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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Big Education Ape - YouTube

Big Education Ape - YouTube:


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Want to Teach Kids to Code? Send 'Em to a 'Hack Jam' - Education - GOOD

Want to Teach Kids to Code? Send 'Em to a 'Hack Jam' - Education - GOOD:


Want to Teach Kids to Code? Send 'Em to a 'Hack Jam'

by Liz Dwyer
Popout
We know that if we want kids to be more than consumers of technology, we have to give them the tools they need to build things themselves—and that means teaching them coding. But if most schools aren't actually teaching coding to kids, how are they supposed to learn it? Enter the Hack Jam, a fun way to make digital literacy and hacking accessible, social, and fun.
What's it like to be at a Hack Jam? Last Saturday, three members of GOOD's product team—you’ll see our senior UI designer Doris Yee in the video above—joined up with other designers and developers and headed to 
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Jersey Jazzman: $100 MIllion Just Don't Buy What It Used To

Jersey Jazzman: $100 MIllion Just Don't Buy What It Used To:


$100 MIllion Just Don't Buy What It Used To

by Duke

Remember when Zuck's bucks were going to completely change everything in Newark? How's that going?
When Anderson unveiled the plan last February, however, she was heckled at public meetings by residents who accused her of trying to rob them of their neighborhood schools. “Cami Anderson, I have not seen such trickery since the devil took over the Garden of Eden,” one of her detractors told her at a budget hearing [ed note: Man, that's funny!]. Naturally, the teachers’ union has happily stoked the outrage. “I’m all for school reform,” Del Grosso chuckles. “But this is the Dr. Kevorkian approach.”
The budget crunch has also forced Anderson to cut arts and music programs at some schools. Residents find this bizarre at a time when so many philanthropic dollars are flowing into Newark. “I don’t understand why you are doing this,” a frustrated Newarker asked at the budget 
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Big Education Ape 2nd Banana 6-30-12 Recap of Last Week's Best Post #EDchat #EDreform #soschat #p2 #1u



Big Education Ape 2nd Banana 

Recap of Last Week's Best Post 


Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Axelrod's old firm behind 'Infrastructure Trust', Citibank, and attacks on CTU

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Axelrod's old firm behind 'Infrastructure Trust', Citibank, and attacks on CTU: Axelrod's old firm behind 'Infrastructure Trust', Citibank, and attacks on CTU by Mike Klonsky Obama, Emanuel & AxelrodWell, mercy me! Look who's behind those ads blasting the CTU. Why, it's ASGK Public Strategies and AKPD, David Axelrod's old firms. An embarrassed Axelrod is claiming that he no longer has any connection to the firms since he sold them in 2009, when he became Obama's Senior White House Advisor. But he's still very much connected (the A stands for Axelrod)... more »

Big Education Ape - Morning Wink 6-24 AM Posts #soschat #edreform

BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK  AM POSTS








Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core: More Glimpses into the Consequences of National Common Core Standards and Assessments?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago
Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core: More Glimpses into the Consequences of National Common Core Standards and Assessments?: Common Core: More Glimpses into the Consequences of National Common Core Standards and Assessments? by stlgretchen Is education about accountability or learning? Reading about the high stakes testing in China for university admission, can we make an educated guess on what might be in store for American schools if Common Core standards are fully implemented? We previously wrote how Chinese teachers marked zeros on college admission essays that criticize... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Want to Talk Education with Obama?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 7 hours ago
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Want to Talk Education with Obama?: Want to Talk Education with Obama? by Melissa Westbrook From the National PTSA: National PTA®, in partnership with the White House and U.S. Department of Education, announced at its 116th Annual Convention and Exhibition an unprecedented opportunity to recognize extraordinary PTA volunteers. Twelve PTA members working to improve the lives of children through involvement in PTA and education will be honored as White House Champions of Change at a special event and policy briefing with PTA leaders from across the ... more »

Mission accomplished? OUSD’s structural deficit, closure savings and other budget questions - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 17 hours ago
Mission accomplished? OUSD’s structural deficit, closure savings and other budget questions - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools: Mission accomplished? OUSD’s structural deficit, closure savings and other budget questions By Katy Murphy Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 5:06 pm in Uncategorized. This spring, Oakland Superintendent Tony Smith heralded the elimination of a $40 million structural deficit that he had inherited when he came to OUSD in 2009. Soon thereafter, his financial services team discovered a multimillion-dollar shortfall, which was followed by ma... more »

Schools Matter: Making Life Miserable for Every Politician, CEO, Corporate Foundation, and Hedge Funder that Supports Corporate Ed Reform

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 6 hours ago
Schools Matter: Making Life Miserable for Every Politician, CEO, Corporate Foundation, and Hedge Funder that Supports Corporate Ed Reform: [image: Home] Making Life Miserable for Every Politician, CEO, Corporate Foundation, and Hedge Funder that Supports Corporate Ed Reform by Jim Horn Hound them, rebuke them, throw pies in their faces. Scream at them, protest, sit up, sit down, go on strike, opt out, join up, scramble their testing databases, burn their tests, just say no, repudiate every effort to initiate the Common Core, online testing, corporate charters, mayoral takeover, pa... more »


Teach students higher order or critical thinking skills? Not if the Texas Republicans have their way. | Dangerously Irrelevant

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
Teach students higher order or critical thinking skills? Not if the Texas Republicans have their way. | Dangerously Irrelevant: Teach students higher order or critical thinking skills? Not if the Texas Republicans have their way. by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod) [image: Republican Party of Texas Logo] The Republican Party of Texas states in its official 2012 political platform : *We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) ... more »


The 29th Edition Of The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival Is Up! | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago
The 29th Edition Of The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival Is Up! | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…: The 29th Edition Of The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival Is Up! by Larry Ferlazzo Sharon Turner has just posted the 29th edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival! As she writes: *The posts… represent future visions, perspectives and warnings of all kinds pertaining to English Language Education.* Thanks, Sharon! David Deubelbeiss will be hosting the September 1st edition. I’ll post here when he publishes info on if that edition will have a “theme” or if it will be a general one on ESL/EFL te... more »

Not Another "Why I Left the Classroom" Story - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago
Not Another "Why I Left the Classroom" Story - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: Not Another "Why I Left the Classroom" Story by Nancy Flanagan There's no shortage of blogs on why teachers are leaving the classroom. They're leaving because they're sick of the test-driven instruction and learning. They're leaving because everyone underestimates the complexity and the workload of classroom teaching. They're leaving because they've been on the job for 15 years and still don't make enough to pay the bills. They're fearful of speaking up against practices they know ar... more »


Missouri Education Watchdog: Lean to the Right or Left; Common Core is a Disaster...The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 06.24.12

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 14 hours ago
Missouri Education Watchdog: Lean to the Right or Left; Common Core is a Disaster...The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 06.24.12: Lean to the Right or Left; Common Core is a Disaster...The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 06.24.12 by stlgretchen Common Core is a bipartisan disaster. The Left & Right have sold us out. Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for 06.24.12. This week will consist of a reposting of Susan Ohanian's excellent blog entitled *School-Standards Pushback: Conservative Groups Oppose National 'Common Core' as an Intrusion on States.* Susan has corresponde... more »













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An Urgent Message Philadelphia Federation of Teachers

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers:


Philadelphia Federation of Teachers

June 30, 2012
 
 
Dear Legislator:

On behalf of the 15,000  professional and paraprofessional members represented by our organization and employed by the Philadelphia Public Schools...dedicated, trained and experienced individuals into whose nurturing, development and care are entrusted daily throughout the academic year to nearly 205,00 children...I would like to clearly state our position on various legislative proposals and amendments coming up for a vote today.
We oppose any charter schools and/or cyber charter school legislation or amendmendatory effort that fails, at a minimum, to require transparency, accountability and ethical standards in the organization, operation and administration of such taxpayer financed educational institutions.  Additionally, any statutory or regulatory requirements or evaluation protocols that apply to educators and/or administrators in school district operated, taxpayer funded, public schools must apply equally to educators and administrators in taxpayer funded charter and cyber charter schools.  Anything less is unfairly discriminatory to all involved...educators, students, administrators and taxpayers.
We oppose any legislation that fails to fairly reform taxpayer funded charter and cyber charter schools funding formulas consistent with the recent report of Pennsylvania's Auditor General.  And, we are opposed to the direct payment of public school district allocated state funding to taxpayer funded charter and/or cyber charter schools, or any similar scheme that imposes a priority for such payments of allocated tax dollars to public school districts.
We oppose any legislation that compromises the ability of already financially strapped school district operated schools to educate our children and/or compromises the right of taxpayers from controlling or even knowing how their tax dollars are being spent by private and quasi-private entities that receive taxpayer funding that is to be dedicated to educating our children.
We further oppose any legislation that will permit and possibly even encourage the state to transfer students from one public school district to another, urban students to suburban and rural school districts or school district operated schools to taxpayer funded and privately operated schools.
Finally, we are compelled to oppose any legislation that permits a statewide authorizer or renewal facility of charter and/or cyber charter schools, that strips citizens of their say, their local voice, vote and direct approval of how their local tax dollars will be spent and how their local school and community will operate.
Thank you for your consideration of our organization's positions on these critical issues.
Sincerely,


Jerry Jordan, President                     
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Why Resolution on High-Stakes Tests Was Necessary in Florida: “No Evidence Legislative Pipeline Will Bring Relief” | Scathing Purple Musings

Why Resolution on High-Stakes Tests Was Necessary in Florida: “No Evidence Legislative Pipeline Will Bring Relief” | Scathing Purple Musings:


Why Resolution on High-Stakes Tests Was Necessary in Florida: “No Evidence Legislative Pipeline Will Bring Relief”

by Bob Sikes


The Bradenton Times has a comprehensive story this morning titled, “High-Stakes Testing Resistance Spreads Across Florida.” Highlighting Manatee county’s decision, the Times has this:
In Florida, more than a dozen countywide school committees serving three-quarters of a million students endorsed the National Resolution, according to FairTest. Early supporters included Broward County, the nation’s sixth biggest district, and Palm Beach County, the 11th largest. Then, the state association of school boards annual convention voted to endorse a state-specific version. Dozens of newspaper editorials, opinion columns, and letters to the editor have called for a reduction in testing and an overhaul of the state’s assessment system.
Members of the Manatee School District feel an unjustified overemphasis is placed on high stakes 
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