I’m taking my 90-year-old Mom this week from the East Coast to an assisted living facility in Los Gatos for the memory impaired, a challenging move. I’ll return in a few days with The Educated Guess and some columns definitely worth reading from TOP-Ed contributors. Coming up: author and columnist Peter Schrag on America’s perpetual cycles of education reform, San Francisco Unified Trustee Rachel Norton on the limits of school fund-raising, teacher and columnist Anthony Cody on the resurgence of science instruction in Oakland Unified and Ventura Unified teachers union president and community college trustee Stephen Blum on how to best evaluate teachers.
So check back soon – or sign up for an e-mail alert so you won’t miss a day.
View full sizeBarbara Delegato, a music teacher at Dilly Elementary School in the Forest Grove School District, pulls drums from storage to get ready for the new year. This year will include more travel for Delegato as she will go from teaching in two schools to three.
Michelle and I are saddened by the passing of Jefferson Thomas, who as one of the "Little Rock Nine," took a stand against segregation and helped open the eyes of our nation to the struggle for civil rights. Mr. Thomas was just a teenager when he became one of the first African-American students to enroll in Little Rock Central High School. Yet even at such a young age, he had the courage to risk his own safety, to defy a governor and a mob, and to walk proudly into that school even though it would have been far easier to give up and turn back. And through this simple act of pursuing an equal education, he and his fellow members of the Little Rock Nine helped open the doors of opportunity for their generation and for those that followed. The searing images of soldiers guarding students from those days will forever serve as a testament to the progress we've made, the barriers that previous generations have torn down, and the power of ordinary men and women to help us build a more perfect union. Our nation owes Mr. Thomas a debt of gratitude for the stand he took half a century ago, and the leadership he showed in the decades since. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
“My director told me to stop teaching facts in science yesterday. I’m only to write inquiry-based lessons. I was already doing a blend of the two and quite successfully I think. I wanted to ask her, “If I provide you with all the lab equipment, can you please come up with a vaccine for aids?” but I
9.6.10 - Al Gore has had some tough breaks — like losing the presidency after getting more votes than the other guy — but the noted
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Jefferson Thomas, one of the first nine black students to enroll in desegregated Arkansas' schools, has died at age 68 in Columbus, Ohio.
Fellow Little Rock Nine member Minnijean Trickey Brown says Thomas died Sunday. Trickey Brown did not know the cause of death and declined further comment.
In 1957, Thomas and Trickey Brown joined Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Gloria Ray Karlmark,
A piece I wrote for the Washington Post last week got a fair bit of feedback. It was a summary of thoughts around a comment made at the recent Bullying Prevention Summit in Washington, D.C., and concerned a phrase used by one of the presenters, who described classrooms as a “community of 30.” As I wrote in the article, the concept is not too remarkable…except when you consider the implications.
“Community of 30″ is the idea that the school—and, more so, the classroom—is a place where students learn cognitively as well as socially and emotionally. Children are there to learn not only how to read, write, add, and subtract, but also how to work together as a group, a team, and a community.
We already have the structures and settings to guide this. Children test out behaviors in the home, typically a safe and finite environment to grow and practice social interactions. Interactions take place between a regulated number of people—immediate family, then extended family, friends, and neighbors—and around a
The American Federation for Children (AFC) is putting significant money and resources toward 3 Milwaukee elections. The AFC is a Michigan-based right wing organization with ties to Milwaukee’s voucher movement and in support of mayoral control of public schools. They are supporting Jeff Plale against Chris Larson, Angel Sanchez against Jocasta Zamarripa and Stephanie Findley in the Northside primary. This is being done with hopes of furthering the voucher cause and destroying American public education.
The American Federation for Children (found at http://www.federationforchildren.com/) is led by Elisabeth “Betsy” DeVos. She is the former chairman
I will take my children or a child to school and I will be at a school on the first day to encourage all children to do their best every day at school.
I am responsible for the education of my child.
I will volunteer at my child?s school three times this school year.
I will pick up my child?s progress report or grade report when required.
I will meet with my child’s teachers at least two times this year and support them in educating my child.
I will teach my child the value of family as well as the value of education.
I will work with my child?s mother or guardian to achieve the best academic and social outcomes for my child even if I do not live with my child.
The Million Father March is a community program of the Black Star Project represented by Street Positive™
