Friday, October 15, 2010

Thirty People Will Die Today, But That Will Not Stop Us From Living – Lily's Blackboard

Thirty People Will Die Today, But That Will Not Stop Us From Living

Oct 15th, 2010

I visited my new friends, the Garcia family, who live in the center of Ciudad Juárez. There are five beautiful children: Flori, Julia, Isabel, Pablito and Raquel. Their talented mother, Flor, has taught them to sing in harmony.

One daughter has dreams of representing Mexico as a diver in the Olympics. Another already sings like a professional. They taught me a card game called Cucharitas, which I got bruised playing. Cucharitas is a contact sport which includes grabbing for spoons in the middle of the table when you get the right combination of cards.
None of the gorgeous Garcias speak English, and so I had to make my limited Spanish work as they tried to teach me the card game. I’m afraid I didn’t make a very good impression on them, but they were kind and patiently repeated themselves because they felt sorry for me being so slow.

Alberto García is proud of his children. We had a

The Answer Sheet - Two superintendents who rejected the "manifesto"

Two superintendents who rejected the "manifesto"

Much has been written (including on this blog) about the school reform “manifesto” published in The Washington Post this week and signed by 16 big-city public school district chiefs. But little has been said about superintendents who refused to sign the document. New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein gave the document to Michael Casserly, executive director of the nonprofit Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization that is a coalition of 65 of the nation’s largest urban public school systems. Casserly then asked the chiefs in member districts if they wanted to sign on to the document. Fifteen did, including the soon to be departed Chancellor Michelle Rhee of Washington D.C. But some superintendents found the rhetoric empty and the solutions highly limited.

CA-11: Teabagger John Harmer Wants to Abolish Public Schools | California Progress Report

CA-11: Teabagger John Harmer Wants to Abolish Public Schools

by christine

By Robert Cruickshank

Mother Jones has a very important article up regarding David Harmer's desire to, in his own words, "abolish public schools." Harmer is the teabagger candidate and Republican nominee in the 11th Congressional district against Democratic incumbent Jerry McNerney, and a new SurveyUSA poll found Harmer has a 48%-42% lead, making this race and this issue even more important.

The Mother Jones article is based on Harmer's own op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle published in 2000, titled "Abolish the public schools". In it, Harmer advocates for vouches, but says that's the best we can do until we eliminate the state constitutional requirement for free public education - and then proceeds to argue for exactly that:

Campaign 2010: The Big Things That Didn’t Get Debated

by christine

By Peter Schrag

Anyone looking for clues to the state’s future direction in this year’s gubernatorial debates – much less in the rest of the two major candidates’ campaigns – was more likely to find grim irony than signs of leadership.

Abetted by the media’s ubiquitous preference for flash over substance, Tuesday’s final debate spent more time parsing the nuances of the word “whore” than the intricacies of the economy or the ongoing Mississippification of California.

Just a few days after the legislature and governor approved a “budget” that accomplished nothing but transfer the state’s chronic fiscal problems to the next governor, the debate Tuesday saw the two candidates assiduously avoid anything that resembled a real confrontation with the state’s fundamental fiscal and governmental problems.

End Budget Gridlock -- Vote YES on Proposition 25

by christine

By Sara Flocks
California Labor Federation

Budgets reflect the priorities and values of a state. Public dollars dedicated to schools, safe communities, healthy kids and well-maintained infrastructure demonstrate that a state is committed to creating a high quality of life for residents. California’s budget tells a whole different story. Because California has a two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget, a small group of partisan legislators can withhold their votes to extract concessions from the majority. As a result, California’s budget process ends up full of corporate loopholes, special favors and worker takeaways—not exactly a reflection of the values of the majority of working people in California.

President Obama to Host White House Science Fair | The White House

President Obama to Host White House Science Fair

Event Will Highlight Winners of National Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Competitions

WASHINGTON, DC -- On Monday, October 18th, President Obama will host the White House Science Fair celebrating the winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions. The President will view exhibits of these students’ work, ranging from breakthrough basic research to new inventions, followed by remarks to an audience of students, science educators and business leaders on the importance of STEM education to our country’s economic future.

The White House Science Fair fulfills a commitment the President made at the launch of his Educate to Innovate campaign in November 2009 to inspire boys and girls to excel in math and science. As the President noted then, “If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.” The White House event will kick off a week that culminates with the USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall and in over 50 satellite locations that is poised to draw more than a million people nationwide.

Your Questions: The Flier for Schools Tax - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

Your Questions: The Flier for Schools Tax

Posted: Thursday, October 14, 2010 12:45 pm |Updated: 1:15 pm, Thu Oct 14, 2010.

Posted on October 14, 2010

by Emily Alpert

Several parents have sent me emails after seeing their kids come home with fliers from San Diego Unified about its proposed parcel tax, Proposition J.

The fliers emphasize the extent of school budget cuts so far and warn that deeper cuts are coming. San Diego Unified has spent roughly $4,700 on fliers that it has sent home with schoolchildren and passed out at community meetings held at schools. The question that readers asked me is: Is this legal?

School districts and other public agencies are allowed to provide information about ballot measures that impact them. But they aren't allowed to campaign for or against a measure with public funds. Opponents of the parcel tax for San Diego Unified schools argue that the fliers are implicitly advocating for the tax.

So what do the fliers say? They include straightforward information about what school programs are on the chopping block, but also state that "every effort has been made to keep cuts away from the classroom," a subjective statement that school district critics would contest.

Campaign to Remake School Board Goes Live

The ballot measure would expand the school board, a movement that came out of frustration toward San Diego Unified's frequent turnover at the top.

Queens Teacher: Ocean Hill-Brownsville showed that demonizing teachers unions doesn’t work

Ocean Hill-Brownsville showed that demonizing teachers unions doesn’t work

You decide: Either view teacher unions as enemy or work with them to achieve mutual goalsBY Jerald Podair

Dignity. I heard that word a lot when I was researching the 1968 Ocean Hill-Brownsville schools crisis. I heard it from parents of black and Puerto Rican children in the schools of the impoverished Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn, who were part of a trial project in local control of public education in that community. Their kids' white teachers didn't think they could learn, the thinking went. They didn't treat their children with dignity.

That is why, in May 1968, the local board charged with running the Ocean

ASCD Inservice: Teaching Screenagers

Teaching Screenagers

Students of all ages learn visually and virtually from computers and handheld screens, and the question has become what tools and approaches teachers can use to effectively reach digital learners. How can teachers encourage self-motivated learning? How do teachers' roles change when learning becomes screen-oriented? What practices capitalize on students' penchant for collaboration and social networking? How are classrooms incorporating learning that is visual, informal, interdisciplinary, and multimodal? How are schools handling such prickly issues as plagiarism, cyberbullying, and

In Case You Missed It

by Matthew Swift

Here's your weekly rundown of what's been happening at ASCD: Learn how to maximize student achievement in Douglas Fisher's and Nancy Frey's book, Guided Instruction, which is available for your reading pleasure online. Education expert Robyn Jackson expresses her concern...

This Week In Education: Turnarounds: The Charlotte-Mecklenberg Model

Turnarounds: The Charlotte-Mecklenberg Model

by Alexander Russo

It's a tailored turnaround, a school reform version of of a poker game where you can toss out a few cards you don't like and get new ones. Here's how it works: take your best principals, offer them a three year stint revamping the district's worst schools (and a raise). They get to bring in eight handpicked

Students, community to District: 'You broke it' | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Students, community to District: 'You broke it'

by Benjamin Herold on Oct 15 2010 Posted in Latest news

Tags:

The District’s handling of West Philadelphia High School has resulted in a sudden, dramatic return of the climate problems that used to plague the struggling neighborhood school, students from the school repeatedly told District officials during a community meeting held Thursday night at Kingsessing Recreation Center.

“Our climate was fixed. But you’ve taken out everybody who fixed [it], so now we have to start from scratch,” said West senior Delaney Foxworth, one of four members of the school’s newly formed senior committee present at the meeting.

Deputy Superintendent Leroy Nunery said the District was focused on the present and was moving swiftly to address the climate issues at the school, including the

Notes from the news, Oct. 15

by Erika Owens

notes from the news image Students, community to District: ‘You broke it’ The Notebook blog
The District held a community meeting last night and heard from students who are dealing with the upheaval at West Philly High.

See also: Principal at West Phila. High steps down for now The Inquirer
Top-job shake-up at West Philadelphia High Daily News

PA Passes Historic Resolution to Study School Libraries School Library Journal
The study will assess how many schools have lost libraries and librarians and what effect that has had.

Williams defends charter schools Philadelphia Tribune
State Sen. Williams says a moratorium on new charter schools would "disproportionally affect the Black community."

The defeat of Fenty and Rhee - What is the lesson? The Notebook blog
Superintendent Ackerman also favors a top-down leadership style, but it is unlikely that she'll be following Rhee out the door. The Answer Sheet lists the accomplishments Ackerman claimed when she too left D.C.

See also: Rhee’s big legacy: Being a whirlwind The Answer Sheet
Memo to Philly: At least give Michelle Rhee a call Attytood

Panel weighs obstacles to college success The Notebook blog
The city's chief education officer, Lori Shorr, described ways the city is working to meet Mayor Nutter's goal of 36 percent of Philadelphians having a college degree by 2018.

Reconciling Tech and Content Philly Teacher blog

Call for Stories City School Stories

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Friday, October 15, 2010