NYC Public School Parents: Parent leader Tory Frye on the Mayor's reversal that parents will be allowed to opt-into online learning for their children once -- and will have to decide by Nov. 15

NYC Public School Parents: Parent leader Tory Frye on the Mayor's reversal that parents will be allowed to opt-into online learning for their children once -- and will have to decide by Nov. 15

Parent leader Tory Frye on the Mayor's reversal that parents will be allowed to opt-into online learning for their children once -- and will have to decide by Nov. 15

Yesterday, the Mayor announced that contrary to earlier statements, parents would only be allowed to opt into in-person learning for their kids a single time during the entire school year, and the choice will have to be made starting next week from Nov. 2-Nov. 15.  You can register your choice here.

The outrage among parents was immediate. A petition protesting this sudden announcement to reverse the earlier promise made to parents that there would be several times over the course of the school that parents could choose in-person learning is here.

On the one hand, one can sympathize with principals who have been saddled with the exceedingly difficult job of reprogramming classes and staffing dependent on how many kids attend schools in-person, further complicated by the DOE plan to provide three kinds of classes for students at each grade level and subject:  in-person classes kept small for social distancing, online classes for these students when they are home, and remote classes for full-time online students. 

Yet given the fact that infection rates are rising citywide, the holidays are looming with potential visits with vulnerable grandparents, and the hope and expectation that transmission rates may fall again in the spring, this seems like a particular unfair time to force parents to make any sort of year-long decision. 

Michael Mulgrew of the UFT wrote this: "City Hall's decision violates the plan New York City filed with the state, and it breaks faith with parents. Families were told CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Parent leader Tory Frye on the Mayor's reversal that parents will be allowed to opt-into online learning for their children once -- and will have to decide by Nov. 15

NYC Educator: When Carranza Says PTA, He Means "Pass Them All"

NYC Educator: When Carranza Says PTA, He Means "Pass Them All"

When Carranza Says PTA, He Means "Pass Them All"

Our friends at the DOE have done it again. They've unilaterally issued a grading policy, and haven't bothered to consult with those of us who actually do the work. Of course they know better than we do what goes on in classrooms. After all, we spend all of our time teaching, and what do we know about sitting around in offices and generating reports that no one wants to read? That's why they're in charge and we aren't.

One recent innovation, aside from the grading policy, was telling parents if you don't opt your kids in now, you can't do it at all. To Bill de Blasio, parents have had enough time to make up their minds whether or not they want their children in school. Evidently, conditions are going to stay the same November through June and there is no possibility whatsoever of anything changing. And he knows that for sure because he's taller than any of us. Or perhaps there's some other reason, but it makes just as much sense as the last one.

Never mind that he made an agreement with the state. The thirty-dollar-an-hour lawyers over at "legal" have told him the state doesn't matter, and that should be good enough for anyone. After all, why should they be bothered reading agreements when they can just say Any Damn Thing, and please not only principals, but also the mayor?

And then there's the agreement itself, which brings back the NX rating. I have mixed feelings about that. I don't think anyone should suffer as a result of the pandemic, but I have students who actually deserve to fail. We ask students to show themselves, and most do. Some don't. Sometimes they have camera issues. Sometimes I don't CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: When Carranza Says PTA, He Means "Pass Them All"

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

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

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/saturday-october-17-2020-this-week-in.html

October’s (2020) Useful Parent Engagement Resources – Part Two | Engaging Parents In School… - https://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/?p=6384

What are your up to three “go-to” online tools this year?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Here’s the new question-of-the-week at my Ed Week Teacher advice column. Please consider sharing a response!

“Teachers With ‘Deficit Perspectives’ Do Not Help ELLs”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Teachers With ‘Deficit Perspectives’ Do Not Help ELLs is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Four educators share what they think are mistakes often made by teachers of ELLs, including overusing technology and operating out of a deficit perspective. Here are some excerpts:

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Nine years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2020 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this w

All My “Best” Lists On Different Reference Sites

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Clker-Free-Vector-Images / Pixabay I have over 2,100 frequently revised and updated “Best” lists on just about every subject imaginable, and you can find them listed three different ways in three different places (see Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists ). I’m starting to publish a series where each day I will highlight the “Best” lists in a separate category. Today, it’s o

My Most Popular Tweets Of The Month

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

PhotoMIX-Company / Pixabay I used to post weekly collections of my best tweets, and used Storify to bring them together. Unfortunately, Storify went under. Fortunately, however, Wakelet was a new tool that was able to import 

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

Sam Wineburg on Teaching History | Diane Ravitch's blog

Sam Wineburg on Teaching History | Diane Ravitch's blog

Sam Wineburg on Teaching History

The Silence of the Ellipses: 

Or Why History Can’t Be About Telling Our Children Lies

Sam Wineburg is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education & (by courtesy) History at Stanford University. His most recent book is Why Learn History (When It is Already on Your Phone), University of Chicago Press, 2018. He tweets at @samwineburg.

Aware his days were numbered, a tuberculosis-stricken George Orwell raced to finish the book that would make his name an adjective. Holed away in a remote cottage on the Isle of Jura off the Scottish coast, he left the island for the last time in 1949, the same year his novel appeared. He died a year later.

I read 1984 in my 11^th-grade English class in the weary rustbelt town of Utica, New York, at a time when Russia was still the USSR and the “focus of evil in the modern world.” With Cliff Notes at my side, I decodedthe book’s more obscure allusions (2 + 2 = 5, I learned, conjured up Stalin’s claim that his five-year plan had been completed in four). But you didn’t need a study aid to get the main point. We lived in a free society; they in a tyrannical one. We respected truth; they disfigured it. Russian-speaking Winston CONTINUE READING: Sam Wineburg on Teaching History | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Impossible Job of a Parent Navigating Zoom School - The Atlantic

A Mother of Five Navigates Remote Learning - The Atlantic

The Impossible Job of a Parent Navigating Zoom School

When Donald Trump took the oath of office on a gray January morning in 2017, he laid out his vision for the United States under his leadership. “We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease,” he said. “A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions.” Nearly four years later, the divide in how we view the consequences of his first term remains large. But the nation is undeniably changed. From family separation, to nation-wide protests and economic volatility, to a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, Trump will leave behind a legacy—whether he’s reelected or not. We are telling the stories of seven individuals living with the consequences of Trump’s first term. You can read the rest of the stories here.

By 9:30 a.m. on August 31, the first day of school, Rebeka Dominguez was already exhausted. Her 13-year-old daughter, Eleanna, couldn’t log into Zoom. Across the kitchen table, Elijah, 17, muted his football coach and distracted his girlfriend, Kyleen, who sat beside him, trying to concentrate on her coursework. Easton, 7, propped himself up on the floor between the two teenagers as his teacher tried to help a classroom of second-graders access BrainPOP, an educational website. Everett, 4, ran out of the room with Elijah’s cellphone. The wifi kept cutting out, and there weren’t enough headphones to go around, so five virtual classrooms stuttered on at once. Eva, 10 months old, cried in her playpen. Like millions of other households across the U.S., the Dominguez family is learning remotely this fall.

In March, the schools in Weslaco, Texas, where the family lives, shut down in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Overnight, all classes moved online. “That whole first week was really chaotic,” Rebeka said. She worked to establish some semblance of a classroom, centered around the kitchen table. “I would be going around, making sure they’re each on their lesson—that Elijah’s not on Facebook, that Eleanna was understanding whatever they were going through,” said Rebeka.

Supervising the education of her school-age children felt like a full-time job.

Easton’s teacher would reach out to Rebeka every day, reminding her to help him log on. “I was like, I have four kids in school right now,” she said. “I can do Easton two days a week, or a day a week, or whatever I can get to, but I can’t do it whenever you want me to.” She negotiated with teachers on assignment due dates and began to divide her weeks. On Mondays and Tuesdays, she concentrated on Easton; on Wednesdays and Thursdays, Rebeka helped Eleanna. Elijah often supervised his younger siblings while in class. When he needed help on his chemistry assignments, he’d have to wait until his dad, Joseph, a nurse, came home from the ER where he worked.

[Read: These 8 basic steps will let us reopen schools]

Frantic scenes like this played out across the country, as 50 million kids were abruptly thrust out of the classroom. Families scrambled to adjust to unclear, CONTINUE READING: A Mother of Five Navigates Remote Learning - The Atlantic

When it Comes to Cameras in Virtual Classrooms, Compromise Over Compliance - Philly's 7th Ward

When it Comes to Cameras in Virtual Classrooms, Compromise Over Compliance - Philly's 7th Ward

WHEN IT COMES TO CAMERAS IN VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS, COMPROMISE OVER COMPLIANCE

For me, my home is a sacred place; not only because I am a person of faith but also because my home is an intimate and safe space where my relationships, culture and humanity is nurtured, affirmed and celebrated. I like to believe that my wife and children think the same thing.

Generally speaking, I never invite strangers into my home, but there are times when doing so was necessary. Usually, those times involved a broken appliance that needed to either be repaired or delivered. What is important to note is that I had to invite them to my home; they couldn’t come in without my permission. However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, my children’s classmates and teachers are guests in my home each day via classroom zoom meetings… and I didn’t invite them.

The pandemic has pushed educators and families to innovate and adapt; this includes turning homes into educational spaces for remote or hybrid synchronous learning. Whether teachers are using zoom or google classroom, video conferencing is the new classroom and many districts require that students keep their cameras on. This means that classmates and teachers have a window into your home.

As I said earlier, I don’t invite everyone into my home. Yet my wife and I have agreed to the reality of uninvited guest for the sake of our children’s safety. Their cameras are on; it is the policy of the school district that they’re CONTINUE READING: When it Comes to Cameras in Virtual Classrooms, Compromise Over Compliance - Philly's 7th Ward

How do you measure a child's worth? - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

How do you measure a child's worth? - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

How do you measure a child’s worth?

Over the past few weeks, the community members have been witnessing that conversations about Lowell’s selective admissions policy are once again stirring up anti-Black/Latinx sentiment in online spaces and within the Lowell High School community. #HereWeGoAgain

While folks may choose to believe otherwise, the admissions changes currently being considered were prompted by procedural, rather than political concerns. (Although to be fair, many of the Board’s feelings about this policy have not really been a secret.)

This spring, COVOD-19 rendered standardized testing and regular grading impossible statewide. With tests canceled and students receiving “pass/fail” grades, SFUSD staff will be unable to administer regular policies around Lowell’s selective enrollment process. So, over the past several weeks, the Board has been discussing a proposal by staff to temporarily discontinue the traditional enrollment policy and place Lowell in “the Lottery” with all other comprehensive high schools. (Cue pearl-clutching!)

As expected, anytime the topic of Lowell admissions comes up, so does race. While we have the discussion of what to do during this “not-normal” year in SFUSD, please be aware — What we say has impacts on Black and Brown children going to school at Lowell and across the city.

I am hearing from Black student leaders and Black alumni of Lowell that many of the comments folks have been making are toxic and hurtful. (Read their letter to the Board.) As these conversations reverberate across parent email groups and in the media, many of the things folks are saying are also creating secondary trauma for Black and Brown children, parents, and educators across our city who have been, or currently are, targets of racial microaggressions and outright aggression in our educational systems. This is true for charters, and private school settings as well.

Recently we saw this expressed in Board meetings when parents shouted down a student representative to the Board and targeted her and her colleague (a Latina) on Twitter, saying they were not valid representatives of their peers. Just recently my colleague Commissioner Gabriela Lopez, and I CONTINUE READING: How do you measure a child's worth? - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Who Voted In Davos? How Data-Driven Government and the Internet of Bodies Are Poised To Transform Smart Sustainable Cities Into Social Impact Prisons – Wrench in the Gears

Who Voted In Davos? How Data-Driven Government and the Internet of Bodies Are Poised To Transform Smart Sustainable Cities Into Social Impact Prisons – Wrench in the Gears

Who Voted In Davos? How Data-Driven Government and the Internet of Bodies Are Poised To Transform Smart Sustainable Cities Into Social Impact Prisons

What follows is a transcript of the remarks I made as part of an online forum, Politics In And Out Of Europe, hosted by Rutgers University’s Center for European Studies on Monday October 26, 2020. There were two panels followed by an hour of discussion. I was the second presenter. Framing remarks and response was provided by Naomi Klein. Video of my portion of the event here. All combined, it’s about a half hour. I reference two blog posts. One on solutions journalism and impact media and another on Omidyar Network and digital education as well as the resolution against blockchain identity passed by the NAACP last year (search for “blockchain”).

Introduction: Alison McDowell is a mother and an independent researcher based in Philadelphia, PA. She blogs at the intersection of race, finance, nature, and technology at wrenchinthegears.com. Her activism began fighting to slow the privatization of public education in her city. These efforts eventually led her to an CONTINUE READING: Who Voted In Davos? How Data-Driven Government and the Internet of Bodies Are Poised To Transform Smart Sustainable Cities Into Social Impact Prisons – Wrench in the Gears

Teacher Tom: There Has Never Been a Better Time to Try

Teacher Tom: There Has Never Been a Better Time to Try

There Has Never Been a Better Time to Try

Even before the pandemic, child care in the US was an "industry" already in the midst of a slow motion crisis. Care takers and teachers were already leaving the low paying, low prestige profession. Child care centers and preschools where already being shuttered, unable to make ends meet. Tuition costs were already as high or higher than many middle class families could afford. Two thirds of the nation's children already lived in "child care deserts," regions that simply didn't have enough spots to meet demand. Between 2005 and 2017 the number of licensed, home-based child care businesses dropped 44 percent. All of this has been happening over the course of decades. 

The advent of Covid on our shores simply accelerated everything. Costs of running centers during the pandemic have jumped an average of 47 percent, while enrollment has plummeted, making it impossible to make ends meet. Estimates are that one in three child care centers have closed since March of this year with most of them unlikely to re-open given that they were already teetering. Many of those teachers and care takers who were laid off are never coming back because they've found jobs that pay more than the $24,000 annual poverty wages the average child care worker earns, and most of those jobs came without paid time off or health care.

Covid has not decimated the sector, it has just added grease CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: There Has Never Been a Better Time to Try