Top Content this Week - The Educator's PLN

Top Content this Week - The Educator's PLN:

Top Content 

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1	Are you attending ISTE12? Who else will be there? Posted by Thomas Whitby on May 16, 2012
2	Blogging With Upper Elementary Posted by Katie Eileen on May 24, 2012
3	The role of celebration in learning... Posted by Sandra Trach on April 3, 2012
4	Cricket, cricket, cricket Posted by Paul on May 20, 2012
5	Best Practices and Differentiated Instruction Added by Jamie House on July 9, 2010
6	Judaic Studies Teachers Added by Akevy Greenblatt on October 12, 2010
7	Thanking teachers who share what they have learned like Flipping Bloom’s taxonomy from Jennifer Brokofsky Blog Added by Orlando Falvo on May 19, 2012
8	Cloze Quarters - Main Screen Added by Thomas Whitby on May 25, 2012
9	Left Foot, Right Foot…Breathe:The Dance of a New Teacher and a Mentor Added by Lisa Michelle Dabbs on April 27, 2012
10	Mobile Devices and BYOT/BYOD initiatives Added by pottsedtech on September 4, 2011
11	How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries Added by Thomas Whitby on April 30, 2012
12	What are you doing to address Bullying and Harassment? Posted by Michael Rubright on October 20, 2010
13	Web 1.0-2.0-3.0 Posted by Rachel Schneck on May 23, 2012
14	Entertaining Gifted Students I Added by Jennifer Berryhill Carroll on May 21, 2012
15	Integration of the Common Core Posted by Katie Eileen on May 21, 2012
16	Evolution Web 1.0, Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 Added by Rachel Schneck on May 23, 2012
17	ISB&MCOC Pune Posted by Shruti Lamba on May 23, 2012
18	Bad habits kids pick up Posted by Diana on May 25, 2012
19	A Stepping Stone Towards Higher Education Posted by Shruti Lamba on May 24, 2012
20	Need Plant Lessons Posted by Stacey Schuh on May 24, 2012

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Daily Kos: Reunion

Daily Kos: Reunion:

Reunion

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I write this sitting in a small dormitory room at Haverford College, which I entered in 1963, but from which I did not finally graduate until 1973.  This weekend is the 45th reunion of my original class.
I could, as this is Saturday morning, be writing my usual Saturday morning reflection on teaching.  This will serve in its stead, because Haverford College played a significant role in my becoming a teacher, and in how I have always been drawn to my a life of service.
This is a reflection on a remarkable group of men whom I have now known for almost half a century.
I have not been in as close contact with some of the classmates as with others, but I suppose that is par for the course.
I always delight in reconnecting, on the occasions where I lives interconnect, and at these get-togethers every five years, of which I have missed only 2.
Let me tell a bit about some of my classmates.

Does Ed Secretary Duncan agree with Romney on class size? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Does Ed Secretary Duncan agree with Romney on class size? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Does Ed Secretary Duncan agree with Romney on class size?

By Valerie Strauss

This is an open letter written to President Obama by Leonie Haimson, public school parent and executive director of Class Size Matters. She writes about the Obama campaign’s criticism of Mitt Romney for saying that class size isn’t all that important — something, it turns out, Obama administration officials have also said. A version of this letter first appeared on the Parents Across America website.

Here’s Haimson’s letter:

Dear President Obama:

Mitt Romney just went to visit a charter school in Philadelphia and got real push back from teachers when he said class size doesn’t matter. A video of their remarks is below. As a principal of a charter schoolpointed out,

Mitt Romney sits in a 6th grade language class with Salina Beattie (CENTER L) and other students at Universal Bluford Charter School on May 24 in Philadelphia. (Mario Tama - GETTY IMAGES)“There was a study done by the University of Tennessee, a definitive study about class size and what they said was that in first through third grade, if the class size is under 18 those kids stay ahead of everybody else all the way through school, including classes where you might have 25 in the class and co-teachers. 

PARENTS CAN!

Go to Parents Across America.

Useless college majors (according to Andy Samberg)

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 hours ago

Harvard University welcomed comedian Andy Samberg at its 2012 commencement ceremonies this week in Cambridge, where he gave a speech to graduating students and their parents at Senior Class Day. It wasn’t his funniest work, but this part was amusing: Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

How ed policy is hurting early childhood education

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

This *was written by Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Diane E. Levin and Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin. Carlsson-Paige is professor emerita at Lesley University and an author of several books; Levin is a professor of early childhood education at Wheelock College; and McLaughlin is the founding teacher at the Mission Hill School in Roxbury, Ma., as well as the director of the Defending the Early Years coalition and founder of Empowered by Play. * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

A lesson in sticktoitiveness — an amusing commencement speech by Garry Marshall

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

Some commencement speeches are more amusing than others. Here is is one from the 2012 graduation season that stands out for attemping to impart a real life lesson — how not to give up — with humor. It was delivered by Garry Marshall, an award-winning television and film director, writer, producer, and actor, who spoke at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., on Saturday, May 19. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Romney’s education vision

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

Anybody who thinks President Obama’s education policies have been unfriendly to public education should pay close attention to Mitt Romney’s newly announced school reform vision. Because what you don’t like about Obama’s, you may like even less about Romney’s. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Ravitch: What is NCTQ? (and why you should know)

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

This *was written by education historian Diane Ravitch . She is a research professor at New York University and author of numerous books, including the best-selling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” a critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement. This pieceappeared on her blog .* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Romney’s education speech — text

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

Here is the full text of Mitt Romney’s remarks on education reform as prepared for delivery on Wednesday at The Latino Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit in Washington, D.C.: *Mitt Romney Speech* *As Prepared for Delivery to Latino Coalition* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

Cory Booker has crossed the aisle before — on school reform

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat, has been in the news for blasting President Obama’s campaign ads attacking Mitt Romney’s career with a private-equity firm and calling the tone of the presidential campaign “nauseating to me on both sides.” Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

School prom in same venue as porn convention

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

How’s this for some unfortunate prom planning? A high school prom was just held in the same Miami arena as a porn convention. And it wasn’t a surprise to organizers. Miami Beach High School students attended their prom Saturday night at the Miami Beach Convention Center at the same time that the “Exxxotica Expo” was being held in a different part of the complex, according to the Miami Herald. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Do comprehension strategies make reading boring? — Willingham

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

This *was written by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” His next book, “When Can You Trust The Experts? How to tell good science from bad in education,” will be published in July. This appeared on his Science and Education blog.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Obama’s Joplin High School commencement speech — text

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

A year after a tornado devastated the Missouri town of Joplin and killed 161 people, President Obama on Monday night addressed the graduating seniors of Joplin High School, telling them that their resilience in the face of disaster was an inspiration to people everywhere. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Test scores plummet — so Florida drops passing grade

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

Here’s the latest disaster in Florida’s standardized test-based school accountability system, which has been touted as a model for education reform around the country since it was developed by former Gov. Jeb Bush. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Test scores plummet — so Florida drops passing grade

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 days ago

Here’s the latest disaster in Florida’s standardized test-based school accountability system, which has been touted as a model for education reform around the country since it was developed by former Gov. Jeb Bush. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Why college-for-everybody is a sham: Ravitch

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 days ago

This *was written by education historian Diane Ravitch . She is a research professor at New York University and author of numerous books, including the best-selling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” a critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement. This pieceappeared on her blog .* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

‘Is this really what education is about?’

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 6 days ago

This *was written by Vicki Abeles, a parent of three and the director of the documentary, “Race to Nowhere” and Jo Boaler a professor of mathematics education at Stanford University. “Race to Nowhere” challenges common assumptions about how children are best educated.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

The FCAT Process Taught Them to “Write Like Robots” | Scathing Purple Musings

The FCAT Process Taught Them to “Write Like Robots” | Scathing Purple Musings:

The FCAT Process Taught Them to “Write Like Robots”

by Bob Sikes

One  listen to the drivel that’s coming out of Gerard Robinson’s mouth at his “listening” this week demonstrates what we’ve known all along. Top-down ed reformers like Robinson and his handlers don’t do a lot of, well, listening. As the Miami Herald wrote last week, “when “stakeholders” are invited to give their input, as teachers, parents and civil rights activists who have challenged the state over its requirements for students with disabilities or those learning English, their recommendations have been ignored.”
Robinson brushed aside parent’s concerns with testing yesterday in West Palm Beach with an airy, “what I’m hearing is that people just don’t like tests.”
But if we go back to stakeholders again – a group of people Robinson for whom clearly has contempt  – Floridians are learning about the product that has emerged from the tests Robinson so cherishes. Consider this observation from writer and former college English Composition  professor, Mary Jo Melone. She writes this inFlorida Voices:

My composition students, most of them 18-year-olds straight out of Florida’s public schools, opened my eyes to the FCAT, specifically the writing test that has of late become the most 

Another scandal – charter propaganda on the test « Parents Across America

Another scandal – charter propaganda on the test « Parents Across America:

Another scandal – charter propaganda on the test

by pureparents

Today, with some help from me, Chicago Sun-Times education reporter Rosalind Rossiexposes yet another standardized testing scandal, this one on a Scantron test that was used several times in the Chicago Public Schools as part of an interim, or benchmark, reading assessment.

Scantron is a national standardized test that CPS has been using for a couple of years as a computerized replacement for the quarterly Learning First and Benchmark Assessment tests. These tests cover a narrow set of skills and are essentially practice tests for the annual Illinois Standards Assessment Tests (ISAT). This is the last year for Scantron; next year it will be replaced by the NWEA, the NorthWest Evaluation Association tests.

I acquired the screenshot of this reading passage, which makes about as much sense as a talking pineapple.

Click here for the full screenshot.

Is it supposed to be non-fiction? If so, then who the h&## is multimillionaire Charles Mendel? I’ll give a dollar to the first person who can find a real such guy on Google.

We know it’s not factual, anyway. Charter schools are NOT “open to all students.” They are NOT “showing improvement in student achievement” and they are NOT “playing an important role in 

The in box. “The bill could and should be defeated.” « Fred Klonsky

The in box. “The bill could and should be defeated.” « Fred Klonsky:

The in box. “The bill could and should be defeated.”

by Fred Klonsky

Bob Lyons is a member of the TRS Board of Trustees.

“Putting Aside the Constitution” was how one of the Democrat leaders was able to justify what legislators plan to do next. She may have forgotten that to “uphold and protect” that very same document was in her oath of office.

…Andrew Bodewes, TRS legislative liaison, who serves the same role for the Illinois Teachers Retired Association (IRTA), reported to the TRS Board on the content of the so-far unnumbered bill that will reduce the costs of the existing pension systems of the State of Illinois. As some of us may know, Bodewes is considered an expert on pension law and once served in that role for the House Democratic staff. What he described to us was the bill, as it was written, [also affected retirees].

Between January 1 of 2013 and June 30, current retired teachers would be required to make an irrevocable choice between keeping their existing benefit of an automatic compounded three-percent increase [Cost-of-Living-Adjustment] in return for giving up their access to state provided 

‘Brainwashing’ passage cut from CPS scholastic test - Chicago Sun-Times

‘Brainwashing’ passage cut from CPS scholastic test - Chicago Sun-Times:

‘Brainwashing’ passage cut from CPS scholastic test

by ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter May 25, 2012 8:14PM

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Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education with a copy of a reading test passage, that she says amounts to pro-charter-school "propaganda. The National testing company ash-canned the passage after Woestehoff, complaints. Tuesday May 22, 2012 I Scott Stewart~Sun-Times

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Updated: May 26, 2012 1:01AM

 

A national testing company has ash-canned a reading passage that critics say subjected a captive audience of Chicago Public School children to pro-charter-school “brainwashing.’’

The Scantron Corporation took action this month after the head of Chicago’s Parents United for Responsible Education demanded the company drop the passage and apologize to what could be thousands of Chicago students she said were forced to read it this school year and last.

PURE executive director Julie Woestehoff said the passage, titled “Reforming Education: Charter Schooling,’’ is so one-sidedly pro-charter that its use amounts to an attempt to “brainwash’’ children “with propaganda about charter schools.’’

“Students taking a test should not be subjected to false claims about charter schools which could cause them to feel humiliated, second-class or dumb because they do not attend a `better’ charter school,” Woestehoff said in a May 9 email of protest to Scantron.

Written in non-fiction style, with pie charts and bullet points, the passage flatly states that charter