5-2-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

‘The Grading System We Need to Have’

‘The Grading System We Need to Have’ is my latest Education Week Teacher post. It features Rick Wormeli and others. Here are some excerpts:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 18min 

New Writing Prompt For My U.S. History Class

It’s that time of year, so today I’m preparing writing prompts as part of semester finals for my classes. For my United States History for English Language Learners class, I will be showing students the video embedded below and giving them the first page of this PDF on why we study history, along with this list from School History on the same topic. They’ll need to use those resources to respond

by Larry Ferlazzo / 24min 

Here’s The Writing Prompt I’m Using For My Geography Class

As regular readers know, I teach a Geography class for English Language Learners (and will be teaching similar U.S. History and World History courses next year). Here’s the simple writing prompt I’m using as part of my semester final (you can download it here): Geography Final Essay “I was not sorry for loving Charleston or for leaving it. Geography had made me who I was.” ― Sue Monk Kidd, The I

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6min 

May’s Best Tweets — Part One

Every month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h hide  //  save

Quote Of The Day: “Why Are Teachers Of Color Missing In Teacher Of The Year Selection?”

Melinda D. Anderson wrote an important article titled Why Are Teachers Of Color Missing In Teacher Of The Year Selection? Here’s an excerpt:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h

5-1-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: TED-Ed Video: “Not all scientific studies are created equal”I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research:by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h   4-30-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLarry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ES

by mike simpson / 8h 

5-2-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet:

Why sexual assault cases on campus are often investigated by school, not police

The new focus on sexual violence on campus  has prompted many people to wonder why local police don’t investigate all such assault allegations, given that such behavior is criminal. The White House this week released a list of 55 colleges and universities with open “sexual violence investigations” as the Obama administration puts a new focus on […]

by Valerie Strauss / 1min 

Is Obama’s Education Department overreaching in higher ed?

The U.S. Education Department recently announced that it was reviving a plan to regulate colleges of education by using millions in federal funds to reward those that achieve specific targets and forcing those that don’t to change or close. Federal financial aid to students who go into teacher prep programs would not be based entirely on […]

1 by Valerie Strauss / 39min 

6 reasons to reject Common Core K-3 standards — and 6 rules to guide policy

The Common Core State Standards for students in kindergarten through Grade 3 have come under severe criticism by early childhood education experts who say that they are not developmentally appropriate. Even some supporters of the Core initiative, including American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, have called for a revamping of these early education standards. […]

100+ by Valerie Strauss / 5h

5-1-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet: Is the $1 trillion student loan debt really a crisis?When you read about the more than $1 trillion student loan debt in the United States, the word “crisis” invariably appears. But is it? Donald E. Heller, dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University, offers a different view of the common media portrayal of the issue. By Donald Heller For the last […]by Valerie S

by mike simpson / 5h 

5-2-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Four years of math?

Sent to the Washington Post, May 2, 2014.Maryland will now require all high school students to take four years of math ("Maryland to require math for all years of high school; universities also adjust rules," May 2).The fourth year, moreover, must be "non-trivial," such as algebra 2, trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus, statistics and college algebra. This is in order to preve

by skrashen / 11min 

KIPP Teacher Asks: "Would we let this happen if the students were white middle class?"

I interviewed a former KIPP teacher I will call Keith.  Keith was highly successful at KIPP for longer than most teachers last at any KIPP, which is 1-2 years.  Keith shared a great deal, and much of it I had heard from others:  the 80-100 hour weeks, the silent lunches, the incessant chanting, the compulsive attention to detail, the straight lines of uniformed students, the clipboard for keeping

2 by Jim Horn / 18min 

Alabama Makes Clear Parent Rights for Opting Out of State Tests

From AL.com:. . . .“There’s been a lot of concern about the amount of standardized testing that the school system does,” Cox said. “It’s not just a Baldwin County issue; it’s all over the country. Every time the children turn around, they’re being tested for something, and more and more parents have become concerned about it.”Cox stressed that it is permissible for parents to opt out of the tests:

by Jim Horn / 14min 

The Prospect Heights T Party Dumps the Tests

Teachers at a New York City high school fired a shot across the bow of the concept of a nationalized education industry Thursday, becoming the first in that state to refuse to administer a standardized test tied to the controversial Common Core national standards.The boycott by teachers at Prospect Heights International School in Brooklyn comes amid a small but growing “opt out” movement in which

2 by Jim Horn / 26min 

5-1-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Notes from the Road: Some Observations about What is Wrong with the Good Fightby Doug MartinDuring my talk recently to the Southeast Education Task Force in Indianapolis, a member of the Indiana Department of Education said there wasn’t a manufactured crisis in education, that our kids were indeed, many of them, failing.  She quoted some Ph.D  who appeared with Condi Rice recently,

by mike simpson / 8h 

5-2-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

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

Dr. Rosa Castro Feinberg: With Best Wishes to Valentin: Conflicts Between ESOL and Florida Voucher Law

Reprinted in its entirety with permission from Dr. Rosa Castro Feinberg In respond to my columns, Julio Fuentes, President & CEO of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options and board member for Step Up for Students (SUFS), has filled up a remarkably large number of pages but has not and cannot deny the truths I’ve presented on any of them. (See Mr. Fuentes comments at http://vox

by Bob Sikes / 2h 

5-1-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education: Will Sachs, Montford Amendments Be Too Much for Senate Voucher Advocates?Late yesterday and this morning, Sen. Maria Sachs (D-Delray Beach) and Sen. Bill Montford (D-Tallahassee) have inserted amendments into SB 1512 which will make senate voucher advocates put up, or sh

by mike simpson / 8h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Biggest laugh of the day -- Vallas fundraising letter

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Biggest laugh of the day -- Vallas fundraising letter:

Biggest laugh of the day -- Vallas fundraising letter

Biggest laugh yesterday came from opening the mail and finding a campaign fundraising letter from Paul Vallas. He wants me to send a check to his campaign for IL lieutenant governor (he must not read my blog). V says he wants the money to head off Republican billionaireBruce Rauner's run for governor.

As someone who has spent his life working to improve education, I am deeply concerned by what Bruce Rauner would do to Illinois if he becomes governor.He wants to gut our public education system by laying off teachers and slashing funding by billions of dollars – which would result in skyrocketing property taxes and classrooms crumbling without repair...

Laying off teachers? Are you shitting me? You're the guy who fired every teacher in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and then busted the teachers union. Slashing funding for education? What? You're the guy who, everywhere you've gone has decimated funding for public schools while propping up the private sector. You've been run out of  Chicago, Philly, New Orleans, Bridgeport and Haiti, but not before privatizing public schools and diverting millions from public to privately-operated charter schools. As supt. in Philly, you almost single-handedly destroyed district finances.

Rauner, even if he buys the election, could never come close to doing the damage you have done to public education. There's a trail of destruction and devastation everywhere you've been. You are indeed, the Master of Disaster. Tell me, what could Rauner do to top that?

Plus, you're not even a real Democrat. You presence on Quinn's ticket could well cost him the election since there's not a teacher in the state (or at least in this part of the state) that would vote for you.

Sorry, check isn't in the mail.

Oh, and speaking of Louisiana, a SmallTalk Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Biggest laugh of the day -- Vallas fundraising letter:

5-2-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Incompetent Pearson “Wins” PARCC Contract. Big Surprise.

In his six-minute videoed speech on the necessity of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), billionaire Bill Gates patiently explains that it is not enough for individual states to implement their own standards because “scale is good for free market competition.” Here is the reality of “free market competition” in this time of unprecedented education profiteering: A […]

by deutsch29 / 5min 

Randi W. Blows An Easy One (For A Change)

RANDI WEINGARTEN, LOOKING . . . CONFUSED.    I love unions, but I have a hard time fathoming the leadership of contemporary American teachers’ unions. With so many glaring idiocies afloat from the world of education deform (aka GERM - as Pasi Sahlberg calls it), you’d think it would be impossible not to find incisive things […]

by Michael Paul Gold... / 0min hide

Welcome to SC: A Heaping Stumbling-Bumbling Mess of Ineptitude

Welcome to SC: A Heaping Stumbling-Bumbling Mess of Ineptitude. via Welcome to SC: A Heaping Stumbling-Bumbling Mess of Ineptitude.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical

1 by plthomasedd / 1h 

5-1-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: Discussing Research Methodology with the Gates FoundationRick Hess, in “A Small Request for My Friends at Gates,” was kind enough to urge the Gates Foundation to consider three of my research proposals. Rick Cantrell, the Senior Program Officer for Research and Data, responded to Rick’s post. Dr. Cantrell and I talked for nearly 1-1/2 hours. I would again like to thank […]2 by Jo

by mike simpson / 8h 

5-2-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs

With A Brooklyn Accent:

On the Hunt for "Bad Teachers"

The percentage of "Bad Teachers" in our public schools is probably no higher than Bad Principals, Bad Superintendents, Bad Commissioners, Bad Politicians, and Bad Philanthropists. Yet people in every walk of life seem obsessed with getting rid of them. This isn't a well thought out policy position. it is more like a form of communal Magic, a ritual to rid to rid ourselves of Demons, real

5 by Mark Naison / 3h 

 

4-30-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent: As NY's Math Tests Begin- Let Us Honor the Test ResistorsToday, another awful round of testing begins in NY State, this time for Math. Our third graders face three days of testing that are more time consuming than the tests applicants take for Medical School, Business School, Law School or admission to college. How our education policy makers and elected officials signed of

by mike simpson / 8h 

5-2-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

Token Outrage and “Oafish” Racists

The recent racism controversy over Donald Sterling prompted me to examine more on two Americas and ask, Where Is Outrage for Systemic Racism? To that question, I found a powerful and important response by Ta-Nehisi Coates: This Town Needs a Better Class of Racist. At the center of Coates’s piece is how token outrage allows the U.S. to simply ignore systemic racism: But style is the hero. Cliven Bu

3 by plthomasedd / 26min hide  //  save

Welcome to SC: A Heaping Stumbling-Bumbling Mess of Ineptitude

This is my 53rd year of living in South Carolina, the totality of my life. This is my 31st year as an educator in SC—18 years as a high school English teacher and 13 years now in higher education. My teaching career, coincidentally, began the exact year SC officially stepped into the accountability/standards/testing arms race that grew out of the early 1980s. Over the past 30 years, SC has created

9 by plthomasedd / 1h  

5-1-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): Revisiting James Baldwin’s “Black English”The first five or six years of teaching high school English have blurred in my memory, but certain days, certain events, and certain students remain vivid. One day in those years a young woman in my tenth-grade course blurted out

by mike simpson / 8h 

5-2-13 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:

Is This CCSS Criticism Fair?

The supporters of Common Core have eaten so much cheese with their whine that we may have to call a whaaaambulance.Their complaints have been percolating for a while, but the heat of the Louis C.K. flame-up has brought their big bowl of treacly tears to a roiling boil. The criticisms are not fair. Those stupid examples of bad assignments have nothing to do with the Core, and the terrible tests are

by Peter Greene / 1h 

Petrilli's Shovel At Work Again

I have a confession to make-- I kind of like Mike Petrilli. I've never met him. I've never met any of the big names in the ed biz, because I'm a high school English teacher in small town USA  (isn't the internet cool), so I depend on long-distance close-reading of all these folks, and while many of the Reformsters seem lost or confused or walking in that kind of dull cloud that people fall into wh

1 by Peter Greene / 3min 

Another Plutocrat for USDOE

Alyson Klein at EdWeek reports that Robert Gordon has been chosen to serve as assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the US DOE.Gordon's previous work credits include the Office of Management and Budget, where he seems to have been a man behind the scenes for the various Fiscal Cliff negotiations. More recently he's been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institute, a

1 by Peter Greene / 1h 

5-1-13 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION: Throwing AwayIt seems like some kind of joke to call a movement "un-American," but I think the Reformy Status Quo has earned that adjective.Here's the thing about us as a country, as a culture. We fight. We struggle. We have sometimes extremely violent, deadly battles among the many smaller tribes that make up this country. But as a nation we are built to accommodate all

by mike simpson / 8h