A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A VERY BUSY DAY

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

 

 

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html

Enrollment In Some Districts Is Going Down – Should We Be Worried?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

NPR just published Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country . According to the article, it sounds like the big drop is in kindergarten, which makes sense to me. I can’t imagine trying to introduce a kindergarten-age child to school through remote education. For what it’s worth, our high school’s enrollment is up from last year, though I realize one school does not make a trend.

New NPR Video: “4 Tips To Help You Prepare For A National Disaster During A Pandemic”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h

WikiImages / Pixabay I’m adding this new NPR video to The Best Websites For Learning About Natural Disasters :

Here’s The “Columbus Day” Lesson I Did With My ELL History Class

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay It’s Columbus Day on Monday in the United States, and it’s also known as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I’ve previously posted about a related lesson I do in my ELL U.S. History classes (see Here’s What My ELL Students Are Reading & Writing About Columbus ). I’ve modified it a bit this year. After learning about Columbus through our textbook and through Brainpop, students

The World Food Programme Awarded Nobel Peace Prize – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 5h

The United Nations World Food Programme has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. You can learn more about their being give the prize at CNN . You can also learn about an activity they sponsor on October 16th, World Food Day, at The Best Sites To Learn About World Food Day . I’m adding this info to The Best Sites To Learn About The Nobel Peace Prize .

Pins Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 22,000 resources there that I haven’t shared on this blog. I thought readers might find it useful if I began sharing a handful of my most recent “pins” each week (I’m not sure if you can see them through an RSS Reader – you might have to click through to the original post). You might also be interested in MY MOST POPULAR PINS OF 2020 – PAR

If You Want To Learn About Genocide, Torture Or Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Here’s A Place To Start….

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

carlosftw / Pixabay I have over 2,100 frequently revised and updated “Best” lists on just about every subject imaginable, and you can find them listed three different ways in three different places (see Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists ). I’m starting to publish a series where each day I will highlight the “Best” lists in a separate category. Today, it’s on Genocide, Tor

Good Advice From Soccer Star Abby Wambach On How To Support Young People

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Soccer star Abby Wambach offered some good advice on what parents should say to their kids after watching them play in an athletic event. I think it works great for those situations, and I also think that it can, with some slight 

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

The Lost Year Fallacy | Teacher in a strange land

 The Lost Year Fallacy | Teacher in a strange land

The Lost Year Fallacy

The first time I learned about the 1918 flu pandemic—in school, probably junior high history or civics class—I came home and asked my grandmother (who lived with us) what she remembered about the great flu pandemic. She would have been 28 in 1918, still single and working in a grocery and dry goods store.

Not much, it turned out. None of her nine brothers and sisters or their spouses and children had succumbed, nor any friends. She couldn’t remember being ill herself, although she was notorious for living with pain and discomfort. When she was in her 90s, she fell off a stepladder while washing windows. She broke her hip, something that wasn’t verified for a couple of weeks while she hobbled around saying it wasn’t bad enough to go to the hospital, where they might hold her overnight or give her unwanted drugs.

Grandma was no Donald Trump.

World War II broke out when my mother was a freshman in high school. Many of her classmates left school before graduating, to enlist. When they came back, they were offered GEDs and the GI bill to further their education. There were good-paying, middle class jobs for those who just wanted to work, buy a home or start a family.

Their education was disrupted—but hey, duty calls. What’s put off can be reclaimed.

So—why are we claiming that 2020-21 is a lost year? In October, no less? We’re all struggling with this pandemic. Can’t we take a deep breath and try to problem-solve?

Since K-12 public education has been widely operational—for a century, CONTINUE READING:   The Lost Year Fallacy | Teacher in a strange land

CURMUDGUCATION: Democracy Is Not The Point

CURMUDGUCATION: Democracy Is Not The Point

Democracy Is Not The Point

Twitter is often a fine place to catch people saying the quiet parts out loud. For instance, this tweet from this morning:

Mike Lee is a Senator from Utah who tilts all the way over into Libertarian rightness. He loves himself some school choice. He's also part of the crew that got Covid-19 as a parting gift at the White House Amy Barrett soiree. 

As a blogging master of multiple typos, I'm not going to dog him for clearly meaning "prosperity." But I am going to whoop and holler and point at the "democracy isn't the objective" part. That was a follow up to yesterday's tweet "We are not a democracy." (Don't bring any "but we're actually a republic" argument in here--that just signals you aren't ready to seriously discuss this).

It's the quiet part out loud, the part that we've been hearing in the assault on public education. It's in the arguments by guys like Reed Hastings (Netflix) that elected school boards are a hindrance and should be done away with. It's in the cities where mayoral control has been implemented. It's in the communities where charter operators come from outside and make education reform something they do to the community rather than with it. It is in the education disruption model that says what we really need is a powerful visionary in charge who isn't held down by regulations or unions and CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Democracy Is Not The Point

Columbus, Ohio: School Board Member Lobbies for School Choice, Not Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Columbus, Ohio: School Board Member Lobbies for School Choice, Not Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Columbus, Ohio: School Board Member Lobbies for School Choice, Not Public Schools

Maureen Reedy is an experienced teacher and advocate for Ohio’s public schools. She wrote a letter to the editor which all public school supporters should read:

https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/letters/2020/10/05/dispatch-letter-writers-take-issue-1-dewines-tweet-and-election/5884874002/

To the Editor:

Let me get this straight: James Ragland, a first-term Columbus school board member, is also a paid advocate for private and for-profit charter schools in Ohio? (Dispatch article, Sept. 23)

In the business world, Ragland’s roles would be a blatant conflict of interest — the fox guarding the henhouse in violation of his fiduciary obligation as a publicly elected board member.

Which hat was Ragland wearing when he joined Betsy DeVos at the School Choice Roundtable in July? Was he participating as the director of provider outreach for School Choice Ohio or as a Columbus City Schools board member?

Clearly, Ragland, while working for School Choice Ohio, has been a player in moving almost $1 billion from CONTINUE READING: Columbus, Ohio: School Board Member Lobbies for School Choice, Not Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bully Politics, Eugenics, and the Last Days of American Pretense – radical eyes for equity

Bully Politics, Eugenics, and the Last Days of American Pretense – radical eyes for equity

Bully Politics, Eugenics, and the Last Days of American Pretense

If the American character included the ability to admit that the country’s founding was deeply flawed but aspirational—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as goals we are still trying to achieve for all, not just some—we would not have to admit in 2020 that much of what America believes is simply lies.

Instead, the American character is often trapped in James Baldwin‘s “rigid refusal to look at ourselves,” now disturbingly embodied by the Trump/Pence administration.

Of the many lies at the founding of the U.S. that continue to poison our aspirations for individual liberty and robust democracy, possibly the most disturbing and immediately damning is that people fled England in pursuit of religious liberty.

For some frustrating reason, throughout my 18 years of teaching high school English, students were bombarded by American literature focusing on the Puritans, specifically reading/viewing both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

Students tended to recognize after these works that those first Puritans were CONTINUE READING: Bully Politics, Eugenics, and the Last Days of American Pretense – radical eyes for equity

DeVos pledges use of 'bully pulpit' to urge school reopening - POLITICO

DeVos pledges use of 'bully pulpit' to urge school reopening - POLITICO

DeVos pledges use of 'bully pulpit' to urge school reopening

The comments come the same day Boston schools paused reopening plans because of a rise in coronavirus cases.

SACRAMENTO — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pledged Wednesday to use the "bully pulpit" to pressure states to reopen schools for in-person learning amid the pandemic.

DeVos said on a Zoom event hosted by the Pacific Research Institute that she and President Donald Trump have been "very consistent" about the need to reopen schools for in-person learning "in every possible situation."

The context: The comments come the same day that Boston schools paused reopening plans because of a rise in coronavirus cases and as New York City scrambles to reverse its reopening plans for hundreds of schools. In California, some schools have reopened with mandated mask and social distancing policies but many, including Los Angeles Unified, the country's second-largest district, have no plans of a full scale reopening anytime soon.

"We know that in some places where there is a spike in cases of the virus, that there may have to be short times of working at a distance, but for those families who need and want this for their children, learning in person, there's no other substitute for it," DeVos said Wednesday. "We have continued to urge states and districts to make sure they're offering this as an option to families. Of course, these are state and local decisions, but we will continue to use the bully pulpit to urge this to happen."

California reported on Tuesday that there has been no spike in coronavirus cases in the limited openings across the state, which mostly include elementary schools.

The big picture: DeVos used the pandemic as reason to promote school choice, including charter schools, "micro schools" and learning pods, saying now more than ever parents should have a say in their child's education due to campus closures and distance learning struggles.

But teachers unions and civil rights advocates across the country have warned of the impact that an increase in charter school or private school enrollment could have on the traditional K-12 system, worried it will exacerbate already wide achievement gaps for low income students and student of color.

In California, online charter schools that were not a popular choice before the pandemic now have wait lists in the thousands, with parents scrambling for CONTINUE READING: DeVos pledges use of 'bully pulpit' to urge school reopening - POLITICO

Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools - Education Votes

Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools - Education Votes

Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools

By Amanda Meanas

Instead of waiting until the American people have had their say and the next president is inaugurated, President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Senate are determined to rush through Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Those efforts led to a COVID-19 “super spreader” event at the White House. More than 20 people, including the president, tested positive soon after the event.

Voters should decide who fills Justice Ginsburg’s seat. But Senate Republicans are attempting to rush through President Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, even though they have dragged their feet and failed to pass coronavirus relief legislation that would help so many Americans and public school systems across the country.

“Judge Amy Coney Barrett has sided with the powerful and well-connected throughout her career. … She has sided with the powerful against workers, allowed racially segregated workplaces, ruled in favor of Trump policies harming immigrants, and against those seeking to protect women from sexual assault,” said former science teacher and NEA President Becky Pringle.

The Supreme Court is a critical institution in our federal government for protecting the rights of those who might otherwise not have a voice in our institutions. That means the next justice absolutely must not be beholden to partisan or corporate interests.

Here are five reasons the Supreme Court and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett matter for educators:

1. Judge Barrett wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act

In her short three years as a federal judge, Barrett’s record was alarming, and she has promised to continue to side with corporations over working people. While Americans continue to struggle through the global coronavirus pandemic, access to healthcare is at the forefront of conversation.If Barrett is confirmed, she is poised to strike down the Affordable Care Act, throwing millions off their insurance and ending protections for those with preexisting conditions. In fact, for the 7 million Americans who have battled COVID-19, those side effects could now be considered preexisting conditions.

2. The Supreme Court will vote on workers’ rights to join and form unions<

Educators could face increased difficulty in holding their employers accountable for illegal discrimination and unfair employment practices if Barrett is confirmed. During her time in the lower court, Judge Barrett limited workers’ tools to fight against racial discrimination in the workplace, wrote in favor of age discrimination when applying to jobs, and worked to set dangerous precedent that would hurt gig workers. The Court already weakened the rights of educators to collectively bargain in 2018, and the nomination of Barrett means unions will face CONTINUE READING: Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools - Education Votes