Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Daily Kos: teaching about Freedom of Speech, and more

teaching about Freedom of Speech, and more

by teacherken

today my non-AP students got to explore part of the First Amendment with me. It was in the form of a discussion, with me asking questions to see how they responded, for example

What is speech?

They might say talking, and we would go beyond. We would get to the difference between pure speech and symbolic speech when I would ask "If you burn an American flag because you are protesting the government can they arrest you for that?"

To help them understand that the protections of speech are against government action I would ask "what if you worked for Sears, were repairing someone's washing machine, they had Rush Limbaugh on the radio and you made a nasty remark. When you got

Voices from Parents at Closing Schools « EdVox

Voices from Parents at Closing Schools

by edvoxny

Yesterday the PEP voted to close 10 schools across the city. Tomorrow, they will vote to close 12 more schools. Below, parents from two of those schools write about why their school should remain open.

by Chrisanna Thomas, parent from MS 571

The Department of Education under the guidance of Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Black, has a plan to destroy, eliminate NYC Public Schools and shirk their responsibilities to our children.

I’m the parent of a 7th grader who attends MS 571, one of the schools slated for closure. This was never a proposal, this was a done deal from the start.  When the 2009-2010 progress report was received, it stated that the school received a D grade. On page 2 of the report it states that schools that receive D’s F’s or C’s for three years in a row are evaluated to determine the reasons for their “poor” performance and provided with intensive support so they can improve. Where has the support for this school been? We were provided with a mentor, attendance improved and as soon as the “proposal” was announced the mentor was pulled. We got none of the leadership support, mentoring and training that was talked about in the “fact” sheet. Where was the professional

Mayoral candidate del Valle says he shovels snow - Chicago Sun-Times

Mayoral candidate del Valle says he shovels snow

By Abdon M. Pallasch Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com Feb 1, 2011 12:36AM

City Clerk Miguel del Valle is the only one of the top four candidates for mayor who shovels his own snow.

“And with a shovel -- I don’t have a snow-blower,” quipped the under-financed candidate.

His main advice to Chicagoans Monday as the snow encroached:

“Early-vote before the snow gets here,” he said Monday after casting his vote.

More than 6,000 voters took advantage of the first day of early voting Monday, second only to the 2008 presidential election.

After he cast his early vote, Rahm Emanuel was reminded that big snows have altered mayoral elections in the past and asked if his plans included digging voters out of the snow.

“That gives a whole new meaning to campaigning for one vote at a time,” Emanuel quipped.

“The good news is we have people dedicated to doing their jobs. We know what’s coming. Everyone will be, I’m sure, at the city departments, ready for salting as well as snow removal.”

Emanuel is not shoveling this winter at his temporary apartment though he will resume when he

Making an “example” of whom? « Failing Schools

Making an “example” of whom?

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

by Sabrina

Responding to the case of the Ohio mother who was convicted of a felony for illegally enrolling her children in a better district, Ohio community advocate and reader Kennedy Kent wrote with a follow-up to her earlier concerns about the misuse of funds under the tutoring provisions of NCLB.

Check out Attorney Bob Fitrakis’ follow-up article in the Free Press on this NCLB Scam.
Will Ohio’s Auditor Uncover the No Child Left Behind Scam? (Includes video & documentation. –SSS)
As you know, they charged Williams-Bolar and her father with defrauding school services and tampering with records; yet, school

Last Stand for Children First: Duncan and Obama Call for More Black Men to Become Teachers

Duncan and Obama Call for More Black Men to Become Teachers

by Last Stand for Children

At Morehouse College two days ago, Arne Duncan and filmmaker Spike Lee issued a call for more black men to become teachers. Duncan told the town hall audience that more than 1 million educators are expected to retire in the coming decade and that federal officials are hoping to harness that opportunity to create a more diverse teaching work force, noting that less than 2 per cent of the nation's 3 million teachers are black men and with

Queens Teacher: The One Percent Class

The One Percent Class

by Queens Teacher

The top one percent of this country isn't happy. They want more. Their many multi-million dollar homes are not enough. Their yachts are not enough. The money they hide oversees is not enough. They need more of our nation's wealth to be satisfied.

The One Percent Class won't rest until they've accumulated the rest of our money. The poor class has none, so no use looking to them. So that leaves the middle class. What protects a large amount of the middle class? Unions.

You would think that they would understand that if a nation is to do well, we ALL have to do well. But no, the greedy One Percent Class wants it all. The rest of us can go to hell.

Just 30 years ago, the One Percent Class had 10% of the nation's wealth. That number has climbed to 24% in

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Ownership Society News

Ownership Society News

by Mike Klonsky

The Rise of the New Ruling Class: How the global elite is leaving you behind by Chrystia Freeland.

It's the cover story of the current special State of the Union issue of the Atlantic with some fascinating facts and quotes. It's all about how the emergence of this new global elite, whose wealth has come mainly from the information economy, is widening the gap between the super-wealthy and the rest of us.

What we were seeing...was not a single economy at all, but rather “fundamentally two separate types of economy,” increasingly distinct and divergent.

Freeland writes that a multi-billion-dollar bailout and Wall Street’s swift, subsequent reinstatement of gargantuan bonuses have inspired a narrative of parasitic bankers and other elites rigging the game for their own benefit. And this, in turn, has led to wider—and not unreasonable—fears that we

Seven things you need to know about last night’s PEP meeting | GothamSchools

Seven things you need to know about last night’s PEP meeting

by Elizabeth Green

Seven takeaways from last night’s marathon Panel for Educational Policy meeting, for those who don’t have time for 6,000-plus words, minute-to-minute updates, or actually traveling to Brooklyn Tech in the storm:

1. Bloomberg’s agenda was unsurprisingly approved: 10 schools will phase out, four new co-locations will occur. But on the panel, opposition now comes from more members than simply the Manhattan and Bronx appointees.

Patrick Sullivan, the Manhattan borough president’s appointee, is no longer the sole voice of opposition on the panel. And while Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr.’s appointee has been making opposition known for a while now, the other borough representatives are beginning slowly to join.

Only mayoral appointees, for instance, voted in favor of proposals that would benefit the Success Charter

Del Valle for Mayor | For All Chicago For Every Neighborhood: A Look at Miguel del Valle, a Regular Chicago Guy Who Wants to Be Mayor--Chicago Magazine

A Look at Miguel del Valle, a Regular Chicago Guy Who Wants to Be Mayor--Chicago Magazine

by Joanna2011

From Chicago Magazine, 2.2.2011

By Carol Felsenthal

Miguel del Valle doesn’t have much money—peanuts compared to Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico, and way less even than Patricia Watkins and Carol Moseley Braun.

When I asked him yesterday afternoon if there would be runoff on February 22nd, he answered, “My guess is Rahm is going to buy one of the spots; as for the second, I hope I’m that person.”

Were del Valle to win—he hit seven percent in the last poll—it would count as one of the upsets of any election anywhere. Should the inevitable occur and he’s out on the 22nd—the former state Senator (20 years in Springfield and the first Latino in the Illinois General Assembly) and the current City Clerk (the first Latino there, too)—will surely pop up soon in another election. He is the preferred candidate of progressives, winning endorsements from the likes of Quentin Young and Tom Geoghegan.

Our Tuesday conversation focused first on politics, but then on his four children and his wife.

CF: I watched you debate Emanuel, Chico, and Moseley Braun Thursday night at the WGN-TV studios. Looking back, which of your responses do you think most resonated with voters?
MdV: People were telling my campaign staff that they agreed with me when I described the oppressive climate in the city—people feeling that they are being hit hard with tickets. Boot on cars after two tickets, red light cameras

Timothy D. Slekar: Education DEFORM and Media Hearing Loss

Education DEFORM and Media Hearing Loss

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A wonderful colleague of mine recently pointed out that I may lack patience and that sometimes I have a tough time realizing that it just may take a little longer to get accomplished what clearly needs to be accomplished.

Translation: I see the destructive forces massing against the American public education system and I'm extremely worried about the consequences. I regularly complain that no one is listening and that all the credible critics of the current reform movement may be wasting their time writing to each other. In fact, I'm convinced that unless something changes dramatically, the end of public education in America is inevitable.

Was Gerald Bracey wrong when he helped us understand how statistics in public education are manipulated for political purposes?
How many lectures and invited talks does Diane Ravitch have to do before someone

NYC Public School Parents: Another New Low in Bloomberg's Education Record: NYC Shut Out of Intel STS Finals!

Another New Low in Bloomberg's Education Record: NYC Shut Out of Intel STS Finals!

by Steve Koss

Non-stop community discord. Administrative cheating scandals. Knowingly inflated claims of educational improvement. Falsified and artificially inflated graduation rates. Wasteful spending and financial fraud. School children being used as guinea pigs in ungrounded educational experimentation. Closed-door selection of a blatantly unqualified cocktail-party friend as schools chancellor. The virtual sale of public education to wealthy private interests.

Seems like those reasons would be more than enough for a citizenry to rise up and reclaim control of its public school system from a haughty, emotionally disconnected mayor. In any suburban community in the NYC metropolitan area, most certainly so, but not apparently in the city itself, where citizens are

The Answer Sheet - The Bartleby Project

The Bartleby Project

This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. His latest book is What’s Worth Learning? from Information Age Publishing. By Marion Brady “Juggernaut.” Picture a huge, ancient chariot being pulled through narrow city streets, carrying a crude idol of a god. So massive is the chariot, citizens are crushed under its wooden wheels. The current education-change experiment, begun in the 1980s at the urging of corporate America, is a juggernaut. The god it carries is The Standardized Test. On board the chariot, surrounding the god and enthusiastically waving the standards and accountability banner, are the president of the United States; the secretary of education; nearly all the governors of the 50 states; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the Business Roundtable; the Gates, Broad, and Walton foundations; hedge fund managers; publishers of test and test prep materials; a few big-city mayors; and celebrities such as Michelle

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