5-3-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Seattle Schools Community Forum

See Something, Say Something

A real-life enactment of that simple phrase is probably what saved the lives of many, many students and staff at a small-town high school in Minnesota.Waseca, Minnesota is a small town (about 10,000) south of Minneapolis.  It has one high school and it was discovered on Tuesday that a 17-year old student was planning a masacre.From CNN:There, police say, he told authorities of his plan to kill his

by Melissa Westbrook / 20min 

Director Blanford's Community Meeting Tomorrow

Just a heads up on Director Blanford's community meeting tomorrow at the Douglass-Truth Library from 10 am to noon. I was told that at the Work Session on Capital Projects (which I am sorry to have missed because it sounds like there were not enough hard questions and more than enough funny lines) that Director Blanford was looking for info to back the district's position on Wilson-Pacific.  He sa

by Melissa Westbrook / 10h 

Seattle High Schools Update

Several items of interest from two SPS high schools.  One item is an update about the dress code coming from Ballard's principal which seems to be a thoughtful letter.  The other is about several issues at Garfield High School.Ballard's Mr. Wynkoop let the students know that administrators had thought about this issue as the weather was getting warmer and let the students know - in advance - what

by Melissa Westbrook / 14h 

Friday Open Thread

SPS press release on math adoption.  Next steps:Next, the recommendation goes to the IMC for its approval that the math adoption process was appropriately followed. From there, the Superintendent will review the recommendation, which will then be introduced to the full School Board at its May 21 meeting. The board is scheduled to vote on the math program at its June 4 meeting.Did you know that the

1 by Melissa Westbrook / 22h 

MAY 01

Math Adoption Update

Oddly, nothing from SPS.  But here's a post from committee member, Rick Burke.  Thanks, RickThe district has not yet announced the results from the K-5 Math Adoption Committee (MAC) meeting on last Friday, but it was a public meeting, so there is no reason I can't share the outcome of committee deliberations and some of my personal opinions about the process and final program selection.The MAC met

9 by Melissa Westbrook / 1d 

APR 29

Looking for New Leadership for the Seattle Education Assn.

Monday began the voting period for teachers in SPS to elect the leadership of their union the Seattle Education Association (SEA). The RESPECT slate is hoping to win office and I’m hoping they do too.  The voting continues for the next ten days.The RESPECT platform proposes a new way of collaborating with parents and community members in the interest of unifying the power of those fighting for gen

3 by Melissa Westbrook / 3d 

Tuesday Open Thread

SIIF is having a Giant Monsters All-Out Attack week - Godzilla, Mothra, King Kong, and others.What's on your mind?

by Melissa Westbrook / 3d 

APR 28

Impact Philanthropy (Or, Ed Reform for the Young and the Restless)

You'd think our current Democratic administration would have more to do than host a convention for "100 young philanthropists and heirs to billionaire families" at the White House but apparently not.  From the NY Times:Their name tags read like a catalog of the country’s wealthiest and most influential clans: Rockefeller, Pritzker, Marriott. They were there for a discreet, invitation-onl

by Melissa Westbrook / 4d 

Kindergarteners - Get with the System

I come to this issue because of two recent stories about kindergarteners.One was from Oregon where - guess what?  Bad news about testing kindergarteners for "school readiness."  Two state official up the food chain in public education in Oregon called the kindergartener readiness results "sobering."It is important to have a baseline for each child.  But this pressure of testing

by Melissa Westbrook / 4d 

APR 27

Seattle Schools This Week

Tuesday, April 29thWork Session: Board Self-Evaluation/Superintendent Evaluation, 4:30-6:00 pm; Executive Session, 6:00-6:30 pm.Wednesday, April 30Work Session: Special Education, 4:00-5:30 pm.  AgendaWork Session: Capital Projects, 5:30-7:00 pm.  Agenda not yet available.Friday, May 2ndKimball Elementary Art Walk from 3 pm to 6 pm.Saturday, May 3rdCommunity meeting with Director Blanford, Douglas

1 by Melissa Westbrook / 5d 

APR 25

Special Education Speaker Monday, April 28th

Seattle SpEd PTSA April Meeting7 pm Monday, 4/28/2014Rm 2700, JSCEE 2445 3rd AveSeattle's SODO neighborhoodDr. Nicole Swedberg will present practical tips and information on:How to help your child If your child is dyslexic?How to best support your dyslexic child at home?What skills should your child be learning?  How can you get your child access to these skills?How can your child’s school (and

2 by Melissa Westbrook / 7d hide  //  save

Friday Open Thread

Good article from Edutopia about helping students evaluate online research.  I think it's written for teachers but I think it might be useful info for parents as well.We will have to wait and see what happens with the denial of Washington State's NCLB waiver by Sec'y Duncan.  Frankly, I think it is likely to be a ripple rather than a wave of problems.What's on your mind?

by Melissa Westbrook / 7d 

5-3-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: 

Ed Notes Online

How Unity is Selling the Contract and A Response from a Rank and Filer Who is Not Buying

What was the union's dream contract?  What were our demands?  How can anyone but the mayor declare this a victory?... High School teacher responding to email from UFT organizerYou know something is shaking when people I haven't heard from in years start sending me letters they are writing saying they will vote NO. These are not the activist MOREistas who spend a hell of a lot of time on union stuf

by ed notes online / 25min 

Kit Wainer: Historical Reference to Previous Contract Struggles

Kit's history is an important starting point for the upcoming contract struggle. I have a different take on some of Kit's analysis - remember - my history of contract struggles goes back to the early 70s. But it is too nice a day and I am too lazy to get into it - though I may do a separate post at where I disagree.But a few words before I head outside.In 1995 I had just come back to activism afte

by ed notes online / 14min 

Rebecca Mead in New Yorker on Teachers Refusing to Give Test and on Louis C.K. Slam of Testing and Common Core

This week, teachers at International High School at Prospect Heights, which serves a population of recently arrived immigrants from non-English-speaking countries, announced that they would not administer an assessment required by the city. A pre-test in the fall “was a traumatic and demoralizing experience for students,” a statement issued by the teachers said. “Many students, after asking for he

by ed notes online / 1h 

YESTERDAY

Memo from the RTC: Time to Start Mooning Over Buffalo

Published in The Wave, May 2, 2014 Memo from the RTC: Time to Start Mooning Over BuffaloBy Norm ScottI walked into a rehearsal of the Rockaway Theatre Company’s upcoming production of the very funny “Moon Over Buffalo,” a play that I, a theater ignoramus, had never heard of before even though Carol Burnett got rave reviews when it opened on Broadway 20 years ago. There on the stage were Kim Simek

by ed notes online / 10h 

please join us Tuesday May 6 at 9 AM re charter giveway!

From Leonie: Parents and elected officials are holding a press conference Tuesday May 6 at Tweed to speak out against the new state law that gives any new and/or expanding charter free space either in our public school buildings or in private space paid for by the city . Meanwhile, many thousands of NYC public school students are sitting in vastly overcrowded schools, subjected to excessive class

by ed notes online / 15h 

The Contract: Retro Pay is a LIE!

From a former colleague who I haven't heard from in years:Retro Pay is a lie!From what I understand of the new UFT Teacher's Contract?? It's crap.There is no Retro Pay!Retro pay is pay for timed served. They want me to work another 4 years to make up that pay. If I retire or leave the system, I get 1% of the "Retro Pay” for 2013.Now what about the work for 2009, 2010,2011,2012?A teacher that

by ed notes online / 21h 

MAY 01

Video and Press Release: NYC High School Teachers Refuse to Administer Test

International HS at Prospect Hts has children from 35 nations speaking about 25 languages. Making them sit through a MOSL test that has nothing to do with their education but only to do with rating their teachers is obscene. These 30 teachers said NO.Was this event worth getting 5 hours sleep? Hell yes. Below this photo is the video of the press conference held across the street from the Prospect

by ed notes online / 1d 

Change the Stakes Next General Meeting - Friday May 2, 6-8pm - CUNY Grad center

Greetings All, As today marks the first day of the math state test, Change the Stakes begins to move the conversation to "What's next?"  Opt out numbers tripled in NYC and almost 35,000 statewide, parents found support in many schools, some difficulties in other schools, teachers spoke out, principals spoke up, parents rallied, the press covered the issues of testing daily, if not multip

by ed notes online / 1d 

Even more Louis CK Tweets this time about CC and "Bill Hates"!!!

I'm not that much aware of Louis C.K., whose daughter attends a public elementary school in Manhattan. I know he uses lots of unprintable words. So holy shit, how great are these tweets? Louis C.K. ‏@louisck  2hdidn't mean to write Bill hates. I meant to write "doody faced rich guy". Oh just kidding. Alright I'm done. Go ahead and rip my head off.Expand Reply  Retweet  Favorite Louis C.K

by ed notes online / 1d 

APR 30

Video: Change the Stakes Rally at Tweed Apr 24 14 - Parents and Students Speak

Here are 2 videos extracted from the Change the Stakes rally on April 24 at Tweed. First parents speak and the 2nd one is a group of amazing high school students from The Student Union, a grassroots true student first bunch of kids. We met Primi at a Change the Stakes meeting last year and she is so articulate it makes me feel like I have marbles in my mouth. One note is that one of her teachers h

by ed notes online / 2d 

UFT HS VP Doesn't Want to be Like Tennessee - Likes Current System

I'll leave you to judge this report from Murry Bergtraum CL John Elfrank-Dana for yourselves: Janella Hinds, VP High Schools, was asked if the UFT sees that the Tennessee teachers union (TEA) got their state legislature to drop evaluating teachers by test scores in their Teacher evaluation scheme. Can we call in the Vote Cope chips to do the same here? Janella says we will work with the current sy

by ed notes online / 2d 

Stand Up Optout: Support Teacher Test Refuseniks

http://standupoptout.wordpress.com/MOREistas (and supporters):Almost 30 teachers are refusing to give the NYC ELA Performance Assessment to our high school ELL students. This is very big news and we're excited!!!!! We need as much support as we can get! Please pass this around in your schools and on your networks and send us a solidarity picture or message from your school chapter on our website,

by ed notes online / 2d 

Breaking: 26 Teachers and Staff of International High School at Prospect Heights Campus in Brooklyn refuse to give NYC ELA Performance Assessment Test

Oy! Can I get up that early tomorrow to cover this? Well, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden plant sale is still on tomorrow and it's right across the street. Maybe I'll have some sleepy video for you by Friday. Much irony in that so many PEP meetings take place in this building. FOR PLANNING PURPOSES: April 29, 2014CONTACT:          Emily Giles, e.giles@ihsph.org, (917) 575-2936                         

by ed notes online / 3d 

APR 29

LA Dreamin: Alex Caputo-Pearl Wins Run-Off for Presidency with 80% Over Incumbent Warren Fletcher

Breaking: Alex Caputo-Pearl, the Union Power candidate for UTLA President, just defeated Warren Fletcher, the incumbent UTLA President, in the run-off election, winning 80% of the vote, completing a Union Power sweep. Alex won just short of 50% in round 1.Alex is well-known nationally:...half the teachers at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles found out they had been dismissed from their jobs as p

by ed notes online / 3d 

APR 26

Ravitch and Weingarten Misdiagnose Pearson Issue by A Newark Teacher

By shrouding the test in secrecy, Pearson denies information to teachers to help diagnose student needs. The tests become useless by having no diagnostic value. ...teachers will be fired and students will be failed and schools will be closed without seeing the validity of the instruments of punishment.  This is wrong.Diane Ravitch These gag orders and the lack of transparency are fueling the growi

by ed notes online / 6d