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Thursday, July 3, 2014

7-3-14 The Whole Child Blog — Encourage Student Passions with Genius Hour

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:









THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Encourage Student Passions with Genius Hour

Founded on an innovation championed by businesses like FedEx and Google, "the genius hour" sets aside school time (at least an hour, every week) for students to work on something they are passionate about. This video outlines some basic tenets of implementing "genius hour" programming at your school and points to further resources (tutorials, lesson ideas, and connections to other educators) at www.geniushour.com.
Klea Scharberg

What Questions Do You Have About the Common Core State Standards?

Although most states plan to fully implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) during the 2014–15 school year, many questions remain about what the standards are, how they were created, and how they will influence students' and teachers' daily work. The current issue of ASCD Policy Points (PDF) outlines basic facts about the standards that you can use not only for your own background knowledge, but also to inform your discussions with your colleagues, community members (including parents), and local policymakers.
Laura Varlas

Turning Around the Teen Brain by Building Effort

Neuroplasticity means humans have the ability to change their brains through repeated, adaptive practice. Buy-in, however, can be a huge hurdle in getting students to invest effort in the actions that will grow their brains.
"If the brain's not buying in, then it's not changing," author Eric Jensen noted in his 2014 ASCD Annual Conference session, "Turnaround Tools for the Teenage Brain."


7-2-14 The Whole Child Blog — What Questions Do You Have About the Common Core State Standards?
The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGWhat Questions Do You Have About the Common Core State Standards?July 2, 2014 by Klea ScharbergAlthough most states plan to fully implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) during the 2014–15 school year, many questions remain about what the standards are, how they were created, and how they will influence students' and teache

What Is a Teacher? | Natasha Walizer

What Is a Teacher? | Natasha Walizer:



What Is a Teacher?

STUDENT TEACHER




 A teacher is the one who listens to the "strange" boy talk about his fascination with dragons and not judge. A teacher listens intently to the very animated child and might not understand what he is speaking of, but a teacher listens.

A teacher is the one who listens to the 7th grade girl complain about her over-protective mother and how she wishes she could wear what clothes she wants. A teacher calmly tells the child that her mother is just being a good mom and taking care of her. A teacher watches the teenager roll her eyes and inside cries because a teacher worries about what trouble that girl could get into one day.
A teacher sits next to the small boy, even though his clothes and he smells. A teacher wonders of the last time he bathed or his clothes were washed for him, but he can't add two digit numbers so a teacher sits by his side and helps him.
A teacher will call home to message machines over and over again trying to get through to the parent of the child who has been missing from school for days at a time without any reason. A teacher will take a 30-minute duty free lunchtime to call home and speak to the parent of a gifted child who again has done brilliantly on a class project.
A teacher wants to recognize the hard work children have done even though it is expected from some of them.
A teacher believes there are no bad students, just challenging ones.
A teacher will question and teach her students how to question.
A teacher can take criticism from students. A teacher will stay up until midnight to change the next day's lesson plans because the students said they needed to be taught in a different way then previously taught.
A teacher stands in the cafeteria and watches certain children waste food, throwing away what they don't eat while others have been given a free lunch and ask for people's extras because they know there is nothing at home. A teacher thinks of their own lunch in the classroom and knows they could go with less. A teacher looks at the students who do not have that choice.
A teacher pulls apart two girls or two boys bigger than them while they try to rip out each other's hair for no better reason than one supposedly said something What Is a Teacher? | Natasha Walizer:

Are You on the Common Core Enemies List? | Missouri Education Watchdog

Are You on the Common Core Enemies List? | Missouri Education Watchdog:



Are You on the Common Core Enemies List?




blueprint for ccssi supporters

We are truly living in Nixonian times.  The above excerpt is from a June 1971 White House memo entitled Dealing with our Political Enemies.  You better be careful what you say and what you write about Common Core in 2014 if you don’t agree with the process or product.  You might just end up on an Enemies List reminiscent of Nixon’s.  From List of White House ‘Enemies’ and Memo Submitted by Den to the Ervin Committee:
(click on graphic to enlarge)
enemies list
There are various interpretations of the saying: “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”    The CCSSI supporters must not have studied the Nixon tactics that ultimately ended his presidency.  CCSS educational groups and bureaucrats are using the same tactics to push Common Core against taxpayers who don’t want this initiative which circumvented the political process.  Many of the CCSS supporters are no better than Nixon operatives smearing their opponents.  Those opposing the CCSSI have been labeled as angry white suburban moms, tin foil hat wearers, racists, misinformed and the latest adjective is quite vulgar.  CCSSI supporters have labeled a teacher who publicly opposed them as a f***tard.    These “professionals” calling a teacher a vile name and blackballing the teacher from committees are the administrators and educational reformers now directing students’ educational development and delivery.  This educational reform includes “character education” being pushed in the schools today.  If this is indicative of the character of educational professionals, it is time to pull your child out of public school.


Jay P. Greene hit the nail on the head in his latest post about the ugliness surrounding a very non-transparent plan of education crafted by the elites for the “common” student.  From Common Core Political Naivete and the Enemies List:Are You on the Common Core Enemies List? | Missouri Education Watchdog:

7-3-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):








Galatzan raises new concerns about LA Unified bond committee
For the second time in recent weeks, Tamar Galatzan has turned a critical eye toward LA Unified’s Bond Oversight Committee and the role it plays in monitoring district spending on bond-funded projects. At the board meeting on Tuesday, she objected to the BOC’s wholesale approval of a library project that earmarked $116,000 to move library equipment and materials from one school to another. Using M


School workers union ratifies 3-year deal with LA Unified
Members of the school service workers union, SEIU Local 99, have ratified their three-year contract agreement with LA Unified, raising the wage of nearly 20,000 workers to $15 an hour by July 1, 2016. The union said in a statement early this morning that 82 percent of the members approved the contract after three days of voting. The union consists of cafeteria workers, custodians, special educatio


LAUSD expands search to find enough summer school teachers
As LAUSD kicked off its newly expanded summer school program last month, accommodating more students than ever before, one thing became clear: Sometimes, more money means more problems. And one problem district officials didn’t anticipate was finding enough teachers who wanted to work in the summer. Without a sufficient number, the district scrambled to fill classes with adult education and subst
Morning Read: School report cards to come under revision
Changes coming to school report cards As with most other elements of the public education system, the state’s School Accountability Report Card is set to undergo fairly significant revisions as a result of the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the Local Control Funding Formula. S&I Cabinet Report Middle school key to college, career pipeline As California focuses on education re
7-2-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD
LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District): Top 6 shockers: how Weingarten and Deasy agree on tenureCourtesy: Aspen Ideas Festival The stage was set with the two public education luminaries, ready to square off on such lightning rod issues as tenure and teacher dismissal laws in the wake of last month’s Vergara trial: Randi Weingarten, leader of th




7-3-14 Jersey Jazzman Jammin'

Jersey Jazzman:







Hey Professor: There IS a War On Teachers
Speaking for myself, one of the most frustrating things about being a teacher is when non-teachers in positions of influence tell me that my profession isn't really being targeted -- it's all just in my head, silly!Take the intellectual godfather of reforminess, Eric Hanushek, speaking here of the Vergara decision, which struck down California's tenure laws:The five statutes in question were struc


7-2-14 Jersey Jazzman Jammin'
Jersey Jazzman: In Newark, As Everywhere, Experience MattersSo Cami Anderson will be the State Superintendent of Newark's school district for at least another year. As John Mooney at NJ Spotlight notes, the announcement came at 5:23 on Friday evening: the time when all politicians dump unpopular news on their constituents.And even Chris Christie has to acknowledge that, at this point, Anderson is

7-3-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:








Seattle School Board Meeting Updates
Shockingly, I neither attended nor watched the School Board meeting.  But I did hear about it from other sources so here is some of what went on (plus some input from a careful reading of agenda items on the docket).   Apparently it was a love fest for Banda and some tension on the Board.  Here's the information I received from the organizing group for later starts where the tension comes in.Later


(Thursday) Open Thread
Going with a Thursday Open Thread due to the holiday tomorrow. From The Atlantic, a somewhat troubling story about a study finding that kids care more about "achievement and happiness" than caring for others and that teachers are aware of this issue.  The study is from the Making Caring Common project at Harvard and is called The Children We Mean to Raise: the Real Messages Adults are Se


7-1-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tuesday Open ThreadWA State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn has sent a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking that Washington be waived from the NCLB requirement that public schools send out letters about how they are all failing under NCLB (about 96% of schools would have to send out these letters).  Naturally, 96% of Washington school




Supreme Court of Illinois Backs Pension Clause Intent! Teachers and all public employees rejoice. | Reclaim Reform

Supreme Court of Illinois Backs Pension Clause Intent! Teachers and all public employees rejoice. | Reclaim Reform:



Supreme Court of Illinois Backs Pension Clause Intent! Teachers and all public employees rejoice.

Supreme Court of Illinois Backs Pension Clause Intent!

From Bob Lyons: Illinois Supreme Court Backs Article XIII, Section 5!
(Re-post of John Dillon’s excellent Pension Vocabulary blog of Bob Lyon’s letter.)
PENSION REFORM LAWS ALMOST CERTAINLY DOOMED
img_2685a
HEALTH INSURANCE RULING IS CRYSTAL CLEAR    In a sweeping 6-1 decision, the Illinois Supreme Court today struck down an attempt to force government retirees to pay more for their subsidized state health insurance, and in the process made it abundantly clear that the new pension reform law was highly unlikely to pass constitutional review.
The Court, led by Justice Charles Freeman, declared “it is clear” that all pension benefits, including health insurance, cannot be diminished or impaired, which the ruling called the “plain and ordinary” meaning of the Illinois Constitution.
“We may not rewrite the pension protection clause to include restrictions and limitations that the drafters did not express and the citizens of Illinois did not approve,” the Court ruled.  If that isn’t a direct message to lawmakers, the governor and everybody else, I don’t know what is.  Pension benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired,” is what the Supreme Court of Illinois Backs Pension Clause Intent! Teachers and all public employees rejoice. | Reclaim Reform:

Coming to America - How we can help kids crossing the border





Coming to America






NEIL DIAMOND LYRICS

"America"

Far,

We've been traveling far

Without a home

But not without a star

Free,

Only want to be free

We huddle close

Hang on to a dream

On the boats and on the planes

They're coming to America

Never looking back again,

They're coming to America

Home

Don't it seem so far away

Oh, we're traveling light today

In the eye of the storm

In the eye of the storm

Home

To a new and a shiny place

Make our bed and we'll say our grace

Freedom's light burning warm

Freedom's light burning warm

Everywhere around the world

They're coming to America

Ev'ry time that flag's unfurled

They're coming to America

Got a dream to take them there

They're coming to America

Got a dream they've come to share

They're coming to America

They're coming to America

They're coming to America

They're coming to America

They're coming to America

Today, Today,

Today, Today, Today

My country 'tis of thee (today)

Sweet land of liberty (today)

Of thee I sing (today)

Of thee I sing

Today, Today, Today

Today, today, today......

How we can help kids crossing the border



Editor's note: Sally Kohn is a progressive activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Heather Reynolds, the head of the nonprofit organization Catholic Charities, tells the story she heard from an 8-year-old girl from Guatemala who recently crossed the border without her family. "These kids were taken by drug cartels and others and would arrive back at their neighbors' dead with their organs cut out of them. Obviously, this little girl had seen stuff none of us could ever imagine."
The little girl's relatives hired a "coyote" to smuggle her into the United States. "On her journey here, she was sold as a sex slave. Finally escaping, this 8-year-old crossed the Rio Grande," said Reynolds.
The United States has a humanitarian crisis at its Southern border, as the number of unaccompanied children trying to enter the country has increased by 90% over just last year.
The Republicans are also trying to turn this into a political crisis by accusing the Obama administration and the push for immigration reform for enticing more undocumented immigrants. Once again, Republicans are bashing President Obama, this time by using suffering children as their political pawns.
Every parent can imagine it's not an easy decision to send your child with a stranger thousands of miles away to a foreign country. These are little kids, for crying out loud. That's not something you do because you want to, it's something you do because you have to.
Escalating violence in Central America is driving the new wave of migrating children. As the Los Angeles Times reports, "Although there has always been crushing poverty in Central America, violence in the region has escalated in recent years. For example, Honduras has the most murders per capita of any country. Drug cartels and gangs are at the root of the increased violence. Some of these children are fleeing gang initiations, according to several reports."
While historically most of the children who came to the United States illegally were from Mexico, that changed in 2013 when for the first time the number of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America eclipsed those from Mexico. Actually, the number of undocumented kids coming from Mexico has decreased in recent years.
Nonetheless, Republicans insist it's Obama's fault. Republican House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlattesaid, "Many of the Obama administration's policies... have led to a surge of minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border." Republican Speaker of the House John Boehneralleged the President's "lax enforcement at Mexico's borders" are giving a "free pass" to immigrants trying to come to the United States.
These claims ignore the fact that President Obama has deported immigrants at a higher rate than President George W. Bush and is on track to have deported three million immigrants by the end of his presidency. One might call this rate of deportation inhumane or un-American, but no one could reasonably call it "lax" -- no one, that is, except Republicans fixated on attacking the President no matter what.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, implicating the President's program of administrative relief for young immigrant "dreamers" brought to the United States as kids, accused the President of "incentivizing" unaccompanied children to migrate with the promise of "citizenship for anyone in the world who arrives illegally in the country by a certain age." Sessions said, "President Obama is responsible for this calamity."
Yet, the increase in unaccompanied children escaping Central American began back in 2009, long before President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Opinion: How we can help kids crossing the border - CNN.com http://cnn.it/1mbYVAN



Spectacular victory for Philly schools - pretty depressing | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Spectacular victory for Philly schools - pretty depressing | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:







Spectacular victory for Philly schools - pretty depressing

By Dave Davies for NewsWorks on Jul 3, 2014 11:45 AM
In a stunning, come-from-behind legislative win in Harrisburg, Mayor Michael Nutter and backers of the beleaguered Philadelphia school system managed to get a key vote last night authorizing a cigarette tax in the city to fund the schools.
Without it, there was the prospect of 1300 layoffs and schools not opening on time in September.
But honestly, this is awful. The alternative, I admit, was worse than awful. It was catastrophic. But consider where we are in funding schools for Philadelphia kids:
The city now has the right to levy the fifth straight tax increase on its citizens for schools in recent years, and that leaves us $40 million or so short of being able to open schools this fall with an educational product pretty much everybody believes in unacceptable.
To respond to the schools funding crises of recent years, Philadelphia has imposed three property tax increases, made permanent an extra one percent sales tax within the city, (leaving us with a sales tax that's 33% higher than neighboring suburban counties), and now imposed a $2-pack cigarette tax on those who buy their smokes in town.

Read the rest of this article at NewsWorks

House approval cigarette tax hailed as victory by officials, school funding advocates
After a seesaw week of negotiations in Harrisburg, House legislators late Wednesday night passed, by a 119-80 vote, an read more

Educating the Gates Foundation | Rethinking Schools Blog

Educating the Gates Foundation | Rethinking Schools Blog:



Educating the Gates Foundation

June 26, Rethinking Schools editor Wayne Au spoke at a Seattle rally protesting the role of the Gates Foundation in public education: “Educating the Gates Foundation.” The rally was sponsored by Washington BATS (Bad-Ass Teachers) and Washington Save Our Schools. This is the speech he delivered at the rally. 

Educating the Gates Foundation Rally Remarks

by Wayne AuWayne Au
Good evening. I’m here tonight because I am deeply concerned. I’m concerned that public education is rapidly becoming privatized. I’m concerned that we are all part of a grand experiment, one that is hurting kids and communities. I’m concerned that we are losing democratic, public accountability in public education. I’m concerned with the state of public education reform and the role of Bill Gates and his foundation.

You see, right now Gates and his foundation are pushing an entire set of public education reforms like charter schools and vouchers, high-stakes, standardized testing, and using tests for teacher evaluation. We are getting this set of reforms purely because he and his foundation have leveraged vast financial resources to influence and negotiate politics. They are doing this despite all countervailing evidence, and they are doing this with no democratic accountability.

And that is just the thing. While Gates and his foundation tinker around with charter schools, high-stakes testing, the Common Core, and the junk science of using tests to evaluate teachers, they avoid the central and most important issue that impacts educational achievement: poverty.

But Gates and the Gates Foundation aren’t hearing that. As far as I can see, Educating the Gates Foundation | Rethinking Schools Blog: