Friday, January 24, 2014

In Search of Lost Time

No, I haven’t just eaten a madeleine. I’m talking about the idea of time, passing even as you read this–time, unstoppable, incessant, inextricably equated in our minds with money. “Every minute matters,” warns teaching guru Doug Lemov in his seminal teacher effectiveness text Teach Like a Champion. “Time is water in the desert, a teacher’s most precious resource: to be husbanded, guarded and conserved.” He exhorts teachers not to waste a single instant of class time, extolling the virtues of teachers who pepper their students with questions as they stand in line to enter class. “A walk to the bathroom is the perfect time for a vocabulary review,” he says, though I cannot imagine there are many who share this sentiment, certainly not anyone who’s been swilling from a Big Gulp cup of iced coffee for the last two periods.

Not wasting time is at the heart of the current canonical view of effective teaching. Time is the central unit of value, a commodity from which a maximum of measurable, testable instruction must be wrung. To spend the last minute or so of class relaxing and chatting with your students is to “leave value on the table,” the moral equivalent of walking away from a deal without reaming your opponent for every last nickel.

I’m not gonna lie: I left value on the table with some regularity. Most of the time, I

Student Organizers Shine at Albany Rally National Opportunity to Learn Campaign

National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

Student Organizers Shine at Albany Rally

At a recent rally for fair school funding in New York State, students gave powerful testimony in front of 1,500 protesters gathered at the state capitol. Watch some of the video clips and be inspired! Students are a force to be reckoned with in the movement to improve our nation's public schools, and the OTL Campaign is proud to stand with so many dedicated young leaders. At a recent

by jocelyn / 13min

WI Should Invest Surplus in Kids

By Tom Beebe, Opportunity to Learn - Wisconsin Policymakers in Wisconsin should use the projected budget surplus $900 million to invest in schools and students and make up for years of budget cuts. Wisconsin has a $900 million budget surplus. In part, and in one of the great injustices in state history, it was built on the backs of over 800,000 children in our public schools. Th

by jocelyn / 3h

YESTERDAY

New Infographic: The Cycle of School Closures

School closures are both a symptom and a cause of perpetuated inequality, and they leave students of color and those in low-income families without access to the educational resources they deserve. Here is how the Cycle of School Closures works. Mass school closures have become a popular, "quick fix" for policymakers trying to address struggling schools and budget crises – d

8 by jocelyn / 1d

JAN 21

OTL Ally Featured in New York Times

Maria Fernandez, coordinator for the Urban Youth Collaborative, wrote a Letter to the Editor for the New York Times about what NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio can do to end harsh school discipline. Recently, the New York Times has been throwing the full weight of its editorial board behind school discipline reform. read more

by jocelyn / 3d

Duncan: Bill Gates Has No Seat at the Education Policy Table - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Duncan: Bill Gates Has No Seat at the Education Policy Table - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Duncan: Bill Gates Has No Seat at the Education Policy Table

By Anthony Cody on January 24, 2014 1:37 PM

Joiselle Cunningham and Lisa Clarke are Teaching Ambassador Fellows. That means they are teachers who have been relocated to Washington, DC, to work for the Department of Education for a year. Today they released a video in which they pose some questions to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. These questions should be familiar to readers of this blog, as they have been asked many times over the past few years. I am providing some excerpts from this interview below, followed by my reaction.

Lisa Clarke:

One of the particular questions we've heard teachers ask is if corporate-based philanthropists are playing too heavy a role in public education, and if there's a corporate agenda at the Department.

Arne Duncan:

I think that's a very important question of what role does philanthropy or the corporate side have, and anyone who thinks that those who are major donors to education, or those giving a

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Why Ames should stay a neighborhood school and why we haven't given up.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Why Ames should stay a neighborhood school and why we haven't given up.:

Why Ames should stay a neighborhood school and why we haven't given up.

January 24, 2014

Contact: Joanna Brown, Save Ames Commttee, 773-744-1655

Press release: Referendum campaign starts Saturday at Ames.

Come and find out why Ames should stay a neighborhood school and why we haven't given up.

The Save Ames Commttee will start its door-to-door campaign to -show voter support for a community -based Ames School Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 10:00 am, starting from Ames School, 1920 N. Hamlin, Room 105. The campaign will continue through the March 18 election.

Supporters from Ames school, Logan Square Neighborhood Association and other allies will begin voter education and registration door-to-door to let neighbors know that the Save Ames referendum will be on the ballot March 18 in the 8 precincts surrounding Ames School.

The committee believes that the Chicago Board of Education members who voted to close Ames Middle School and use it for a 7-12 grade Marine Military Academy did not understand the depth of community anger against the military coup.

In November Ames parents presented to the CPS Board a two-foot high stack of signatures as proof of enormous community support for Ames community school : including 2400 original petition signatures, a 95% pro-Ames vote by 800 parents; and a door-to-door survey around Ames where 87% of residents did not want the military academy. But CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett told the board December 18 that signatures needed to be verified, thus implying that they should not be considered. Board members who voted to give Ames to the Marines stated they couldn't tell which side the community was on!

For more information on the SAVE AMES campaign contact Maria Trejo, 773-534-4970 (room 105) and Leticia Barrera 773-727-9941.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Nite Cap 1-24-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2

James Baldwin said it best:

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."

YESTERDAY