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Saturday, November 30, 2013

11-30-13 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD


THE BECOMING RADICAL

Radical Scholarship


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Should SC Increase Charter School Investment?
Charter school advocates are calling for more investment from South Carolina, according to Jamie Self at The State (Columbia, SC): South Carolina’s public charter schools struggle to find and pay for space, and often end up without access to kitchens, libraries, or places for kids to play – a problem the S.C. General Assembly needs to address, according to a new report. The challenges that the state’s 49 brick-and-mortar public charter schools face are outlined in a new report, published with help from the Public Charter School Alliance of South Carolina by the Charter School Facilities Initia
“Fahrenheit 451″ 60 Years Later: “Why do we need the things in books?”
“Sometimes writers write about a world that does not yet exist,” Neil Gaiman begins his Introduction to the 60th Anniversary Edition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: This is a book of warning. It is a reminder that what we have is valuable, and that sometimes we take what we value for granted…. People think—wrongly—that speculative fiction is about predicting the future, but it isn’t; or if it is, it tends to do a rotten job of it…. What speculative fiction is really good at is not the future but the present—taking an aspect of it that troubles or is dangerous, and extending and extrapolating
Secretary Duncan and the Politics of White Outrage
Social media and even mainstream media appear poised to leap on Secretary Arne Duncan with both feet due to his swipe at white suburban moms. The nearly universal sweeping outrage—some with a level of glee that must not be ignored—calls for close consideration itself. First, rejecting Duncan’s comments about white suburban moms and Common Core critics is completely valid. I join hands with the education community in rejecting Duncan’s claims, his discourse, and his efforts to discredit a significant, credible, and growing resistance to CC that should not be trivialized and marginalized as Dunc

NOV 27

RECOMMENDED: Writing Instruction that Works, Applebee and Langer
RECOMMENDED: Writing Instruction that Works, Applebee and Langer.
Education Reform as Collaboration, Not Competition
At This Week in Poverty, Greg Kaufmann offers Anti-Poverty Leaders Discuss the Need for a Shared Agenda. Taking a similar pose, Diane Ravitch offers her reasoned “dissent” to my post, Secretary Duncan and the Politics of White Outrage, explaining at the end: My advice to Paul Thomas, whose sense of outrage I share, is to embrace coalition politics. When the white moms and dads realize they are in

NOV 26

CALL: The Politics of Panem: Critical Perspectives on the Hunger Games
Series: Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres Volume Title: The Politics of Panem: Critical Perspectives on the Hunger Games Editor: Sean P. Connors, University of Arkansas By any measure, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series is a commercial success. In 2012, the bookselling behemoth Amazon reported that the trilogy outsold the Harry Potter series, no small accomplishme
Little Merit in Rush to Report Merit Pay Report
Little Merit in Rush to Report Merit Pay Report.
Misreading “Grit”: On Treating Children Better than Salmon or Sea Turtles
Rob McEntarffer (@rmcenta) Tweeted a question to me about my blog post, The Poverty Trap: Slack, Not Grit, Creates Achievement, asking: “can Grit research (Duckworth, etc) be used as a humanizing/empowering tool, rather than a weapon against schools/kids?” Rob’s question is both a good one and representative of the numerous challenges I received for rejecting “grit”—some of the push-back has been

NOV 24

Safe Spaces for Teachers’ Professional Voices in a Public Sphere
It is a bittersweet irony that words are mostly inadequate to express my appreciation to be nominated for and then recognized with the National Council of Teachers of English 2013 George Orwell Award—”established in 1975 and given by the NCTE Public Language Award Committee, recognizes writers who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse.” I am first humbled

NOV 22

A Moment In Ncte History – Ncte Annual Convention Boston, 2013
A MOMENT IN NCTE HISTORY – NCTE ANNUAL CONVENTION BOSTON, 2013 Paul Thomas, Council Historian Delivered at the Board of Directors Meeting, 2013 National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention “Not the Time . . . to Follow the Line of Least Resistance” Honoring our history allows us to acknowledge that we all stand on the shoulders of giants. For those of us teaching English, we recall no

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Should SC Increase Charter School Investment? | the becoming radical
Should SC Increase Charter School Investment? | the becoming radical
At the Chalk Face: Education Reform as Collaboration, Not Competition | National Education Policy Center
At the Chalk Face: Education Reform as Collaboration, Not Competition | National Education Policy Center
On Broken Door Handles and Butter Knives | Christopher Lehman
On Broken Door Handles and Butter Knives | Christopher Lehman

NOV 27

Education Reform as Collaboration, Not Competition | the becoming radical
Education Reform as Collaboration, Not Competition | the becoming radical
empathyeducates – Orwellian Educational Change Under Obama
empathyeducates – Orwellian Educational Change Under Obama
empathyeducates – Misreading “Grit”: On Treating Children Better than Salmon or Sea Turtles
empathyeducates – Misreading “Grit”: On Treating Children Better than Salmon or Sea Turtles

NOV 26

Misreading “Grit”: On Treating Children Better than Salmon or Sea Turtles | the becoming radical
Misreading “Grit”: On Treating Children Better than Salmon or Sea Turtles | the becoming radical

NOV 24

Safe Spaces for Teachers’ Professional Voices in a Public Sphere | the becoming radical
Safe Spaces for Teachers’ Professional Voices in a Public Sphere | the becoming radical

NOV 23

A MOMENT IN NCTE HISTORY – NCTE ANNUAL CONVENTION BOSTON, 2013 | the becoming radical
A MOMENT IN NCTE HISTORY – NCTE ANNUAL CONVENTION BOSTON, 2013 | the becoming radical