Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/27/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!': Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!'When Black Friday comesI'll stand down by the doorAnd catch the grey men when theyDive from the fourteenth floor -Steely DanThe first recorded use of the term “Black Friday” was applied not to holiday shopping madness, but to financial crisis: specifically, the c

by mike simpson / 1min 

Why Oregon teachers have concerns about standardized testing (OPINION) | OregonLive.com

Why Oregon teachers have concerns about standardized testing (OPINION) | OregonLive.com: Why Oregon teachers have concerns about standardized testing (OPINION)By Hanna VaanderingRecently, The Oregonian/OregonLive ran a story with the headline: "Oregon teachers despise the Smarter Balanced tests, survey says." The story was referring to the 164 pages of thoughtful, reasoned responses we —

by mike simpson / 2min 

Help NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill - Action Network

Help NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill - Action Network: Help NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization BillThe new ESEA bill will be released in full on Monday, November 30, and is likely to be voted on by the House on December 2 and the following week in the Senate. We believe that this bill is a smallimprovement over the highly punitive No Child Left B

by mike simpson / 1h 

To build a better teacher, Harvard launches program aimed at quality - The Washington Post

To build a better teacher, Harvard launches program aimed at quality - The Washington Post: To build a better teacher, Harvard launches program aimed at qualityAs the country debates the best way to improve the quality of teachers in struggling public schools, Harvard University is launching a training program it hopes will serve as a national model.Starting in January, about two dozen Harvard sen

by mike simpson / 1h 

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Human Relations, Charter School Style

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Human Relations, Charter School Style: Human Relations, Charter School StyleMy Inbox for October 27, 2015, contained the usual collection of SPAM, ads, and offers to transfer millions of dollars to the U.S. from a prince in Nigeria. But one letter was most unexpected and not in the least routine. A teacher at Challenge Charter School in Glendale, Arizona, wro

by mike simpson / 2h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Can Competency Based Education Be Stopped?

CURMUDGUCATION: Can Competency Based Education Be Stopped?: Can Competency Based Education Be Stopped?Over at StopCommonCoreNYS, you can find the most up-to-date cataloging of the analysis of, reaction to, and outcry over Competency Based Education.Critics are correct in saying that CBE has been coming down the pike for a while. Pearson released an 88-page opus about the Assessment Renaissance alm

by mike simpson / 5h 

Tomorrow’s Teachers? | Live Long and Prosper

Tomorrow’s Teachers? | Live Long and Prosper:Tomorrow’s Teachers?WHO WILL STAFF TOMORROW’S CLASSROOMS?A Not Quitting LetterEarlier this month blogger Peter Greene struck back against the increasingly frequent “teacher quits via internet post” genre. He wrote a “not quitting” letter to an imaginary school board.So I will stay here, and I will do what I consider– in my professional opinion– to do wh

by mike simpson / 5h 

A Newark teacher offers a Thanksgiving lesson | Bob Braun's Ledger

A Newark teacher offers a Thanksgiving lesson | Bob Braun's Ledger: A Newark teacher offers a Thanksgiving lessonSusan Palmucci is a Newark teacher. First grade at the Cleveland School. In the city’s schools for 24 years. But forget her job for a moment. Think of her in a way many people don’t think of teachers–as a woman, as a person who saw an immediate, emergency need and did what she could to

by mike simpson / 7h 

Teachers Know Bullies: Trump Is One - Living in Dialogue

Teachers Know Bullies: Trump Is One - Living in Dialogue: Teachers Know Bullies: Trump Is One By Anthony Cody.A teacher sees the best and the worst in behavior any given year. And one of the most important jobs we have as teachers is to create a community of learners in our classrooms – teaching students to help one another academically, and also as friends. These two things go together. People le

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Is the Teacher Shortage Real?

CURMUDGUCATION: Is the Teacher Shortage Real?: Is the Teacher Shortage Real?We talk a lot about the current teacher shortage. I've posted about it numerous times. But the question remains-- is there really a teacher shortage?A study released this month by the National Center for Educational Statistics suggests that everything we think we know about the Great Teacher Shortage is wrong. Or at least,

by mike simpson / 7h 

If you liked "Alice's Restaurant", you're gonna love...APPR in NY State

If you liked "Alice's Restaurant", you're gonna love...

by mike simpson / 7h 

A heart wrenching story from a teacher in Tennessee.  Could have been Connecticut or anywhere… - Wait What?

A heart wrenching story from a teacher in Tennessee.  Could have been Connecticut or anywhere… - Wait What?: A heart wrenching story from a teacher in Tennessee.  Could have been Connecticut or anywhere…Read the story posted by a Tennessee teacher yesterday.  Then convert what will undoubtedly be your sadness and anger into action.Election Day 2016 is just over 11 months away.This time, use your v

by mike simpson / 7h 

Teach for America 2, Parents 4: A Tale of Two Elections | The Progressive

Teach for America 2, Parents 4: A Tale of Two Elections | The Progressive: Teach for America 2, Parents 4: A Tale of Two Elections Teach for America scored big in Minnesota recently, with an Election Day, under-the-radar purchase of two suburban Minneapolis school board seats.Purchase might be a strong word, but Teach for America and its affiliates definitely threw moneyed support behind Richfield

by mike simpson / 8h 

Geaux Teacher!: Wake Up Teachers! Your Profession is Being Made Redundant

Geaux Teacher!: Wake Up Teachers! Your Profession is Being Made Redundant: Wake Up Teachers! Your Profession is Being Made RedundantWake up teachers. Your profession is being made redundant w discussions like this from Brookings. http://brook.gs/1jnE27BMore importantly, children are being left behind as "reform" addresses everything but learning! Once again yet another article focused on

by mike simpson / 8h 

Past Chester Community Charter testing head disciplined in cheating scandal | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Past Chester Community Charter testing head disciplined in cheating scandal | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: Past Chester Community Charter testing head disciplined in cheating scandalThe state's largest bricks-and-mortar charter is operated for profit by a GOP power broker. Its test scores plunged in 2012 when security measures were tightened.A former testing coordinator at Chester Communit

by mike simpson / 9h 

Louisiana Educator: Educators and Parents Thankful

Louisiana Educator: Educators and Parents Thankful: Educators and Parents ThankfulHappy Thanksgiving! Many educators and parents I have spoken to recently are very thankful that we have a chance to restore sanity, dignity, professionalism, and a positive balanced curriculum in our public schools. The election of John Bel Edwards as our governor gives us a great opportunity to truly improve Louisia

by mike simpson / 9h 

NYC Educator: Why Is Reformy Andy Cuomo Backing Down on Junk Science?

NYC Educator: Why Is Reformy Andy Cuomo Backing Down on Junk Science?: Why Is Reformy Andy Cuomo Backing Down on Junk Science?Like everyone who pays attention, I was pretty amazed to read in the NY Times that Governor Andrew Cuomo is looking to tamp down his teacher evaluation mandate. After all, hadn't he said that the new system, the one he backed and pushed, was "baloney?" He was clea

by mike simpson / 9h 

When A 4-Day School Week Might Cost More Than It Saves : NPR Ed : NPR

When A 4-Day School Week Might Cost More Than It Saves : NPR Ed : NPR: When A 4-Day School Week Might Cost More Than It SavesFirst thing Friday morning, Bill Florence is getting his two kids, Chloe, 11, and Austen, 8, ready to head out the door."Did you guys brush your teeth?" he asks. "Yes," they moan.Monday through Thursday Chloe and Austen catch the bus to Peralta Trail Elem

by mike simpson / 9h 

Principal to N.Y. Gov. Cuomo: Stop spreading a false narrative about public education - The Washington Post

Principal to N.Y. Gov. Cuomo: Stop spreading a false narrative about public education - The Washington Post: Principal to N.Y. Gov. Cuomo: Stop spreading a false narrative about public educationJamaal Bowman is the principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action Middle school in the Bronx.  The school’s website says that the mission of the school is to graduate “self-aware, hard-working and

by mike simpson / 9h 

Ranking Finland's Schools Proves That They're All Equal - The Atlantic

Ranking Finland's Schools Proves That They're All Equal - The Atlantic: The Place Where Ranking Schools Proves They're Actually EqualWhy one journalist wanted to grade Finland’s schoolsIn Finland you’re not supposed to wonder—let alone ask out loud—if one school is better than another. That’s because all Finnish schools are designed to be equal.We Finns are very proud of our equal education system

by mike simpson / 9h 

Thankful For You [Luz and Ale] | The Jose Vilson

Thankful For You [Luz and Ale] | The Jose Vilson: Thankful For You [Luz and Ale]I don’t often speak about my personal life because, well, that’s not what I do. It’s weird. I teach. I speak. I write. I activate.But I’m also a man with a family at home.So this is a note to say that I’m thankful for my family we’ve made in Harlem. Luz and Alejandro are my life source. I do my best to not give off the

by mike simpson / 10h 

Read Me, Please! My favorites from 2015. - Lily's Blackboard

Read Me, Please! My favorites from 2015. - Lily's Blackboard: Read Me, Please! My favorites from 2015.If you’re like me, you have a small stack of magazines you’ve promise yourself you’ll get to…eventually. You just can’t seem to find the time to read the cover story that made you buy the magazine or the news article that piqued your interest or the webpage that you bookmarked.And it’s understanda

by mike simpson / 10h 

Finding the sweet spot of reason in evaluating schools and teachers - LA Times

Finding the sweet spot of reason in evaluating schools and teachers - LA Times: Finding the sweet spot of reason in evaluating schools and teachersThird grade students at West Homer Elementary School in Homer, Alaska act out an interpretive dance to the sound of a storyteller and percussion on Nov. 13. (Annie Rosenthal / Associated Press)The pendulum of American public education policy is swinging

by mike simpson / 10h 

Can Teachers Unions Help Online Charter Schools?

Can Teachers Unions Help Online Charter Schools?:Can Teachers Unions Help Online Charter Schools?After a lengthy battle, California teachers have won the right to form a union in their online charter school network.In a major win for the movement to organize charter schools, a California state labor board recently ruled that teachers working for the state’s largest online charter network could for

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/26/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMCURMUDGUCATION: ThankfulnessCURMUDGUCATION: Thankfulness: ThankfulnessThanksgiving is, well, problematic as a holiday. At least as a celebration of anything historic, because the related history is complicated, and if there's anything Americans hate, it's sorting our way through complicated history. We like our history sorted out into nice clear good guys and bad guys; unfortuna

by mike simpson / 1d 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!':

Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!'

When Black Friday comes
I'll stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor -Steely Dan

The first recorded use of the term “Black Friday” was applied not to holiday shopping madness, but to financial crisis: specifically, the crash of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869. Two notoriously ruthless Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, worked together to buy up as much as they could of the nation’s gold, hoping to drive the price sky-high and sell it for astonishing profits. On that Friday in September, the conspiracy finally unraveled, sending the stock market into free-fall and Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!':

Why Oregon teachers have concerns about standardized testing (OPINION) | OregonLive.com

Why Oregon teachers have concerns about standardized testing (OPINION) | OregonLive.com:

Why Oregon teachers have concerns about standardized testing (OPINION)

By Hanna Vaandering

Recently, The Oregonian/OregonLive ran a story with the headline: "Oregon teachers despise the Smarter Balanced tests, survey says." The story was referring to the 164 pages of thoughtful, reasoned responses we — the Oregon Education Association — collected when we asked educators about their experiences with the assessment.

Comments like: "We are narrowing the focus of education to teaching to a test and test results. We want an increase in graduation rate, but are taking out the projects, getting rid of the high-interest, hands-on classes that keep kids focused and motivated."

"Due to the test my students lost a week and a half of instruction time in U.S. history. We lost a whole unit on WW2. I think this is an unacceptable loss for students."

"This caused students stress to the point of cruelty.  There is no way their scores accurately reflect their mathematical skills."

There may be some educators who actually do despise the Smarter Balanced assessment.  That's likely because they are outraged by the way the assessment exacerbates inequities, frustrated by the technical failures and heartbroken when they have to stand by, unable to offer clarity, and watch as their students struggle and lose confidence and hope.

However, these comments offer much more than a critique of a single assessment—they expose deep truths about our schools and what our students are experiencing in their daily lives. The comments offer a realistic view of the ways in which larger classes, limited resources, and, yes, Smarter Balanced assessments are impacting our children.

Reading these responses, you'll learn that our special education students and students who are learning English do not have the resources they need to be successful.  You'll find that our schools are in desperate need of more up-to-date technology.  You'll understand that all of our students are not getting the individual attention they deserve, or that is essential to their success. You'll discover that Advanced Placement students are falling behind in their classes because of the time spent taking the Smarter Balanced assessment.  And, you'll notice that counselors are spending so much time administering the test that they can't focus on advising or counseling their students.

These deep truths — truths our educators and students navigate every day — should alarm parents and everyone else who cares about Oregon's future. As I read the responses to our survey, I could not help but get emotional.  In fact, I think it would be pretty difficult to take in the hundreds of comments without feeling a powerful urgency to improve our students' academic experience.  Educators — teachers, education support professionals and administrators alike — have so many good and proven ways to do this.  Our students need more time to learn; more opportunities to ignite their curiosity, imagination and passion for learning; more occasions for individual, one-on-one attention and, importantly, more attention to existing and persistent opportunity gaps.

As educators, we have a responsibility to push forward, and, sometimes, that Why Oregon teachers have concerns about standardized testing (OPINION) | OregonLive.com:

Help NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill - Action Network

Help NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill - Action Network:

Help NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill

The new ESEA bill will be released in full on Monday, November 30, and is likely to be voted on by the House on December 2 and the following week in the Senate. We believe that this bill is a smallimprovement over the highly punitive No Child Left Behind law, which has given the Secretary of Education too much authority to prescribe unproven learning standards, unreliable teacher evaluation systems linked to test scores, and punitive policies in struggling schools.

Unfortunately the bill continues the annual mandate for testing in grades 3-8, and a waiver will still be needed if states want to give alternative assessments to more than one percent of their students with disabilities and English Language Learners after one year. The reality is many state exams are neither valid nor diagnostically useful for many of these students.

In addition, there are some new provisions that we are very concerned about:

• The bill appears to require that “academic standards” including proficiency rates and growth based on state test scores, must count for at least 51% of any state’s accountability system. Some observers say that the bill would allow the Secretary of Education to determine the exact percentage of each factor in a state accountability system. This is not acceptable. Every state should be allowed to decide on its own system, including what percent to give standardized tests.

• The bill would also allow states to use Title II funds, now meant for class size reduction and teacher quality initiatives, for Social Impact bonds, which amount to another profiteering scheme for Wall Street to loot our public schools. Recently, the New York Times reported on how Goldman Sachs helped fund a preschool program in Utah with Social Impact bonds. Goldman Sachs will now make hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on a flawed study that purported to show that 99 percent of these students will not require special education services – a far higher percent than any previous study. We vehemently oppose the inclusion of this provision in ESEA. If preschool is worth funding, and we believe that it is, it should be paid for by public funds and not provide another way for Wall Street profiteers to drain resources from our public schools.

We urge you to send a letter to your Senators and Representative now, to express your opposition to these two proposals. We have provided a sample letter you can send with just a few clicks, and if you can, please follow up with a phone call to their DC offices.

Time is short and we must let Congress know that our public schools can’t afford any new mandates for counterproductive high-stakes testing and opportunities for the private sector to profit off our kids.

Sponsored byHelp NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill - Action Network:

Network for Public 

To build a better teacher, Harvard launches program aimed at quality - The Washington Post

To build a better teacher, Harvard launches program aimed at quality - The Washington Post:

To build a better teacher, Harvard launches program aimed at quality

As the country debates the best way to improve the quality of teachers in struggling public schools, Harvard University is launching a training program it hopes will serve as a national model.

Starting in January, about two dozen Harvard seniors will begin a three-year fellowship designed to combine pedagogy — learning the methods of teaching from experts — with lengthy practice in the classroom under mentor supervision.

Thanks to $18 million from private donors who wish to remain anonymous, the program is free to fellows.

James E. Ryan, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said the university has three goals: improve the quality of classroom teachers in urban schools, create a model that can be copied elsewhere, and present teaching as a viable career to Harvard students and their peers who do not typically think of K-12 teaching in the same vein as law, medicine or business.

“We really want to get Harvard students to think about teaching as a career,” Ryan said. To that end, Harvard is asking its fellows to commit to teaching for five to seven years.

In the spring of their senior year, the fellows will take courses in teaching methods and continue through the summer, with some time spent instructing under supervision in a public school.

“You can talk all you want about teaching, but when you are teaching is when the growth curve is the greatest,” said Katherine K. Merseth, a senior lecturer at the education school who first conceived of the fellowship program more than a decade ago.

[TFA recruits don’t outperform other teachers at elementary level, study says]

During the first full year, Harvard fellows will be placed in schools to teach part time, responsible for two or three classes a day, while working with an on-site mentor, having long-distance coaching sessions with a Harvard faculty adviser and taking an online Harvard class.

“That is a whole lot better than sprinting through the day, teaching five classes, maybe going to the bathroom during lunch, then going home and grading the work of 100 to 150 students,” said Steve Mahoney, associate director of the Harvard Teaching Fellows. “It’s still hard. But it’s doable-hard as opposed to superhuman-hard for a 23-year-old in their first job.”

During the second summer, Harvard fellows will return to the university for more course work and to finish requirements for a teaching certificate. In the second and third years, fellows teach full time but go back to Harvard for retreats, conferences and summer courses. They can take six more credits to earn a master’s degree for about $10,000, compared with about $45,000 for Harvard’s traditional master’s program, Ryan said.

In its design and goals, the fellowship clearly differs from Teach for America, the 25-year-old highly selective program that recruits college seniors on elite campuses such as Harvard, gives them five weeks of training and places them To build a better teacher, Harvard launches program aimed at quality - The Washington Post:

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Human Relations, Charter School Style

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Human Relations, Charter School Style:

Human Relations, Charter School Style

My Inbox for October 27, 2015, contained the usual collection of SPAM, ads, and offers to transfer millions of dollars to the U.S. from a prince in Nigeria. But one letter was most unexpected and not in the least routine. A teacher at Challenge Charter School in Glendale, Arizona, wrote, not to ask for help, but to let me know what is going on at one of the area's celebrated educational institutions.

I had written previously about this charter school:

A man named Greg Miller is president of the Arizona State Board of Education. There is also a man named Greg Miller who is CEO of Challenge Charter School in Glendale, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix. Matching up photos of the Board president and the charter CEO leaves no doubt that these two individuals are one in the same Greg Miller. Mr. Miller, a civil engineer for 25 years, founded Challenge Charter School in the late 1990s and for a while served as principal. His current title is CEO. ... [D]aughter Wendy Miller was appointed Principal of Challenge Charter School the same year in which she earned her MBA.Greg Miller, the CEO of a school "system" with about 650 students, is being compensated to the tune of $145,000 annually. His wife receives the same salary, though her duties are never enumerated at the website and her position is only described as "Executive Director/Vice-PR" .... Wendy, who has degrees in Public Administration and Business, receives a salary of more than $120,000 for acting as Principal/Secretary. Basically, the Miller family, while working assiduously 60 hours a week each as reported on their IRS form, is taking about $425,000 a year out of the coffers for salary.

End of my blog post from February 2, 2015

A roughly half-million $ annual salary to three family members might be a great investment for educating 650 students in the world's greatest school. But my correspondent's letter of October 27th and other information lead me to believe that perhaps the Millers are not operating one of the world’s greatest educational institutions.

Herewith, my correspondent’s experiences:

‪Hello Dr. Glass,‬‪I read with interest your article about Greg Miller and Challenge Charter School. I would add more to it if I may. I was employed as a sixth-grade teacher at CCS from July to September 25, 2015. I was originally hired in March because they were going to move a long-time employee to the position of vice principal. The woman's husband was then offered a job out of state and she was moving with him. ‬

‪I began my work with CCS in July and they loved me. The week of September 21, 2015, my job appeared to unravel. The Millers kept a constant eye on me with the video cameras they have in every classroom that are meant for student and teacher protection , not evaluation. On one occasion that week, I was having my students stretch at the end of our class session and Greg Miller

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Human Relations, Charter School Style:

CURMUDGUCATION: Can Competency Based Education Be Stopped?

CURMUDGUCATION: Can Competency Based Education Be Stopped?:

Can Competency Based Education Be Stopped?

Over at StopCommonCoreNYS, you can find the most up-to-date cataloging of the analysis of, reaction to, and outcry over Competency Based Education.

Critics are correct in saying that CBE has been coming down the pike for a while. Pearson released an 88-page opus about the Assessment Renaissance almost a year ago (you can read much about it starting here). Critics noted way back in March of 2014 (okay, I'm the one who noted it) thatCommon Core standards could be better understood as data tags. And Knewton, Pearson's data-collecting wing, was explaining how it would all work back in 2012.

Every single thing a student does would be recorded, cataloged, tagged, bagged, and tossed into the bowels of the data mine, where computers will crunch data and spit out a "personalized" version of their pre-built educational program.

Right now seems like the opportune moment for selling this program, because it can be marketed as as an alternative to the Big Standardized Tests which have been crushed near to death under the wheel of public opinion. "We'll stop giving your children these stupid tests," the reformsters declare. "Just let us monitor every single thing they do every day of the year."

It's not that I don't think CBE is a terrible idea-- I do. And it's not that I don't have a healthy respect CURMUDGUCATION: Can Competency Based Education Be Stopped?:

Tomorrow’s Teachers? | Live Long and Prosper

Tomorrow’s Teachers? | Live Long and Prosper:
Tomorrow’s Teachers?
WHO WILL STAFF TOMORROW’S CLASSROOMS?

A Not Quitting Letter

Earlier this month blogger Peter Greene struck back against the increasingly frequent “teacher quits via internet post” genre. He wrote a “not quitting” letter to an imaginary school board.

So I will stay here, and I will do what I consider– in my professional opinion– to do what is best for my students and my community. When I am told to implement a bad policy, I will circumvent it by any means at my disposal. I will disregard directives to commit malpractice. I will question, I will challenge, and I will push back. I will speak at every board meeting. I will talk to every parent.

Unfortunately, not everyone can do that. To his credit, he did acknowledge that not everyone is in position to do what he suggested. In the school I volunteer at, for example, anyone who did what he said would get fired due to insubordination.

Yes, I know. Not everyone is in the position to be this feisty and confrontational, and not every situation lends itself to this approach. I’m not advocating this for every single teacher up against it. And yes– lots of teachers have adopted this “stay and fight” stance– they just haven’t written a letter announcing it.

As I said, I am not unsympathetic to those who quit. You can only take as much as you can take.

I get it. Teachers who are strong will stay in the classroom…until they can’t. Some teachers will leave because they can’t handle the cognitive dissonance of the education malpractice they are forced to dump on their students…and would Tomorrow’s Teachers? | Live Long and Prosper:

A Newark teacher offers a Thanksgiving lesson | Bob Braun's Ledger

A Newark teacher offers a Thanksgiving lesson | Bob Braun's Ledger:

A Newark teacher offers a Thanksgiving lesson

Susan Palmucci is a Newark teacher. First grade at the Cleveland School. In the city’s schools for 24 years. But forget her job for a moment. Think of her in a way many people don’t think of teachers–as a woman, as a person who saw an immediate, emergency need and did what she could to help another person–another woman happened to be the mother of nine, including one of Palmucci’s  students.

“I knew the family had been living in a shelter and then I learned they had finally found a home in public housing,” says Palmucci.

The name of the family won’t be published here, but the teacher says that, despite the work involved in taking care of nine children, the mother is a conscientious parent who is active at the school and its PTA. The youngest of her children is eight months old, the oldest in the 8th grade.

They had found housing just days before Thanksgiving. But that’s all they received–the housing, walls with no furniture.

Susan Palmucci explained, “I was happy they finally were no longer homeless. I picked up a few things and brought them to the housing development where they live. What I saw made me very sad. The kids were so happy to finally have a home but they were sleeping on  blankets. No furniture. No kitchen appliances. Little food.”

Palmucci, a mom herself and a West Orange resident, posted a story Nov. 14 A Newark teacher offers a Thanksgiving lesson | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Teachers Know Bullies: Trump Is One - Living in Dialogue

Teachers Know Bullies: Trump Is One - Living in Dialogue:

Teachers Know Bullies: Trump Is One 

By Anthony Cody.



A teacher sees the best and the worst in behavior any given year. And one of the most important jobs we have as teachers is to create a community of learners in our classrooms – teaching students to help one another academically, and also as friends. These two things go together. People learn best when they can take risks, and get supportive feedback on their work.



But some of our students come having learned a different pattern of behavior – that of the bully. The bully lives in fear that he will be seen as weak, and projects that fear onto others. So long as the bully is the strong one, he cannot be made to suffer the humiliations that the weak must endure. So the quest is constant for those to mock, those who can, by their inferiority, prove the bully to be superior. And when this mockery finds a receptive audience, the whole school environment can become toxic.



The US government sponsors this web site that fights bullying. It says that on our school campuses, any form of bullying is unacceptable, and should be dealt with directly by school staff. One presidential candidate would run afoul of this policy.



Donald Trump has emerged as the personification of the American bully.



Trump defines almost every situation as a contest between winners and losers, and nobody is in between. If he is allowed to “make America great again,” he promises “we will win so much we will get sick of winning.” Anyone who opposes him in any way is subject to mockery on whatever basis he can find. There seems to be Teachers Know Bullies: Trump Is One - Living in Dialogue: