An Urban Teacher's Education: Somebody's Unplugging My Computer

An Urban Teacher's Education: Somebody's Unplugging My Computer:

Somebody's Unplugging My Computer

by James Boutin

Yesterday, for the third day in a row, I sat down at my computer during third period to find somebody had pulled its plug out of the socket.

The first two days it happened, I chalked it up to an accident. The outlet is in sort of an awkward place, and its possible that a student may have bumped into the cord or moved a chair into it to knock it out of place.

Noticing this problem, on Thursday I rearranged my desk so that the outlet would be completely covered with no possibility of students accidentally knocking the cord out of the outlet. But when I sat down to my computer on Friday, I found that it had happened again

I cannot express in words how frustrating this is. If I had a pillow in the classroom, I may have made a display of 

School Tech Connect: IFT Primary Outreach: Kelly Cassidy

School Tech Connect: IFT Primary Outreach: Kelly Cassidy:

IFT Primary Outreach: Kelly Cassidy

I just got the nicest letter from IFT president Dan Montgomery, advising me to vote for Kelly Cassidy, who  was endorsed early on byIFT and then later on by IPACE.

Evidently there are people who still haven't voted. It's been a long time since I was in the IEA but I don't remember getting an endorsement letter like this ever from IPACE. Maybe I just missed them.  It's a pretty nice feature, I must say. When I was a local officer in IEA, I'd wager to say that 50% of my members didn't have the foggiest about who IPACE endorsed or didn't endorse.

Anyway, hats off to IFT. And Kelly Cassidy.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Legislature and Education Bills; Here's Where They Stand

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Legislature and Education Bills; Here's Where They Stand:

The Legislature and Education Bills; Here's Where They Stand

by Melissa Westbrook

Thank goodness for The Olympian; they really keep up-to-date on the Legislature.   Here's the latest on education measures:

Passed and gone to the Governor for her signature:

Collaborative schools: A proposal for universities to work with school districts to assist low-performing schools cleared the Legislature. The pilot project would implement instruction models and other strategies in chosen elementary schools.

This is a bill I supported - HB2799 - in place of the charter school bill.  I think it's a great start to helping low-

Undocumented students begin cross-country trek - latimes.com

Undocumented students begin cross-country trek - latimes.com:

Undocumented students begin cross-country trek

March 10, 2012 |  2:05 pm

 

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A group of undocumented students and their supporters Saturday began a cross-country walking journey from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to advocate for the passage of the Dream Act.

The eight-month walk began just before 1 p.m. with marchers crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The trek is meant to draw attention during the election season to the proposed federal legislation, which would create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are college students or military service members.

The marchers are expected to arrive in Washington shortly before the presidential election.

One marcher, Lucas Da Silva, 23, a student at Valencia College in Orlando, Fla., said he came to the U.S. from Brazil as a 1-year-old.

“We really wanted to [do the cross-country walk] during the election year, and try to reinvigorate and advocate,” he said. “We wanted to  launch our own campaign based on love and opportunity.”

Jose Gonzalez, a student at San Diego Mesa College who came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 5 

Daily Kos: Our fight for public schooling is a fight for democracy

Daily Kos: Our fight for public schooling is a fight for democracy:

Our fight for public schooling is a fight for democracy

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Our fight for public schooling is a fight for democracy, for one-for-all-and-all-for-one solutions to our problems. But what is this democracy idea? Or as the Occupiers say: "What does democracy look like"? We need to use schools to sell democracy—even to explain it! It doesn't just live on neglected and compromised. Even many of our parental allies seem content to view public education as a private concern for their kids' futures. Period. In such a world the only thing that matters is rank order and, as I used to remind colleagues, no matter how fast kids line up, there's always just one in the front all the way back to one at the end. We're fighting each other these days to see if by hook or crook we can get "ours" nearer the front. (And "cutting" the line is allowed.) We live, too many of us, in a climate that makes us all compete for the shortage of private goods rather than tackling the "shortage" issue.

The words are those of MacArthur Genius Award winner Deborah Meier, in the Bridging Differences blog she shares with Diane Ravitch.  Her most recent post, from which these words are taken,  is titled Phony Stories About Schools, and I urge you to read it and pass it on.Let me offer one more paragraph:

How to overcome the tendency to pull into our private well-armored tanks, fending off enemies everywhere once the barbarian within us all has been set loose? That is the question. Schools that can belong to all of "us" are too few, even among public schools. So we have a dual fight—to prevent privatization and to shore up public ownership.

Read the post.Pass it on.

Parents Across America hails defeat of Florida’s Parent Trigger bill | Seattle Education

Parents Across America hails defeat of Florida’s Parent Trigger bill | Seattle Education:

Parents Across America hails defeat of Florida’s Parent Trigger bill

by seattleducation2011

Parents Across America hails defeat of Florida’s Parent Trigger bill:

A victory of parents over forces that would privatize and profit from our public schools

 Public education and true parent empowerment were the winners after a “Parent Trigger” law died on the floor of the Florida State Senate on March 9, said Rita Solnet, a Florida parent activist and a founding member of the national organization Parents Across America, who worked with other parent groups from the state to defeat the bill. Solnet hailed the outcome as a triumph of parents over the forces that would privatize and profit from our public schools.
“I pray this defeat helps other states to avoid a similar attack on our public schools,” said Solnet, a Boca Raton businesswoman and a co-founder of PAA. “This was a victory for true parent empowerment. By working together with my colleagues in PAA and other grassroots parent groups, including Save Duval Schools, 50^th No More, the Florida state PTA, Fund Education Now, and Testing is Not Teaching, we managed to beat the richly funded corporate reformers.”
The so-called Parent Empowerment in Education Act (SB 1718) was framed as allowing parents at a public 

LDF ON 2009-10 School Year “Civil Rights Data Collection” | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog

LDF ON 2009-10 School Year “Civil Rights Data Collection” | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog:

LDF ON 2009-10 School Year “Civil Rights Data Collection”

by The Editors

Posted By The Editors | March 6th, 2012 | Category: Education | No Comments »  Print This Post

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”) applauds the U.S. Department of Education on the release of its most recent “Civil Rights Data Collection” ? and is deeply alarmed by the data therein.

Compared to prior data releases, this year’s data collection for the 2009-2010 school year reflects an expanded set of information, including factors such as school-based arrests, referrals to law enforcement and students receiving multiple suspensions. LDF and other civil rights and education advocates have urged inclusion of these reporting categories and have also asked the Department of Education to collect these data annually from all schools, including all charter schools that receive federal funds.

The data confirms what many civil rights and education advocates have feared. Stark racial disparities across various indicators are hampering educational access and opportunity. According to the Department of Education, black students are more than three-and-a-half times as likely to be suspended or expelled compared to their white peers. Black and Hispanic students are far more likely than white students to be forced to repeat a grade, especially in the elementary and middle grades. And fewer schools with high concentrations of minority students had access to either advanced curriculum or reasonably experienced teachers who can prepare them to compete in today’s global economy.

This data release reflects a continuing trend of racial disparities in education, particularly with respect to school discipline.

Each year, more and more students are suspended and expelled from schools, and some are even arrested on 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Social Media and Your Child

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Social Media and Your Child:

Social Media and Your Child

by Melissa Westbrook

The Times has what could be considered a somewhat funny kind of "whoops" story except that the bigger issue of social media and your child is more sobering.

The story is about Miss Seattle, Jean-Sun Hannah Ahn.  She won her crown last Saturday. The next day reporter Linda Thomas from KIRO-FM posted a story about Ms. Ahn's Twitter postings from a couple of months back.

Apparently, Ms. Ahn, who is from Mukilteo, had gone to school in Arizona and now finds Seattle, well, rainy.  She also finds many people and situations "annoying."  The story ran on more than 240 news sites. 

Good News in our District

by Melissa Westbrook

Here are a couple of good news items from our district.

First, a Lowell physical therapist, Cindy Nofziger, founded a non-profit called Schools for Salone.  They build and support schools and educational infrastructure in Sierra Leone, West Africa (Cindy had been a Peace Corps volunteer there in the '80s). They have built 12 schools and are building another.  They have also helped build a library and dig water wells.

This is the real work of building goodwill between nations AND helping to rebuild a war-torn area. 

Cindy was recently notified that she and Schools for Salone were picked to receive a local Jefferson Award for community and public service.   Along with four other Washington State winners, Cindy will be featured at an awards ceremony on March 12th.  But, more importantly, she and her group are now eligible for a national Jefferson award.

I urge you to check out her website or Facebook page at Schools for Salone.  On Monday, March 12th KING 5's 

Kyle Olson’s latest target: teaching about Gay and lesbian equality. « Fred Klonsky

Kyle Olson’s latest target: teaching about Gay and lesbian equality. « Fred Klonsky:

Kyle Olson’s latest target: teaching about Gay and lesbian equality.

by Fred Klonsky

With the passing of right-wing blogger and video-liar, Andrew Breitbart, Kyle Olson has stepped up to take his place.
Olson is the little-known leader of a small band of teacher-bashing, union haters in western Michigan called the Education Action Group. His targets have been the Michigan Education Association, individual teacher activists and children’s books like Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type. Now he is a regular at Breitbart’s old blog as their education witch hunter writer.
Olson is convinced that there is a plot to indoctrinate children.
And of course, he’s right. There is a plot to indoctrinate children in the ideas of fairness, equality, social justice 

Adecuación, coherencia y cohesión, las propiedades más relevantes de un texto : vivirlaeducacion

Adecuación, coherencia y cohesión, las propiedades más relevantes de un texto : vivirlaeducacion:

Adecuación, coherencia y cohesión, las propiedades más relevantes de un texto

by admin

Este tema de la adecuación textual y su coherencia y cohesión es un tema básico y fundamental en el temario de bachillerato. De hecho es fundamental la correcta utilización de todo lo que estos términos significan cuando hemos de escribir o comunicarnos. Y la verdad es que habitualmente estas propiedades de los textos las tenemos en cuenta incluso sin darnos cuenta. Pero siempre es provechoso conocer lo que significan y cómo se despliegan cada vez que nos expresamos: cómo seguimos el hilo de nuestra argumentación buscando la 

Teacher Evaluation: Should we Look at Evidence of Learning? - Living in Dialogue

Teacher Evaluation: Should we Look at Evidence of Learning? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Teacher Evaluation: Should we Look at Evidence of Learning?

by Anthony Cody

Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
In the mistaken belief that test scores are adequate reflections of learning, we have created vast systems to extract test score data, and now are requiring that this data be incorporated in teacher and principal evaluations across the country. Can we return to an authentic use of evidence and data in teacher evaluations?
The publication of teacher ratings generated by Value Added Models (VAM) in New York has prompted some closer examination of their validity, as I discussed here yesterday. This has brought into the mainstream what was, up until recently, a discussion among academics.
Even some of the proponents of these methods have quailed at the sight of teachers being scorned in the press for their low VAM ratings. Let's assume that sanity prevails, and we are able to roll back these test-centered evaluation systems. Is there a way we SHOULD be incorporating student learning into teacher evaluations? 

PURE » Upfront with Jesse Jackson

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Upfront with Jesse Jackson:

Upfront with Jesse Jackson

by admin

Back row: Mike Klonsky, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. Front row: James Thindwa, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Julie Woestehoff

Taped a show this morning with  the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. on poverty and education. It’ll air in two weeks, on Saturday, March 24 at 10 pm Chicago time on the WORD Network on cable.
Education advocates Mike Klonsky and  James Thindwa were also on the panel, and the discussion moved from Cong. Jackson’s determination that the Constitution must be amended to include a right to an equal education 

Saturday coffee + Old school. « Fred Klonsky

Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky:

Saturday coffee.

by Fred Klonsky

I ain’t Grace. But I’m slick.
What a beautiful Saturday.
What a crazy week.
I’ve never actually been thrown out of my principal’s office before.
Now I have.
To still be able to have a new teaching experience after

Old school.

by Fred Klonsky

Taj Mahal.

HAS ARNE DUNCAN JUNKED THE COMMON CORE? | Truth in American Education

HAS ARNE DUNCAN JUNKED THE COMMON CORE? | Truth in American Education:

HAS ARNE DUNCAN JUNKED THE COMMON CORE?

by Emmett McGroarty

Or is he just jerking us around?

This week the state senate of Utah joined the gathering protest against the federally coerced Common Core State Standards by passing a bill asserting state sovereignty to withdraw from the Common Core.  Kudos to the state’s legislature for passing the bill and to Governor Herbert for his support of it.

Utah’s effort comes on the heels of similar efforts in Indiana, South Carolina and elsewhere.  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, fresh off his temper tantrum against dissident South Carolina, weighed in on the Utah effort with a letter supposedly affirming Utah’s right to change the Common Core standards at will.  Specifically, he stated, “States have the sole right to set learning standards.”

If Duncan meant what he seemed to say, then the Common Core Initiative falls apart.  So could this be what he meant, given his consistent cheerleading and arm-twisting for Common Core?  Unlikely.  More likely is that he 

School Tech Connect: The Tweeting of the Shrew #soschat #edchat

School Tech Connect: The Tweeting of the Shrew:

The Tweeting of the Shrew

There's something spiritually broken inside this woman.

Mean, mean country. 

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