Big Education Ape

Friday, May 6, 2011

Memorial Day Resources | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Memorial Day Resources I’ve just updated The Best Websites For Learning About Memorial Day. Feel free to suggest additional resources.

“Print Friendly” Is A Good Tool For Printing Out Webpages Print Friendly lets you print-out any webpage attractively, and gives you the option of turning it into a PDF. One nice feature is that it lets you easily delete any sections you don’t want to print-out. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Printing ...

“American Sabor” Is A Neat New Smithsonian Site American Sabor is a neat new site from The Smithsonian that’s designed to celebrate Latino music heritage. It has tons of multimedia features and a nice interactive. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Hispanic Heritage Month.

AOL Starts Super-Simple Video Chat Rooms AOL has just begun AV By AIM, a super-simple video chat room. You just go to the site, say you want to start a chat, and you’re given a unique url that you can use to invite up to four people to join. No registration is required. I’m adding it to ...

Today’s Collection Of Good School Reform Posts Here are some good recent school reform-related posts: Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data is by John Ewing, president of Math For America. He provides a good critique of value-added assessment. Here’s an excerpt: *Whether naïfs or ...

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: RHEE THE REFORMER/“ERASE TO THE TOP” -- The Michelle Rhee Test Score Scandal in Seussical Verse

FAILING GRADES ON CIVICS EXAM CALLED A ‘CRISIS’ Failing Grades on Civics Exam Called a ‘Crisis’ By SAM DILLON | New York Times | http://nyti.ms/ir48n7 May 4, 2011 - Fewer than half of American eighth graders knew the purpose of the Bill of Rights on the most recent national civics examination, and ...

A CALIFORNIA SCHOOL FUNDING MAP TOOL: Estimated loss in per-pupil spending would be under an all-cuts budget + addl coverage No revenue extension? School funding per student falls steeply by cynthia liu | k-12 News Network | http://bit.ly/ksvc6g May 4, 2011 - The map tool linked-to below shows the entire state of California. You can choose to look at funding for school ...

RHEE THE REFORMER/“ERASE TO THE TOP” -- The Michelle Rhee Test Score Scandal in Seussical Verse by Sabrina Stevens “Seuss” from K-12 News Network| http://bit.ly/kaz0F0 April 2, 2011 Laugh …then question what you know about school failure. Teacher Sabrina blogs at http://failingschools.wordpress.com

Modern School: Left Wing Orgy at California State Capital

Left Wing Orgy at California State Capital

by Michael Dunn

The right wing anti-teachers union blog, Intercepts, just discovered that anti-war activist and conspiracy theorist Cindy Sheehan was planning on joining the California Teachers Association protests at the California State Capital next week. The discovery sent them into paroxysms of paranoid conspiracy theories of their own, calling it a “public relations coup,” and sarcastically speculating that CTA would have to “collectively bargain a jurisdictional agreement over who gets to occupy what.”

The problem is that the CTA has no intention of occupying the state capital. They have called upon members to show up throughout the week of May 9^th to rally, lobby legislators and beg

Sweeping School Bill Hits Roadblock - Chicago News Cooperative

Sweeping School Bill Hits Roadblock

by KRISTEN McQUEARY

A sweeping school bill that reformers lauded as a landmark and that United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan described as a national model is hitting snags in the Illinois House.

The measure, which the Illinois Senate passed unanimously last month, was the result of months of backdoor negotiations between some of the state’s most powerful interests–teachers unions, business groups and an out-of-state education group bankrolled by some of the country’s wealthiest political contributors.

The bill marked a rare give-and-take between the competing interests. It had the blessing of three labor groups — the Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers and Chicago Teachers Union – along with two reform groups, Advance Illinois and Stand for Children. Business groups signed off. School administrators

New Schools Chief’s Roots Lie in a Brooklyn School

by CRYSTAL YEDNAK

Over a decade ago, before Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel chose him to run the third-largest school system in the country, Jean-Claude Brizard was a rookie principal with a daunting mandate: Remake a troubled vocational high school in Brooklyn that had been given one last chance to avoid closure.

George Westinghouse High School, described as chaotic by both Brizard and the union chapter leader at the time, was clinging to outdated vocational programs, such as training students for jewelry-making jobs they could no longer find. The hallways were often violent, the site of student fights, while some teachers had checked out long ago, said Louis Esposito, the school’s union leader at the time.

“It needed order, it needed control, and that’s what he did,” Esposito said.

The scrutiny following Brizard’s selection as Chicago Public Schools chief has focused largely on his recent

Progress in unexpected places | Thoughts on Public Education

Progress in unexpected places - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

In unheralded corners of California, Latino and African American students are busting the averages, producing higher scores and larger numbers of college-ready graduates. This is happening in places like Val Verde Unified and Desert Sands Unified in Riverside County and Sanger Unified in Fresno County. They were among districts with outstanding grades in “A Report Card [...]

NYC Educator: It's a Miracle!

It's a Miracle!

by NYC Educator

I have a kid in my afternoon class who's been here three years and managed not to learn English. That in itself is remarkable. Teenagers are naturally social, and it takes real determination to shut out a culture that announces itself pretty much everywhere. Yet this kid never wanted to be here, and only mixes with others who speak his language.

As you might imagine, this has not resulted in what you'd call excellent grades. Yet a month ago, after many calls that went nowhere, the kid's dad showed up quite unexpectedly for parent-teacher conferences. Since then, the kid has not missed a single homework assignment. If I were Michelle Rhee, I suppose I'd loudly proclaim I'm the best teacher ever. Were I to take that approach, though, I'd have to ignore that his test grades are still abysmal, and when asked to complete tasks in class, the kid cannot do it. I said to him, "Boy, it's remarkable you can do this stuff at home but not in class."

What that really means is I know he's copying the homework. But really

The Cutthroat Curriculum | Dailycensored.com

The Cutthroat Curriculum

Written by Adam BessieBusiness, Education, MediaMay 5, 2011

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“When you are basing the effectiveness of teachers on lots of softer things, whether the kids feel good, whether the classroom is happy, whether we’re creative (don’t get me wrong, those things are important), but if the kids can’t read…that’s not acceptable,” former Washington D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee asserted indignantly in a recent interview with Charlie Rose, defending hertesting based reform movement, one she has touted very successfully in a year long celebrity tour of the applauding corporate media. Rhee is fighting a battle against these “softer things,” as The American Thinker recently observed, an image she cultivates carefully in her iconic stern pose on the cover of Time Magazine – humorless, severe, standing imposingly above the viewer as she holds a broom, ready to sweep away “bad teachers” like errant spitballs and broken pencils littering the classroom floor, and with them, “softer things” like creativity, and perhaps, empathy.

And certainly, Rhee has little empathy for “bad teachers,” and in fact, has

We don’t want a place at the table. Don’t mess with our TRS. « Fred Klonsky's blog

We don’t want a place at the table. Don’t mess with our TRS.

by Fred Klonsky

There is a subtle yet detectable shift in the message about pensions coming from IEA leadership.

In a posted video on the IEA website, Swanson injected some language about the need for teacher voice in any changes to our pension.

No. no. no.

If this is more of his “sitting at the table” stuff, every member should be worried

In Lasting Appreciation « InterACT

In Lasting Appreciation

by David B. Cohen

As we wrap up teacher appreciation week, I want to honor two educators whose influence has now served me well for about 25 years. I attended Harvard High School (now Harvard-Westlake) in North Hollywood, California. There are two faculty members in particular whom I recall with the utmost fondness and respect.

Phil Holmes, with me at our 20-year class reunion (2007)

When I made the leap from freshman to sophomore English, I left behind the status of a mere student and became a young scholar, thanks to the ingenuity and high expectations of Mr. Phil Holmes. The first signs of

Thursday, May 5, 2011

#IKnowATeacher Who Made Me Want To Be Better | The Jose Vilson

#IKnowATeacher Who Made Me Want To Be Better

by Jose

Last night, I had the privilege of attending City College of New York’s Education Alumni Annual Awards Dinner. Even though I am an esteemed alum of the College, I was actually attending on behalf of my good friend Zuleika Martinez, social studies teacher, teacher leader, and aspiring superstar at an alternative high school in Queens. Last night, watching her receive an award was probably the highlight of my month. If anyone deserves an award for their tireless efforts, it’s my faux-big-sister and a proud educator.

What most people don’t know about Zuleika is that she’s one of the reasons I survived my first year. She was

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Roberts, former GM exec, now running Detroit Public Schools

Roberts, former GM exec, now running Detroit Public Schools

Snyder (left) and Roberts

Michigan's T-Party governor Rick Synder, has appointed a former General Motors Corp. executive as the new emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools. Roy Roberts will take over for Robert Bobb, who was named the school district's emergency financial manager in 2009. Roberts currently is managing director and co-founding member of the Chicago-based private equity investment firm Reliant Equity Investors.

Roberts made his millions during GM's good years. When he retired in 2000 as

School Tech Connect: A Strange, Foreign Gibberish

A Strange, Foreign Gibberish

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

That's what Terry Mazany's plan must sound like to Rahm Emanuel.

From Catalyst

How can teachers have a laser-like focus on data if they're not formative testing all the time? I mean, I know they

President of the University of Maryland allegedly walked out in a huff after discussion on Daycon with students, officials | Dailycensored.com

President of the University of Maryland allegedly walked out in a huff after discussion on Daycon with students, officials

Written by Danny WeilEducationMay 5, 2011

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Just when one thought that the situation at the University of Maryland could not get worse, it did. If it is not management abusing public workers at the university, which has been is being reported at Daily Censored and the Diamondback (the University of Maryland’s campus paper), it has now come to light that negotiating with students regarding violations of federal law is simply out of the question.

It is very telling that this University is now becoming more and more transparent as to its operating procedures and contempt for workers and students who pay the Chancellor’s salary along with his managerial pencil pushers.

In the following article Leah Villanueva reports from the frontline of the

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