Letter to Georgia Legislature: Help teachers help students and... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Letter to Georgia Legislature: Help teachers help students and... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Letter to Georgia Legislature: Help teachers help students and everyone wins 

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The Georgia General Assembly is about to meet in Atlanta. What will lawmakers do for education? jgetz@ajc.com

Previous Posts

• Inspiring moments in the classroom. They happen and they matter
  December 31, 2013
• Fire the teacher who told student we don't need another black president
  December 30, 2013
• Should Georgia change its constitution to allow Dunwoody and others to create own schools?
  December 30, 2013

By Maureen Downey

 DeKalb high school teacher Rita Robinzine, a 24-year educator, wrote this opinion piece directed to the Legislature, which is about to assemble in Atlanta for the 2014 session.

By Rita Robinzine

During the upcoming legislative session, the legislators, governor and state school superintendent should take the emphasis off of teacher performance as education reform and focus on helping all children of Georgia to get a good public school education. That should be their chief reform plan instead of continuing to pass legislation that has only served to frustrate teachers and caused them to leave the profession or lose the joy of teaching.  

 Help teachers help students.

The state has reduced the amount of funding that would normally go to the local school systems and have forced the local school boards to make up the difference. This is a difficult task for local school systems when property values have decreased significantly. When there is no money, then there are no resources, yet teachers are still expected to have all their students do well on state mandated tests or they are at risk of losing their jobs because their 

Revamped, computerized GED test unveiled this week | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

Revamped, computerized GED test unveiled this week | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

Revamped, computerized GED test unveiled this week

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | January 1st, 2014, 6:00am

Diane Orson/WNPR

Donald Desmond teaches Abdesa Bustina to use a computer at the New Haven Adult and Continuing Education Center. The new GED will be offered only on computer, but many students here don't know how to use one.

After decades as a paper and pencil, multiple choice test, the New Year has brought with it a new  GED test administered solely on computer.

Its creators said the content of the made over General Education Development test will now better reflect high school learning standards that increasingly focus on critical thinking and problem solving skills.

They also said the new test - a seven-hour exam - is harder and measures more skills valued by employers, meaning it'll help open the door for college and the job market.

The GED is a national test given to adults who dropped out of high school or didn't 

UC System's ban on smoking and e-cigarettes begins

Starting January 1, 2014, smoking will be banned at all UC campuses.; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Starting Wednesday, students, employees and visitors to University of California campuses will no longer be allowed to smoke, chew tobacco or use e-cigarettes on school property. Even parking lots will be smoke-free zones. The new ban comes two years after former UC President Mark Yudof firs

by Mary Plummer / 50min 

Green, possible SRC chief, gives views on schools - Philly.com

Green, possible SRC chief, gives views on schools - Philly.com:

Green, possible SRC chief, gives views on schools

CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer

By Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer

POSTED: December 31, 2013

Is Bill Green interested in becoming chair of the School Reform Commission?

Sources say he is a finalist for the job; Green is mum on the subject.

But the current city councilman is clear in his view that the Philadelphia School District is failing far too many children, and change must come quickly.

"Eliminating all the bad seats in the School District is a concept I think is important to pursue," Green said Monday. "There are tens of thousands of kids in underperforming schools."

The district's governing body has been leaderless since Oct. 23, when Pedro Ramos resigned because of a family emergency. Gov. Corbett has acknowledged the need for a speedy decision on a new SRC chair, and said he is down to "a few names," but has said he will take the time he needs to find the right person.

As the district heads into its budget-building season, the unpaid job takes on extra importance. The school system's financial crisis shows no signs of abating, and the SRC must adopt a 2014-15 preliminary budget in March.

Green declined to comment on his candidacy for SRC chair, but did speak about some of his educational philosophies.

In the last four years, he has issued two policy papers suggesting "radical and transformative" fixes for the district - more charters, fewer district schools, vouchers, longer school day and year, breaking up big schools, more social and academic supports.

His views have evolved, Green said. He previously advocated abolishing the SRC; now he believes that it has all of the powers it needs to make change, and that it should continue to exist.

Traditional public schools are still necessary, Green said, but not for tradition's sake. Some district schools are doing a great job, 

Taxpayer-Funded Aid Program Benefits Richer Students | Hechinger Report

Taxpayer-Funded Aid Program Benefits Richer Students | Hechinger Report:

Taxpayer-Funded Aid Program Benefits Richer Students

By Jon Marcus

This story also appeared at:

Greg Noll balances his engineering major at Columbia University with a work-study job in the university’s fitness center, filling spray bottles, wiping sweat off the machines, and picking up towels for 20 hours a week at $9 an hour.

He uses the money for his living expenses—buying books and food and going out with friends on the weekends.

“I try to put some away, but it’s college,” Noll says. “Everyone here needs money, whether they come from better-off families and don’t have the money to live a life they’re used to, or don’t have money in general and are really just trying to live.”

In fact, much of the more than $1 billion a year in federal taxpayer-funded work-study money is going to the children of better-off families at expensive private universities, and not their lower-income counterparts, under a 50-year-old formula those pricey universities are unlikely to willingly relinquish.

Nearly one in four work-study recipients come from families with incomes of more than $80,000 a year. Fewer than half meet the federal definition of financial need.

The formula “disproportionately benefits the students who need it the least,” says Rory O’Sullivan, research and policy director at the youth advocacy organization Young Invincibles. “At a time of tight budgets, it doesn’t make sense. It should go to people who can benefit the most.”

Unlike other federal financial aid, the money for work-study isn’t allocated based on how many students at a university actually need it, but on how much the university got the year before, an

My New Year’s Post | deutsch29

My New Year’s Post | deutsch29:

My New Year’s Post

January 1, 2014

When I awoke on December 31st, I planned to write my New Year’s post. However, AFT’s 10 Myths rattled my cage, so I spent the better part of the day writing my response.

For me, 2013 has been a remarkable year. How my life has changed, and much of it due to this blog.

I attended college for thirteen years– six for my undergrad; two for my masters, and four for my doctorate. Not once in thirteen years of college did I pull an all-nighter. In fact, I cannot remember staying up past midnight in order to work on any assignment.

I laugh at that idea now, for I cannot count the number of times I have had four (or fewer) hours of sleep because I wanted to write a post for this blog. I consider doing so to be well worth my time.

Apparently readers nationwide (some, even worldwide) believe reading my work is well worth their time, also. It used to be that a google search of my name produced only automobile ads.

No more.

On Christmas Day, my mother and I stopped by her neighbor’s to say hello. Her 

Where’s The Outrage? – redqueeninla

Where’s The Outrage? – redqueeninla:

Where’s The Outrage?

Written by redqueeninla in LAUSD

 In this season given over to wrapping-up the designated twelve-month unit’s worth of happenings, Education may be mentioned nominally as an issue of great import while in matter of fact, there is very little gravitas escorting it. As vested and as mesmerized as the next by all things education-political, yet along with everyone else, I find myself sort of glazing-over when confronted with the reporting of it.

Yet, oh does this dispassion matter. For it is in the wake of fatigue and ennui and confusion that so much that is so bad for our children gets enacted. So much!

When will you get involved? It’s time to push through the stultifying verbiage and listen to – really hear — the underlying meaning. In the spirit of the season, here are some sample outrages for your consideration:

• School class sizes on the order of 50 pupils per teacher. I don’t care what the published average norms are [2013-14 range: 24 - 42.5 depending on school- and class-type and grade (42.5 is "district norm" for grades 6-12)]. The reality is that some children are sitting in some classrooms where a single teacher is expected to teach, somehow, your child as one among fifty. Because these norms are averages across the district, games are played with the overall numbers resulting in this untenable situation in not-rare instances. It is not possible for one individual to instruct 50 students, no matter the theorizing otherwise. It simply isn’t. And if this reality doesn’t get your 

2014 Resolution: Stop Watching Feel-Good Teacher Movies - Joshua John Mackin - The Atlantic

2014 Resolution: Stop Watching Feel-Good Teacher Movies - Joshua John Mackin - The Atlantic:

2014 Resolution: Stop Watching Feel-Good Teacher Movies

Films like Freedom Writers and Stand and Deliver perpetuate destructive stereotypes about inner-city schools.

 

Paramount Pictures

2014 promises to be a banner year for education in the news. New York City’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, will likely reverse some of his predecessor’s reform-minded policies. States are moving forward with implementing the Common Core standards despite increasing opposition.  And a number of closely watched court cases around tenure rules will have rulings handed down—with potentially wide-ranging effects.    

How will Americans process education news in the coming year? How will they decide which policies they support and which ones they oppose? How will they determine not only what’s best for their own children, but for children from other, less advantaged backgrounds? Unfortunately, many Americans’ experience with failing schools and struggling students comes from what they  see in films such as Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, andLean on Me. These movies are popular: Dangerous Minds made more than $80 million at the box office in 1995, and the star of Stand and Deliver was 

V.A.M.: Value Added Measure: Stardate 2014.1

V.A.M.: Value Added Measure: Stardate 2014.1:

Stardate 2014.1

One of Our Schools is Missing, Actually Several  

(A Jen Hogue Star Trek Parody)

Teacher's log, star date 2014.1.  A cosmic cloud of charters has been cataclysmically crowding  into the fringes of our public-school system.  The U.S.S. Enterprise, owing to its proximity to the core of the disturbance, has been sent by Starfleet command to investigate.  We are presently situated in the Eva "Success" System, which currently threatens Districts 1,3,7,12 and 30 in our Federation.

[Bridge]

SULU:  We should intercept the cloud of charters in the vicinity of  International HS.

SPOCK:  My instruments are measuring the cosmic cloud as extremely well-funded, I mean of enormous size. 

John D.O.E.:  (wearing a red shirt)  Look at its pretty colors. 

KIRK:  It is presently engulfing International HS.  Reading, Spock?

SPOCK:  Most curious, Captain.  It emits a peculiar mixture of gaseous chemicals,

 Schools for sale, rent, or high occupancy, and low-to-no cost lease

by Adam Bergstein / 26min 

HAPPY NEW YEAR - All You Need is Love

HAPPY NEW YEAR - All You Need is Love

Love, Love, Love.
Love, Love, Love.
Love, Love, Love.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love (All together, now!)
All you need is love. (Everybody!)
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
(love is all you need) (love is all you need) 
(love is all you need) Yesterday (love is all you need)
(love is all you need) (love is all you need)

Yee-hai!
Oh yeah!
love is all you need, love is all you need,love is all you need, love is all you need, oh yeah oh hell yea! love is all you need love is all you need love is all you need.

An Urban Teacher's Education: Life Lessons: 2013

An Urban Teacher's Education: Life Lessons: 2013:

Life Lessons: 2013

It's time, once again, to reflect on the things I've learned this past year, both in teaching and in life. 

In 2009, most of my learning was about the corruption and disgusting nature of gritty inner-city politics. In 2010, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what constitutes real, valuable, meaningful knowledge and how we go about acquiring that and passing it on. In 2011, my learning seemed to be all over the place - although much of it was about finding success in schools and democracy. And last year (here and here), I learned a lot about identity and how it influences the way we learn.

This year, much of my learning has been around health, creating healthy school environments, identifying the markers of unhealthy environments, and seeking to remedy them. 

Here they are:

1) "You cannot have an atmosphere of respect given an impossible task."

At the CES conference this past November in San Francisco, my colleagues and I were listening to Deborah Meier talk about the state of schools today. At one point, she noted, "You cannot have an atmosphere of respect given an impossible task."

Ms. Meier is right.

Most public education workers have been given an impossible task. It is easy to hide that it is an 

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement":

“Ways to Use Technology to Engage With Parents”

Ways To Use Technology To Engage With Parents is a useful short article at EdTechReview. I’m adding it to A Beginning List Of The Best Resources On Using Technology To Help Engage Parents.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 35min 

“Closing The ‘Word Gap’ Between Rich And Poor”

Closing The ‘Word Gap’ Between Rich And Poor is from NPR. It doesn’t add anything new to the resources on The Best Resources For Learning About The “Word Gap,” so I’m not even going to add it there. It does, however, indicate that interest in the “word gap” is gaining steam. It will be interesting to see where it goes…

by Larry Ferlazzo / 35min 

 

12-31-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: More Good Resources On Asking QuestionsHere are new additions to The Best Posts & Articles About Asking Good Questions: I really like This Post Will Make You A More Effective Communicator In 90 Seconds by Shane Snow. Asking Better Questions: 6 Ways to Improve Classroom Discussions is from ASCD. For Students, Why the Que

by mike simpson / 8h 

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Popular Posts of 2013!

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: Popular Posts of 2013!:

Popular Posts of 2013!

Honestly, I have reached that age where I can't even remember what happened in 2013. Life has become a blur. The years are whizzing by! 

One of the highlights of 2013  was having the governor of Delaware visit our class to start off American Education Week. We had a Mystery Skype and he LOVED it! We need to show our politicians what we can do besides test!! 

"Now, here's what I need Gov.Markell!"

Another highlight was meeting our Spain pen pals via Skype. The kids were delighted to meet each other "in person!"

With the help of Blogger's page views, I can pinpoint my most viewed blogs of 2013.  I share those with you. And if you didn't get a chance to read them when they were written, now is your chance!

Enjoy and Happy New Year to the best audience ever! May 2014 bring you what you need, and, what you want!

Here are the Top 5 posts for 2013!:

"I Apologize": An Open Letter to My Students

Math Worksheets Land: A Different Kind of Worksheet

Teachers, Targets, and Test Scores

Digital Yes! Native No!: The Myth About Digital Natives

Bill Gates: Experienced Educator:$50 Million Dollars Doesn't Lie!

TWO RULES I WILL TRY TO FOLLOW FOR 2014: | Bill Ayers

TWO RULES I WILL TRY TO FOLLOW FOR 2014: | Bill Ayers:

TWO RULES I WILL TRY TO FOLLOW FOR 2014:

1). Break all the rules!
2). Go as fast as you can in the direction of your dreams until apprehended.
Join me! Make a New Year’s resolution!

Rulin’s from Woody Guthrie

And if you missed it, here are the legendary Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions, or “Rulin’s” as he called them from a journal entry dated Jan. 1, 1943 when he was 31. There’s some pretty decent advice on this list.
33. Wake Up And Fight
32. Make Up Your Mind
31. Love Everybody
30. Love Pete
29. Love Papa
28. Love Mama
27. Help Win War — Beat Fascism
26. Dance Better
25. Play And Sing Good
24. Send Mary And Kids Money
23. Have Company But Don’t Waste Time
22. Save Dough
21. Bank All Extra Money
20. Dream Good
19. Keep Hoping Machine Running
18. Stay Glad
17. Don’t Get Lonesome
16. Keep Rancho Clean
15. Learn People Better
14. Listen To Radio A Lot
13. Read Lots Good Books
12 Change Bed Clothes Often
11. Change Socks
10. Shine Shoes
9. Wear Clean Clothes
8. Write A Song A Day
7. Drink Very Scant If Any
6. Eat Good — Fruit — Vegetables — Milk
5. Take Bath
4. Shave
3. Wash Teeth If Any
2. Work By A Schedule
1. Work More And Better

Portland Public Schools teachers contract: Poll shows concerns for class sizes | OregonLive.com

Portland Public Schools teachers contract: Poll shows concerns for class sizes | OregonLive.com:

Portland Public Schools teachers contract: Poll shows concerns for class sizes

In the survey, class size won the most votes. Of 478 completed responses, 232 people -- or about 48 percent -- picked class size as the issue they cared most about.

Dozens of community members rallied outside the district office to support teachers during ongoing contract negotiations.(Nicole Dungca/The Oregonian)

While both Portland Public Schools and its teachers union have touted recent progress in its drawn-out contract dispute, major issues still need to be resolved before an agreement is reached.

District officials in November declared an impasse, and teachers are now legally allowed to strike. Both sides are scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday for direct talks, followed by a bargaining session on the day students are scheduled to come back from winter break.

Early in December, we asked readers which issue mattered most to them in the Portland teachers contract, and nearly 500 responded.

We asked the question after examining the public messaging from both sides. 

The teachers union has been fighting to keep a contractual limitation on workload in the contract, arguing that it is necessary to keep class sizes down. But the district says that doesn't belong in a contract and has long been trying to eliminate the provision.

Meanwhile, the district says its contract proposal directly address issues of fair compensation, streamlined hiring and additional instructional time. 

So which issues mattered most to OregonLive readers?

In the survey, class size won the most votes. Of 478 completed responses, 232 people -- or about 48 percent -- picked class size as the issue they cared most about.

PPS CONTRACT TALKS

• Portland Public Schools teachers contract: Poll shows concerns for class sizes
• Portland Public Schools teachers contract: Signs of optimism as winter break begins
• Portland teachers contract talks continue to progress: PPS News
• Portland Public Schools parents rally for teachers as negotiations impasse continues (video): PPS News
• Portland Public Schools and teachers union schedule more mediation dates

What Do Parents Want in Their Child’s School? | Connected Principals

What Do Parents Want in Their Child’s School? | Connected Principals:

What Do Parents Want in Their Child’s School?

by Bill Carozza • January 1, 2014 • 0 Comments

What do parents want in their schools? A new national study of K-12 parents reveals some interesting clusters of opinion.

The Fordham Institute completed the research via an online survey of over 2000 parents in August of 2012. The results were disaggregated by the authors into six categories of school parents:

Pragmatists (36%)

These parents see the purpose of school as a passage to a career. College is not as important in their child’s future; they see school as a venue for their child (mostly boys) to gain the skills necessary to be successful.

Jeffersonians (24%)

Parents in this category want schools that “emphasize instruction in citizenship, democracy, and leadership”, the vision that Thomas Jefferson certainly had for public schools. What is interesting about this group is that these parents match the overall demographic of the survey.

Test-Score Hawks (23%)

The “Hawks” search for schools with the best test scores. They are not as concerned with school culture; they want their