A MELDING OF HOLIDAY CLASSICS – Dad Gone Wild

A MELDING OF HOLIDAY CLASSICS – Dad Gone Wild

A MELDING OF HOLIDAY CLASSICS

“War is fought in mystery. The truth can take days to travel, and ahead of truth flies rumor, and it is ever hard to know what is really happening, and the art of it is to pluck the clean bone of fact from the rotting flesh of fear and lies.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom

 

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash,

Only to find Commissioner Schwinn and her elves up to more dastardly deeds.

Transparency and equity are common squares on the edu-talk bingo board. Unfortunately, administrators find it harder to adhere to these tenants than they do to say them. The Christmas Eve 2020 release of an $8.9 million RFP is just the latest incident in a checkered career of an CONTINUE READING: A MELDING OF HOLIDAY CLASSICS – Dad Gone Wild

John Thompson in Oklahoma: Grifters Gonna Keep Grifting | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson in Oklahoma: Grifters Gonna Keep Grifting | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson in Oklahoma: Grifters Gonna Keep Grifting

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher, writes often about what is happening in Oklahoma. It is often not good for public schools and teachers because of the state’s awful legislature, controlled by oil-and-gas billionaire Harold Hamm, and its Republican Governor Kevin Stitt. The best education leader in the state is state Commissioner Joy Hofmeister, who continues to protect students and teachers from political shenanigans.

Here is the latest from Thompson:

As the COVID pandemic began in Oklahoma City, before Trumpian-style pressure to reopen bars, in-person restaurants and large gatherings, and before the resistance to masks and other public health tools sparked a super-spread, it looked like the public and nonprofit sectors were uniting in a team effort to protect public health. Clearly, online charter schools had advantages over traditional public schools in providing virtual and hybrid instruction, but there was reason to hope that the corporate reform wars could be put behind us (at least in terms of local charter leaders.)

The for-profit EPIC Charter Schools wasn’t likely to change its financial and political misbehavior, but its CONTINUE READING: John Thompson in Oklahoma: Grifters Gonna Keep Grifting | Diane Ravitch's blog

Biden Picks Former President of Broad Foundation as Deputy Chief of Staff | Diane Ravitch's blog

Biden Picks Former President of Broad Foundation as Deputy Chief of Staff | Diane Ravitch's blog

Biden Picks Former President of Broad Foundation as Deputy Chief of Staff

President-Elect announced that Bruce Reed will be his Deputy Chief of Staff. This is alarming news, though not surprising. Reed previously served as Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president. The toxic Broad Foundation gave grants to some of Betsy DeVos’s favorite causes.

This report from TYT (The Young Turks) describes why we should keep a close watch on Reed. He is not a friend of public schools. The Broad Foundation has spent many millions of dollars underwriting charter schools and funding campaigns for candidates who oppose public schools. Eli Broad has tried to buy control of LAUSD to replace more public schools with charters.

Reed has been an outspoken proponent of charter schools for decades, championing their rise inside the Clinton White House, where he led the Domestic Policy Council. But although Reed has publicly drawn the line at for-profit charter schools and vouchers, the Broad Foundation funded organizations that support both. 

Reed also frowned on community, or “mom-and-pop” CONTINUE READING: Biden Picks Former President of Broad Foundation as Deputy Chief of Staff | Diane Ravitch's blog

NANCY BAILEY: Education’s “Better Angels of Our Nature” During a Pandemic

Education’s “Better Angels of Our Nature” During a Pandemic

Education’s “Better Angels of Our Nature” During a Pandemic

We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

~President Abraham Lincoln from his First Inaugural Address in 1861.

What did Abraham Lincoln mean by the better angels of our nature? William Shakespeare apparently first coined the term. By the time President Lincoln spoke of it, the country was deeply divided.

…“our better angels” was a figure of speech familiar to many citizens of the United States. The phrase would have called forth the notions of enlightened, calm, and virtuous judgment—the best guides to sensible and honorable conduct in any person or nation.

During this perilous time for the country and education, and during this season meant for coming together and caring for each other, as this year comes to a close, we should look to the better angels of our nature when it comes to schools.

Teachers

Americans must make sound decisions based on science when it comes to opening CONTINUE READING: Education’s “Better Angels of Our Nature” During a Pandemic

Fred Smith: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas | Diane Ravitch's blog

Fred Smith: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas | Diane Ravitch's blog

Fred Smith: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

We have a pride of poets on this blog. The following was written by testing expert Fred Smith, who advised the New York City Board of Education back in the days before Testmania. Fred now advises opt out parent groups.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and in the Snow House

Sat a duck-assed old fat man with botoxic spouse. 

This may be my last chance to go through the list,           

And give gifts to people who’ve made me real pissed. 

    

Whether I like them or hate, it’s ever the same,                 

They’re bound to go down in my endless blame game:     

             

To my faithless AG and once true legal goon,                      

Yeah, Bill Barr you left me, so come kiss my moon.

As to Mitch, the traitor, who upped and caved in,            

Here’s a carton of face masks to cover your chin;         

And for Rudolph, the red-faced, sputt’ring buffoon,                  

What would be more fitting than a golden spittoon;       

CONTINUE READING: Fred Smith: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: After the Toughest Year Ever, We Get a Break

NYC Educator: After the Toughest Year Ever, We Get a Break

After the Toughest Year Ever, We Get a Break

This has been the most stressful year in my memory for all of us working in schools. We've been through all sorts of indignities and inconvenience, but there's been nothing like 2020. Let's hope there's nothing like it ever again.

We're on a roller coaster of opening and closing. As Broadway went dark, as Long Island schools closed, pig-headed Bill de Blasio spent weeks dithering over what to do. He labors under the misconception that by keeping schools open, he can somehow rehabilitate his reputation. His rep is long past having swirled the bowl, but such is the drive of a tinhorn politician.

COVID is exploding around the country, worse than ever, but de Blasio manages to keep elementary schools open, at least the ones where they haven't yet detected the disease. While there hasn't been a huge outbreak in a school this year, De Blasio doesn't seem to understand that people who work in schools are human, and therefore averse to clear and present danger. 

While the use of masks and social distancing largely ameliorates a hazardous situation, it doesn't change how people feel. So there is a palpable terror among a lot of people working in schools. NY Times "reporters" can lecture us all they like, but the fact is public schools don't look like NY Times offices. I don't recall the last time I set foot in a clean school building, and children don't behave like college-educated professional reporters.

It's hard for me to see the value of sending children, especially young children, into masked and socially distanced classrooms. The entire notion seems terrifying, It's exacerbated by the nervousness, even terror of many teachers and school workers. Our fault, in general, is being too close to students, not avoiding them. If you're teaching in a building, you're restricted from doing what you signed up to do each and every day. Your ability to interact with CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: After the Toughest Year Ever, We Get a Break

Teacher Tom: This Cursed and Blessed Year

Teacher Tom: This Cursed and Blessed Year

This Cursed and Blessed Year

Just before Christmas last year, we discovered that the company from whom we rent a storage locker had lost all of our stuff. The good news is that most of it probably should have been thrown out years ago, but among the things we'll never see again were all of our holiday decorations, including ornaments I'd been collecting since I was a little boy. So, for the first time in our 34 years of marriage, and for the first time in our daughter's 23 years of life, we celebrated against a backdrop that did not include a tree, stockings, or any of the other ritual trapping of our holiday. Fortunately, our Christmas Day tradition also involves gathering with my parents, my siblings, and their children, which went off as usual, which, in the parlance of Hollywood, "saved Christmas."

This year, we don't even have that. Indeed, there is nothing "traditional" in our celebration at all: no gathering, no shopping, no decorations, and no gift exchange except what will amount to a symbolic one between the three of us. Tonight, I'm cooking a pared down version of my Thanksgiving supper since we missed that this year as well. Tomorrow, we're relying on the delivery of Chinese food. We'll probably spend the next couple days watching movies and talking over reality shows. The holiday traditions we've built together as a family are asunder leaving us with . . . What?

Of course, a version of this experience is being played out by CONTINUE READING:  Teacher Tom: This Cursed and Blessed Year

Cartoons for a Pandemic Winter | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons for a Pandemic Winter | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons for a Pandemic Winter

For the Covid-19 winter holidays, I have gathered some cartoons that poke fun at what transpires in homes, schools, and Santa’s place. Enjoy!

MORE CARTOONS: Cartoons for a Pandemic Winter | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

CURMUDGUCATION: AI, Language, and the Uncanny Valley

CURMUDGUCATION: AI, Language, and the Uncanny Valley

AI, Language, and the Uncanny Valley

We experience vertigo in the uncanny valley because we’ve spent hundreds of thousands of years fine-tuning our nervous systems to read and respond to the subtlest cues in real faces. We perceive when someone’s eyes squint into a smile, or how their face flushes from the cheeks to the forehead, and we also — at least subconsciously — perceive the absence of these organic barometers. Simulations make us feel like we’re engaged with the nonliving, and that’s creepy.

That's an excerpt from Douglass Rushkoff's book, Team Human, talking about how the uncanny valley is our best defense. The uncanny valley is that special place where computer simulations, particularly of humans, come close-but-not-quite-close enough and therefor trigger an ick reaction (like the almost-humans in Polar Express or creepy Princess Leia in Rogue One). 

The quest for AI runs right through the uncanny valley, although sometimes the ick factor is less about uneasiness and more about cars that don't drive themselves where you want them to. The gap between what AI promises and what it can deliver is at least as large as an uncanny valley, though companies like Google are now trying to build a fluffy PR bridge over it (hence Google's directive that researchers "strike a positive tone" in their write-ups).

Since summer, journalists have been gushing glowingly over GPT-3, the newest level of AI powered language simulation (the New York Times has now gushed twice in six months). It was the late seventies when I heard a professor explain that the search for decent language synthesizing software and artificial intelligence were inexorably linked, and that seems to still be true. 

It's important to understand what AI, or to call it by its current true name, machine learning, CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: AI, Language, and the Uncanny Valley

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone… | Live Long and Prosper

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone… | Live Long and Prosper

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…

GOT KIDS? GOT GRANDKIDS?

Have you tried schooling them at home during the pandemic? For most people, it hasn’t been as easy as they thought it would be. Never mind the fact that the only people who are helping their kids at home are those who can afford to stay home, or who can work from home, or who have been laid off so they’re home anyway. Many parents and caregivers have found that a well-trained teacher, who understands curriculum and child development is a luxury that we didn’t know we needed till it was gone.

Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

And it’s going to get worse no matter who the next U.S. Secretary of Education is because Indiana’s public school policy is determined by the Indiana legislature along with the Indiana State Board of Education…

The pandemic is causing teachers to flee the profession

Our public education system may be on the verge of collapse. Indeed, most families with children enrolled in public school find patchwork systems of in-person and virtual instruction underwhelming at best. Teachers are overwhelmed and unable to keep stitching it together. Something has to CONTINUE READING: 

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone… | Live Long and Prosper

Diane Ravitch: Biden’s Pick for Education Secretary Must Overturn DeVos’s Attack on Public Schools | Democracy Now!

Diane Ravitch: Biden’s Pick for Education Secretary Must Overturn DeVos’s Attack on Public Schools | Democracy Now!

Diane Ravitch: Biden’s Pick for Education Secretary Must Overturn DeVos’s Attack on Public Schools

President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Connecticut public schools commissioner Miguel Cardona for secretary of education, tapping a third Latinx person to join his Cabinet. Cardona is a former teacher who represents a sharp break from outgoing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who urged career employees at the Education Department earlier this month to “be the resistance” to the incoming administration. He is Puerto Rican and began his career as a fourth grade teacher, becoming the state’s top schools official just last August, the first Latinx person to hold the position. “He’s not Betsy DeVos, and every educator in America, or almost every educator, will be thrilled about that,” says Diane Ravitch, a writer and historian of education who served as assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush. “He’s been in public schools throughout his career, and that’s a big plus for many people who’ve been watching the attacks on public education, on teachers, for the past four and more years.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we look at President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination of Connecticut public schools commissioner Miguel Cardona as the next secretary of education, tapping a third Latinx person to join his Cabinet — the first time ever.

Cardona is a Puerto Rican, grew up in public housing, spoke Spanish only when he first entered public schools. He began his career in education as a fourth grade teacher, rose to be Connecticut’s youngest school principal at age 28, then assistant superintendent of a school district with just 9,000 students in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut. He became the state’s top schools official just last August and its first Latinx person to hold the position.

During the pandemic, Cardona has advocated for the reopening of schools, though only about one-third of Connecticut’s public school students are currently able to attend in-person classes. He’s also pushed to use federal aid to buy personal protective equipment for teachers and classrooms. And his administration allocated federal funds to purchase laptops and internet access for students who remain at home.

If confirmed, Cardona will replace Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who urged career employees at the Education Department earlier this month to, quote, “be the resistance” when the Biden administration comes into power next month, according to a recording of her meeting obtained by Politico.

Well, for more, we’re joined by Diane Ravitch, who served as assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush. She’s a historian of education, best-selling author. Her most recent book is Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools. She blogs at DianeRavitch.net.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Diane Ravitch. We’re going to talk about DeVos’s record, but we want to start off by talking about the significance of what, for many, was a surprise pick to be the education secretary.

DIANE RAVITCH: Well, yes, it was a surprise pick, because Dr. Cardona is not known outside of Connecticut. And in the early discussions about who might be selected as commissioner, his name was not mentioned.

The good thing is, first of all, he’s not Betsy DeVos, and every educator in America, or almost every educator, will be thrilled about that. But, secondly, he’s a public school person. He went to public schools. His children go to public schools. He’s been in public schools throughout his career. And that’s a big plus for many people who have been watching the attacks on public education and on teachers for the past four and more years.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Diane Ravitch, I’m wondering — as you were saying, it was a surprise, the Miguel Cardona pick. Many, of course, progressives for years have been pushing for Democratic presidents to name Linda Darling-Hammond, the California educator, as secretary of education, but she was on the transition group that eventually, apparently, pushed for Cardona. And I believe — I believe Cardona may be — he’s not the first Latino to be named secretary of education. Back when you were in the White House administration, there was Lauro Cavazos, who was President H.W. Bush’s secretary of education. But I believe that Cardona may be the first Puerto Rican, person of Puerto Rican ancestry, ever to serve on a U.S. Cabinet, on a president’s Cabinet. So that is certainly a breakthrough in terms of Latino CONTINUE READING: Diane Ravitch: Biden’s Pick for Education Secretary Must Overturn DeVos’s Attack on Public Schools | Democracy Now!

Diane Ravitch: The Dark History of School Choice | by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books

The Dark History of School Choice | by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books

The Dark History of School Choice

How an argument for segregated schools became a rallying cry for privatizing public education.

During her tenure as secretary of education, Betsy DeVos repeatedly asked Congress to allocate billions of dollars for vouchers for religious and private schools. She was repeatedly rebuffed. Even Republican members of Congress were unwilling to use the federal education budget to pay for vouchers. After all, most of their constituents’ children attend public schools.

After the pandemic struck, DeVos tried again. Late last March, Congress passed a $2.2 trillion relief bill called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which allocated $13.2 billion for K–12 education. Congress expected that the money would be shared, as federal education funds typically are, among the nation’s nearly 100,000 public and 7,000 charter schools, as well as private schools based on the number of low-income students they enroll. DeVos instead directed states to share the money allotted to public schools with private and religious schools that enrolled middle-income and affluent students. The NAACP and several states responded with lawsuits, arguing that her order was illegal. Three federal judges in different parts of the country ruled against DeVos, and she backed down.

But the Trump administration found another way to enrich charter and private schools. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), also part of the CARES Act, was supposed to rescue small businesses. Lobbyists for the charter industry, however, encouraged charter schools to apply as nonprofits, thus double-dipping into both the public school and PPP funds (public schools were ineligible for PPP funding). Private and religious schools also qualified for PPP funds as nonprofits. Therefore, through a bill supposed to aid small businesses at risk of bankruptcy, thousands of charter, private, and religious schools received an average of about $855,000 each, compared to about $134,500 per public school through CARES. Religious schools of every denomination, elite private schools, and more than one thousand charter schools received anywhere from $150,000 to $10 million each according to a database compiled by a website called COVID Stimulus Watch. Antelope Valley Learning Academy, a charter school in California, received $7.8 million. The for-profit Academia Corporation charter school chain won $28.6 million. Buckingham Browne & Nichols, an elite private school in CONTINUE READING: The Dark History of School Choice | by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books

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/2020/12/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_19.html

Thursday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings – & Teachers Will REALLY Want To Read Them

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

geralt / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL (and these two seem VERY important): Biden team’s multibillion-dollar school testing plan takes shape is from Politico. Vaccines, dollars and Biden ratchet up pressure on teachers to return to school is from The Washington Post.

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

Nine years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2020 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this w

Just Sent-Out Free Monthly Email Newsletter

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

geralt / Pixabay I’ve just mailed out the January issue of my very simple free monthly email newsletter . It has over 3,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here . Of course, you can also join the eighteen thousand others who subscribe to this blog daily. Here Are 8 Ways You Can Subscribe For Free…

December’s “Best” Lists – There Are Now 2,224 Of Them!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

Prawny / Pixabay Here’s my regular round-up of new “The Best…” lists I posted this month (you can see all 2,224 of them categorized here ): THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2020 THE BEST COLLECTIONS OF INFOGRAPHICS, CHARTS & MAPS – 2020 BEST YEAR-IN-REVIEW FEATURES FOR 2020 A BEGINNING LIST OF RESOURCES FOR TEACHING ABOUT RACIST MASCOTS THE VERY BEST RESOURCES TO

Videos – In English & Spanish – President-Elect Biden Introduces New Ed Secretary

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Wokandapix / Pixabay President-Elect Biden formally introduced his Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona , this morning. Here are three videos – one, a short clip from it; two, the entire event in English; and, three, a video translating it into Spanish: Miguel Cardona, Biden's education secretary nominee: " I, being bilingual and bicultural, am as American as apple pie and rice and beans" https

“The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Here are this year’s most popular posts from my Ed Week teacher advice column. I’m adding it to ALL END-OF-YEAR “BEST” LISTS FOR 2020 IN ONE PLACE!

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