Saturday, June 25, 2011

What I Do « Cooperative Catalyst

What I Do

by peoplegogy

From what I have gathered, most of the educators here are in K-12. The others are tech people or consultants who work with K-12 schools. I am neither.

I started my career in youth development, leading after-school and summer programs. Now, I am a family life educator who specializes in digital and social media. What is family life education? What does a family life educator do? I didn’t know myself until I took a course on the subject in completing my second bachelor’s in Child and Family Studies.

Family life education is an informative, educational approach to assisting individuals in living authentic and productive lives. Utilizing a family systems perspective, most family life educational programming takes place in a classroom-style kind of setting and can even be provided through educational materials, such as books,

Budget Deal Removes Teacher Layoff Threat | Edwize

Budget Deal Removes Teacher Layoff Threat

by W.J. Levay

An agreement reached by New York City and the UFT will ensure that no New York City public school teacher will be laid off in the next year, Mayor Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and UFT President Michael Mulgrew announced on June 24.

The agreement with the UFT includes financial savings to the city generated by redeployment of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve pool and a one-year suspension of study sabbaticals, along with additional resources from the City Council and the Department of Education.

The agreement forestalls the possibility – raised by Mayor Bloomberg in both the January Financial Plan and the Executive Budget in May – that the city budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2011 would require the

NYC Educator: The Layoff Deal

The Layoff Deal

by NYC Educator

Is it, or isn't it?

Obviously, averting layoffs is a good thing. No one can argue with that, except perhaps Mayor4Life and his minions. In fact, it's probably good for him too, as layoffs would prove yet another PR disaster. Should we allow him to endure that at the expense of the teachers who'd be sitting on pins and needles waiting to be called back? That's a tough call. I've lost my teaching job several times, excessed when there was no ATR to fall into, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

Now if this simply called for ATRs to be placed in regular teaching positions, that would be a no-brainer. But Gotham Schools says otherwise:

The second concession is that teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve, or ATR, will be redeployed to fill substitute teaching positions, which are currently filled by teachers who work

NYC Public School Parents: A sample of 311 acknowledgements of parents' calls on the budget cuts

A sample of 311 acknowledgements of parents' calls on the budget cuts *Before the city budget cut deal was announced yesterday, I asked parents to call 311 to oppose the Mayor's proposed cuts that would eliminate 6100 teaching positions, and to send me the record of the comments that 311 operators email them. (In the ...

What the city budget deal means for our kids Though the worst was averted, the city budget deal as announced last night is still only a very partial victory for our kids. In essence, the deal came about because the city finally acknowledged what the many have long warned: Bloomberg's failed ...

Schools Matter: Brooklyn Ascend Brought to Earth by Former Teacher, Part 1

Brooklyn Ascend Brought to Earth by Former Teacher, Part 1

by Jim Horn

Everyone who knows anything knows that KIPP can only remain a billionaire's choice boutique option for segregating urban children who are desperate enough that they will forego their childhood and suffer years of repeated indignities for a chance at an education, which amounts to a miseducation built upon unceasing test prep and a behavioral catechism more suitable for a penitentiary than a school.

Unfortunately, the total compliance and total surveillance model of KIPP has inspired a number of high-flying knock-offs like Brooklyn Ascend and its two sister schools in Brooklyn, which use the familiar chain gang methods to denigrate, demean, and destroy the spirits of kids, all in the twisted and debased name of equal opportunity for children who are captive to poverty. Social justice in blackface is the only adequate way to describe this caricature of equal education.

Little do parents know what goes in these corporate madrassa hellholes, and little did anyone else know until a former teacher stepped forward to call a spade a spade. Her name is Emily Kennedy, and it wasn't until she

John Thompson: School Transformation in the 21st Century: Turtles, Frogs or Butterflies - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: School Transformation in the 21st Century: Turtles, Frogs or Butterflies

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by John Thompson

In an earlier contribution to the Harvard Futures of School Reform, Richard Elmore described "the dismal, glacial, adult-centered, congenially authoritarian, mindless soup in which our children spend the bulk of their days." I assume he was mostly describing failing schools, that tend to be high-poverty. I wish he had also acknowledged the excellent teaching that occurs in many inner city and lower-poverty classrooms. Elmore was clearly accurate, however, in recounting "how little the monolithic beast of American secondary education has been affected by the bright, high-minded optimism of professional reformers."

In a concluding essay for the Harvard Futures series, Elmore and Elizabeth City wrote, "with rare exceptions, schools currently treat the digital revolution as if it never happened." They then described three possible futures for our public schools. Two of them would be tragic, but it would be an honor for a teacher to participate in a third.

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Recipe 4 World Peace: Everybody learn Turkish!

Recipe 4 World Peace: Everybody learn Turkish!

by The Perimeter Primate

This is what the Gulenists believe deep down in their hearts. It is also why Turkish language and culture are always taught in the Gulen charter schools, why students are given subsidized, Gulenist-guided trips to Turkey, and why student participation in regional Turkish Olympiads is so strongly promoted.

However, you will be extremely hard pressed to find any reference to all of this Turkish instruction in any of their charter school applications. But that shouldn't matter! Everyone just needs to thank Fethullah Gulen for creating such a wonderful recipe for world peace!

Here's a new article about the Turkish Olympiads appearing in Zaman, a Gulenist-operated Turkish newspaper. Gulen is glorified four times.

“Turkish becomes language of peace thanks to Olympiads.” Sunday’s Zaman 26 June 2011*

When the 1st International Turkish Language Olympiads were launched in 2003 by Dilset, a publishing house, the goal was to reward students who excel in learning Turkish and to courage others.

Back then, 62 students from 17 countries took part in the event. Since 2006 the International

Reflections on the Year in Lab | Reflections on Teaching

Reflections on the Year in Lab

by alicemercer

@whatedsaid Edna Sackson:
My best tip for new year would be to focus on how students learn rather than how you teach. It changed things for me completely #elemchat

I’ve held off doing a final “Week in Lab” post because I just couldn’t figure out how to put into words what had gone wrong this year. I focused on things from my perspective. I was going through the motions, I was on a treadmill just doing what I had done in prior years, etc. Even my husband complained that I wasn’t sharing much about the exciting things I was doing with the kids, as I had in years past.

In my conversations with my husband on this topic, I focused on the things outside of my control that made this situation what it was; too many grown-up dramas in my professional-life, the constraints of being a prep teacher and having so many students for so short a time (~375 in two 45-minute periods a week).

Those were factors, but I thought back to the time before I came to the lab, a very turbulent year, both professionally and personally. That was the year that I broke out with education technology, and started my students blogging, and creating a whole bunch of new instructional approaches. So the adult stuff can’t be all of

Why Incentive Pay for Teachers is a Trojan Horse - EduStuff

EduStuff

Why Incentive Pay for Teachers is a Trojan Horse

The same people who have been promoting incentive and merit pay for teachers are also those who want cuts in taxes and government. The two will never go together, and proponents of the incentive approach know it.

Thursday, newly-elected Oklahoma State Supt. of Schools, Janet Barresi cast the tie-breaking vote that, among other things, ended one of the best National Board Certification incentive programs in the United States.

According to the Oklahoma Education Associations website “The NBCT program has made a significant impact in Oklahoma. Oklahoma ranks 9th in the nation for the percentage of NBCTs. As a result of this achievement,

Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Saturday coffee.

by Fred Klonsky

What a beautiful morning! Kind temperature. Blue sky.

We had coffee outside. Back at Letizia’s on Division Street in West Town. Outside means that Ulysses can join us.

Odd that Letizia’s still has pay-as-you go wi-fi. So many places provide it free. I’m glad I chose the iPad 2 with network access.

This has been a week of resistance.

It started with over 1,000 teachers surrounding the CPS board offices at 125 South Clark Street, protesting the huge salary bump for three-week-old CEO Brizard and the 4% cut-back in teacher salary.

Then there is the reoccupation of La Casita at Whittier School in Pilsen, where parents and students were promised the field house as a library and then they found the promise was broken by Mayor Rahm the Bomb

Old school.

by Fred Klonsky

Waylon Jennings.

New Teachers Must Be Brave Professionals « InterACT

New Teachers Must Be Brave Professionals

by David B. Cohen

Larry Cuban, Estelle Woodbury, Jennifer Dick, Greg Peters, in discussion at Stanford University, June 22, 2011.

A few days ago at Stanford, I had the opportunity to address, oh so briefly, a crowd that included perhaps a couple hundred teachers and future teachers. We had just listened to a panel discussion that included current and former teachers, along with Larry Cuban, Stanford professor emeritus and one of the foremost scholars of American public education. The topic was the nature and status of the teaching profession in America – in particular, the pay and working conditions that drive so many teachers to leave, or consider leaving.

The portion of the audience most on my mind during all of this was the incoming class at the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP). They had just begun graduate school two days earlier, and I can still recall the heady feeling of being in their exact situation when I entered STEP in June of 1994. I had just moved to Palo Alto from Los Angeles, had just settled into a small apartment next to a gas station, and I was on a constant high – not from any gasoline fumes – but from the incredible rush of meeting so many smart and wonderful

Daily Kos: Too Big to Fail versus too small to matter

Too Big to Fail versus too small to matter

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I was watching "Too Big To Fail" and an exchange caught my attention.

Cynthia Nixon, playing the press liaison for Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson has just had the situation of AIG explained to her. She asks:

What do I tell them when they ask why this wasn't regulated?

William Hurt, as Hank Paulson answers:

No one wanted to. We were making too much money.

Hank Paulson, as head of Goldman Sachs, lobbied heavily to keep the Collateral Debt Obligations, Mortgage

Happy Pride Weekend, New York! « Student Activism

Happy Pride Weekend, New York!

June 25, 2011 in History, Organizing, Politics, Sexual Orientation

Education Reform: Tragedy and Farce | Dissident Voice

Education Reform: Tragedy and Farce

by Joseph Grosso

Who has spent a good portion of their childhood in a classroom and been able to shake the queasy feeling that comes from reading Charles Dickens’ introduction of Sir Thomas Gradgrind in his novel “Hard Times”? The name Gradgrind says it all, the perfect stern, lifeless image bored kids visualize about their teachers. Here is how Dickens describes the dreary ultra-rationalist utilitarian:

A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four and nothing over. Thomas Gradgrind, Sir- peremptorily Thomas- Thomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket. Sir, ready to weight and measure any parcel of human nature and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, case of simple arithmetic.

It’s hard to fathom that the banal philosophy of such a universally mocked caricature from Victorian times would make a strong resurgence over a century later. Yet just like neoliberalism, another Victorian leftover, this ideological brand has achieved bi-partisan support, near pundit consensus, and billionaire backing. Substitute test scores for ‘facts’ and Bill Gates or Joel Klein for Gradgrind and we have an almost perfect match for what passes for educational philosophy and reform these days.

It was Joel Klein, former schools chancellor of New York City credited with implementing major changes such as

Pre-Employment Background Screening

by Terry Everton

If You Want to Understand What’s Really Going on in the World, Stop Thinking Like a Middle Class American

by William Hicks

I was having a conversation with a professional colleague the other day who had spent some time working in Egypt and was reassigned back home shortly before the protests erupted that resulted in the abrupt departure from power of Hosni Mubarak. We started talking about the state of the economy, and I mentioned how the reckless policies of the Federal Reserve, engaging in Quantitative Easing and setting interests rates near 0%, were a primary factor leading to Mubarak’s ouster and the civil unrest that has been spreading across the Middle East. My colleague, who spent a year in Cairo and presumably would have seen the conditions there first hand,

My Thoughts on Community at the Special Olympics World Summer Games | Maria Shriver

JUNE 25, 2011

GOT ME THINKING

My Thoughts on Community at the Special Olympics World Summer Games

By Maria Shriver

At our Special Olympics Board Meeting this morning, we continued exploring the idea of a Dignity Revolution that is focused on uniting and inspiring people in communities all around the world to move us in a more open, inclusive and tolerant direction.

A related question that got me thinking was posed at the Board Meeting: What community are you a part of?

I answered that St. Monica, my local church, is a community to which I belong. It's the place where I feel welcome and at home. I also belong here in Athens for the Special Olympics World Summer Games. Even though I'm far from home, I know I'm exactly where I should be -- amongst this community of people who are working to build a more accepting and just world. The millions of members of this community are among the most joyful, open, kind, welcoming and tolerant people I've ever met. It's a community where everyone aims for their personal bests so that they can inspire their peers to do the same. This is my kind of community.

I found it interesting that when a small gathering of us later met with His All Holiness, Bartholomew, the Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, he spoke eloquently about the blessings that come from being a part of a community. He also remarked about the power of community to promote the "sacredness, uniqueness and dignity of all people." He said we are all independent and unique

Maine Voices: Charter schools have a troubled history

Opinion

Maine Voices: Charter schools have a troubled history

BRUNSWICK - The history of American education is littered with school reforms designed to achieve one set of goals but manipulated to attain others. To that troubled history we may now add charter schools.

Initially envisioned as "break-the-mold" schools that would serve as models of innovation in public education, charters were freed by state legislatures from many of the regulations that mainstream public schools were legally bound to follow.

With such freedom, charter advocates argued, new methods of effectively teaching students would be discovered. A thousand flowers would bloom and public education would undergo a renaissance.

It didn't take long, however, before conservatives, stung by their failure to privatize "government schools" through voucher initiatives, saw charter schools as a way to "break the grip" of teachers' unions on public education while simultaneously opening up public schooling to the free market.

Meanwhile, liberals had their own reasons for embracing charters. Increasingly skeptical of teachers' unions' bread-and-butter demands and seeking greater school choice for their own children, many liberals urged states to pass charter school laws.

As a result, what began as a reform intended to support

This Is What Solidarity Looks Like | Common Dreams

This Is What Solidarity Looks Like

Rethinking Schools Editorial

All of us have learned some lessons about the meaning of solidarity from the recent events in Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill” was a draconian assault on workers’ rights and unions. He followed this with what the Wisconsin education superintendent called “the greatest state cut to education since the Great Depression” and a host of other cuts that disproportionately affect poor people and people of color. Teachers and other public sector employees, along with parents, students, and many, many others, responded with an outpouring of creative, imaginative, and hope-inspiring acts of solidarity. Illustration: Christiane Grauert

Solidarity is parents texting teachers to say: “I heard you were going to Madison today. Do you have space for one more in your car?” Solidarity is firefighters (who are not losing collective bargaining) showing up to parade among thousands of protesters every day for two weeks and sleeping on the cold, hard Capitol floors to keep the “people’s house” open for the people. Solidarity is people from as far away as Egypt and Antarctica calling in donations to Ian’s Pizza to feed protesters. Solidarity is strangers running up and saying “Thank you” as they sign a petition to recall their state senator in the most conservative, affluent white suburbs. Solidarity is when two educators can put together a protest on Wednesday night and get 200 picketers at a biased local news station Friday—after school and in

Research Latino's Ages 14-34 Reveals 50% seek Bilingual/Bicultural - Hispanically Speaking News

Research Targeting Latino’s Ages 14-34 Reveals Nearly 50% Seek More Bilingual/Bicultural Content

Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más, the bilingual/bicultural network for U.S. Latinos, unveils research findings from The Maximo Report, a new study co-sponsored by Tr3s, and conducted by Motivo Insights, LLC and the New Generation Latino Consortium (NGLC) that uncovers key insights into the growing young, bicultural Latino. The report is the first-of-its-kind conducted with this demographic, combining both quantitative and qualitative methodologies with 14-34 year old Latinos, both U.S. and foreign-borns that have lived in the U.S. for 15 years or more. Key findings will be unveiled in the coming weeks to reveal the role of media, entertainment, digital media and marketing & advertising in their US Latino lives. Additional areas explored in the research include the content this group consumes as well as language preferences based on their acculturation.

The Maximo Report reveals nearly 50% of NGLs seek more bilingual/bicultural programming and over 30% look for ‘mainstream’ English-only content. NGLs hunger for more bi-lingual, bi-cultural programming, specifically content where “they are the star”, “their lives, entertainment interests and issues are authentically represented” and “their American and Latino sides meet”. The results also indicate Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más as the only Hispanic channel that all NGL age segments 14-34 agree “most speaks to the Latino heart & soul”. Joining Tr3s

How Did We Get To The Point of Attacking Teachers? by Paul Karrer

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org

How Did We Get To The Point of Attacking Teachers? by Paul Karrer
The public has gone from venerating teachers to vilifying them .How did things get to this state of affairs?

How Did We Get Here?
by Paul Karrer

The public has gone from venerating teachers to vilifying them .How did things get to this state of affairs?

Answer – a confluence of impacts.

1. The influence of those who reject public education on religious grounds. Those who say “government” is the problem. Many who hold this belief system despise science, evidential revelation, and secularism. Quite simply they “believe” the world is 6000 years old and they reject any and all worldly proofs in conflict with their vision. They were among the first to begin home schooling. They feared contamination and resented paying taxes for the general good.

2. Bill Gates - An expose by the Los Angeles Times revealed that a major education reform force for well over a decade has been Bill Gates. And all of this has been under the radar. The Gates foundation desires to overhau

Jersey Jazzman: Not Getting What You Paid For

Not Getting What You Paid For

by Duke

(Cross-posted from Blue Jersey)

The members of the Democratic Hall of Shame just voted to stick it to public workers: cops, firefighters, teachers, etc. Their cowardly vote will cost middle class families thousands of dollars and drive away qualified young people who may have considered a career in public service before this betrayal.

What's especially sad is that these same Democrats have been happy to fuel their campaigns with public employee unions' money. For example, they were glad to take the voluntary contributions teachers made to their campaigns in 2009 (by law, dues can't be used to fund campaigns). But when the teachers needed them, they stabbed them in the back, costing them thousands of dollars.

What follows is a list of all of the Christiecrats who voted with the governor for slashing teacher pay, followed by

Saturday, June 25, 2011

@whatedsaid Edna Sackson: My best tip for new year would be to focus on how students learn rather than how you teach. It changed things for me completely #elemchat

Happy Pride Weekend, New York!

My Thoughts on Community at the Special Olympics World Summer Games

Maine Voices: Charter schools have a troubled history

This Is What Solidarity Looks Like

@whatedsaid Edna Sackson:
My best tip for new year would be to focus on how students learn rather than how you teach. It changed things for me completely #elemchat