Friday, May 18, 2012

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

From Bob Haisman:

What can you do? You don't have to do all - pick one! or two or three!

1. Keep it up! Send another E-mail. Call again. and again and again!

2. Contact five teachers who might be clueless or uninformed or in denial . Convince them, urge them to send an E-Mail! Help them call their legislators. Help them use the ..... "We Are One" (http://www.weareoneillinois.org/) automated contact system or the IEA system (WWW.IEANEA.ORG)! Legislative staffs are counting the number of calls they are getting!

3. Seek out your local association president and offer to help contact members! Suggest you will help with a cell phone and lap top contact your legislator party!!

4. Make an email list of every teacher you know and forward them this Pension 101!   Play Paul or Pauline Revere -- make sure your colleagues know we are in the fight of our life!

5. If you are retired -- talk to the retired teacher lunch group -- the Friday breakfast group -- be persistent! The pension You help save will be Your Own! URGE them to do more than shake their heads -- urge action -- Give them the websites!!

6. Get a group of teachers together and visit your local state Representative and local state Senator this weekend -- just the fact you call for an appointment is enough! Let them know Teachers vote and they care about their pensions! They will be home!

7. Write up a simple -- "Don't Cut My Pension" petition and have your grade level, your school , your retired lunch group -- sign it and ....present the petition this weekend to your local Representative's office!

8. Ask your colleagues (forward VIA E-Mail) to sign the following Quinn petition on line.....
http://signon.org/sign/governor-quinn-leave?source=s.em.cr&r_by=1424651&mailing_id=3617

9. There have been demonstrations in front of legislators offices in Naperville, Rushville, Westmont, Peru... organize one! Make your own signs! March for fair treatment. Attend the Orland Park Rally Friday night see how it is done!

10. http://www.weareoneillinois.org/ ---  WWW.IEANEA.ORG

GO to Springfield next week and lobby with the IEA!!  Pension Emergency Lobby Week!!!!
IEA is encouraging retired IEA members or members who are out of school to volunteer in a lobbying effort along with AFSCME and We Are One Illinois labor coalition partners scheduled for the week of May 21 in the state's capitol!!! There will be kick-offs/briefings held each day in a tent behind the Illinois State Federation of Labor located at 534 S. 2nd Street. The schedule for the week is:

Monday, May 21: Kick-off/briefing at 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday, May 22 through Friday, May 25: Kick-off/briefing at 11:00 a.m.

The Innovative Educator: What makes a great teacher? - A student says, "This!"

The Innovative Educator: What makes a great teacher? - A student says, "This!":

What makes a great teacher? - A student says, "This!"

by noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Nielsen)

Guest post by Irene, High School Junior

My old Language Arts teacher never smiled. She kept the blinds closed to keep the sunlight out. She often professed her raging dislike for the art of writing, yet she droned on class after class on the correct format of an outline. I often entertained thoughts that she was an evil witch who fed upon the souls of children. Therefore, you may imagine that after my experience with her, my expectations of Language Arts teachers were, well, low. However, after I changed schools I was lucky enough to take Classical Mythology, as my teacher for that class completely shattered each and every one of my preconceptions.

My Classical Mythology teacher recently transformed his classroom into a temple complete with candles, incense, and offering platters and brought in a woman to pose as an oracle. He told us to prepare for our meeting with the oracle by washing our hair, opening our minds and bringing a

hctiB G: Education Is Not a “Business” | The G Bitch Spot

hctiB G: Education Is Not a “Business” | The G Bitch Spot:

hctiB G: Education Is Not a “Business”

by G Bitch

originally posted May 8, 2009

The more time you spend in school, the more you see the influence of business practices. … The corporate bible Good to Great sits on the bookshelf of nearly every principal, and a lot of Stephen Covey gets quoted at education conferences (98).

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, published a monograph after learning that so many educators and other social service providers were relying on his book. In Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer, he clarified that while the fundamentals of leadership success translate throughout fields, people like principals not only are measured by

- The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

- The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

How standardized tests are affecting public schools

by Valerie Strauss

Florida’s standardized testing program is being misused and has “severely impacted student learning,” according to a new white paper that says that school districts in the state are required to give as many as 62 tests a year to some students.
Read full article >>

Why college tuitions are rising: A contrarian view

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 hours ago

This *was written by Gary C. Fethke, professor and former dean of the Henry B. Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, and Andrew J. Policano, dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. Their new book, “Public No More: A New Path to Excellence for America’s Public Universities,” will be published this month by Stanford University Press*. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

What teachers don’t need (but are getting anyway)

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

This *was written by Paul Thomas, an associate professor of education at Furman University in South Carolina. A version of this first appeared on dailykos.com. * By Paul Thomas Just days ago, I completed my 28th year as a teacher — 18 as a high school teacher of English followed by 10 years as a professor of education. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

The (college) kids are alright

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

This *was written by Stephen Whittaker, a professor of rhetoric at The University of Scranton.* By Stephen E. Whittaker For three decades, I have taught rhetoric in a university honors program, so I see the academic cream of the crop. Many of my former students today are doctors, lawyers, educators, managers, editors and non-profit leaders, and when I see them at reunions, they strike me as articulate, humane and conscientious. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Parents Across America: Parent “Choice” is Not Parent “Voice” | Scathing Purple Musings

Parents Across America: Parent “Choice” is Not Parent “Voice” | Scathing Purple Musings:

Parents Across America: Parent “Choice” is Not Parent “Voice”

by Bob Sikes

Influential public school advocacy group Parents Across America weren’t invited to Rep. Duncan Hunter’s House Education and Workforce sub-committee hearing on “Exploring State Success in Expanding Parent and Student Options.” No surprise there. PAA explains why:

Yesterday, a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing which was promoted as a discussion on “state efforts to expand parental engagement.”
However, the title of the actual hearing (see heading above) and the testimony of three of the four invited speakers, made it clear that the leadership defines parent engagement solely as parental choice.
In his opening comments, subcommittee chair Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) essentially equated parental empowerment with expanded charter schools, parent trigger laws, and school vouchers, i.e., the privatization agenda of corporate reform
Chairman Hunter even tried to tie those strategies to the research showing the many positive

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Jobs for Adults and Teens

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Jobs for Adults and Teens:

Jobs for Adults and Teens

by Melissa Westbrook

From City Year, jobs for adults:

It’s an exciting time for City Year Seattle/King County. We are growing, and we are looking for the best talent around to join our team, and we need your help to do so.

We are hiring for four different positions:

· Director of Impact, who will powerfully lead our entire effort and our team in our mission to maximize the number of at-risk kids we bring back on track to graduate.

· Training and Events Senior Manager, who will create and implement a potent, rigorous and exemplary training strategy for City Year corps member development and classroom practice.

· Senior Program Manager, who – like the Program Manager – will with great skill lead his or her team of corps members toward remarkable impact in a single school and will cement a seamless and organic partnership between the school and City Year. The Senior Program Manager will also coach and supervise a Program Manager, and participate in cross-departmental initiatives.

MGJ Hires Gregory King for Detroit

by Charlie Mas

According to the Detroit Free Press Gregory King has been hired as a principal for one of the elementary schools in the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan, the school district of struggling schools administered by Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson.

The press release from the EAA referred to his twenty years as a teacher and a principal and that he won an award in Atlanta. It doesn't mention his service in Seattle and it certainly doesn't mention his recent ethics violation.

EAA elementary school principals will be paid $120,000 a year. And that's in Detroit.

I guess Lowell should be looking for a new principal.

NYC Educator: Waffles Walcott's Words of Wisdom

NYC Educator: Waffles Walcott's Words of Wisdom:

Waffles Walcott's Words of Wisdom

by NYC Educator

Hi, it's me, your old buddy Dennis "Waffles" Walcott. I've just made a tough statement about teachers, because Mayor Bloomberg thinks the way to support our hard-working staff is to let them know we're working on new ways to fire them, and I agree completely. From now on, get two U-ratings and we'll try to remove you from your job, whether or not your principal thinks it's a good idea. This may be tough, since some of our principals give U-ratings for arbitrary and frivolous reasons, but I don't care about any of that.

It's true that right now the burden of proof is on us, and we're likely to waste a great deal of city money going after teachers who haven't actually done anything wrong. However, I'm certain the NY Post will not see it that way, and will gleefully do stories on the perfidy of these teachers even after they're acquitted. So for me, it's kind of a win-win.

Of course, once we get that new evaluation system up, we figure the burden will be on the teachers and we can

Naperville teachers rally. « Fred Klonsky

Naperville teachers rally. « Fred Klonsky:

Naperville teachers rally.

by Fred Klonsky

From the speech by Roger Sanders at the Naperville pension rally Thursday.

What needs to be done:
First, the Governor needs to get off the corporate welfare wagon, and stop giving millions of dollars in tax breaks to corporations.
Second, the General Assembly needs to take a critical look at the state’s tax structure.
Third. the General Assembly and the Governor need to get real about spending priorities.
Fourth, the General Assembly and Governor need to be serious about reforming the culture of

Life in Rahm’s Chicago.

by Fred Klonsky

Parents sign petition against use of FCAT - Schools - MiamiHerald.com

Parents sign petition against use of FCAT - Schools - MiamiHerald.com:

Parents sign petition against use of FCAT

The petition, gaining traction in parts of Florida and around the country, urges education administrators to rely less on standardized tests and use other measures to evaluate students, schools and teachers.

FAIRTEST CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF FCAT, PEARSON

by Bob Sikes

GO TO

National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/14/2799459/parents-sign-petition-against.html#storylink=cpy

Occupy Chicago NATO/G8 Guide | OccupyWallSt.org

Occupy Chicago NATO/G8 Guide | OccupyWallSt.org:

Occupy Chicago NATO/G8 Guide

by OccupyWallSt

via Occupy Chicago:
To better empower travelers and Chicagoans new to Occupy Chicago, we are releasing the Occupy Chicago NATO/G8 Guide.
This guide:
-Provides travelers with information they need when coming into Chicago, such as how to find housing and food resources
-Provides protestors details on their legal rights, a bank of information on all the actions of Occupy Chicago's Ten Days of Action, points of contact useful to protestors, and more.
-Presents information to make it easier for new-comers to beginning working with Occupy Chicago.
-Explains often esoteric details on Occupy Chicago infrastructure, gives information on how to get involved in Occupy Chicago, and explains the History of Occupy Chicago and The Chicago Principles.
Educate, Empower, Occupy!
If you wish to print and distribute this information, please print it out in booklet format, which you can do by printing from Adobe Reader, double sided page. Under the “page scaling option” select “Booklet Printing”. This will print this information out in form that looks like a small book.
The guide is attached to this post.
map of NATO and Occupy Chicago locations is available here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dv67zyun8l8g8o3
Attachment:
OCNG8 Guide - Booklet ver.pdf

TODAY: Women Occupying Wall Street Reclaim Feminism In Citywide Gathering

OccupyWallSt at OccupyWallSt News - 1 day ago

[image: 1st feminist GA] Occupy Wall Street reignited a movement for economic justice. Now WOW — Women Occupying Wall Street — aims to do the same for feminism. They’re bringing together a broad range of New York City feminists—and unapologetically using the word—to launch a new, inclusive activism for gender justice and against the War on Women. *The First Feminist General Assembly is Thursday, May 17 at 6:30 in Washington Square Park.* Yes, it’s a meeting—but not just any meeting. The invitation list ranges from SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Center to the Sex...more »

Stop the Neo-Liberal Crisis Politics – Dispossess the Beneficiaries!

OccupyWallSt at OccupyWallSt News - 1 day ago

[image: Blockupy Frankfurt] via stop-neoliberal-crises-politics.org: We are experiencing the deepest crisis of capitalism since the great depression of the 30s – and the European governments continue to pour oil on the fires! From the very beginning, some governments have prevented a solidarity-based solution to the crisis in Europe and are significantly responsible for its exacerbation. This refers particularly to the German government, which, in August 2008, blocked a substantial economic stimulus package for Europe. Hardly had the recession reached its lowest point in Germany... more »

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Big Education Ape Nite Cap UPDATE 5-17-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Teachers Teach the Test When the Test Tests Teachers

by Duke

This morning, the Star-Ledger gave me a gift: the perfect reformy op-ed. I say "perfect" because this piece brings together pretty much every ill-informed and poorly conceived argument for using standardized tests as part of a teacher's evaluation into one place. It's like a Rosetta Stone of reforminess.

The author, Marcus Winters, is a think-tanky type, but he has some serious credentials. That says to me that this is the best their side can do.

If so, they've got problems.

I'll pick apart the entire thing over the next few days. For now, let's leave it at this:

A rich evaluation system would assess a teacher’s performance using both student

In Case You Missed Paul Krugman

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

I promised myself I would write one tech post today. So, in breaking that promise, I think I'll just embed the Paul Krugman interview from Democracy Now. This is a good, extended interview. I'm pretty sure I don't have to buy his book now that I've seen this interview.

I was going to try to tie this somehow into George Schmidt's piece on the new "financial literacy" thing in CPS that's being funded by the banks, but I'm too tired. If you're a kid out there, just know that you can join a credit

Remembering Wisconsin

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

I wish Tom Barrett well in Wisconsin but I've got to say the Rahm endorsement completely took the wind out of my sails in terms of enthusiasm for a candidate. I wonder how many votes the Rahm endorsement picked up for Barrett. I can't imagine it's many, if any.

Which is weird because it seems to me that when you're being outspent 25-1, it pretty much comes down to turning out the vote, and Rahm's a base-suppressor across the land as far as I can tell. I'm no expert, though. Maybe there's some heretofore unidentified swath of Republicans who will cross over if they see Rahm standing next to some guy.

Anyhoo it was a thrill to meet Kathleen Falk. I'll keep my fingers crossed for Barrett, whatever his message is

HOW CALIFORNIA IS UNITING TO STOP THE SWINGING DOOR OF SCHOOL SUSPENSIONS

by smf

By Laura Faer Public Counsel |California Progress Report http://bit.ly/JOPKTw 17 May 2012 :: Civil rights advocates, judges and law enforcement sometimes wind up on different sides of the public debate about juvenile justice. But on the issue of school discipline, we’re speaking the same language. That’s because harsh school discipline rules are paving the way for too many students to wind up

Gwinnett schools: Furlough days, larger classes and 585 unfilled jobs

by Maureen Downey

Gwinnett schools approved a budget today that calls for two unpaid furlough days for most employees, two extra students per classroom and nearly 600 fewer people on the payroll. Most of the job cuts will come from leaving open jobs unfilled.
According to the AJC:

Spending for day-to-day operations of the state’s largest school district will be $1.2 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1, down $60.6 million from this year.

“Round-Up” Of Recent Good Articles & Posts On School Reform

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here’s a collection of recent education policy articles and posts:
Deepening the Debate over Teach For America is from Anthony Cody at Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Raising Concerns About Teach For America.
Charter schools aren’t the right answer is by Paul Thomas. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Analyzing Charter Schools.
Neither Teacher-Less nor Teacher-proof: Constructivism Meets Guided Instruction is by John Thompson and appeared in Education Week.
Cartoon: Burden – Or Excuse? is a great cartoon you can find on This Week In Education. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outside Factors Have On Student Achievement.

Charter School Treasurer Accused Of Embezzlement

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A Ohio charter school treasurer is accused of embezzling $472,000 in federal taxpayer dollars.

Federal and state officials announced a breakthrough in the ongoing case during a 10 a.m. press conference Thursday.

The federal embezzlement charge against 57-year-old Carl W. Shye Jr., of New Albany, involves activity over the past six years.

The Ohio Auditor of State's office said it can trace a pattern of problems with Shye going back even further.

Upon taking office in January 2011, Auditor David Yost quickly noticed a pattern in problem audits around the state involving Shye.

In February 2011, his office contacted the FBI to launch a joint investigation into Shye's involvement in community schools across Ohio.

Auditor of State investigative and audit staff worked through 17 audits and issued 62 findings for recovery

Big Education Ape Nite Cap 5-16-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 18 hours ago

Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, May 18, 2012

Parents sign petition against use of FCAT

The petition, gaining traction in parts of Florida and around the country, urges education administrators to rely less on standardized tests and use other measures to evaluate students, schools and teachers.

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BY LAURA ISENSEE

Thursday, May 17, 2012