Monday, July 4, 2011

Why we Celebrate the Fourth of July – The Declaration of Independence | Mr. D’s Neighborhood

Why we Celebrate the Fourth of July – The Declaration of Independence

by ldorazio1

Flag of the United States in the Moon Light 月光...

Image by Yang and Yun's Album via Flickr

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.
A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN GENERAL CONGRESS ASSEMBLED.
WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes

America: Land of the overworked, home of the underpaid | Being Latino Online Magazine

America: Land of the overworked, home of the underpaid

by beinglatino

Corporate profits are up 20%, which is no surprise since the U.S. economy has grown 60 percent in the past 20. But all that has meant for the average American is that he or she works harder without seeing gains to their bottom line.

This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”

by Larry Ferlazzo

I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too. These are resources that I didn’t include in my “Best Tweets” feature because I had planned to post about them, or because I didn’t even get around to sending a tweet sharing them.

Here are This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”:

Classroom Songs: 16 Creative Ways lists some good ways to use music in the ESL/EFL classroom. I’m adding it to The Best Music Websites For Learning English.

(Not) spreading the wealth is a pretty impressive interactive infographic from

Queens Teacher: NEA Fights Back #neara11

Queens Teacher: NEA Fights Back

NEA Fights Back

by Queens Teacher

NEA goes after Education Secretary Arne Duncan

Here’s the resolution adopted today by the NEA’s legislative body:

ADOPTED AS AMENDED

The NEA Representative Assembly directs the NEA President to communicate aggressively, forcefully, and immediately to President Barack Obama and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that NEA is appalled with Secretary Duncan’s practice of:

1. Weighing in on local hiring decisions of school and school district personnel.

2. Supporting local decisions to fire all school staff indiscriminately, such as his comments regarding the planned firings in Central Falls, RI.

3. Supporting inappropriate use of high-stakes standardized test scores for both student achievement and

Guest Post: Reflection on the 4th of July « Outside the Cave

Guest Post: Reflection on the 4th of July

by Stephen Lazar

To my mind, there is still nothing else worth reading to recognize the Fourth then this 1852 piece by Frederick Douglass. Please share with people you know today.

Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.

The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.

The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I

ISTE Panel QOTD 3 – How Do We Engage Parents In Tech Discussion? | Connected Principals

#ISTE Panel QOTD 3 – How Do We Engage Parents In Tech Discussion? | Connected Principals

ISTE Panel QOTD 3 – How Do We Engage Parents In Tech Discussion? *This is part of a series of posts following up on the great questions that were asked in the backchannel #cpchatq during our panel “What Does It Mean To Be A Tech-Savvy Principal” at ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia last week.* [image: directions] * * ...

“EduKare” – A New Paradigm for Struggling Schools Education reform is a hot topic. The media is all over it. So many stories, editorials, features, columns and documentaries revolve around the “drop-out factories,” as some urban schools are infamously referred to, and what should be done to ...

Debt-damned economics: you MUST learn monetary policy; let a teacher teach you. 1 of 2 | Dailycensored.com

Michael Collins: The Wisdom of the People – the Populist Rationale The citizens of the United States have excellent judgment. They have shown it consistently over time. When that judgment shifts briefly allowing a failed policy, it is a result of the vilest forms of propaganda by a small clique of liars. (Image: ...

Debt-damned economics: you MUST learn monetary policy; let a teacher teach you. 2 of 2 source: Carl Herman, Examiner.com There are five topics to understand for civic competence in creating and managing money. The first four are standard to economics curriculum; the last is rational analysis. The first three topics are in the first part ...

Debt-damned economics: you MUST learn monetary policy; let a teacher teach you. 1 of 2 source: Carl Herman, Examiner.com “All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from a want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of ...

Schools Matter: If NEA and AFT Gave $1 Per Member to the Save Our Schools Rally

If NEA and AFT Gave $1 Per Member to the Save Our Schools Rally

by Jim Horn

Millions of teachers pay hundreds of millions in union dues each year so that bosses, Dennis and Randi (along with their posses of lawyers), can sit with the Political Elites and Oligarchs as they perfect their plans to deskill and deprofessionize teaching, corporatize public schools, reduce resources by hooking children up to computers, and to generally create paper unions that serve the needs of the Oligarchs.

A great example of the doubletalk duplicity and cowardice can be found, or not found, rather, on NEA and AFT websites. Each organization has purportedly endorsed the upcoming parent and teacher march and conference in DC July 28-31, but how would the millions of teacher members know, even if they scoured AFT's or NEA'swebsites? Not a mention, anywhere.

Imagine if NEA and AFT actually publicized their endorsement and gave a fifth of a penny of every dollar they

Worms and Professors” The Puzzle of Abundant Access to Computers and Traditional Instruction–Second Time Around | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Worms and Professors” The Puzzle of Abundant Access to Computers and Traditional Instruction–Second Time Around

by larrycuban

What puzzles reformers about university teaching is that amid abundant electronic devices and resources on campuses (hardware, software, and technical assistance) and well designed efforts to move professors into non-traditional ways of teaching, most faculty continue to lecture undergraduates (via PowerPoint to be sure). I explored this apparent contradiction in a post published September 28, 2009.

Nematodes are small worms that scientists study because 40 percent of their chromosomes are similar to humans. In 2008, British and U.S. scientists decoded the genome of c. elagans, creating for the first time a genetic map of a higher organism, can now compare human and worm related genes to get at causes of inherited diseases.

Similarly, we know a great deal about the DNA of K-12 classrooms and use of computers over the past three

Daily Kos: ‘We’ is an open door

‘We’ is an open door

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

WHO IS “we’’? The word is used in politics without a second thought, yet the meaning of “we” is forever unresolved.

So begins a column in today's Boston Globe, by James Carroll, one whose title I have borrowed for this post. At the end of the first paragraph of this piece, written in the context of the continuing debate over the DREAM Act, Carroll notes of that legislation

When Americans say “we,” who actually is included?

Jefferson's words in the Declaration we commemorate today did not, as Carroll rightly notes, include all present - no Native Americans, slaves, women, or those whose political loyalties remained with the Crown. And here I note that my beloved Leaves on the Current is descended from both sides of that political dispute: one ancestor was a high ranking Revolutionary War officer while another went to Canada to maintain loyalty to England.

And yet Jefferson's words, even as they excluded many here at the time, were universal in their sweep, as you will find if you keep reading.

Kimble's Corner: Congressman Kimble on How to Make an American Salad

Congressman Kimble on How to Make an American Salad

by Representative Kimble

The 4th of July is very important to me. On July 4, 1776 General George Washington crossed the Delaware River to surprise the British at a party in Trenton, New Jersey and won our independence from Britain. We also changed the world forever by becoming the first Democracy where people could vote for their leaders. This call of freedom sounded all over the world and many other countries like Iraq, Sweden, and even England have since abandoned their monarchies for Democracies.

What’s sad is that in recent years secularists have tried to take the Christ out of July 4th celebrations. They want to pretend that American is not a Christian country and that our systems of laws and government weren’t patterned after the Bible or that the American Eagle wasn’t chosen as our country’s symbol because by

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Vice President Biden to teachers: ‘You are not the problem’ - Chicago Sun-Times

Vice President Biden to teachers: ‘You are not the problem’

Vice President Joe Biden | AP file

Updated: July 3, 2011 10:17PM

Teachers aren’t to blame for the nation’s budget problems, Vice President Biden told the nation’s largest teachers union on Sunday.

Speaking to thousands of educators attending the National Education Association annual meeting at McCormick Place, Biden also declared, “None of us would be in the positions we are today — not me, not Barack, not Michelle . . . if not for the inspiration, love and guidance of at least one or two teachers,” Biden said, mentioning President Obama and his wife. He told the crowd how when he was young, he stuttered so badly that he couldn’t even say his own name, and his elementary school teachers helped turn that around.

Biden also spoke out strongly against the policies of the Republican Party. “There is an organized effort in this country to place the blame of the budget shortfall squarely on educators. And it is one of the biggest scams in American history.”

He chastised the Republican Party, saying that they were disregarding the sacrifices of teachers.

This Is Such A Good Article On So Many Levels: “A Failing School? Not to These Students” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip” Is On HBO On July 4th “Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip” is the title of a documentary on HBO tomorrow night. It looks interesting. Here’s how the HBO website (which has a lot of information on the film) describes it: *Acclaimed filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi sets out on ...

This Is Such A Good Article On So Many Levels: “A Failing School? Not to These Students” Check-out today’s New York Times article, A Failing School? Not to These Students. It’s about one of the many schools that Mayor Bloomberg is trying to close in New York City this year in the face of enormous community opposition.

This is What Democracy Looks Like - Lily's Blackboard – #NEARA11

This is What Democracy Looks Like - Lily's Blackboard – Lily's Blackboard

This is What Democracy Looks Like

Jul 3rd, 2011

by Lily.

I’m at the annual Representative Assembly of my National Education Association. We are a strange but noble people. We are passionate. We wear T-shirts and buttons that say funny things. We are generous. We are sensitive and kind and a little crazy. We are very smart. We care about someone else’s child
.

These teachers and support professionals and college professors and librarians and principals and counselors and school nurses and anyone and everyone who touches the life of a student from preschool to graduate school have been duly elected and certified to represent the NEA members back home who sent them here to be their voice.

We sit in a huge cavernous hall with 40 microphones and 22 big screen monitors and we listen, learn, teach, debate and decide positions and actions of the NEA focused around a mission to prepare each and every blessed student to succeed in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world - A world that needs them

Biden Rips Republicans In Speech To NEA « CBS Chicago

Biden Rips Republicans In Speech To NEA

July 3, 2011 2:41 PM

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the National Education Association’s annual conference on July 3, 2011, in Chicago. (Credit: CBS)

Filed Under

Heard on WBBM 780, Local,News, Politics, Seen on CBS 2, Syndicated Local, Watch + Listen

Updated 07/03/11 – 4:22 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Vice President Joe Biden has been in Chicago, speaking to a nationwide teachers union, saying Republicans are attempting to blame educators for budget shortfalls; and he said that’s “one of the biggest scams in modern American history.”

The vice president spoke Sunday at the

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