Video: Best Documentary of Evolution Crushing Faith for Education's Sake | MyFDL

Video: Best Documentary of Evolution Crushing Faith for Education's Sake | MyFDL:

Video: Best Documentary of Evolution Crushing Faith for Education’s Sake
By: jbade Sunday April 6, 2014 6:00 am	Tweet

Faith- “the strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”

Why is faith in anything, without proof, in spite of proof, a virtue? Those are the people you can take to war anytime. They have faith in the government, without proof, in spite of proof, there’s a direct correlation. Iraq.Sheep. The Flock.

We send people to prison all the time on DNA evidence, the science is not challenged. The case for evolution, evolving from apes, is statistically much more overwhelming and is just ignored when it comes to God. No religion accepts the indisputable fact that we are an animal that evolved from apes. Yet those who cleave to these faiths from Bronze Age are accepted as having a reasonable position, just like those advocating for war in Iraq were accepted as having a reasonable position. Both involved faith despite overwhelming facts to the contrary.

Death so freaks people out that they will accept any fairy tale.

The following documentary is so informative, so entertaining. NOVA’s finest work, documenting the trial of our times on the issue of evolution vs God in the class room. The passion of the scientists and teachers as they fight for good education is so inspiring.One of my favorite documentaries, it’s worth the education.

I agree with Richard Dawkin’s definition of the Old Testament God

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

“No God is greater than truth”-jbade

For those who love a great documentary, a rare gem. Andrew Wiles solved the most difficult math problem of all time. A math problem no one else on the planet had the audacity to think it could be solved. It is such a fun documentary. At one point the narrator informs the audience that the image on the screen is just a shadow image of what the math represents, then states that to show an actual image they “would need to stretch your television into something they call hyperbolic space”- its like The Universe for math. Hats off to Andrew Wiles, for solving the math problem of the century and by doing so, forwarding man’s knowledge of math in a profound way. If the world worked right Andrew Wiles would be a household name inspiring children around the world to the beauty and potential awaits them in the world of mathematics, for some its like good book.

http://my.firedoglake.com/

4-6-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Under Pressure: Does Test Stress at School Added to Economic Stress at Home Constitute a Toxic Combination?

During the last decade, America's public school students have seen a steady increase in the amount of testing they have to endure. As a result of state policies and federal mandates, schools have transformed curricula from Pre-K up to raise scores on standardized tests, and have put immense pressure on teachers to do that, putting their jobs in jeopardy if they fail to do so. All over the nation,

by Mark Naison / 2h 

4-5-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent:With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All WeekA Tale of Two School Systems:The disparity between the amount of testing taking place in the nation's public schools and between the top private schools where most policy makers and business leaders send their children is simply shocking! Not only do none of these elite schools use Common Core, they never rate their teachers on the basi

by mike simpson / 8h 

4-6-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

History Repeats Itself (Guest post by Alyce Roberts, Ed.D)

One of the primary benefits of having an extraordinary group of readers is that they bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding to the debate.  A growing number are stepping forward to comment on blog posts or offering up their own guest posts in the on-going effort to educate, persuade and mobilize teachers, parents, public […] The post History Repeats Itself (Guest post by Alyce Roberts, Ed.D

by jonpelto / 35min 

Clark Elementary School parents played like puppets

As Wait, What? readers will recall, first came the effort to hand Hartford’s Clark Elementary School over to Achievement First, Inc., the charter school management company formed by Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor. When parents, teachers and the Hartford Federation of Teachers fought back, the backroom deal between Pryor, his State Department of […] The post Clark Element

by jonpelto / 3min 

Susan Ohanian – “On 21st Century Drones, Destroyers and Teachers”

Teacher, author, and public school advocate Susan Ohanian is one of the nation’s leading voices in the battle to take back control of the public education system from the corporate education reform industry.  She is also a winner of the NCTE George Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. You can […] The post Susan Ohanian – “On 21st Century Drones, Destroyer

2 by jonpelto / 23min  

4-5-14 Wait What? All Week

Wait What?:  Wait What? All WeekState Board of Education is tone-deaf to needs of the childrenWendy Lecker, fellow public school advocates and columnist has done it again! In here latest MUST READ column published in this weekend’s Stamford Advocate and other Hearst media outlets, Wendy shines the light of truth on the Malloy administration’s unrelenting effort to undermine and privatize Connectic

by mike simpson / 8h

4-6-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:

Florida Republicans, Chamber of Commerce Can’t Recocile Conflicts Between Vouchers and STEM Advocacy

Writing in the Lakeland Ledger, Floridian Citizens for Science president Jonathan Smith points to some alarming numbers about private schools which receive voucher money: How well are the millions of taxpayers’ dollars being put to use? We at Florida Citizens for Science are concerned with the results of recent research, which has shown that at least 164 voucher-accepting schools in our state teac

by Bob Sikes / 21min 

4-5-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:Scathing Purple Musings  Color me purple in Florida ALL WeekGainesville Sun: Lawmakers Need to Be Honest About Voucher ProgramFrom the editors of the Gainesville Sun: Lawmakers still haven’t addressed the fact that voucher recipients aren’t required to take the same stand

by mike simpson / 8h 

4-6-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

Earth Day Resources

Earth Day takes place on April 22nd. You might be interested in The Best Earth Day Sites. Additional suggestions are welcome…

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9min 

Check Out 1,700 Categorized Theory Of Knowledge Links

The online bookmarking tool Delicious no longer provides the number of links that are bookmarked in a particular category, but I guesstimate that I must be up to 1,700 or so categorized ones related to the International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class. You can see them all here. Those are just the ones I’ve bookmarked. If you want to contribute to an even bigger, more “universal” collecti

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6min 

Video: “A tour of the British Isles in accents”

I’m adding this video to The Best “Language Maps”:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6min 

“Scarlet Letter” Comes To The UK: Get Good Test Results & You Can Wear Your Own Clothes, While Bad Results Means You Wear School Uniform

Readers might remember the controversy around the southern California high school that issued color-coded student ID’s based on student standardized test scores. They also made students wait in different lunch lines, among other things. See The Best Resources To Learn About High School ID’s & The Scarlet Letter for more information. Well, a school in the United Kingdom is applying their own

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6min 

A Bunch Of Student Motivation Resources

As regular readers know, I have a particular interest in the topic of student motivation, and my third book on the topic will be out next year. I’ve been accumulating some related resources, and am putting them all together in this post: Studies Offer Practical Ways to Bring ‘Growth Mindset’ Research to Schools is an Ed Week post about some recent studies. One of them featured having students rea

by Larry Ferlazzo / 29min 

This Week In Web 2.0

In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth , I’ve recently begin a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” (you might also be interested in The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2013). I also sometimes include tech tools that might not exactly fit the definition of Web 2.0: LearnClick, and online cloze-maker (fill-in-the-gap), has re-introduced limi

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

I’ve started a somewhat regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: 100 most common words in English is an online game that Digital Play describes, and it could be useful in class. And, speaking of online activities for building vocabulary, the Food Porn Index could be a helpful site for…f

by Larry Ferlazzo / 7h 

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Week… 4-5-14 …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAYThe iTunes Link To My Interview With Carol Tomlinson Wasn’t Working Before, But It Is Now!I had previously posted a link to my ten minute BAM! podcast interview with Carol Tomlinson. You could here it on BAM!’s website, but, because of technical problems, couldn’t download it on iTunes. It’

by mike simpson / 8h 

Business as Usual in Corporations and Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Business as Usual in Corporations and Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Business as Usual in Corporations and Schools

In the heart of Silicon Valley where start-ups are a way of life, open space offices and teams rule the landscape. Even at the biggest of the big companies such as Google and Facebook, power struggles among and between bureaucrats are a thing of the past. ”Move fast and break things” is a Facebook’s slogan. Flat organizations, no elaborate hierarchies, and constant change dominate. Or so, everyone seems to say. See here, here, and here.

Then along comes a Stanford professor who says: “Sorry Kids, Corporate Power Hasn’t Changed.” Jeffrey Pfeffer at the Graduate School of Business since 1979 has studied organizations for decades. According to Pfeffer, Silicon Valley firms–big and small–recruit engineers and programmers to become managers by saying:

We’re not political here. We’re young, cool, socially networked, hip, high-technology people focused on building and selling great products. We’re family-friendly, have fewer management levels and less hierarchy, and make decisions collegially.

It just ain’t so, according to Pfeffer. He points out that hierarchies exists in all organizations and power, acquiring status, and control over ideas and practices are in play unceasingly. He points to the power struggles that occurred at the 

UPDATE: Common Core Copyright Fine for Students? | Missouri Education Watchdog

Common Core Copyright Fine for Students? | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Common Core Copyright Fine for Students?

inShare

As seen on Facebook.  Is this true?

This Facebook message has been circulating in several anti-Common Core groups.  Would children actually be threatened with a fine anywhere from $750 to $30,000?  The language mirrors that in the copyright notice from the US Copyright Office:

Would this copyright infringement language apply to students?  Read this from Truman University in Missouri:

This notice should put a hold on the goal of collaboration (a 21st century skill) for students:

Common Core Copyright Fine for Students? | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Let’s Elect Our State Board of Education Members

HJR74 will be heard in the House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee on Monday April 7, @ 9:00 p.m. (or upon adjournment of the house session).

HJR74 (and the accompanying HB1818 for statutory language) would place an initiative on the November statewide ballot to change the Missouri’s constitutional language describing the organization and function of the State Board of Education. Currently, education is administered entirely by the Executive Branch. SBE members are appointed by the governor and serve at his leisure for 8 year terms. There are no term limits.

Our current Board President, Peter Herschend, has served for 22 years. In that time the Board has  allowed DESE to ignore the input of our higher ed math experts and produce math standards that Fordham rated a D. They have allowed the work of 400 educational professionals from higher ed and k-12 (Curriculum Alignment Initiative) who developed high school competencies for entrance into any Missouri college (public/private), be shelved in favor of an unwritten set of k-12 standards known as common core. They have assisted in the development and implementation of a statewide student data tracking system (MOSIS) and are actively working to expand that system to track students from pre-k through to the workforce. When presented with the concerns about the origins and statutory violations that occurred with the adoption of common core, Herschend ,in particular, said that he was not so concerned about those matters as he was just knowing that we had high quality standards. These folks are unaccountable to the public and apparently unconcerned with following the law.

Education is becoming a top down driven system and there is no representation for the public at the top of this system. This bill would make these 8 board positions elected, one from each of the eight congressional districts. The public would have the right to petition for a recall of elected members. Members would serve for a term of 4 years, with a maximum of 2 terms. The bill contains official ballot language guaranteeing that such language could not be open to interpretation of the Secretary of State.

Ballot Language:

“Shall the Constitution of Missouri be amended to require that, beginning with the 

 State boards of ed

With such short notice we are trying to get the word out to folks to voice their opinion on this bill.  Please consider signing a witness form here http://www.libertytools.org/LibertyTools/witness/witness2.php?template=48

empathyeducates – Can Schools Be Held Accountable Without Standardized Tests?

empathyeducates – Can Schools Be Held Accountable Without Standardized Tests?:

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Can Schools Be Held Accountable Without Standardized Tests?

By Katrina Schwartz | Originally Published at MindShift. April 2, 2014

The focus on scoring well on standardized tests has wedged educators into a difficult spot. Teachers are concerned that a poor showing on the tests will jeopardize school funding, or even their jobs, and often feel they have to suspend everything else in order to focus on test prep. Putting so much energy into one assessment — one that doesn’t give teachers and students any granular, actionable information — takes resources, time, and energy away from other kinds of rich learning experiences.

One school district is trying to change the game completely, and could possibly serve as a model for other districts. Douglas County School District outside Denver is hoping to prove to the state education department that the alternative assessments it has developed convey just as much useful information about students’ progress as the standardized tests.

District officials helped write and introduce legislation at the state level to create a waiver system for schools that regularly perform well on state standardized tests. If districts can produce a body of evidence proving they are meeting the expectations of the state for student learning, they could self-report progress. The state would check in to make sure schools are continuing to perform well by testing students once in elementary school, once in middle school and once in high school. The Colorado bill hasn’t passed, but legislators commissioned a study to investigate the topic further.

“Comparability now is more valuable to us in society than performance rigor and having the diversity of opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning,” said Syna Morgan, chief system performance officer for Douglas County Schools. The government wants one number to represent each students’ learning so it can