It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... A VERY BUSY DAY 

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

TIME Features “100 Women Of The Year”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h

tiburi / Pixabay TIME Magazine has published a new feature called 100 Women of the Year . It includes articles about, and images of, 100 key women throughout history. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Women’s History .

YESTERDAY

Getting Nutrition Advice the Easy Way

by Noomsponsored

The Noom weight loss app allows you to progress through your wellness journey from anywhere and everywhere.

A Look Back: Here’s My Chapter On Elements Of A Successful Lesson, Along With Student Hand-Outs THEY Use To Teach

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . I originally published this post in 2015: I’m a big advocate and practitioner of creating opportunities for students to be teachers (see The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates ). I’ve previously posted about how I sp

Two Good Interactives Showing Ancient Human Migration

47by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

Thanks to Google Maps Mania , I learned about two interactives that map ancient human migration: One is the Human Odyssey Map from the California Academy of Sciences (pictured above). The other is the Map of Human Migration from National Geographic. You might also be interested in The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History .

World Water Day Is On March 22nd – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

28by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

3345408 / Pixabay The United Nations has designated March 22nd as World Water Day. You might be interested in The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About World Water Day .

Good PBS NewsHour Video Segment Tonight: “How painter Jacob Lawrence reframed early American history with ‘Struggle'”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 14h

Nietjuh / Pixabay The PBS NewsHour describes the segment this way: Amid the McCarthy hearings and the launch of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, painter Jacob Lawrence sought to frame early American history the way he saw it. His ensuing work, the sprawling series “Struggle,” has been reassembled and is now on a national tour, with its first stop at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusett

Statistic Of The Day: 290.5 Million Students Out Of School Because Of COVID-19

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

290 million students out of school due to COVID-19: UNESCO releases first global numbers and mobilizes response is a new alarming report from UNESCO. It’s offering some resources related to Education In Emergencies . I’ve been publishing a series of posts offering support for teachers trying to figure out how to provide remote learning. You can find them at The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts

Keith E. Benson is president of the Camden (New Jersey) Education Association. In his view, the underlying goal of the charter industry is gentrification, and he worries about its long-term implications for his community and its families.

He writes:

Admittedly [my] fight for Camden’s public schools is personal. Both my grandmothers were teachers, numerous aunts, and two of my uncles were employees of the District where I, myself, taught before becoming president of the city’s teacher union in 2017. My daughter goes to school here and has since she was three. My wife went to school here until her freshman year of high school, and she grew up here. We all live here now. Because of such deep and intimate connections I have with this public school district and city, anything that threatens the sustainability is triggering.

 The planned dismantling of our public-school system coupled with a massive redevelopment effort dubbed “Camden Rising”, reduces merely existing here in the future to a tenuous proposition for many working class and poor residents. For generations of Camden’s current residents, and new arrivals here from Latin America, this city is one of the last affordable places in New Jersey CONTINUE READING: Keith E. Benson: What Reformers Are Really Doing in Camden and Other Urban Districts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

The Gentrification of Oakland Unified School District & The Precarious Position of Dewey Academy

Gentrification is a long-standing process that targets the lower waged group to displace, dislocate, and disperse in favor of the higher income community. Gentrification has been a reality in the bay area for long. For the past few months, this reality is hitting the students’ community in the OUSD hard.

The Oakland Unified School District’s administration revealed that the gentrifying developers are targetting the Dewey academy, a public continuation high school.

It was known to the masses that the developers were planning to forge a twenty-four story condominium right in front of the Dewey academy, eclipsing it like a tower. But recent developments have put the very existence of this public institution at risk.

What entails is a close view of the reasons and the Causes why the Dewey Academy and the Admin building are under threat of displacement.

Dewey Academy: A Surplus Land?

The duty to ascertain the fate of Dewey academy was entrusted upon the ‘7-11 CONTINUE READING: Dewey Academy in Danger of Displacement: Gentrification and the Oakland Unified School District

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing – Have You Heard

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing – Have You Heard

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing

Blaming teachers for the woes of US public schools and beyond is as old a pastime as public education itself. Historian Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz takes us through 100 years of teacher blaming and the love-hate relationship the US has with its teachers. You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll want to pre-order her book, Blaming Teachers: Professionalization Policies and the Failure of Reform in American History.

Complete transcript of the episode is available here. And if you appreciate Have You Heard, consider making a small donation via Patreon.com. Thanks for your support!

The Blame Game: 100 Years of Teacher Bashing – Have You Heard

Louisiana Educator: Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

Louisiana Educator: Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

Here is an article informing us that the reduction of recess time so that children could spend more time being drilled for the almighty standardized tests has actually resulted in lower test performance! How can that be? Why isn't constant drilling on test taking skills at the expense of recess, PE, art, music, vocational education, and other "less important" instruction producing higher test scores? Maybe because the current trend to ignore fundamental child development principle's is harmful in every way, including killing the joy of schooling for both children and teachers! Teachers in Finland, whose students perform at the top of the rankings on international achievement tests, routinely take young children outdoors where they can play, investigate nature and develop normally as they are programmed by their genes to do. Why do American reformers insist on counteracting nature and instead have transformed our education system to motivation killing test drudgery?

Here is another new article challenging the removal of teachers from the decision making process of what kids really need in school. This outrageous trampling on the rights and critical input of the teaching profession in education decisions has actually resulted in the opposite of what our non-educator reformers said they wanted to do. Do you think our government can stop the Corona virus by ignoring the recommendations of the highly trained CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Educator: Almost Everything Recently Done in the Name of Education Reform Has Backfired

The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia – radical eyes for equity

The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia – radical eyes for equity

The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia

In the idealism of youth, I came to believe deeply in the power of education to transform not only individuals (as it had done for me) but also society. More than a decade before I discovered my intellectual home, critical pedagogy, I was compelled by John Dewey’s philosophy of education, democracy, and their relationship.

This idealism was tinted with a naive lack of awareness about my own privilege and the corrosive power of systemic inequities driving racism, sexism, classism, and many other social biases. I was raised in a home, community, and region of the country steeped in rugged individualism and bootstrap narratives among working-class (and racist) whites.

Over the course of my first decade-plus of teaching, I certainly could see that I was shaping individual lives, but I grew increasingly skeptical of the revolutionary power of education to transform society.

By the spring of 2005, then, after I had secured my doctorate and moved from K-12 to higher education, I sat in a hotel room in New Orleans watching George Carlin talk about being a non-voter. I recognized that day my skepticism had turned into full-blown cynicism, and I then joined the ranks of non-voters who argued there was little discernible difference between the two major political CONTINUE READING: The Politics of Capitalism in Trumplandia – radical eyes for equity

Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead

As the election results rolled in last night, much of the media focused on the drama in the Democratic Presidential Primary. But a lot happened in local races as well. The battle over whether or not the Los Angeles Unified School Board is controlled by supporters of public education and the UTLA or “school choice” and unfettered charter school expansion remains up in the air.

But first, let’s discuss Proposition 13 and what its failure means for the Schools and Communities First Ballot Initiative this fall. While the two ballot initiatives are very different, the failure of Proposition 13 doesn’t bode well for supporters of robust funding for public education.

Prop 13 (2020) was a bond measure that wouldn’t actually raise taxes, but was still opposed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association. We understand the Prop. 13 was complicated and that plenty of people reading this likely voted against it. But some of the opposition was based around mis-information that Prop 13 (the 1978 ballot measure that capped property taxes) was under attack.

The Schools and Communities First ballot is anticipated to require “50% -plus-1” voters to pass this fall. But it will more directly affect voter’s CONTINUE READING: Election Analysis: Mixed Results and There’s a Lot of Work Ahead – Los Angeles Education Examiner

CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Child Labor Is Fun

CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Child Labor Is Fun

IN: Child Labor Is Fun

Some legislators in Indiana are boldly taking on one of the great problems of their state-- too many restrictions on child labor.

The bill intends, among other things, to do away with the requirement for student work permits for teens. Because the fact that a teenager is flunking high school should not stand in his way when it comes to serving as a useful meat widget for employers.

Full day of school, full shift of work, then homeworkkkzzzzz

Rep. Randy Lyness (R) is stumping for the bill, which is advancing through the legislature. In civilian life, Lyness is the owner of Randy Lyness Builders, and he thinks that it should be "more attractive" for employers to hire minors, which means, apparently, being able to get plenty of work out of the little buggers. The bill proposes that students be allowed to work forty hours a week during the school year (and, as mentioned above, that the student's performance in school not be a factor). On holidays, students could put in a 48 hour week. Also, it gets rid of mandated CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: IN: Child Labor Is Fun

CURMUDGUCATION ON A ROLL TODAY

CURMUDGUCATION

CURMUDGUCATION ON A ROLL TODAY

IN: Child Labor Is Fun

by Peter Greene / 48min

Some legislators in Indiana are boldly taking on one of the great problems of their state-- too many restrictions on child labor. The bill intends, among other things, to do away with the requirement for student work permits for teens. Because the fact that a teenager is flunking high school should not stand in his way when it comes to serving as a useful meat widget for employers. Full day of sch

NWEA Offers More Testing Baloney

35by Peter Greene / 4h

When a system doesn't work, you have a couple of choices-- you can address the problems that are causing failure, or you can insist that the original system is super-duper and start imposing new rules to try to work around the flaws in your original system. Like the latch that doesn't work properly, but instead of fixing the latch, you just teach everybody to lift and push the door to the side to

Civics and History in the Classroom

by Peter Greene / 13h

The teaching of US history has always been... well, not a hot topic, exactly, but always one that is simmering on a back burner. From the occasional reaction to one brand of civic illiteracy or another (no, that's not an actual power of the President) to the eternal complaint that schools are teaching students to hate America , the civic conversation is always drawn back to the question of how the

How Do We Measure Your Turf?

by Peter Greene / 13h

In which I ponder the various ways in which private money plays in the public sphere, how much we should care about them, and why. Preface/Warning This post is probably going to be long and only sort of related to education. It has an audience of roughly two people-- a guy who periodically kicks at my ass on Twitter, and me. He's unlikely to be moved by anything I have to say, and I'm indulging my

MO: Arresting Librarians

100+by Peter Greene / 23h

If you haven't already, read this piece from Nancy Bailey that makes two points with crystal clarity and detailed support: * school librarians are an essential part of teaching reading in school (scientifically or otherwise) * school librarian jobs 

CURMUDGUCATION

Mitchell Robinson: Healthcare: A Love/Hate Story… | Eclectablog

Healthcare: A Love/Hate Story… | Eclectablog

Healthcare: A Love/Hate Story…

Amid all the murky and dramatic national conversations about the disaster that is our current healthcare system, one sometimes stumbles upon a moment of potential clarity. This is one of those moments…

At a social event the other night, I met a person who worked for a large regional health insurance company. The conversation, naturally, came around to the topic of what to do about our country’s healthcare system, and I asked her what the folks at her company thought about Medicare For All (M4A).

To my surprise, she laughed and immediately dismissed the possibility of a single-payer system completely, claiming it could “never happen” because private health insurance companies are too strong and important to our economy to “just go away.”

Even more than her dismissive nature regarding M4A, I was struck with the look of absolute confidence and assurance in her eyes. This woman was rock solid in her conviction that private health insurance was too big to fail and, even though every other industrialized country in the world had figured out how to implement single-payer systems, this could just never happen in the US. In her eyes, it was simply inconceivable.

The conversation then unexpectedly pivoted to the recent surgery her husband had just had, and how their health insurance–the health insurance they received through her employer, the private health insurance company–had a very high, $3,000 deductible, and how difficult it was for them to pay for every prescription and medical procedure out of pocket until they reached that number.

The couple also complained that their copays varied depending on the treatment and provider, ranging unpredictably from $35 for a simple office visit to as high as $75 per appointment, and CONTINUE READING: Healthcare: A Love/Hate Story… | Eclectablog