Monday, January 31, 2011

Shanker Blog » The Unbearable Sadness Of Being Anti-Labor

The Unbearable Sadness Of Being Anti-Labor

by Matthew Di Carlo

I recently came across this article (published last year) by Michael Barone in the Washington Examiner about the relationship between President Obama and labor unions, and I was struck by one of its sentences, which refers to the now-stalled Employee Free Choice Act. The sentence is simple enough:

Union leaders believe that with card check they could vastly increase their dues income.

This kind of statement is neither uncommon nor particularly inflammatory. But it speaks volumes. It is simultaneously remarkable and pedestrian, a window into the premises of an anti-union viewpoint.

In a limited sense, it is of course true. Unions do want to expand their membership. A larger membership brings more influence and benefits for existing members (as well as other workers), and dues income is one of the tools necessary for accomplishing these goals.

But the implication of the sentence – that unions and their leaders are only out for more money – illustrates

Es el momento - Educacion, Becas, Universidades, Aprendizaje

Estudiando puedes llegar lejos

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Obama por educación de latinos

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Mejor futuro con mejor educaciónEstudiantes podrán accesar a material educativo gratis.

Latinos sufren rezago educativoSeñal de alerta sobre una potencial deserción.

¡Universitario!, esta beca es para ti$125, 000 a estudiantes de grupos minoritarios.

Obama pide invertir en educaciónBuscará remediar situación migratoria de estudiantes.

La NASA te esperaPasantías para estudiantes universitarios.

Kinder: ¿está listo para entrar?

Kinder: ¿está listo para entrar?Madurez social, académica y de desarrollo.

Cuatro becas nacionales de $100,000 para estudiantes.

Últimos días para ganar beca

Últimos días para ganar becaCuatro becas nacionales de $100,00 para estudiantes.

Twenty-five years after the Challenger disaster | The Education Report

Twenty-five years after the Challenger disaster

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 6:00 pm in elementary schools, history
4 Comments »

I was in second grade when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated off the Florida Coast on Jan. 28, 1986. My teacher could barely get the words out. She wheeled in a television set, turned on the news, and we watched that now-iconic clip, which was played over and over for days.

In the mid-1980s — at least, before that day — if you asked a little kid at my school or on my block about his or her career aspirations, there was a good chance you’d hear they wanted to be an astronaut. I wonder if the Challenger changed that. It certainly complicated my notions of space travel.

Pete Cuddyre, a retired Oakland principal, was at Joaquin Miller Elementary School at the time. He said his faculty saw the event as a teachable moment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Principal tells story of patience, persistence and love

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 8:24 pm in high schools, students, teachers
3 Comments »

At the Oakland school board meeting tonight, Oakland International High School Principal Carmelita Reyes shared a story about one of her students, Tjay, who is now 18. I thought it might resonate with some of you. So here it is, in my words:

Tjay was abandoned in Mongolia and sent to the United States when he was in eighth grade. He was alone in Oakland, without any family. An “unaccompanied minor.” The high school he went to didn’t know it. His first year, he earned a 0.05 GPA. “He cut class constantly and drove his teachers crazy,” Reyes said. In the spring of his freshman year, he decided he needed a change. He enrolled at Oakland International, a small school for recently arrived immigrant and refugee students.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Legislation: Teachers should grade parents” | Engaging Parents In School...

“Legislation: Teachers should grade parents”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post weighed in today on the crazy proposal in Florida to have teachers grade parents of their students.

Here’s a great excerpt from her piece, titled Legislation: Teachers should grade parents:

Requiring teachers to grade parents is a nutty idea. Some parents work two or three jobs and can’t be as involved as they would like to be, and, besides, teachers have enough to do already.

Even if it were possible to set up a reasonable parent evaluation system, there could be

Schools Matter: Democracy Breaking Out in Land of the Oligarchs

Democracy Breaking Out in Land of the Oligarchs

by Jim Horn

Yes, that's right--the USofA. From AlterNet:

January 31, 2011 |

Note: The article below reprinted from FireDogLake by David Dayen recounts the events of Sunday's protest against the Koch brothers in Rancho Mirage, CA. The demonstration signals a series of promising developments for progressive groups and activists. Notably, the event was marked by an impressive coalition effort by the participating organizations, positive energy and activism by the attendants, and the wide-held understanding that it is the Koch's ill-gotten, obscene wealth that has made the Tea Party and hundreds of right-wing abuses of our democratic system possible. Author Jim Hightower said it well in the kick-off event in a packed large movie

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Not all it’s cracked up to be

Not all it’s cracked up to be

by The Perimeter Primate

California uses the Academic Performance Index (API) for its school rankings, with a score of 1000 considered to be perfect. Scores over 800 are viewed as excellent. The API is annually derived from a complex calculation which uses schools’ scores on state tests. From year to year, this is how California measures its public schools’ academic growth.

The American Indian Public High School is a high-performing charter school in Oakland that opened in 2006-07 as an offshoot from the notorious American Indian Public Charter School, a middle school. A second middle school, AIPCS II was opened in Oakland in 2007-08.

These “American Indian Model” (AIM) schools use the “no excuses” model of education and were included in

Modern School: Teachers Union Boss: We’re In the Protection Racket

Teachers Union Boss: We’re In the Protection Racket Protection According to Doug Tuthill, a member of the Florida Education Association, “To be a viable business, the union must maintain its membership base. Fewer members means less money and less clout. . . The flip side is that, when I was a union ...

Confused History Teacher Calls for “Revolution” With protests breaking out against repressive regimes throughout the Arab world, it is not surprising that people here would feel inspired. However, the activities in the Middle East are not revolutions, at least not yet. People are not calling for ...

“South Sudan referendum: 99% vote for independence” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“South Sudan referendum: 99% vote for independence” South Sudan referendum: 99% vote for independence is an article and interactive graphic from the BBC. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The Vote In Southern Sudan.

“50 Best iPhone Apps 2011″ 50 Best iPhone Apps 2011 comes from TIME Magazine. I’m adding the link to The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me.

January’s Best Tweets — Part Two Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. Now and then, in order to make it a bit easier for me, I may try ..

More Good Resources On Egypt Protests I’ve already made a number of additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Egypt, including multiple news media sites that have created special pages that are continually updating developments. Those features include numerous ...

“Failed Drug War: U.S. And Mexico Losing Battle Against Cartels” “Failed Drug War: U.S. And Mexico Losing Battle Against Cartels” is an interactive from The Associated Press. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Mexico’s Drug War.

“Catch Some Zzz’s to Lose Some Pounds” I’ve written a fair amount about the lessons I use in class to help students understand the importance of getting enough sleep (see The Best Resources For Helping Teens Learn About The Importance Of Sleep). The lessons, and the resources I use, ...

“Tech The Plunge” Is A Blog Worth Reading Tech The Plunge is an excellent resource-sharing blog written by Jeff Thomas. I’ve added it to The Best Blogs For Sharing Resources/Links.

I Hope Secretary Duncan Reads Monday’s Edition Of The New York Times Teacher, My Dad Lost His Job. Do We Have to Move? is the title of a NY Times article today. Here’s an excerpt: *While Washington measures a school’s worth by test scores, here, on Northland Street, there’s more to it. A few weeks before Christmas, a ...

“It Makes No Sense….” “It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech is the title of an excellent new post by scholar Yong Zhao. His perceptive analysis touches on many points, including demagoguery around U.S. international rankings. Because of ...

The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning The fake “stuff” I’m referring to in the headline includes newspaper articles, sports “trading cards,” iPhone conversations, Facebook pages etc. These can be used for conversation practice, to create reports on historical figures (or on natural ...

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: DUNCAN, KEY SENATORS SING OFF SAME PAGE ON ESEA RENEWAL: The Bipartisan Ship is still sailing the day after the State of the Union.

“IT MAKES NO SENSE”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech by Yong Zhao | ZhaoLearning.com | http://bit.ly/gAg85u Yong Zhao is currently Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education, College of Education at the University of Oregon, where he also serves as the director of the Center for ...

GOT DOUGH? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools By Joanne Barkan | Dissent Magazine / Winter 2011 Issue | http://bit.ly/fHT9KV Can anything stop the foundation enablers? After five or ten more years, the mess they’re making in public schooling might be so ...

DUNCAN, KEY SENATORS SING OFF SAME PAGE ON ESEA RENEWAL: The Bipartisan Ship is still sailing the day after the State of the Union. Posted by Alyson Klein to the EdWeek Politics K-12 blog | http://bit.ly/gX4Ehp January 26, 2011 at 11:00 AM - Three of the four members of the U.S. Senate's "Big 8" on education policy, along with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, told reporters ...

Inevitablizing the Postponable — The Jose Vilson

Inevitablizing the Postponable

by Jose

Ladies and gents,

Coming soon, a new version of TheJoseVilson.com. Stay tuned.

DIY Thought Leadership « My Island View

DIY Thought Leadership

by tomwhitby

Many folks are reflecting on their #EduCon experience of this past weekend. #EduCon is a unique education conference in that it has no vendor support or “How-To workshops”. It consists of intellectual conversations dealing with ideas and concerns of that which we call education or learning. It is limited to 300 participants drawing from some of the leading Thought Leaders in education from across the country. The idea of Thought Leader is in fact the focus of this post.

I never knew of the term Thought Leader as it applied to educators. I never heard it over a 34 year career as a secondary English teacher. I did not hear of it when I first entered the Higher Ed arena. I did hear of it as I entered the world of Social Media. I have come to believe that a Thought Leader is one who encourages, promotes, stimulates, or fosters thought in the area of Education. Other areas and industries have their ownThought Leaders.

What set me off on this reflection was a tweet by Ira Socol about EduCon having a hierarchy of attendees, an “A-List” as it were. I took that to mean a group of people who were above the average attendees, the Educator Elite

The Answer Sheet - The 'thinking gap' (and why teachers shouldn't keep kids busy every second)

The 'thinking gap' (and why teachers shouldn't keep kids busy every second)

By Valerie Strauss

My guest is Diana Senechal, who taught for four years in the New York City public schools and is writing a book about the loss of solitude in schools and culture. Her education writing has appeared in numerous places, including Education Week, the Core Knowledge Blog, GothamSchools, and American Educator.

By Diana Senechal
Doug Lemov’s "Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College" (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010)

Legislation: Teachers should grade parents

In the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up category, a Florida (no surprise there) state legislator has filed a bill that would require some elementary school teachers to grade parents on how involved they are at their children's schools. Schools, students, teachers, now parents: The grading frenzy moves on. The bill, HB 255, was just filed in the Florida House by Rep. Kelli Stargel, a Lakeland Republican, says:

Rating system is needed to measure quality of state’s preschool programs | Thoughts on Public Education

Rating system is needed to measure quality of state’s preschool programs - by Catherine Atkin

by Catherine Atkin

As California struggles with a continuing budget deficit and we work to maintain investments in our state’s vital child development programs, we must keep in mind the long-term goal of increasing the quality of early care and education in California. A vast body of research demonstrates that early learning programs help children develop the social and [...]

Teachers’ pension costs to escalate - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

CalSTRS, the pension system for teachers and school administrators, had a good year in 2010, with a 12.7 percent return on investments. But that’s far from enough to make up for the huge hit the system took during the recession two years ago. As a result, the state, school districts, and teachers themselves can expect [...]

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Del Valle on "tough guy" Rahm

"This whole thing about being tough—it's about personalities and demeanor, it has nothing to do with running a city," del Valle says. "What, he's tough because he swears? I don't swear to people, so I'm not tough? I'm from Humboldt Park. He's from where—Wilmette, Winnetka? I went to Tuley High, he went to what—New Trier? And Rahm's tougher than me?"--Ben Joravsky, The Reader

Joel Klein cuts $4 million deal with News Corp.

"Now his mission is to make money out of education for News Corp. and it’s Cathie Black’s turn to

Rahm lays another stink bomb
by Mike Klonsky

Last Stand for Children First: School Choice Helps Meet the Needs of All Students

School Choice Helps Meet the Needs of All Students

by Last Stand for Children

I have seen a lot of negative press lately about charter schools creating a two tier system of education in this country. One system is for students at charter schools in the inner city where charter schools like UNO and KIPP use rigid discipline and rote memorization to educate needy students. Another system is created for wealthy students where schools teach a curriculum rich in critical thinking and classes designed to help students become well rounded individuals.

I don't see this as a problem. For years, we have known that things like race and gender affect the way that students learn. Socio-economic status also greatly impacts student learning. For years, American teachers have complained that the high rate of poverty in this country makes their job more difficult. Why shouldn't schools separate students based on their family incomes, in much the same way that some students separate based on gender? Horseback riding lessons do no good to a student growing up in the poverty of an inner city neighborhood, while wealthier students would get bored with a day of memorizing math facts and linking ver

NYC Educator: GothamSchools--Civil or Biased?

GothamSchools--Civil or Biased?

by NYC Educator

Yesterday I got an email suggesting GothamSchools' call for civility in its comments was motivated by criticism of its main community section writer--a member of a Gates-funded group openly dedicated to eradicating basic union rights. (Like all other such groups, it does so in the name of helping the children whose schools Gates money aims to close.)

I wrote back it was a coincidence, and that the move was possibly long overdue. After all, I'd just seen a commenter imply someone was paranoid over concern revised Gotham policies might cause his ID to be leaked to the DOE. The DOE has sent teachers to the rubber room for bringing plants to school, for using school fax machines, and for who knows what else. I think there's plenty of reason for wariness. The same commenter said to Mr. A. Talk:

You sound just a bit overly paranoid. What evidence is there that the “regime,” as you delicately

NYC Public School Parents: Upper West side community opposes co-location of Upper West Success charter

Upper West side community opposes co-location of Upper West Success charter

by Leonie Haimson

The Community Board, the Community Education Council, the elected officials and parents all stand united against the co-location of Upper West Success charter in the Brandeis HS building.

Teachers and parents from other public schools that share space with Harlem Success Academies, the other charter schools in this chain run by Eva Moskowitz, explain how their kids have lost preK, art and music, as well as space for special services, with their children pushed into rooms in the basement.

Drama-Rahma gets his facts wrong about charter schools. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Drama-Rahma gets his facts wrong about charter schools.

by Fred Klonsky

Chapter Five: January « City School Stories

Chapter Five: January

by fmurphy

Confessions of an Urban Principal

by Frank Murphy

This book provides a first hand account of the life of an urban elementary school principal in the era of No Child Left Behind. On Monday and Wednesday, I post an installment of the current month’s chapter. The complete text for previous chapters can be found listed under Categories.

The names of all students and parents who are described in this story have been altered in order to protect their privacy.

Installment (9 of 9)

John arrived later in the morning. He was eager to go over the final version of our AYP action plan. While we

Yong Zhao » Blog Archive » “It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech

“It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech

30 JANUARY 2011 2,395 6 COMMENTS

“It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech

“It makes no sense” is perhaps President Obama’s favorite phrase, using it twice in his 2011 State of the Union speech. I like the sound of it and what lies behind it—a simple way to point out the obviously illogical things that need to change. That is how I feel about the education section of his speech. It makes no sense.

President Obama wants to win the future by “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” “[I]f we want to win the future -– if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas -– then we

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Monday, January 31, 2011

Obama pide invertir en la educación

Más expectativas y mejores oportunidades

Consejos para fomentar la lectura

15 "tips" para tus hijos

La NASA te espera

Pasantías para estudiantes

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The 'thinking gap' (and why teachers shouldn't keep kids busy every second)

“It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech