9-18-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Guest Post: “IB TOK: Making Claims and Seeking Truth Lesson”

Earlier this month, I posted about a lesson I was planning to do with my IB Theory of Knowledge class related to the potential bombing of Syria by the United States (see First Draft: My Theory Of Knowledge Lesson About Syria Next Monday — Help Me Make It Better). In summary, students looked at the reasons and evidence being used by President Obama to justify it, and evaluated it using Reuben Abel

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 25min mark as read  //  save

Tennessee Using Portfolios To Evaluate Teachers In Non-Tested Subjects – Why Not In ALL Subjects?

Last year I wrote about a pilot program in Tennessee, praised by Arne Duncan, using portfolios developed by arts teachers as part of their evaluation process (see Arne Duncan Supports Using Student Portfolios To Evaluate Teachers?). , Education Week published an extensive, and laudatory, story about its expansion and future expansion to other non-tested subjects in that state and in others (see Cl

5 by Larry Ferlazzo / 47min 

“So, You Want To Be A Principal?”

So, You Want To Be A Principal? is Part Two of my Education Week Teacher series providing advice to educators who are considering becoming a principal. Justin Baeder, Allan R. Bonilla and Josh Stumpenhorst are share their reflections

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h 

A Collection Of Useful Infographics On Food & Nutrition

Here are several infographics (and one article) I’m adding to The Best Sites For Learning About Nutrition & Food Safety: See Full Size of above infographic here. Source: WeightTraining.com – Burning Calories 11 Kinds Of Junk Food That Cost Almost Twice As Much As Something Healthier is from Buzz Feed. Why BMI Isn’t The Best Measure for Weight (or Health) is an article from TIME. Explore m

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h mark as read  //  save

“Income Upshot” Is A Very Interesting Interactive

Income Upshot comes from Marketplace, the group that produces a number of financial-related programs for public radio. You input your income and area code, and then it feeds back a lot of interesting information about what people with your income — both locally and nationally — do. It’s simple, yet intriguing.

6 by Larry Ferlazzo / 7h 

9-17-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Washington Post Republishes My Most Popular Blog Post Of The YearIn case you missed it when it originally appeared, Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post has republished my most popular blog post of the year (so far): Getting students to engage — not just comply3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 39min 9-16-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites

by mike simpson / 10h 

9-18-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

LIfe in Rahm’s Chicago. We’re collecting toilet paper for our schools. Did you know the Koch brothers own Quilted Northern.

They’re holding toilet paper drives in the Galewood neighborhood. Budget cuts have meant no toilet paper. Let other cities fight over the Core Curriculum Standards. We’re fighting over Scott. Did you know the Koch Brothers own Quilted Northern? This must be a connection somehow. Ben Joravsky: Mayor Emanuel had just finished another press conference in which he lauded himself for building new scho

26 by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

Chicago teacher pensions on the air with CTPF Executive Director Kevin Huber and the next governor, Ralph Martire.

CTPF Executive Director Kevin Huber and Ralph Martire. Chicago Teachers Pension Fund Executive Director Kevin Huber and Center for Tax and Budget Accountability Ralph Martire will be on WBEZ public radio this afternoon at 3:35 CDT. Chicago area listeners can find ‘BEZ at 91.5 FM. Listeners can also go to http://www.wbez.org for internet streaming. CTPF Executive Director Will

by Fred Klonsky / 24min 

There are days like today when I miss it.

I can’t tell people what to do or how to spend their lives. I taught for 30 years and when I hit 64 I retired. I liked teaching a lot. I think I was good at it. I can’t say I made every student and parent happy. But with 400 students a year and with 800 or so parents, what are the odds somebody will be unhappy. A couple of years I traveled to different schools and was evaluated by more people tha

by Fred Klonsky / 8min 

The race for governor and local primaries.

Back in the Spring we were once again engaged in a fight to protect our contractual and constitutionally guaranteed pension rights. In the Illinois House legislators, mostly Democrats, were voting for Senate Bill 1. It was a bill that would break our pension contract and would violate the pension clause of the Illinois Constitution. As an electoral response many of us were hoping for two things:

1 by Fred Klonsky / 23min 

  

9-17-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: From Glen Brown on Constitution Day: The Constitution.Glen Brown posts at teacher/poet/musician. “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties” –Abraham Lincoln “No State shall…pass any…ex post facto law or Law impairing the

by mike simpson / 10h 

Feds elaborate on the requirements California can’t meet for testing waiver | EdSource Today

Feds elaborate on the requirements California can’t meet for testing waiver | EdSource Today:

Feds elaborate on the requirements California can’t meet for testing waiver - by John Fensterwald

The federal Department of Education specified for the first time Tuesday what states would have to do to receive a waiver from giving state standardized tests next spring in the one-year transition to implementing the Common Core standards. Within hours, California’s two top education leaders acknowledged in a press release what ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit the Edsource Today webs

by John Fensterwald / 4h mark as read  //  save

YESTERDAY

Nationally recognized child care program opening center in California - by Lillian Mongeau

A multi-million dollar preschool and child care center that education leaders say will help close achievement gaps between low-income and wealthier students is coming to California. The center is part of a national network of independently run early education centers operated under an umbrella organization known as Educare. The Educare model ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit the Edsour

by Lillian Mongeau / 8h 

Gates Money and Common Core– Part IV | deutsch29

Gates Money and Common Core– Part IV | deutsch29:

Gates Money and Common Core– Part IV

September 17, 2013

This post is a continuation of a series I am writing on Bill Gates’ funding specifically for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In my first post, I examined the Gates bankroll of the CCSS foundation organizations and to both national teachers’ unions and other influential groups. In the second post, I considered organizations influencing state education departments and local districts and that have accepted Gates money for promoting and implementing CCSS. Mythird post investigates the departments of education and school districts that have taken Gates money specifically for CCSS implementation.

And now, for my fourth installment: Universities that have accepted Gates money earmarked for CCSS implementation. Sixteen universities did so, for a total of  $17.6 million:

DePaul University  $248,343

George Washington University  $259, 895

Harvard University  $557,168

Massachusetts Institute of Technology  $3,004,132

Michigan State University  $650,000

New York University $40,282

Purdue University  $1,453,832

Regents University of

9-18-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

Jersey Jazzman Reviews “Reign of Error”

Jersey Jazzman Reviews “Reign of Error”.   This review really gets to the crux of the education deform paradox, its fundamental contradictions, and what may well be the key chapter in Diane Ravitch’s new book: the inseparable link between outlooks on education and outlooks on the larger society in which it is embedded. And the […]

by Michael Paul Gold... / 20min 

Influence of the #commoncore in my classroom: None.

See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Despite my math books, which I have yet to actually use, being labeled as “Common Core” approved, the Standards really have no impact or effect on my Kindergarten classroom.  Now, this tells me two things. One, that the standards are entirely benign and unthreatening, imaginative. Two, that this […]

by Chalk Face, PhD / 17min 

Do you remember that day when you first heard “no excuses?”

Sexual Abuse Physical Abuse Malnutrition No Health Care Homelessness Some idiots just keep on saying it! No excuses DAMN IT! Follow Tim Slekar on Twitter: @slekar

6 by Timothy D. Slekar / 2min 

Click, Click, Boom! Again?

In case you need to know about the number of mass shootings in America, Mother jones has produced the “data.” In case you’ve forgotten here is a small sampling… http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/14/us/california-santa-monica-gunman/index.html Slain Santa Monica gunman John Zawahri left behind a note on his body apologizing for killing his father and his brother and hoping his father’s […]

5 by Timothy D. Slekar / 3min 

Gates Money and Common Core– Part IV

This post is a continuation of a series I am writing on Bill Gates’ funding specifically for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In my first post, I examined the Gates bankroll of the CCSS foundation organizations and to both national teachers’ unions and other influential groups. In the second post, I […]

by deutsch29 / 7h 

9-17-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: The Relentless Bully Politics Continues in SCSuperintendent of Education Mick Zais can’t help himself. He is so enamored with his misinformation-as-talking-points that he is willing to visit and shame a high-poverty elementary school. This is the other side of the coin for Zais who has previously visited a so-called high-flying school in order to shame all the othe

by mike simpson / 8h 

9-18-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Bill De Blasio Praises New York City Teachers

The UFT officially endorsed Bill de Blasio today. Here is what de Blasio said about teachers at that announcement:"I just want to say humanly, personally, Charlaine and I have just the deepest appreciation for the dozens and dozens of teachers who took Chiara and Dante by the hand over the last 14 years and supported them, uplifted them, were there for them in so many ways," he said at t

by reality-based edu... / 38min 

Common Core Proponents Have Bright Idea To End Opposition To The Standards - Change The Name From "Common Core" To Something Else

Can't get any more Orwellian than this:Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction wants to take the politics out of the Arizona Common Core Standards without loosening any requirements of the state’s tough new academic program. On Tuesday, John Huppenthal said the term “Common Core” has become so politically charged it has become nearly impossible to explain the state’s new academic standards

by reality-based edu... / 38min 

De Blasio Gains Votes In Recanvass - He's Up To 40.88% Now

It looks like Bill Thompson has nothing to worry about - Bill de Blasio isn't looking like he's going to fall below 40%:The NYC Board of Elections has released updated results from last Tuesday’s Democratic primary following the recanvass of the old lever machines, and the outcome is more good news for Bill de Blasio.After the recount of roughly 5,100 voting machines and so-called “emergency” pape

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Arne Duncan Is, As Usual, Full Of Crap

Lisa Fleischer at the Wall Street Journal:The next New York City mayor will take control of the nation’s largest school system. But don’t look to the U.S. Secretary of Education for guidance on which candidate would be best for the city’s 1.1 million public schoolchildren. “I haven’t followed it that closely,” Secretary Arne Duncan said of the mayor’s race in an interview Tuesday.Duncan famously s

by reality-based edu... / 5min 

Cuomo, Lhota Compadre On Charter Schools, Other Issues

So says our old ed deform friend and failed DFER candidate Basil Smikle:Smikle said Cuomo also is philosophically closer to Lhota than de Blasio on education issues, particularly on charter schools. For his part, de Blasio has proposed a moratorium on charters, which are publicly funded but privately run, and even supports charging them rent.“That would eviscerate the charter school movement,” sai

by reality-based edu... / 0min 

New York Daily News Gets Nearly EVERYTHING Wrong On Navy Yard Shooter Story

More classic DN journalism - just about everything wrong:The cover of Tuesday's New York Daily News about Monday's Navy Yard shooting is now almost entirely wrong.The cover features a large AR-15 gun with the headline "Same Gun, Different Slay," and a photo widely circulated on Monday of people tending to a man laid out on a Washington, D.C. corner.In a press conference Tuesday afternoon

by reality-based edu... / 33min mark as read  //  save

Not The Fault Of Schools Or Teachers

From today's NY Times:WASHINGTON — Despite the addition of more than two million jobs last year, soaring corporate profits and continuing economic growth, income for the typical American household did not rise in 2012 and poverty failed to fall, new data from the Census Bureau show. “The poverty and income numbers are a metaphor for the entire economy,” said Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institutio

by reality-based edu... / 3h 

9-17-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Lhota Campaign Launches First AdHere's the ad: And you can see the campaign pamphlet they've put out:Here's what's inside:In the mid-1970s, things were considerably rougher in the Big Apple—so much rougher that the Council for Public Safety (police, firefighters and other unions) had plenty of material to publish a scaremongering pamphlet called "Welcome to Fear City: A

by mike simpson / 10h 

Diane Ravitch’s new education book — an excerpt:

Diane Ravitch’s new education book — an excerpt

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 18 at 5:00 amE-mail the writer

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Education historian and activist Diane Ravitch’s new book, “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools,” just went on sale and it’s bound to be the biggest — and most controversial — education book of the year.

“Reign of Error” is the natural followup to her 2010 best-selling book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” which revealed that she had abandoned long-held views about how to improve public education. Since that book was published, she has emerged as the leader of the growing movement against corporate-influenced reform that has at its core standardized test-based accountability systems, charter schools and other “choice” initiatives, and the Common Core State Standards.

Once an assistant education secretary in the administration of president George H.W. Bush and a supporter of the No Child Left Behind law, Ravitch began looking at how reform was affecting schools and saw that the evidence clearly showed that the  test-based accountability movement was hurting, not helping schools, by turning them into test-prep factories.

The title of her new book leaves no doubt about where she stands in the current reform debate. She blasts the Obama administration for reform initiatives she says have