Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Ill teachers' union head will run for reelection

Ill teachers' union head will run for reelection

Ill teachers' union head will run for reelection

Superintendent Art Johnson listens to teachers' union President Robert Dow Wednesday morning. The proposed agreement would not give teachers any raises but would give them a one-time $500 bonus, Johnson said.
Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post
ENLARGE PHOTO
Superintendent Art Johnson listens to teachers' union President Robert Dow Wednesday morning. The proposed agreement would not give teachers any raises but would give them a one-time $500 bonus, Johnson said. "It's not a lot of money," Johnson said. "It's really more symbolic."
Robert Dow in his hospital room at Good Samaritan Medical Center January 20, 2010.
Damon Higgins/Palm Beach Post
ENLARGE PHOTO
Robert Dow in his hospital room at Good Samaritan Medical Center January 20, 2010.

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Robert Dow speaks at a school board meeting in October.
Brandon Kruse/Palm Beach Post
Robert Dow speaks at a school board meeting in October.
By KEVIN D. THOMPSON

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 12:41 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011

Posted: 11:51 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011

Robert Dow, Palm Beach County's fiery teachers' union president, will seek re-election, despite suffering from an incurable form of leukemia he said could kill him at any time.

"I almost feel like this isn't my choice," Dow said. "It's a calling to duty and what I'm supposed to do."

Dow, who was elected by almost a 2-1 margin in 2008 after

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School Tech Connect: The Man Is Not Sincere

School Tech Connect: The Man Is Not Sincere

The Man Is Not Sincere

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
Changey McStory has come out with a soft-pedaled distortion of his real opinion, over at Fox.


Which all sounds a little different from back before he realize
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On Recovering My Mother Tongue: Speaking Spanish from the Bronx to México « Feminist Teacher

On Recovering My Mother Tongue: Speaking Spanish from the Bronx to México « Feminist Teacher

On Recovering My Mother Tongue: Speaking Spanish from the Bronx to México

by feministteacher

During the first five years of my life, I grew up speaking both English and Spanish with my Puerto Rican family in the Bronx. Both languages reflected the kaleidoscope of my life at the time: I could switch easily from speaking English while romping around Randalls Island and the Williamsbridge playground to speaking Spanish while dancing salsa and merengue at my grandmother’s house in Parkchester.

Once we moved from the Bronx to Long Island in the early eighties, however, a critical shift happened. I was no longer in a community where Spanish was commonly spoken and on top of that, racist school counselors “advised” my mother not to speak Spanish to my brothers and me, in case it might “confuse” us. Respectful of school authorities, my mother obliged this narrow and misinformed demand.

This shift marked the beginning of being robbed of my mother tongue. I have been on a search to recapture it

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Wendy Kopp may or may not want to be schools chancellor | GothamSchools

Wendy Kopp may or may not want to be schools chancellor | GothamSchools

Wendy Kopp may or may not want to be schools chancellor

by Elizabeth Green
WKopp_desk

Wendy Kopp says she doesn't want to be schools chancellor, but it's a great job. Photo courtesy of Tulane Publications.

The occasion of Teach For America’s twentieth anniversary, along with a new book by founder Wendy Kopp summarizing the lessons she’s learned, is pulling the usually low-profile don out of her shell — and leading her to say some interesting things.

Yesterday, the Daily Beast’s Dana Goldstein published a profile in which Kopp said she would love to run the New York City schools.

Or, at least, she seemed to say that. When I asked her to follow up yesterday afternoon, Kopp dismissed the

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Queens Teacher: Ravitch Weighs in on Obama Speech

Queens Teacher: Ravitch Weighs in on Obama Speech

Ravitch Weighs in on Obama Speech

by Queens Teacher
Testing Remains the Problem
January 26, 2011


Diane Ravitch is the author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education."

President Obama's address contained no surprises about education policy. His goals are unarguable: He wants Americans to be better educated. He wants schools to encourage creativity, innovation and imagination. He wants teachers to be treated with respect.

The centralized Race to the Top discourages creativity, innovation and imagination..Unfortunately, his Race to the Top program, which he called "the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation," undermines these goals. It is not a repudiation of the unpopular No Child Left Behind law, but a continuation. Like No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top places high priority on tests of reading and mathematics.

The president wrongly asserted that Race to the Top is not a "top-down mandate, but the work of local teacher
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Hechinger Report | How can we reform science education?

Hechinger Report | How can we reform science education?
How can we reform science education? Ask a scientist in their mid 50s or older where they were in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy spoke to Congress about the urgency of sending a man to the moon, and chances are they’ll remember. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first ...
Why are other countries doing better in science than the U.S.? Students in the United States generally start to learn about the human eye in elementary school. Students in many other countries, though, don’t discuss the eye until eighth grade. At first glance, this difference would seem to indicate that our ...
The future of U.S. science education The state of science education in the United States may seem grim, but some in the field are optimistic that science may actually be poised to enter a new golden age. A recent report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology ...
Timeline: Important dates in U.S. science education history * * * * *1956 * The College Board introduces college-level science courses for advanced high-school students: AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics B/C (which become AP Physics B and AP Physics C in 1969). Sputnik *1957 * The Soviet Union ...
What makes a good science teacher? Janice Crowley (Courtesy College Board) What are the essential ingredients of good science teaching? Janice Crowley, chair of the science department at Wichita Collegiate Schoolin Kansas, faced that question last year when she had to choose between ...
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This Week In Education: Media: Politico Puts Obama Advisor On Then Off Charter Board

This Week In Education: Media: Politico Puts Obama Advisor On Then Off Charter Board

Media: Politico Puts Obama Advisor On Then Off Charter Board

by Alexander Russo

Oops! ScreenHunter_01 Jan. 26 11.13 The folks at Politico interviewed DPC chief Melody Barnes about the SOTU and initially identified her as a charter school board member, then corrected the post to say that she's no longer in that position. They also report that NCLB was enacted in 2001 not 2002. But mostly they dutifully pass along the White House hopefulness about revamping NCLB. That's how it works. You get an interview if you do what they want you to do.

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Why Is Kelley Williams-Bolar In Jail For Sending Her Kids To A Suburban School? | Education | Change.org

Why Is Kelley Williams-Bolar In Jail For Sending Her Kids To A Suburban School? | Education | Change.org

Why Is Kelley Williams-Bolar In Jail For Sending Her Kids To A Suburban School?

by Carol Scott

Update: 11 a.m. EST, Jan. 26, 2011 Edward Williams, Kelley Williams-Bolar's father, called to clarify that her decision to enroll her children in the suburban district had nothing to do with the academic quality of the school and was because of safety issues. Williams-Bolar's house had been broken into and she'd had to file 12 different police reports due to crime in the area, he said. Enrolling the children in the district where her father lived was a safety-based decision, and Williams wants to dispel any

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New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools 1-26-11 Get Involved- Read Education News

New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Get Involved- Read Education News


Parents 4 democratic Schools

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My Sputnik moment. « Fred Klonsky's blog

My Sputnik moment. « Fred Klonsky's blog

My Sputnik moment.

by Fred Klonsky

I’m pretty sure that “this is our Sputnik moment” is not going to be a phrase that grabs folks.

For a good explanation of the historical context read my brother’s Small Talk post this morning.

From a very personal point of view, our last Sputnik moment wasn’t so great. As I recall, it was followed a few years later by the Edsel moment.

As an Art teacher, Sputnik moments tend not to be so great. Good artists don’t launch missiles.

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Schools Matter: Why Bloomberg Picked Cathie Black: Larry Flynt Was Not Available

Schools Matter: Why Bloomberg Picked Cathie Black: Larry Flynt Was Not Available

Why Bloomberg Picked Cathie Black: Larry Flynt Was Not Available

by Jim Horn
Until David Berliner wrote the op-ed below, "Soft Core Porn and the Crisis of School Leadership," I had never considered Cathie Black an educator, but educator she has been for teens and wives around the world, I now realize. Her flagship pub, Cosmopolitan, still beckons (if you find drugged anorexics alluring) from the the checkout stand of every supermarket, with a new collection of articles each month on how to be an inventive whore for your husband or your man in order to keep him from going to whores he would, otherwise, have to pay for.

Offering an on-going seminar, you might say, on domestic tranquility through womanly debasements, Black's
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Bill Gates Talks MET, Teacher Effectiveness - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Bill Gates Talks MET, Teacher Effectiveness - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Bill Gates Talks MET, Teacher Effectiveness

by Stephen Sawchuk

Whether you love or hate the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's work in education, it has become an influential part of the education policy world, specifically in discussions about teacher quality.

Some time ago, I interviewed Bill Gates while at the American Federation of Teachers conference, where he had come to address the union's delegates. We spoke about the foundation's $500 million Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching project and the $45 million Measures of Effective Teaching study.

I apologize to all for taking so long to transcribe this for you, but a funny thing happened on my way to the keyboard, and I got immersed in a special project.

Note that this interview took place before the preliminary MET results came out. You'll recall that they found

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Rise & Shine: Mulgrew accuses city of trying to divide teachers | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Mulgrew accuses city of trying to divide teachers | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Mulgrew accuses city of trying to divide teachers

by Maura Walz
  • A third of fourth-graders and a fifth of twelfth-graders passed a nationwide science test. (Times)
  • N. Y.’s fourth-graders scored just below the U.S. average and eighth-graders just above it. (DN, Post)
  • As city schools close, more students graduate, but more also drop out, officials said yesterday. (WNYC)
  • Michael Mulgrew told members of E4E that the city pits young teachers against older ones. (Post, NY1)
  • UWS parents protested a proposal to move a Success Academy charter school into Brandeis HS. (NY1)
  • Brownsville police are helping teens busted for robbery go back to school and get job training. (DN)
  • PS 290’s PTA was rocked after a parent promoted a book that questions the Holocaust. (Times)
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