The Lives They Lived (personal edition) | The Merrow Report

The Lives They Lived (personal edition) | The Merrow Report

The Lives They Lived (personal edition)

COVID-19  was responsible for the deaths of hundreds and hundreds of teachers in 2020, enough alone to make the year an ‘annus horribilis,’ to borrow Queen Elizabeth II’s phrase.  But the world of education also lost Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, Sir Ken Robinson, Jim Lehrer and Les Crystal of the PBS NewsHour,  the Reverend Darius L. Swann, David K. Cohen, Arnold Packer, and (on the island of Martha’s Vineyard) Nelson Bryant, Lee Fierro, and Dr. Susan Whiting Shanock.

Although they weren’t educators per se, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and U.S. Representative John Lewis contributed mightily to the cause of public education: Justice Ginsburg by the cases she brought as an attorney and the cases she decided while on the Supreme Court, and Mr. Lewis by his work as a student leader and his leadership in the struggle for civil rights as a protestor and as a member of Congress.  Barriers against women, in education and in the workplace, fell because of RBG. John Lewis nearly lost his life on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, but it was that savage beating that led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

I probably should have placed my tribute to Sir Ken Robinson at the end of this post, because I am going to ask that those who haven’t seen his TED talk, the most widely CONTINUE READING: The Lives They Lived (personal edition) | The Merrow Report

Outrunning the Pandemic – Racing Through Gadfly’s Top 10 Stories of 2020 | gadflyonthewallblog

Outrunning the Pandemic – Racing Through Gadfly’s Top 10 Stories of 2020 | gadflyonthewallblog

Racing Through Gadfly’s Top 10 Stories of 2020

On most weekends back in the 1980s, you’d probably find me at TILT, the mall’s crowded video game arcade.

When I was about 12 – around ’86 or so – one of my favorite games was “Outrun” by Sega.

Ever play it?

In a cherry red Ferrari convertible with the wind blowing through my virtual hair, I’d race through various summer style environments from beach to forest, to mesa to mountains.

I even got to pick which song to play on the highway – something Latin, Caribbean, or just smooth and easy.

But the real kicker – the thing that really sold this wish fulfillment fantasy – wasn’t CONTINUE READING: Outrunning the Pandemic – Racing Through Gadfly’s Top 10 Stories of 2020 | gadflyonthewallblog

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

Personal Reflections On My 2020 Professional Experiences | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Personal Reflections On My 2020 Professional Experiences | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON MY 2020 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES

I thought some readers might find it interesting, and I thought it would be a useful reflection exercise for me, if I reflected on my work around education over the past twelve months AND my hopes and concerns for 2021 (those 2021 thoughts will appear in a future post)

I’ve already done a more “big picture” review in my annual Washington Post piece, The positively worst and best education news of 2020 — as viewed by a teacher, and expect equally “big picture” predictions in a column that should be published there this week.

On a personal level, my family and I have weathered 2020 well, and we expect to do the same next year. I’ll save that commentary for the annual New Year’s letter we send out 🙂

REFLECTIONS ON 2020

The year began pretty smoothly.  Classes were going well and, then, in late February I read something about some schools in Asia  closing down physically and moving to remote instruction because of some kind of virus.

No way that could that happen here, I figured, but I thought some readers around the world might find it helpful if I began to collect distance learning resources.

Then, in early March, I was still thinking it was unlikely to affect us in Sacramento, but I also figured it couldn’t CONTINUE READING: Personal Reflections On My 2020 Professional Experiences | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...