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Friday, April 20, 2012

The Fruitcake and the Big Banana – a tale inspired by a pineapple « Opine I will

The Fruitcake and the Big Banana – a tale inspired by a pineapple « Opine I will:


The Fruitcake and the Big Banana – a tale inspired by a pineapple

The Fruitcake and the Big Banana
In recent times, politicians all across the country, thought they knew a way to get everyone to speak English just like them.  One day a fruitcake, to appease those politicians, challenged all teachers in the country to a race to the top.
(I forgot to mention, fruitcakes have been dictating education policy lately.)
I should mention, that teachers all across the country have graduate degrees and are always perfecting their craft by utilizing professional development. So they seemed 
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Big Education Ape BREAKING NEWS:


Emails Are Not Enough

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)
There are times when an angry email is nowhere near sufficient. We have to start showing up at offices.
Nevertheless, I'd like my representative to know that these are the questions on my mind when I finally manage to get her attention for 15 minutes. (Why these two short paragraphs are highlighted in white is a Blogger mystery. Thank you, Blogger, for highlighting these paragraphs in white and making it immutable.)

Experience Counts

by David B. Cohen
Among the more bizarre trends in education reform debate has been the emergence of an argument that experience doesn’t really matter.  The problem appears to be that some researchers have not found ways to measure the importance of experience very effectively, and so, cheered on by cost-cutting and union-bashing allies, they tell us that after the first few years, teacher experience doesn’t matter.  They have the test scores to prove it, they say.
I’m not here to argue the opposite.  I’ve seen new teachers who have a skill set that rivals some of their veteran colleagues.  However, I’ve never met a teacher who didn’t believe they could still improve.  After all, we’re in the learning business.  With experience comes not only time to learn more content and more pedagogy, but also to learn more about children, psychology and brain neurology, about working effectively with peers, administrators,


brooklyn prospect charter finds a permanent home in the Immaculate Heart of Mary building

by joyce
Immaculate Heart of Mary School is merging with Holy Name School (and joining them in the building on Propect Park West in Windsor Terrace) and becoming St. Joseph the Worker. There has been a lot of speculation about what will happen to the IHM building futher south on Ft. Hamilton. The


Mind-Numbing Finger Wagging By the SF Chron.

by Michael Dunn

In her hit piece, “Mind-numbing protests meet pepper spray,” (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/14/12), Debra Saunders makes the University of California, Davis police out to be innocent victims of abuse by spoiled brat students, implying that their pepper spraying of students at point blank range was somehow justified. However, worse than the finger wagging, which activists have come to expect from the corporate media, are the numerous inaccuracies, exaggerations and omissions in her piece, including the reason why students were protesting: the 18% tuition hike for the 2011-2012 school year.

Let’s start with the most serious omission: students were seated and protesting nonviolently. They were doing nothing that was physically threatening to anyone, including the police. The 

Get Out There!

by Melissa Westbrook
Not that it has likely missed your notice but it's going to be a hopping weekend here in Seattle.

First up - good weather with Sunday being the best day at 73 degrees.

Second, big celebration starting at the Seattle Center in honor of the 50th anniversary of the World's Fair.  The kick-off event starts Saturday at 10:30 am with opening ceremonies in the Mural Amphitheater.   According to the Times, those ceremonies conclude at 4:30 p.m. with

"The Chair Spectacle": 200 community members in procession to the International Fountain with movement 
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Big Education Ape: 42012 PM We Should All Live in a Pineapple Under the Sea EDition #SOSCHAT #STUPIDTEST

Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!:
Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today

Commissioner King Statement on The Hare and the Pineapple

oms.nysed.gov - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 20, 2012For More Information Contact: Tom Dunn, Jonathan Burman or Jane Briggs (518) 474-1201www.nysed.gov STATEMENT FROM EDUCATION COMMISSIONER JOHN B. KING ON THE HARE...
DianeRavitch

Oconomowoc students react to news of teacher layoffs

jsonline.com - Oconomowoc High School students wore special shirts with the message "We love our teachers" to school on Friday after news that 15 teachers received layoff notices this week. While the district is ...
DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Big Education Ape: Daily Kos: Eugene Robinson nails it bit.ly/HNmzxx5 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Big Education Ape: Talking pineapple question on state exam stumps ... everyone!   - NY Daily Newsbit.ly/IEtf0Z5 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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Get rid of the 3 p.m. school day

washingtonpost.com - School hours in the United States were developed during the 19th century, in part to allow students to help their families with farm work in the afternoon. We are no longer an agrarian economy, but...
leoniehaimson

Quick Study

courant.com - About 60 college students rallied at the state Capitol Thursday evening to support education reform as part of a national non-profit group called Students for Education Reform.When Michael Daley wa...
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NYS educators agree: Flawed, confusing and misleading ELA exams

nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com - This week, NY students in grades 3-8 are in the midst of taking lengthy ELA exams, which in NYC, will help determine whether they will be held back, and what schools they will attend in the future,...
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- Wait, What?

jonathanpelto.com - Apr 20 jonpeltoEducation, Malloy, Stefan Pryor Education Reform, Malloy, Stefan Pryor Now we know why Governor Malloy is demanding that the “Commissioner’s Network” schools be exempt from having to...
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Controversial Policy Group Casts Long K-12 Shadow

edweek.org - Published Online: April 20, 2012In nearly 40 years of legislative advocacy, the American Legislative Exchange Council—a free-market, limited-government group now drawing intense scrutiny for its su...
DianeRavitch

Vatican Reprimands U.S. Nuns Group

nytimes.com - The Vatican has appointed an American bishop to rein in the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States, saying that an investigation found that the group has “serious ...
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"Underfunded": Let's kill this poisonous euphemism

illinoisntu.ning.com - Let's stop referring to state financial obligations as "underfunded" things. The media loads our brains with euphemisms. "Collateral damage." "Mistakes were made." "We must look to the present prob...
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Dare the council stand up to autocrat Rahm?

illinoisntu.ning.com - "We've debated this long enough. I'm not in the position of analysis. I'm in the position of getting things done." -- Rahm to his council  Scientists have discovered signs of life in Chicago's city...
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YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID « Teachers Fight Back

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID « Teachers Fight Back: YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID by alkleen Teachers, principals, administrators, aides, and any adult associated with a school. How many times do I h...
coopmike48

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Bail Hearing This Morning for Gunman in Martin Shooting

nytimes.com - SANFORD, Fla. — A bail hearing began on Friday morning for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who was arrested last week on second-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Tra...
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Missouri Teacher Forced 6-Year-Old To Sit In Her Diarrhea

huffingtonpost.com - Lisa Skidmore, mother of a kindergarten student at Southwest School in Washburn, Mo., is outraged after her daughter's teacher forced her to wrap a trash bag around herself and sit in her own diarr...
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Tragic Double-Slaying in Las Vegas Family

hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 12:15 pm EST, April 20, 2012 This Monday when a 9-year-old arrived at school in the morning he told his teachers that his father had killed both his mother and older sister that very m...
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Headlines April 20, 2012 Whole Show | First Story >

democracynow.org - Levon Helm has died at the age 71 after a battle with cancer. He was a drummer and singer in Bob Dylan’s backup band, which later became the legendary musical group known simply as "The Band." Levo...
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- Wait, What?

jonathanpelto.com - Apr 20 jonpeltoEducation, Malloy, Stefan Pryor Education Reform, Malloy, Stefan Pryor Now we know why Governor Malloy is demanding that the “Commissioner’s Network” schools be exempt from having to...
DianeRavitch

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