LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 11-22-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

I Give Thanks to You

by dianerav

On this day, I pause to thank you, the readers of this blog.
I thank you because you care about children and the future of education.
I thank you because you understand that the way we educate our children today shapes the society we will live in for decades to come.
I thank you because you teach me, you encourage me, you give me strength.
I thank those of you who are parents, doing what is best for your child or children.
I thank those of you who are educators, who have dedicated your life to helping others learn and develop.
I wish you and your family a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

Be Sure to Thank Your Favorite Teacher

by dianerav

Happy Thanksgiving to all.
I love this. It came from a post on August 28. It was inspired by an article written in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette by a copy editor.  He wrote about his grandmother, who taught Neil Armstrong.
Neil Armstrong never forgot her. Even when he became world-famous, he remembered his favorite teacher.
Neil Armstrong had something to say about merit pay, albeit obliquely. When people hailed him for his achievement, he was quick to point out that there were many people whose work put him into space–scientists, engineers, technicians, hundreds of unknown, unsung heroes. He didn’t do it alone. It took teamwork.

Thanks to The Valiant Teachers of the Year in Acadia Parish

by dianerav

Just a few days ago, the Acadia Parish school board in Louisiana honored its teachers of the year.
Each of its 27 schools selects a teacher of the year. Then, the district selects 3 teachers among the 27 as district winners: the Elementary T.O.Y, a Middle school T.O.Y., and a High school T.O.Y. to represent our district at the Regional T.O.Y. level which eventually feeds into the state T.O.Y. competition.
As readers of this blog know, the state of Louisiana has done more to discourage, demean and demoralize its teachers than almost any other state (I have to say “almost” because there is always Florida and a few other contenders).
Bryan Alleman, a teacher in Acadia Parish schools, was invited to be master of ceremonies for the event and he 

Thanks to These Teachers!

by dianerav

A teacher and parent remembers the teachers who made a difference, the ones whose work is still remembered many years later:
Thank you to the science teacher who let my son hand in elaborate hand-drawn cartoons explaining scientific processes. And to the history teacher whose project options allowed for students to act out interviews with historical figures. Thanks to my daughter’s high school English teacher who allowed the students to make puppets and perform scenes from A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Thanks to the physics teacher who let the students design and build model bridges and catapults (and I mean really build them, by hand, not using a 

Diane in the Evening 11-21-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: When Happy Talk Is Mandated by dianerav A reader in Texas responds to a post about the Dallas superintendent, who has sent out directions to schools to express themselves only in positive terms: This blog reminds me: we got a new superintendent in our district where I was the deputy superintendent. His FIRST act was to send out a memo to all staff. His directive was that absolutely everybody had to start all letters and all memoranda and all emails with this statement: “Today is November 21, 2012, and it is a wonderful day!” Many of us spent the rest of t... more »

Final grades, exit interviews - Bites - Opinions - November 22, 2012 - Sacramento News & Review

Final grades, exit interviews - Bites - Opinions - November 22, 2012 - Sacramento News & Review:

Final grades, exit interviews

Local Reep fails Mother Earth, K.J.'s opposition says goodbye, school-board member bails

By Cosmo Garvin 
cosmog@newsreview.com

This article was published on 11.22.12.

Related stories: Losing it K.J.'s rent problem, Blue Diamond roughs up union.SN&R, 11.27.08.

The Sierra Club’s annual legislative report card is always good for a couple of head-scratchers. For example, RepublicanAssemblywoman Beth Gaines was our only local rep to vote against a new law recognizing that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.” Not so surprising, you say? We all know how the GOP hates entitlements—and human beings.
Then what about DemocraticAssemblyman Richard Pan’s lackluster 54 percent score? That’s an F, doc, even in California. (Pan got dinged for voting against a ban on polystyrene food containers, while supporting a measure that would make it harder for cities and towns to regulate landfills.)
Other grades fell along the usual curve. Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada got an overachieving 92 percent, Assemblyman Roger Dickinson got a solid 85 percent, as did State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. And the aforementioned Gaines got just 15 percent. But perhaps the Sierra Club ought to be easier on the Republicans. They are a California endangered species, after all.
Goodbye and good luck to Sacramento City council members Rob Fong andSandy Sheedy. Their last days in office are this month, and each deserve long, glowing profiles, listing their years of service and 

Test your Thanksgiving smarts:

Test your Thanksgiving smarts

Posted by Valerie Strauss on November 22, 2012 at 9:37 am

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Sash and Malia Obama with Courage, the turkey President Obama “pardoned” in 2009. (By Marvin Joseph – THE WASHINGTON POST)

Here are 10 questions that will test just how much you know about the history of Thanksgiving. Answers, with explanations, are below.

1) True or False. The Pilgrims who sailed to the New World in 1620 on the Mayflower had a smooth Atlantic crossing which they took to be a sign from God that they should settle in the New World.

2) Along with Squanto, a Patuxet Indian, with whom did the Pilgrims dine at Plymouth Colony in 1621, commonly said to be the first Thanksgiving (though earlier such feasts had taken place and it didn’t set a precedent)?

a) Wampanoag Indians   b) Delaware Indians    c)  Nauset Indians   d) Massachuset Indians

3) The one account of that 1621 Thanksgiving dinner written at the time says this was served:

a) venison      b) chicken    c) turkey    d) pie

On Assignment -Deadline is Nov. 30 for teachers to post projects for DonorsChoose.Org support

On Assignment -:

Deadline is Nov. 30 for teachers to post projects for DonorsChoose.Org support

By Theresa Harrington
Monday, November 19th, 2012 at 6:55 pm in Education
No Comments

DonorsChoose.org is a cool website that allows members of the community to support projects in local schools that are posted by teachers who can’t afford to buy all the supplies necessary to implement them.

But time is running out for teachers to post their projects. The deadline is Nov. 30.

Here is more information about how the website began, from founder Charles Best:

“Fueling Your School Fuels the Economy

During my career as a teacher, I saw first-hand that all schools are not created equal.

My colleagues and I spent a lot of our own money on copy paper and pencils, but we often couldn’t afford the resources that would get our students excited about learning. We’d talk about books our students should read, a field trip we wanted to take, or a microscope that would bring science to life.

I figured there were people out there who want to help our students, if they could see where their money was going. So, using a pencil and paper, I drew a website 

Daily Kos: A Failed Experiment

Daily Kos: A Failed Experiment:

A Failed Experiment

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

In upper-middle-class suburbs on the East Coast, the newest must-have isn’t a $7,500 Sub-Zero refrigerator. It’s a standby generator that automatically flips on backup power to an entire house when the electrical grid goes out.

.   So begin this New York Times op ed by Nicholas Kristof.  He starts with this imagery, explaining why increasingly those well-off are turning to such generators after a series of failures of our aging electric grid.  Such systems can cost over $10,000, but he is a bit less critical after his family lost power for 12 days after Sandy.  More than 3% of homes worth more than $100,000 now have such generators.But this image serves as an exemplar, or perhaps a metaphor, for how those with means are responding the real failure.  The main producer of such systems has seen business boom, to which Kristof responds:

That’s how things often work in America. Half-a-century of tax cuts focused on the wealthiest Americans leave us with third-rate public services, leading the wealthy to develop inefficient private workarounds.

 Rather than the wealthy each having such a system it would be more efficient to simply fix the electrical grid to 

Modern School: Data Driven Nonsense from Harvard and the Gates Foundation

Modern School: Data Driven Nonsense from Harvard and the Gates Foundation:

Data Driven Nonsense from Harvard and the Gates Foundation

by Michael Dunn

A new Gates-funded Harvard study has found that Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) teachers vary substantially in quality (more than in other districts) and that it disproportionately places inexperienced teachers in lower performing classrooms (as in other districts). The study, Human Capital Diagnostic, was done by the Strategic Data Project (SDP), which is connected with Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research.

The biggest problem with this study is that it is a bunch of nonsense.

Let’s start with the authors’ most profound claim: The best teachers in LAUSD provide the equivalent of eight additional months of instruction during the school year compared with the district’s worst teachers. Since their research was based entirely on student scores on the California Standards Tests (CSTs), a high-stakes exam used to rank schools, and the top teachers in the study were the ones with the largest student gains on these tests, what they are really saying is that the best teachers provided the equivalent of eight additional months of test 

Weekly Address: Wishing the American People a Happy Thanksgiving | The White House

Weekly Address: Wishing the American People a Happy Thanksgiving | The White House:

Weekly Address: Wishing the American People a Happy Thanksgiving

WASHINGTON, DC—During this holiday season, President Obama gave thanks in his weekly address for all of the blessings we share as Americans, and expressed his gratitude to the brave men and women who are defending our freedom around the world.  As we come together to spend time with those we love, we also stand with those who are less fortunate this year, including our fellow Americans in the northeast who lost so much during the recent storm.  This Thanksgiving, friends, family, and community will gather in the spirit of unity and look out for those less fortunate – to pull each other up and move forward together.

The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, Thursday, November 22, 2012. 

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
November 22, 2012

On behalf of the Obama family – Michelle, Malia, Sasha and Bo – I want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.

For us, like so many of you, this is a day full of family and friends; food and football.  It’s a day to fight the overwhelming urge to take a nap – at least until after dinner.  But most of all, it’s a time to give thanks for each other, and for the incredible bounty we enjoy.

That’s especially important this year.  As a nation, we’ve just emerged from a campaign season that was passionate, noisy, and vital to our democracy.  But it also required us to make choices – and sometimes those choices led us to focus on what sets us apart instead of what ties us together; on what candidate we support instead of what country we belong to.

Thanksgiving is a chance to put it all in perspective – to remember that, despite our differences, we are, and always will be, Americans first and foremost. 

Today we give thanks for blessings that are all too rare in this world.  The ability to spend time with the ones we love; to say what we want; to worship as we please; to know that there are brave men and women defending our freedom around the globe; and to look our children in the eye and tell them that, here in America, no dream is too big if they’re willing to work for it.

We’re also grateful that this country has always been home to Americans who see these blessings not simply as gifts to enjoy, but as opportunities to give back.  Americans who believe we have a responsibility to look out for those less fortunate – to pull each other up and move forward together.

Right now, as we prepare to gather around our dinner tables, there are families in the northeast who don’t have that luxury.  Many of them have lost everything to Hurricane Sandy – homes, possessions, even loved ones.  And it will be a long time before life goes back to normal.

But in the midst of so much tragedy, there are also glimmers of hope.  Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen FEMA personnel, National Guard and first responders working around the clock in hard-hit communities.  We’ve seen hospital workers using their lunch breaks to distribute supplies.  Families offering up extra bedrooms.  The fire department advertising free hot showers.  Buses full of volunteers coming from hundreds of miles away.  Neighbors sharing whatever they have – food, water, electricity – and saying again and again how lucky they are to have a roof over their heads.

It would have been easy for these folks to do nothing – to worry about themselves and leave the rest to someone else.  But that’s not who we are.  That’s not what we do. 

As Americans, we are a bold, generous, big-hearted people.  When our brothers and sisters are in need, we roll up our sleeves and get to work – not for the recognition or the reward, but because it’s the right thing to do.  Because there but for the grace of God go I.  And because here in America, we rise or fall together, as one nation and one people.

That’s something to be grateful for – today and every day. 

So to all the Americans doing your part to make our world a better place – it is my privilege to serve as your President.  To all our servicemembers – it is my honor to be your Commander in Chief.  And from our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In L.A. the least experienced teachers are being placed with the neediest kids

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In L.A. the least experienced teachers are being placed with the neediest kids:

In L.A. the least experienced teachers are being placed with the neediest kids

by Mike Klonsky

A new Harvard study shows the so-called "achievement gap" growing wider in L.A. as the neediest of the district's students are taught by the least experienced teachers. Under Supt. John Deasy's control,  LAUSD has increased its reliance on extended substitutes and TFA five-week wonders as an austerity measure and a way of undermining the union contract. First-year teachers are assigned to students who begin the year academically behind students assigned to more experienced teachers.

According to the L.A. Times:

No single finding can produce a strategy to erase the district’s substantial achievement gap between white 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Fr. Simeon Daly: A Song of Thanks to Teacher Sister Mary

Missouri Education Watchdog: Fr. Simeon Daly: A Song of Thanks to Teacher Sister Mary:

Fr. Simeon Daly: A Song of Thanks to Teacher Sister Mary

by stlgretchen

  


Blessings to everyone this Thanksgiving.  Below is a beautiful song of thanks to a special teacher/friend sung by a monk from St. Meinrad Archabbey....a song never to be sung to a computer or data system by a grateful student.   This song represents everything teaching is all about.  It's not about data driven results as much as it is as the giving of knowledge to another person and igniting the light of understanding.  

The song is for all the mentors we've had during our lives.  It's one of the sweetest and kindest tributes you may ever hear.



From youtube:  and "Someone was There"  by Fr. Simeon Daly, OSB:


Though not a musician, Fr. Simeon Daly, a Benedictine monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana, plays a song that pays special tribute to a music teacher. Dale Gonyea composed and performed the song for his school music teacher, Sr. Mary, on the 50th anniversary of her being a religious sister in 1984. To read the story of Fr. Simeon and Sr. Mary's friendship, visithttp://www.fathersimeon.com/stories.asp?sid=86.

Po

IEA Prez tells Quinn to stop the attack on AFSCME. « Fred Klonsky

IEA Prez tells Quinn to stop the attack on AFSCME. « Fred Klonsky:

IEA Prez tells Quinn to stop the attack on AFSCME.

by Fred Klonsky

From the IEA President Cinda Klickna:

“Governor Quinn’s decision to terminate the state’s contract with its largest employee union, AFSCME, is an attack on both the collective bargaining process and on all unionized public employees in Illinois.

The AFSCME employees provide health services to the sick, the elderly and to children. These hard-working men and women help ensure public safety and enhance the quality of life for all Illinoisans and deserve better than this assault from the state’s chief executive.

On behalf of the 133,000 IEA members, we urge Governor Quinn to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair contract with AFSCME.”

Watch: The disenfranchisment of Native Americans continues today | The Raw Story

Watch: The disenfranchisment of Native Americans continues today | The Raw Story:

Watch: The disenfranchisment of Native Americans continues today

By Megan Carpentier
Thursday, November 22, 2012 1:00 EST

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Topics: Native Americans

 

Though the story of the first American Thanksgiving in which the Pilgrims host a great banquet to thank Native Americans who helped them survive the first winter, there is a darker history to the encounter.

The man behind that generosity, Tisquantum (Anglicized as Squanto), had been kidnapped by a British seafarer named Thomas Hunt in 1614 while Hunt was serving under Captain John Smith (he of Jamestown and the story of Pocahontas). Hunt sold Tisquantum — a Patuxet nation member, which was a part of the Wampanoag confederacy — into slavery in Spain, from which heeventually escaped. Tisquantum then signed up as an interpreter for a Newfoundland-bound ship, and made his way back to New England only to find that he was the sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic that claimed every other Patuxet. He is nonetheless credited with teaching basic survival skills, like planting and fishing, to the Pilgrims and helping them survive the harsh conditions, which was the reason for the November 1621 feast Americans now celebrate as Thanksgiving.

Tisquantum died in 1622, of smallpox.

“Reclaiming Their Voices: The Native American Vote in New Mexico” is an award-winning documentary film by Dorothy Fadiman that looks at the historical roots of the modern-day disenfranchisement of another Native people: the Laguna Pueblo. In it, she traces the historical roots of their oppression at the hands of Spanish colonists and their early efforts — led by Popé, depicted above — to overthrow their oppressors, as well as their modern-day fight for the right to vote and the freedom to access the polls, which Native Americans are still often denied.

Watch it in its entirety, courtesy of Dorothy Fadiman and Concentric Media, below.

RECLAIMING Their VOICE: The Native American Vote in New Mexico & Beyond (42 min.) from Dorothy Fadiman on Vimeo.

Narrated by PETER COYOTE, this film is OSCAR-nominated, EMMY-winning, filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman’s latest documentary. "RECLAIMING Their VOICE" follows Native Americans in New Mexico taking a stand against injustice in the political process. Personal stories 

The in box. Letter to the Southtown Star. What is missing from the pension reform dialogue? « Fred Klonsky

The in box. Letter to the Southtown Star. What is missing from the pension reform dialogue? « Fred Klonsky:

The in box. Letter to the Southtown Star. What is missing from the pension reform dialogue?

by Fred Klonsky

My letter to the SouthtownStar:
How tied to Illinois’ Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan, are local south-suburban Democratic legislators? Residents throughout Southland are about to find out. In the coming days, Illinois Legislators will be headed to Springfield to yet again attempt to fix the State’s spiraling budget deficit. Central to the Legislature’s focus will undoubtedly include passing a Madigan-led pension reform package.
Speaker Madigan has spelled out his recipe for pension reform several times through the local media: “My position on pension reform is that we have to eliminate the free lunch for local districts,” he states.
What he is referring to is his proposed “cost-shift” plan, which would defer the responsibility of funding the pension system onto local school districts. By skirting what has historically been a duty of the State of Illinois, Madigan will be forcing us, the local taxpayers, to pay for the 

Common Core Math Standards Making the Simple Complicated | Truth in American Education

Common Core Math Standards Making the Simple Complicated | Truth in American Education:

Common Core Math Standards Making the Simple Complicated

by Shane Vander Hart

Barry Garelick wrote at The Atlantic about the Common Core Math Standards.  Basically he says that kids are required not to just learn how to make a calculations, but also how to explain why they are doing so.  The standards actually elevate this above learning how to solve math problems.  Garelick points out a couple of emails he has received as anecdotal evidence that the implementation of the standards are falling flat.

The first email was from a parent:

They implemented Common Core this year in our school system in Tennessee. I have a third grader who loved math and got A’s in math until this year, where he struggles to get a C. He struggles with “explaining” how he got his answer after using “mental math.” In fact, I had no idea how to explain it! It’s math 2+2=4. I can’t explain it, it just is.

The second from a teacher…

I am teaching the traditional algorithm this year to my third graders, but was told next year with Common Core I will not be allowed to. They should use mental math, and other strategies, to add. Crazy! I am so outraged that I have decided my child is NOT going to public schools until Common Core falls flat.

Garelick then goes on to explain why the Common Core Math Standards complicate math needlessly fo

Is this what students in Louisiana are learning about evolution? | toteachornototeach

Is this what students in Louisiana are learning about evolution? | toteachornototeach:

Is this what students in Louisiana are learning about evolution?

by aristotlethewise

Is this what students in Louisiana are learning about evolution?

by George Dvorsky
Earlier this week, The New Star published an article questioning the way Louisiana goes about its funding of nonpublic schools. According to the state’s constitution, all nonpublic schools must certify that it has “curriculum or specialized course of study of quality at least equal to that prescribed for similar public schools.” This has prompted some critics to point out the sorry state of affairs found in many private and parochial schools in Louisiana — institutions that brazenly tout a creationist agenda. And indeed, a closer look at the educational literature reveals a definite anti-science bias.
As The New Star is reporting, it’s not clear that the state’s requirements are being met before it dishes out millions of dollars to private and parochial schools:
“We don’t look at the quality of the curriculum,” said BESE member James Garvey of Metairie, who co-chairs