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Friday, April 9, 2010

Just Updated “The Best…” List For Speaking English | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Just Updated “The Best…” List For Speaking English | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Just Updated “The Best…” List For Speaking English

Filed under talking
I’ve just substantially updated and revised The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English.
I was surprised to see how many of the original sites on the list have gone out of business. But there are still plenty of options available.

Best Reading Sites

by Larry Ferlazzo
Here is today’s review of a few “The Best…” lists, this time on The Best Reading Sites. Again, I hope you find them helpful. Because of some technical issues that I’m too lazy to fix, these particular links might not work well if you’re subscribing to this blog via email, or viewing it on Facebook. RSS Readers feeds should be fine. If you go directly to my blog, though, they’ll all work fine.
They include:
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Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.











Allergies can affect kids' grades

School nurses are sending home notes to parents that they are seeing more children with symptoms of allergies. For many students, they are more than just an irritant. Allergies can affect how well they do at school.
Researchers in the United Kingdom did a study published in 2007that showed that seasonal allergic rhinitis--a common allergy--affected performance on national exams of 1,834 students aged 15 to 17.
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Principal keeps student in AP class she rejected

Sherry Arritt's daughter told her counselors, English teachers and the principal at Barren County High School in Kentucky that she did not want to take Advanced Placement English Literature. She was a 4.0 student. She wanted to study nursing in college. She already had AP French on her schedule. AP English was too much. She wanted the less demanding honors English course.
When the school refused to change her schedule, her parents repeated that seemingly reasonable decision to her principal, Keith Hale, and the district superintendent, Jerry Ralston. Both men refused to let her drop AP. They had decided that too many students were taking courses that were too easy for them, missing a chance to challenge themselves and prepare for college.
"I really believe if we had continued to let families decide" to put children in courses beneathe their abilities "we would still have the 30-plus ACT [the equivalent of 2000-plus on the SAT] student sitting in Basic English," Hale said.
The Arritt parents were so upset by this that they transferred their daughter to another school for her senior year. What happened to them dramatizes an issue of growing importance when many educators are doing everything they can to prepare students for higher education, even if some of the students and their families think they go too far.
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Gray warns of strings on private ed dollars

D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent C.Gray said Thursday he welcomes the DCPS-WTU tentative agreement, but that the council will take a hard look at the $64.5 million in foundation largesse embedded in the pact.
"While I appreciate and am grateful for outside resources and new partnerships that help our children achieve and reward high-quality teachers, there is no such thing as a free lunch," Gray said in a statement. "Grants or donations of this magnitude rarely come without expectations or some kind of give and take. We will need to determine what those expectations are, what DCPS might be expected to give as it takes funds to the tune of $64.5 million, what strings are attached, and whether D.C. taxpayer dollars may be at-risk at any point."
Chief Financial Officer Natwar M.Gandhi's fiscal review of the private donations is due by the middle of next week. If Gandhi gives the green light, the teachers' union will send out mail ballots for a two-week voting period. If the union approves, the accord goes to the council for final consideration.
Here is Gray's full statement:
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Rhee funds contract with Houston connection

A Houston foundation created by a billionaire hedge fund manager who began his career as a trader for Enron would finance part of theproposed contract between DCPS and the Washington Teachers' Union. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation would provide $10 million of the $64.5 million Rhee has assembled to pay for teacher raises and performance bonuses under the tentative agreement announced this week.
While a couple of the names in the private funding mix, Eli and Edythe Broad and the Walton Family Foundation, are highly recognizable brands in the world of educational philanthropy, the Arnolds are relatively new players. Their IRS Form 990 for 2008 lists a $5 million donation to Baylor College of Medicine and another $5 million to Texas Children's Hospital. Published reports say they provided $10 million for a major expansion of the KIPP and YES public charter schools in Houston.
Their money for the teachers' contract would be limited to underwriting the merit pay program that Rhee plans to initiate this fall, according to Cate Swinburn, president and executive director of the D.C. Public Education Fund, the non-profit that will manage the private grants for DCPS. The same restriction applies to the $10 million pledged by Broad. The $44.5 million from the Walton and Robertson foundations could be used for both bonuses and the 20 percent salary increase that is also built into the contract.
Ed Buzz: The Nation




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EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

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Panel hears ideas on next S.D. schools chief

Some parents, teachers and others who have been tapped to help craft a want ad of sorts for the next San Diego schools chief know what they don’t want more than anything else.
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Granite unveils teacher Web rules

Granite teachers soon could be required to give their students a cyber cold shoulder. The Salt Lake Valley school district is considering a new social-networking policy that would forbid employees from fraternizing with...
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Charter-school report puts blame on School District

City Controller Alan Butkovitz said Thursday that the Philadelphia School District had failed to monitor 67 charter schools, leaving both it and the taxpayers "extremely vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse." ...
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Butkovitz: Charter schools spending like it's their money

City Controller Alan Butkovitz yesterday blasted the Philadelphia School District's Charter School Office for failing "to monitor charter schools," which spend millions in taxpayers' dollars....
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Florida House passes landmark teacher merit-pay bill

The Florida House passed a landmark teacher merit-pay bill early this morning that aims to put the state at the forefront of a controversial national push to tie teacher compensation to student performance. ...
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Clark County teachers face peer pressure on furloughs

Clark County’s teachers, resisting calls for wage concessions, may now start feeling pressure to buckle from an unlikely source: their colleagues in Washoe County, home of the state’s second-largest teachers association. ...
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Districts Report Grim Outlook as Stimulus Fades

Layoffs, program cuts, and other drastic steps loom as economic-stimulus aid dries up, a survey of school administators finds. ...
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New program to recognize Online Teacher of the Year

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) have teamed up on a new awards program that will recognize an outstanding online teacher for his or her exceptional contributions to virtual... ...
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R.I. Ed. Chief: Failing Schools Need Sweeping Change

Failing schools are a drain on the state's already sluggish economy and require wholesale transformation, state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist told lawmakers. ...
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Ankeny students learn a different kind of writing

Ankeny students learn a different kind of writing First-grade students at Westwood Elementary School in Ankeny have been creating booklets together during a new program called ...
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Deputy uses Taser on students, apparently at their request

A Lake County sheriff's deputy used a Taser on about 30 high school students Thursday morning during a career fair on the playground of Lake County High School in Leadville. ...
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Fighting the corporate sludge

4.9.10 - You might remember ‘Jamal’ from my article on Detroit Public schools, “Corporate Barbarians at the Gate: Wal-Mart internships at Detroit Schools”...
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Jay Mathews: Principal keeps student in AP class she rejected

I can hear some of you mumbling: What is Mathews doing? His nutty campaign for AP and International Baccalaureate and his love of anything to which the word rigor can be attached is the reason why educators push this stuff too hard. Is he finally confessing his sins of overdoing challenging courses? ...
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Teaching the Civil War: Debate still alive

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s apology for leaving slavery out of a proclamation declaring April as Confederate History Month cannot gloss over the fact that the issue is still alive....
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U.S. Plan Threatens Free-Book Group

4.9.10 - A well-known nonprofit group says it may not survive planned changes to federal funding of literacy programs. ...
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Schoolbooks amended to correct "left leaning" bias in education.

As Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett reports, the changes could have a major impact on how history is taught across the US. ...
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Unions pressure Florida's Governor to veto school reform.

Florida wasn't one of the states awarded a Race to the Top education grant for its school reform efforts from the Obama Administration. But the state continues to demonstrate...
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Report: Philly charter schools risk taxpayer money

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An investigation of Philadelphia charter schools has found that questionable financial practices are putting public funds at risk of fraud, waste and abuse....
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States push to pay teachers based on performance

For parents and politicians hungry for better schools, the idea of paying teachers more if their...
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YES, they'll grow: A sweet bond deal for a charter-school system is great news for Houston

YES Prep, a remarkable chain of charter schools in Houston, has shown astounding success at propelling minority and economically disadvantaged kids into college. ...
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Rise & Shine: Experiment into cash-for-kids deemed a failure | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Experiment into cash-for-kids deemed a failure | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Experiment into cash-for-kids deemed a failure

by Philissa Cramer
  • The city’s cash-for-grades initiative ended because it didn’t cause kids to work harder. (Post, Daily News)
  • The city will offer students online training next year about how to behave properly online. (Times)
  • The state is threatening to cut thousands of scholarships funded by lottery revenue. (Daily News)
  • The Daily News: UFT head Michael Mulgrew should lead teachers to the “new and unavoidable future.”
  • The Harlem arts program on the chopping block has been in trouble for a while. (Times, Daily News)
  • Mayor Bloomberg has offered cupcakes to the Post’s editorial board, and for sale in city buildings. (Post)
  • Middle school students are decorating their cafeteria tables in an environmental art contest. (NY1)
  • The research doesn’t say merit pay boosts performance, but states are pushing it anyway. (AP)
  • The Education Equality Project co-chairs write that good teachers matter to poor kids. (Washington Post)
  • A system being tested in Chicago’s schools uses a checklist to identify good and bad teaching. (Times)
  • New Jersey’s schools added 36,000 students and 28,000 staff since 2001, a columnist writes. (Post)
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Sacramento Press / McClatchy High Students Experience Dangers of Driving Under Influence

Sacramento Press / McClatchy High Students Experience Dangers of Driving Under Influence

McClatchy High Students Experience Dangers of Driving Under Influence



Students at C.K. McClatchy High School experienced the dangers of driving under the influence during a two-day event earlier this week.
The event is part of the "Every 15 Minutes" program, which happens at high schools nationwide and aims to inform high schoolers about the dangers of drunken driving as well as texting while driving. The name is a reference to the fact that every 15 minutes someone in the United States dies from an alcohol-related traffic collision. The two-day program begins with a staged car crash and ends the next day with an assembly that focuses on the events of the previous day.
The program started on Tuesday, when students witnessed a staged car crash on campus. The staged crash involved students from McClatchy, who played different parts including a drunken driver, a dead passenger and an injured person. The juniors and seniors watched as firefighters and officers from the Sacramento Fire Department and California Highway Patrol worked the scene like they would in a real collision, and students who played the parts of the people in the crash were treated as they would be in a real collision.
"The police department came, and they took the drunk driver away in a cop car, and they took the people to the hospital," said student Janna Langhi, a junior. "They even had the coroner come and take away the dead person."
Throughout the day, a different student was pulled from class every 15 minutes, representing one person who will die from an alcohol-related collision. The students are led to a private retreat where all communication to friends and family is cut off for the rest of the day. Parents of those students also receive death notifications from officers at their wor
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Local News | UW's earthquake-hazard map project struggles to survive | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | UW's earthquake-hazard map project struggles to survive | Seattle Times Newspaper

UW's earthquake-hazard map project struggles to survive

The University of Washington project that produced some of the nation's most detailed geologic maps is in danger of being shut down — another victim of the sluggish economy.

By Sandi Doughton

Seattle Times science reporter

Information

GeoMapNW: geomapnw.ess.washington.edu

The University of Washington project that produced some of the nation's most detailed geologic maps is in danger of being shut down — another victim of the sluggish economy.

The work of GeoMapNW gives planners, builders and homeowners a window into the Earth, revealing the soil types and layers that lie below. The information has been used to plan countless construction projects in Seattle and surrounding communities, and estimate how vulnerable neighborhoods are to earthquake damage.

"We use it on a daily basis," said Susan Chang, head of the geotechnical engineering group at Seattle's Department of Planning and Development.

Along with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the city of Seattle helped launch GeoMapNW in 1998 and joined King County in supporting its work for many years.

But tight budgets have forced both the city and county to pull their funding — a total of about $100,000 a

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Perry, White on the state's school funding shortfall | The Dallas Morning News

THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | The Dallas Morning News

Perry, White on the state's school funding shortfall

by William McKenzie/Editorial Columnist

As the year began, I noted that we were going to concentrate on school funding issues as one of the priorities of this blog for 2010. With that in mind, I asked Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic gubernatorial challenger Bill White to explain how they would reduce the $5 billion school funding shortfall that is likely to dominate next year's Legislature. As the Morning News' Bob Garrett reported recently, the $5 billion represents the difference between property tax cuts promised in 2006 and revenues coming in from the business tax and other sources to pay for that tax cut.

Here are the answers from each candidate. Tell us what you think.

RICK PERRY'S RESPONSE

Gov. Perry has always made education a top priority, even when times have been tight, and he has the experience Texas needs to ensure our education demands are met during these challenging economic times. Just like he did in 2003, when the state faced a $10 billion shortfall, Gov. Perry will work with legislators to prioritize spending and balance the budget without raising taxes, all while ensuring Texas schools receive the dollars they need to effectively educate Texas children. From 2000 to 2009, the state's share of public education spending increased from $11 billion per year to $21 billion per year - a 91 percent increase.

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