM EDT, Fri, Oct 22, 2010

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“Supported by DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, education councillorMichelle Rhee was determined to reform the system. She fired hundreds of teachers in DC. But Fenty and Rhee were overwhelmed by forces against education reform. They both lost their jobs.”

So reports Taiwan’s Next Media Animation, which reports the news of the world in often-hilarious computer animation. In NMA’s latest video, Rhee -- portrayed as Rambo with a broom -- chases a teacher dressed as a clown from a classroom after the clown teaches a class that 1+3=5. Rhee then high-fives a Sims version of Fenty

UFT casting change into 'Superman' - NYPOST.com

UFT casting change into 'Superman'

By YOAV GONEN Education Reporter

Last Updated: 2:13 AM, October 22, 2010

Posted: 1:27 AM, October 22, 2010

Comments: 0

Call them the men and women of "steal."

The city teachers union ripped a page from the very documentary that slammed it -- handing out blue Superman-style T-shirts Wednesday to hundreds of members with the famous "S" replaced by "UFT."

The self-given pat on the back came hot on the heels of the release of "Waiting for 'Superman,' " the documentary in which the umbrella union of the United Federation of Teachers is called to task for helping to create a national education crisis.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten -- former chief of the city local -- was cast in the role of the movie's villain.

NY POST: CHAD RACHMAN

COMICAL: At union HQ, a teacher wears the T-shirt that bosses say isn't a take-off on "Waiting for 'Superman.' "

Still, UFT members proudly wore their snazzy superhero duds as they filed out of a union meeting at their downtown headquarters.

"The UFT must really dig the movie more than people thought they would," quipped Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education

ELL Teaching Methods Can Help All Students | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

ELL Teaching Methods Can Help All Students Our school’s principal, Ted Appel, and I co-wrote an article a couple of years ago on how English Language Learners were an asset to our entire school in many ways, including helping all our teachers become better instructors to everybody (see The ...

A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Blogs & Blogging I’ve written quite a few “The Best…” lists related to blogging, and thought that readers might find it helpful if I brought them all together. Here is A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Blogging: The Best Sources Of Advice For Teachers (And ...

The Willingness To Take Risks In my book on teaching English Language Learners, I describe what researchers have determined to be the key qualities of a good language learner. One of them is the willingness to take risks. A new study has just found: *“….that lower cognitive ...

“Punkin Chunkin” Punkin Chunkin is the name of a new “sport” of catapulting pumpkins to smash them. I’m not making this up. The New York Times has just published an article about it, and the Discovery Science Channel has a bunch of online videos. I’m adding the ...

“Easyhi” for Recording Video Messages Easyhi lets you easily create free video eCards. It gives you lots of options to use YouTube videos, but it also lets you record your own. I’m adding it to The Best Applications For Sending Online Video Messages.

“Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness” Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching is a new report by Linda Darling-Hammond for the Center for American Progress. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning

Diwali Diwali is a Hindu celebration also known as The Festival of Lights. Diwali in 2010 will start on Friday, the 5th of November and will continue for 5 days until Tuesday, the 9th of November. I’ve updated The Best Sites For Learning About Diwali.

L.A.’s teacher-rating firestorm blows east | The Education Report

L.A.’s teacher-rating firestorm blows east

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, October 21st, 2010 at 1:47 pm in students, teachers
15 Comments »

As soon as tomorrow, 12 news agencies could have the names and effectiveness ratings of 12,000 teachers from New York City’s public schools, the Washington Post reports.

The United Federation Of Teachers plans to file a lawsuit in state court to block the release of the data. The ratings in question are based on the average progress a teacher’s students made on standardized tests during the course of a school year. In edu-speak, they’re called “value-added” assessments.

It’s not clear from the Post story how many years of data were included in the New York City school district’s analysis. As researchers and statisticians note, these effectiveness ratings tend to vary wildly from year to year because the sample size — especially for elementary school teachers — is so small (20 to 30-some students). Read the rest of this entry »

On anniversary of hills fire, kids raise money to repair memorial

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, October 21st, 2010 at 3:01 pm in community, private schools, students
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Fourth-graders at Bentley School, upset by a recent Tribune report of theft from the Oakland hills firestorm memorial, raised $350 this week through a bake sale to restore it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sources say former D.C. education chancellor considering N.J. job | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/21/2010

Sources say former D.C. education chancellor considering N.J. job

By Esmé E. Deprez

Bloomberg News

Michelle A. Rhee, who is resigning as schools chancellor of Washington, D.C., is seriously considering becoming New Jersey's next education commissioner, according to a published report that cited two unidentified people familiar with the negotiations.

Gov. Christie's office asked Rhee, 40, to become education commissioner, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported Wednesday.

Rhee's stated desire to be close to family may prove too big an obstacle, however. Her husband, former NBA all-star Kevin Johnson, is the mayor of Sacramento, Calif.

She initially turned down the offer after assuming the

School district's budget balanced for now, but tough choices loom

Thanks to some strategic spending cuts and some unexpected increases in revenue, the Philadelphia School District will close this fiscal year with a balanced $3.2 billion budget.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein wants nothing more than to release data on more than 12,000 teachers

JUAN GONZALEZ - NEWS

Friday, October 22nd 2010, 4:00 AM

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Schools Chancellor Joel Klein wants the world to believe his attempt to make public more than 12,000 Teacher Data Reports was merely a response to an information request from the press.

Don't buy it.

Klein couldn't wait to release the names, along with his arcane rating system that claims to show how much "value" each teacher added to the reading and math scores of their pupils.

He didn't seem to care about unfairly tarnishing the reputations of city teachers like Doreen Crinnigan, a 25-year veteran of the school system who teaches at Public School 48 in Bensonhurst.

"We don't blame anyone for wanting to look at how they (teachers) are performing, and value-added data is a window into that," Klein spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said.

This was before the teachers' union sued in Manhattan Supreme Court and Klein agreed to halt the release of the data, pending a Nov. 24 hearing.

Such a hearing will undoubtedly reveal that the very consultants

This Week In Education: Video: Obama (Finally) Does "It Gets Better"

Video: Obama (Finally) Does "It Gets Better"

by Alexander Russo

Advocates have been clamoring for the POTUS to do one of these antibullying videos that have been sweeping the Internets, and finally they get one:

Popout

It's belated, and very strangely written and cut, but still pretty powerful. I can't imagine all the angles that had to be considered here -- political ones, especially, given the proximity to the midterm elections.

Praise for a good lie � JD2718

Praise for a good lie

by jd2718

I caught some compliments over at Research in Practice. Seems the owner, Ben, can’t lie to students the way I can… And neither can commenter Sue (from Math Mama Writes).

I lie to help kids learn.

I teach kids to trust the math, and to trust my math…. but… Along the way I make things up. Always correct them before they leave. But in the moment, they need to evaluate what I am saying, not just trust it. Trust the math.

A few examples:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whittier field house occupation will continue until Huberman agreement becomes official

Whittier field house occupation will continue until Huberman agreement becomes official

by Mike Klonsky

According to a statement from a Camp Whittier leader, parents will continue to occupy the school's field house until the agreement reached with Ron Huberman becomes official. Caro Gaete of Blocks Together, is being careful to call the agreement, "potentially a great victory."

In a memo we received from Teachers for Social Justice, Jackie Leavy of the Illinois Facilities Task Forcerecalls this list of Huberman's promises to the parents:

1. Demolition of La Casita, and construction of a soccer field, are BOTH OFF THE TABLE.

Queens Teacher: Michelle Rhee: Stay Away From New York City!

Michelle Rhee: Stay Away From New York City!

by Queens Teacher

Michelle Rhee Stay Away from my Door

There is a lot of talk about the future of Michelle Rhee, who resigned as the Chancellor of Washington DC 's schools last week. Speculation centers around possibilities for her next job.

The timing couldn't be better for her. Not only is she leaving before she had to demonstrate sustained improved academic results for the children of the District, but is now the "star" of the propaganda documentary Waiting for Superman. Her public reputation is at its apex.

Some of the speculation has her coming to Newark, N.J., a school system whose failure is rivaled only by the one she is leaving in the nation's capital. Newark's schools are the lucky recipient of $100 million in the form of a

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Assemblymember Huber Named “Legislator of the Year” by California Small Business Association and California Small Business Roundtable | The Rancho Cordova Post

Assemblymember Huber Named “Legislator of the Year” by California Small Business Association and California Small Business Roundtable

Assemblymember Alyson Huber’s office is pleased to announce that she has been named the “Assembly Legislator of the Year” for 2010 by the California Small Business Association and the California Small Business Roundtable.

“Assemblymember Alyson Huber has been a great advocate for small business. During her first term in office Alyson has followed through on her promises to fight for small businesses and is a committed activist for the issues that matter most to our association’s members,” said Betty Jo Toccoli, President, California Small Business Association. “We look forward to continuing to work with her in the pursuit of improved economic development and job creation in her district and throughout the state.”

CSBA cited Assemblymember Huber’s work on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to approve an audit of the Department of General Services’ treatment of small businesses, as well as legislation authored by Huber to

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Update: NEW YORK CITY DELAYS RELEASING CONTROVERSIAL TEACHER RATINGS NY Times addl. coverage

Update: NEW YORK CITY DELAYS RELEASING CONTROVERSIAL TEACHER RATINGS + NY Times + addl. coverage

BY JASON SONG – LA TIMES/LA NOW BLOG | HTTP://LAT.MS/DVAOHD

October 21, 2010 | 4:18 pm - The New York City school system agreed Thursday to delay releasing teacher effectiveness ratings based on student test scores until after a court hearing in late November.

The nation's largest school district announced plans earlier this week to give several media groups "value-added" scores and other data for nearly 12,000 teachers. The teachers union filed a lawsuit to stop the action Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The New York City Department of Education has calculated value-added scores for many of its instructors

At West, students and staff say they fear reprisals for speaking out | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

At West, students and staff say they fear reprisals for speaking out

by Benjamin Herold on Oct 21 2010 Posted in Latest news

Tags:

West Philadelphia High

West Philadelphia High School senior Marie Hines told the School Reform Commission on Wednesday that students are scared to speak up about the sudden return of the climate problems that used to plague the school.

“We feel as though no one can speak out, or you could be transferred,” Hines told the SRC in public testimony. “I was concerned about speaking today.” Hines came with a group of nine students from West who then met with District officials about a range of concerns about the school.

Her comments about retaliation for speaking out are being echoed by some teachers, who maintain that staff members who are vocal about the ongoing

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Friday, October 22, 2010