Ideas for E.L.L.'s | The Real Harlem Shake, Mapping Memories and More - NYTimes.com

Ideas for E.L.L.'s | The Real Harlem Shake, Mapping Memories and More - NYTimes.com:

Ideas for English Language Learners | The Real Harlem Shake, Mapping Memories and More

By LARRY FERLAZZO

Go to related Times interactive showing the history of the dance »

Each month, the teacher, author and edublogger Larry Ferlazzo presents ways that teachers of English Language Learners can use Times content in the classroom.

This month: creative uses of Times visuals, from video to photography to maps, to practice spoken and written language … and your dance moves.

Posts published by Larry Ferlazzo

March 7, 2013, 2:46 pmComment

Ideas for English Language Learners | The Real Harlem Shake, Mapping Memories and More

By LARRY FERLAZZO

This month: creative uses of Times visuals, from video to photography to maps, to practice spoken and written language … and your dance moves.

February 7, 2013, 2:28 pm2 Comments

Ideas for English Language Learners | What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?

By LARRY FERLAZZO

With Presidents’ Day just ahead and an immigration overhaul on President Obama’s second-term agenda, Larry Ferlazzo suggests ideas for having students deepen their definition and understanding of the idea of citizenship.

January 3, 2013, 3:15 pm7 Comments

Ideas for English Language Learners | Labeling Photos, Sequencing Passages and More

By LARRY FERLAZZO

This installment of our monthly series includes a picture-labeling activity; a sequencing exercise; a video-making challenge; and a rambunctious game called “Messenger and Scribe.”

December 6, 2012, 12:01 pm1 Comment

Ideas for English Language Learners | Celebrate the Holidays

By LARRY FERLAZZO

Teaching ideas for writing about holiday traditions, making holiday gifts, learning about New Year’s traditions and making resolutions.

November 1, 2012, 1:07 pm4 Comments

Ideas for English Language Learners | ‘Gangnam Style,’ ‘Emotion Words’ and More

By LARRY FERLAZZO

Another in our monthly series, this one with ideas for using Times videos, photographs, interactives and articles to teach a variety of topics.

September 27, 2012, 1:46 pm2 Comments

Ideas for English Language Learners | Election 2012

By LARRY FERLAZZO

Another in our monthly “Ideas for E.L.L.’s series, this one listing ways to use Times articles, video and interactives to teach about the race to the White House.

August 16, 2012, 1:37 pm2 Comments

Ideas for English Language Learners | Recipes, Travel, Idioms and More

By LARRY FERLAZZO

Our second installment of a new feature, in which an English Language Learning specialist suggests activities and Times articles to go with them.

Diane in the Evening 3-7-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION (CLICK PICTURE)

 

WE ARE MANY. THERE IS POWER IN OUR NUMBERS. TOGETHER, WE WILL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS. THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION

Randi Weingarten Arrested in Philadelphia Protest

by dianerav

Randi Weingarten and other protestors were arrested and hauled off in handcuffs while demonstrating against school closings in Philadelphia. Neither the Mayor nor the School Reform Commission was willing to meet with Weingarten.
After her release from custody, said the article in the Huffington Post,
“Weingarten said she sees the school closure plan as siphoning money away from public schools, since the plan doesn’t touch charter schools. “This was really a plan to eliminate public education,” Weingarten said. “This 

CPS Plans to Close Schools, Increase Class Sizes

by dianerav

I just received a press release from the Chicago Teachers Union, alerting the public that CPS plans to close schools and to increase class sizes. To call this “reform” is outrageous. The children in Chicago needs smaller classes, not classes of 35-40. A teacher who is a “high-quality” teacher in a class with 24 students will not be a “high-quality” teacher if placed in a class of 35-40 students. Many of the students will have disabilities, or language learning issues, or behavioral problems. Instead of instruction, the teacher will spend most of his or her time on classroom management. This is just more of the corporate reform babble; neither Bill Gates nor Michael Bloomberg ever put their own children in classrooms with 35-40 students. Why do they want to do that to other people’s children?

Below is the CTU press release:

Big Money Didn’t Buy Much in L.A.

by dianerav

Great reporting by Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times about the school board race.
DFER–the hedge fund managers who call themselves Democrats for Education Reform–put out a hilarious press release boasting of the victory of Monica Garcia over a field of four candidates with no funding. She outspent her closest competitor by 50-1, more or less.
But the nearly $4 million raised by the billionaire boys wasn’t enough to beat Steve Zimmer.
True, the teachers’ union spent $1 million. But why shouldn’t they? They are directly affected by the decisions of 

Will Public Education in Philadelphia Die Today?

by dianerav

Helen Gym of Parents United for Public Education in Philadelphia writes here:

Dear Friends:

On the day of the SRC vote to close down a historic and unprecedented number of schools, I’m hoping you’ll join (or send your support for) PCAPs, Parents United, the PFT and others in a large rally at 440 at 4 p.m. today. The school closings are just the tip of the iceberg in what we expect will be both a rapid and massive spiral of disinvestment (even more so than before) in our public schools and in our neighborhoods and communities. If you read the teachers contract proposal,you know that this will impact every single classroom, teacher and student, whether you’re in the poorest of schools, the most overcrowded, magnet schools or struggling neighborhood high school.

I wrote in the Notebook today, that the problems facing Philadelphia public schools have as much to do with a lack of vision for public schools today as it does with resources. What do we do with not only dramatically smaller populations, but also dramatically altered populations? Parents United and others have long touted alternative visions that engage communities and re-invest around schools as community anchors. No matter the results of today’s vote, we want history to remember that there were people standing up for a different vision of public education that has yet to be realized.

Read more here:

• On Facebook? Read beautiful testimonies by students, former students, advocates on what public education means: http://www.facebook.com/groups/phillyunderattack/193828627408074/?notif_t=group_activity
  If you can’t access facebook, Media Mobilizing Project did work here: http://www.mediamobilizingproject.org/updates/underattack-when-there-enough

• Read Helen’s piece “Where’s the vision for public education?” at the Notebook: http://thenotebook.org/blog/135725/wheres-vision-public-education
• Read Rebecca Poyourow on why we sat in at the Mayor’s Office: “Mayor Nutter’s door”:http://parentsunitedphila.com/2013/03/06/mayor-nutters-door/

As always, I appreciate any thoughts, opinions, feedback and shares. Thanks!

Helen

Helen Gym
Parents United for Public Education

Breaking News: New Group to Oppose Corporate Reforms LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-7-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Breaking News: New Group to Oppose Corporate Reforms by dianerav Dear Friends, It is time to organize to support our children, our schools, and our educators against the well-funded attacks on them. Please join me and a group of education leaders from across the country in building a movement for improving and strengthening our schools with research-based reforms, not fads and sanctions. Today we announce the creation of the Network for Public Education. We invi... more »

UPDATE: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Mr. Greenberg's Opus at last night's Seattle School Board Meeting

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Mr. Greenberg's Opus at last night's Seattle School Board Meeting:

Mercer Island to Give All 10th/11th Graders iPads

by Melissa Westbrook

From the Stranger Slog:

The Mercer Island School District will kick off its "One to One" iPad initiative next month by distributing free iPads to all 10th and 11th graders. The iPads will be used by students for the remainder of the year, returned for the summer, and then redistributed in September.

Say what you want about the economic disparity that allows districts like Mercer Island to hand out iPads while other districts struggle to pay for more basic needs, but I'm guessing that this technology will be the norm in schools, not the exception, by the end of the decade. The advantages over traditional textbooks are too obvious and numerous to list. This is the future.

But there's one huge advantage that might not be so obvious about this inevitable shift away from print and toward digital: It breaks the power of the Texas Board of Education to dictate what is and is not in our nation's textbooks. Because Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks in the English-speaking world, publishers 

Mr. Greenberg's Opus at last night's Seattle School Board Meeting

by Melissa Westbrook

It was quite the meeting (but I left after the speakers).

First up was the great Denny International Middle School Jazz Band.  I have to love any group that first plays that old jazz chestnut, "Take the A Train," and follows up with "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone."  Priceless.  (Their director had wanted to talk to the Board about the enrollment pathways from Denny to Sealth because many kids are still upset that they don't get to go to Sealth.  His name was so far down the speaker list that he ended up not staying.)

Student rep on the Board, Dexter Tang, read the Student Senate's remarks (that were reprinted here yesterday) about the federal investigation of student discipline in SPS and about the Center School issue.

There were a couple of speakers who did NOT talk about The Center School.  Residents of Wedgwood still don't want a new elementary at Thornton Creek and would like to be part of any planning.   (Pegi McEvoy did get up and say that the Lake City property just can't be used in this case.)

Relationships Key to School Safety — Whole Child Education

Relationships Key to School Safety — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Relationships Key to School Safety

March 7, 2013 by Melissa Mellor

Fostering trusting relationships between adults and students is the most effective way to improve school safety, a panel of experts told members of Congress during a recent House Education Committee hearing convened in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

To facilitate those relationships, the panel suggested increasing the numbers of school counselors and mental health professionals who serve students; freeing those professionals from other administrative responsibilities so that they can focus on the core functions of their jobs; placing more school resource officers in schools; and training educators to create healthy school climates, use positive behavioral intervention and supports, and promote students' social and emotional skills.

Vincent Pompei, a school counselor for California's Val Verde Unified School District, said "caseloads have grown so much that counselors only have time to put out fires—when we should be preventing fires from igniting in the first place." He shared that although the recommended student-to-counselor ratio is 250-to-1, the ratio is more than 1,000-to-1 in California and nearly 500-to-1 for the nation.

The panelists also stressed the importance of coordinating between school and community stakeholders and 

Natalie Meier – Transgendered Visibility on a Single-Sex Campus Student Voice

Student Voice:

Natalie Meier – Transgendered Visibility on a Single-Sex Campus

by admin

 

For an institution that identifies as a “women’s college” and produces “strong women” of all different shapes, races, creeds, and sexual orientations, there is a group that hasn’t been receiving the support it needs or deserves: transgendered individuals.

The demographic of identities present on women’s college campuses is vast, to say the least.

But picture this for a moment…

Imagine for a moment that you were born into the wrong body. Imagine that your birth certificate, your driver’s license, and even your school ID card tell you that you are a female when, in fact, you know that you’re male. Imagine that you come to a women’s college, thinking that you will be able to find a community of other students to support you, the resources about hormone therapy or top surgery that you’ve been looking for, and an avenue to a kind of freedom of expression that you don’t feel comfortable with anywhere else.


Imagine all of these things, and then learn that there are, in fact, little to no resources for transgendered students 

Latinos Shifting Black-White Paradigm in Memphis Schools | NewsTacoNewsTaco

Latinos Shifting Black-White Paradigm in Memphis Schools | NewsTacoNewsTaco:

Latinos Shifting Black-White Paradigm in Memphis Schools

by NewsTaco

By Stan Washington, New America Media
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Hispanic parents in this city care about the education of their children just as much as any other ethnic group, declared one Hispanic mother, Marta Lopez, during a recent town hall discussion on education.
Lopez, who works at a local school, said there is a false stereotype that Hispanic parents in Memphis aren’t engaged in their children’s schooling. There are some parents who may be reluctant to involve themselves in school life because of language barriers, she said, but that is changing.
“In the last couple years, I’ve seen a lot more Hispanic parents stepping up and playing more of a role in their children’s education,” said Lopez. “We’re not just sitting back in the corner waiting on someone to do something for our families, for our kids. We are actually stepping forward.”
Lopez was among a number of concerned parents who participated in a recent town hall meeting on education, co-sponsored by New America Media and Latino Memphis, a nonprofit agency that advocates for the Hispanic community in the greater Memphis area. The parents expressed a number of concerns about their children’s education to an audience of local teacher’s groups, PTA organizations, education advocates and local media.
The parents came looking for answers and assistance in navigating a school system that is currently very much

SXSWEdu: Ideas, Change and Latino – Focused Thinking Spaces

by NewsTaco

By Jason Llorenz, LIN@R
“Can I tell you about my idea? I think this stuff is going to be revolutionary!” Asks an entrepreneur in her mid-20s roaming the halls of SXSWedu in Austin, Texas, with an idea for a mobile app and cloud-based ecosystem that could help K-12 teachers better serve English language learner students.
The digital divide has morphed into today’s significant “techpreneur” gap, where Latinos and African American entrepreneurs combined claimed only about 2% of startup investment dollars as recently as last year. Access to SXSW and its unique collaboration spaces is an important way of closing that gap. This year Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media (LATISM) is hosting a casita of Latino techpreneurs with a prototype, working, dedicated team, and an overriding focus on their startup.

SXSWedu also features spaces for thinking about Latinos, technology and innovation. The session moderated and organized by this author, “Mobile Technology and 

UPDATE: 119 of the 129 CPS schools on the closing list are in Black communities. | Fred Klonsky

119 of the 129 CPS schools on the closing list are in Black communities. | Fred Klonsky:

Breaking: Action in the Illinois House on teacher pensions.

by Fred Klonsky

Three pension amendments to HB 1154 were debated on the House floor this afternoon. Floor amendment #7 passed 65-7. Amendments 6 and 8 failed.
The amendments to House Bill 1154 included the following:

• Limits/freezes pensionable salary of TRS employees to the greater of the Social Security base for the previous year (currently $113,700), or the annual salary of the member in the previous year – does not apply to salaries determined by contracts or collective bargaining agreements currently in place on the effective date of the bill.Amendment passed 65-7.
• Increases employee contributions 4% over two years - Amendment failed 11-58-2.
• Suspends/eliminates COLA for all Tier I employees and retirees (anyone hired before 1/1/2011) from the bill’s effective date through January 2024. Amendment failed 2-67.

119 of the 129 CPS schools on the closing list are in Black communities.

by Fred Klonsky

CTU President Karen Lewis and Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization’s Jitu Brown. Photo: Substance.

“The racial breakdown of the schools that are eligible to be closed is really an indictment on the fact that the district has operated without accountability in a two-tiered education system.

“What we should be saying instead of blaming parents, instead of blaming teachers or having low expectations, is, ‘Why can the school district set up excellent public schools on one side of town because it wants to keep that demographic there but starve out neighborhood schools in another community that’s African-American, and after the district neglects those schools, say ‘Look your schools are under-utilized, your test scores aren’t where they should be.”

- Jitu Brown, Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization

An analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times shows that 88%, 119 of the 129 schools that are on the list for possible

School closings have consequences.

by Fred Klonsky

How school closings affect children:

How school closings affect children

Posted by Valerie Strauss on March 7, 2013 at 11:30 am

The School Reform Commission in Philadelphia is about to decide whether to go ahead with an unprecedented and controversial plan to close 29 public schools. (There were more schools on the list but activists got about 10 removed).  To understand what is at stake for affected students and educators in Philadelphia — and in other cities where closing schools has become a popular reform tactic — here’s testimony that Kate Shaw, executive director of Research for Action, recently gave to the education committee of the Philadelphia City Council. Research for Action is a non-profit education research organization that analyzes reforms at the local, state, and national levels to promote effective, sustainable, and equitable policies.

Shaw’s testimony:

….The subject at hand—large-scale school closings—is one of the most challenging policy questions that can confront education leaders. You know that the well-being of our communities is inextricably linked with local schools, so the discussions surrounding their closing are not just operational or financial, but also deeply personal and highly-charged. To be clear, RFA [Research for Action] does not have an organizational stance on the district’s proposal.

Our role is to provide rigorous, objective research to ensure that the conversation taking shape is guided by evidence to the greatest extent possible. Ultimately, every parent and schoolchild deserves assurance that decisions stemming from the district’s plan are 

State Board takes up student fee complaint rules SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

State Board takes up student fee complaint rules
By Tom Chorneau
Thursday, March 07, 2013

As confusion persists in the field over a new law banning student fees for educational activities, state officials are set next week to consider creating a process for resolving complaints lodged against districts.

AB 1575, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last fall, reinforces existing statute that prohibits public schools – including charters and alternative schools – from requiring a pupil to pay a fee, a deposit or make some other charge not specifically authorized by law, for participation in an educational activity.

The law, which took effect Jan. 1, also calls on the California State Board of Education to adopt regulations governing procedures to resolve complaints against districts related to reimbursements.

Under a proposal coming to the state board next week, the California Department of Education would hold a public hearing on the proposed rules at 1:30 p.m. on May 14 at the department’s main offices in Sacramento.

The state board will also be asked to approve a list of proposed regulations.

The rule-making process comes as reports in the mainstream media have surfaced in recent weeks of conflict