The Garfield Stand and the Common Core: Will They Both Come to a School Near You? | Truth in American Education

The Garfield Stand and the Common Core: Will They Both Come to a School Near You? | Truth in American Education:

The Garfield Stand and the Common Core: Will They Both Come to a School Near You?

by chascherrie

The “Garfield Stand” may eventually come to a school near you following the roll out of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and related assessment implementation across the country.  What is the Garfield Stand?  It is what the teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High School are doing—they are taking a stand on important issues related to student assessment.  You can read about it in the letter from teachers at Garfield High School and at additional links provided below.  Teachers at another school, Ballard High School, are not just in sympathy with their Garfield colleagues; they are taking the same stand.
This may be the start of our seeing the hundredth monkey phenomenon related to the CCSS and other education reform issues. Individual teachers may not be comfortable or may even be fearful of speaking out on these issues 

Common Core’s David Coleman on How We Think and Feel | California Father

Common Core’s David Coleman on How We Think and Feel | California Father:

Common Core’s David Coleman on How We Think and Feel

by California Father

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This past week, I learned more about what’s in store for public schools. I was dismayed to find out, at our Tuesday faculty meeting, that Common Core, a new set of learning standards mandated in 46 states, deemphasizes the importance of fiction as well as the experiences in a child’s life that make stories (fables, 

No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools | K-12 News Network

No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools | K-12 News Network:

No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools

Posted on January 11, 2013 by admin

On December 30, 2012, President Obama said he doubted arming school police with guns will prevent future school shootings, but then January 11, 2013′s EdWeek hints that he may yield to local law enforcement officers and communities if it has “bipartisan” support.

While President Barack Obama said recently that he would be skeptical that more guns would be an answer to school safety, his administration is considering paying to add police officers to secure public schools, in part because it may be an area of agreement among lawmakers of all stripes.

In that same EdWeek article, my own Senator, Barbara Boxer, presented such a plan to Vice President Joe Biden:

California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, told the Washington Post she presented the plan to Vice President Joe Biden and he was “very, very interested” and may include it policy recommendations he makes to President Obama.

“If a school district wants to have a community policing presence, I think it’s very important they have it,” Boxer said in an interview Thursday. “If they want uniformed officers, they can do it. If they want plainclothed officers, they can do it.”

…

Boxer’s initiative would provide federal dollars to schools that want to hire police officers and install surveillance equipment. It wouldn’t go as far as the National Rifle Association’s proposal to provide armed guards at every public school.

In Texas, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst calls for teachers to be trained in gun use:

Dewhurst said school districts would nominate who they wanted to carry weapons on campus. The training would be more extensive than what is currently required for Texas concealed handgun license and include how to react technically and emotionally in an active shooter situation on a school campus.

President Obama, Senator Boxer (!), Lt. Governor Dewhurst — are you INSANE? Have you lost your mind?

Do I need to surgically implant a spine in your back?

SIGN THE K12NN PETITION TO DROP THIS VERY BAD IDEA NOW.

For shame, I never would’ve thought my own “liberal” Senator would cave to the gun sales pitches of the NRA masquerading as policy. We do not need guns on campus. NCLB provides for expulsion of students who bring weapons, including guns, on campus. Then why do we invite adults to bring guns on campus in the name of “safety”? Do as we say, not as we do?

No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools

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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Guns for our Teachers

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Guns for our Teachers:

Guns for our Teachers

by Melissa Westbrook

There are few people in the Legislature who do not seem to represent the best thinking.

To whit:

• Newly-elected Rep Liz Pike, R-Camas wants "trained" teachers to carry guns in their classrooms.

From the Times:

GOP state Rep. Liz Pike helped to kick off the state gun-laws conversation last month with a widely read Facebook post that floated the idea of allowing teachers to carry guns in the classroom if they undergo training and pass a psychological evaluation. The program, modeled after one in place for airline pilots, would be 

ChoppEd: The Artistry of Teaching « Cooperative Catalyst

ChoppEd: The Artistry of Teaching « Cooperative Catalyst:

ChoppEd: The Artistry of Teaching

by Stephen Hurley

For most of my friends, it’s the high-energy music that gets them through their regular gym workouts. For me, its the podcasts and, specifically, the podcasts about education. Lately, I’ve been filling my iPod with the recordings that having been coming out Stanford University over the past couple of years. I find them to be engaging, relevant and even entertaining.

Today, I was listening to a talk given by Lee Schulman to teachers gathered at the 2011 Stanford Summer Teaching Institute (SSTI). As part of his introduction, Schulman referenced the popular reality-style cooking show, Chopped, which provides competing chefs with a basket full of ingredients and challenges them to create something fantastic. Here’s the program description from the Chopped website:

Chopped is a cooking competition show that is all about skill, speed and ingenuity. Each week, 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he’s convinced his uncle’s assassination wasn’t work of 1 person - The Washington Post

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he’s convinced his uncle’s assassination wasn’t work of 1 person - The Washington Post:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he’s convinced his uncle’s assassination wasn’t work of 1 person

(Tony Gutierrez/ Associated Press ) - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, makes comments during the opening minutes of a interview with journalist Charlie Rose in front of a full audience at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, in Dallas, Texas. The Kennedys are in Dallas as a year of observances begins for the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

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By Associated Press, Published: January 11 | Updated: Saturday, January 12, 12:26 AM

DALLAS — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that a lone gunman wasn’t solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a “shoddy piece of craftsmanship.”

Kennedy and his sister, Rory, spoke about their family Friday night while being interviewed in front of an audience by Charlie Rose at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. The event comes as a year of observances begins for the 50th anniversary of the president’s death.

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Their uncle was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas. Five years later, their father was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel while celebrating his win in the California Democratic presidential primary.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his father spent a year trying to come to grips with his brother’s death, reading the work of Greek philosophers, Catholic scholars, Henry David Thoreau, poets and others “trying to figure out kind of the existential implications of why a just God would allow injustice to happen of the magnitude he was seeing.”

He said his father thought the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president, was a “shoddy piece of craftsmanship.” He said that he, 

Children before politics: Madison, Connecticut: Standing up to the Corporate Education Reform Movement - Wait, What?

Children before politics: Madison, Connecticut: Standing up to the Corporate Education Reform Movement - Wait, What?:

Children before politics: Madison, Connecticut: Standing up to the Corporate Education Reform Movement

by jonpelto

This weekend, Hearst newspaper columnist and fellow public education advocate, Wendy Lecker, has published a “must read” commentary piece that reveals that in at least one Connecticut community local elected officials, school administrators, teachers and parents are have the courage and conviction to stand up for the needs of their children – even if it means taking on Connecticut’s “education reform at all costs” State Department of Education.

Two weeks ago, Lecker used her column to ask; “Will one superintendent please stand up?”

This week we learn that yes, there is a Connecticut superintendent of schools, in fact, 

Schools Matter: Carl, Get Your Gun

Schools Matter: Carl, Get Your Gun:

Carl, Get Your Gun

by Storm

Just as I was about to start writing this an image that springs out of my "cultural" heritage popped into my head. In the movie The Breakfast Club, the man of superior conscience turns out to be Carl, the janitor.  Do you remember?  I'm pretty sure none of the teens in the movie will turn out to be of superior conscience or character, which is interesting too.  I sometimes marvel at the actual complexity in our filmed representations of institutional roles and human responses.  We know the assistant principal is an ass, not least due to the anticipated viewer response to the actor's "look."  Looking like that, Vernon is irredeemable.  But in the end we can only imagine that each of these "club" members will go their merry way just as they had prior to this day of detention even as they earned a single day of "victory" over themselves, their cultural roles, and the institution that "molds" them, becoming briefly an association of sympathetic beings.  That is, they will go back to being 

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Bill Gates:Experienced Educator!($50 Million Dollars Doesn't Lie)

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Bill Gates:Experienced Educator!($50 Million Dollars Doesn't Lie):

Bill Gates:Experienced Educator!($50 Million Dollars Doesn't Lie)

by Lisa M

Oh, wait a minute. He doesn't hold a degree in education? My bad.
Well, then, he must have taken a few education courses? No? Not that either?
He has traveled all over the world and visited different types of schools? Talked to educators all over the country? No?
I know! He had a teacher relative, when he was young, who would regal him with quirky stories of what it was like to be an educator. Strike!

Given all the evidence above, I have to believe that Bill Gates knows nothing about education, nothing! Yet, this man has been allowed to shape what education should look like.

I truly believe that one day Bill, yes I will call him Bill, was bored out of his mind. Hence, he thought of a magical place where he could invest millions of dollars, change the world, and in the process, have millions of people revere him for his magnificent work. He brushed off the 

Parents and students arrested after street brawls near Pittsburgh - Crimesider - CBS News

Parents and students arrested after street brawls near Pittsburgh - Crimesider - CBS News:

Parents and students arrested after street brawls near Pittsburgh

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(CBS) SWISSVALE, Pa. - Swissvale police are increasing patrols near a school bus stop where two major brawls happened earlier this week, and they say they've been told to expect more violence,CBS Pittsburgh reports..

Cell phone videos shot by students show a crowd of as many as 60 students and parents fighting in the streets of Swissvale, less than 10 miles east of Pittsburgh, on both Monday and Tuesday. Police are still rounding up suspects.

"We've identified right now about 15 people, adults and students, parents of some of the students, and everybody that's been identified by us will be arrested," Police Chief Greg Geppert told the station.

Police say they have already arrested five adults and minors, and are looking for close to a dozen more. The students and parents were reportedly from the Woodland Hills School district. Police 

Building a professional learning network on Twitter « My Island View

Building a professional learning network on Twitter « My Island View:

Building a professional learning network on Twitter

by tomwhitby

For those who do not know, here are two basic Twitter principles: 1. If you only follow 10 people you will only see the general tweets of those 10 people. 2. If only 10 people follow you, only those 10 people will see your general tweets. Although some might argue that the right ten people might be enough, I would argue that ten educators is a very limited Professional Learning Network. The never-ending task of building a PLN is to continually follow really good educators to get the information they put out.
I often say that the worst advocates for using Twitter as a PLN are power users. They come up with numbers, time on task, and strategies that overwhelm and blow away the average Twitter users, not to even mention how they scare off any novice. The accomplishments and numbers of power users tend to intimidate those who would consider using Twitter but see these numbers as unattainable and huge obstacles to success.
Building a professional Learning Network consisting of quality educators, who responsibly share quality 

The Efficiency Smokescreen, “Cuts Cause no Harm” Argument & The 3 Kansas Judges who Saw Right Through It! « School Finance 101

The Efficiency Smokescreen, “Cuts Cause no Harm” Argument & The 3 Kansas Judges who Saw Right Through It! « School Finance 101:

The Efficiency Smokescreen, “Cuts Cause no Harm” Argument & The 3 Kansas Judges who Saw Right Through It!

by schoolfinance101

State school finance litigation is a tedious – often annoying –politically charged process.  Often, school finance litigation involves extensive debate over tedious statistical and other details underlying estimates of how much is should cost for states to meet their constitutional obligations. Too often, it seems, these debates over tedious statistical details serve to distract the conversation from broader principles of plainly logical fair treatment for kids.
In these cases, states continue to vigorously defend their right to fund – or not – schools as they see fit… when they see fit…. whether or not they see fit.  A relatively consistent pool of experts continue to advise states on