Monday, January 20, 2014

I wish I'd written this piece. It's perfect. As we struggle through the nonsense of corporate reforms favored by our billionaire ex-mayor, as village idiot John King musters the audacity to suggest his baseless untested programs would please Martin Luther King Jr., as Arne Duncan plays basketball somewhere and pretends he cares about public school children rather than his billionaire BFFs, this says pretty much everything.

How many kids, in ten years, are going to be saying, "I had Ms. Two-Year-Wonder and she gave the most rigorous lessons I ever had in my life."

"Yes I will never forget the time we spent twenty-six days discussing a short story."

"The best part was it was all about the Civil War and no one told us."

"I'm a much better person now that I've analyzed a seven-page story for forty-six hours with no idea what the hell it was about."

Kids, as the writer says, remember you. Genius non-teacher David Coleman, who created the Common Core, says no one gives a crap how kids feel. I'm certain, if we put Coleman in a classroom, the kids would notice right away he doesn't give a crap how they feel. For goodness sake, the man boasts about it.

But for real teachers, kids remember things. I was working at Queens College when a couple of my former students complimented me for actually having read everything they'd written. Apparently that meant a lot to them. I'm glad it did, because I spend a lot of time doing that. And those

Kimble's Corner: Pick Up Your Paint Brush and Honor Reverend King

Kimble's Corner: Pick Up Your Paint Brush and Honor Reverend King:

Pick Up Your Paint Brush and Honor Reverend King

The liberal media, for obvious reasons, likes to portray Reverend Martin Luther King as a social reformer who fought for the rights of African-Americans in the South and then in the last 3 years of his life, took his campaign national and fought for workers' rights, and end to poverty, and an end to the War on Vietnam. Of course, this is all a falsehood.

Sure, Martin Luther King did all these things, but that represented only a small portion of his life. Like any black man in the South during the 1950s and 1960s, he got swept up in the civil rights movement. Because people knew that he could motivate people. Where did his experience as a leader come from? Mostly, it came from his campaign to beautify the South.

Martin Luther King first came to prominence in 1955 when he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In those days, the buses were not air conditioned and a lot of sweaty commuters in close quarters would cause quite a funk to develop on the buses. The buses were also not regularly cleaned so papers, soda cans, and old newspapers cluttered the eyes. Martin Luther King led a very successful boycott made famous when a woman named Rosa Parks refused to walk through

Is StudentsFirst Conceding Permanent Achievement Gaps? | Paul Bruno

Is StudentsFirst Conceding Permanent Achievement Gaps? | Paul Bruno:

Is StudentsFirst Conceding Permanent Achievement Gaps?

By PAUL BRUNO | Published: JANUARY 20, 2014

Or don’t.

I missed this when it first came out, but back in October StudentsFirst apparently released a report called A Personalized Future for Education. If you cut through the platitudes about “teaching with a 19th century model” designed for the needs of an “industrial-based economy”, the report’s core recommendations are not obviously unreasonable.

Personalized learning is a student-centered approach to education that allows each student to advance through academic content at his or her own pace. In a personalized model, also known as a competency-based education (CBE), time is the variable and learning is the constant, so a student’s competency is prioritized over his or her age. Personalized learning removes the one-size-fits-all approach to education by offering an array of choices and content to every student at a pace that meets his or her specific learning needs.
According to CompetencyWorks, a leading collaborative initiative

Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers

Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER

Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers

Just Like Michelle Rhee's

Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better)

Other Astroturf lobbying groups

Just Like Michelle Rhee's

Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better)

1-20-14 THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG - This Week Celebrate Kindness — Whole Child Education

This Week Celebrate Kindness — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

This Week Celebrate Kindness

January 20, 2014 by Kristen Pekarek

This week—January 20–24th—is designated as No Name-Calling Week(NNCW), an initiative of whole child partner Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) that provides students, teachers, staff, and parents with a week of resources and opportunities to show kindness and reflect on the importance of positive school climates. For the past ten years this initiative and other antibullying efforts in schools has grown enormously—the NNCW initiative now has more than 60 national partners and thousands of participants from schools all over the country.

"Celebrate Kindness," the theme of this year's celebration provides opportunities for meaningful and exciting ideas to join in the festivities this week and all school year long. Come up with your own ways of celebrating or use one of the GLSEN ideas listed below. No matter how you plan on celebrating make it priority to help stop bullying and fight bias and discrimination.

Ways to Celebrate No Name-Calling Week

Engage your students in expression-based activities focusing on name-calling and bullying.Submit the artwork to the National Creative Expression Exhibit.
Conduct NNCW lessons. Use one of the many lesson plans available to engage your students in educational and creative activities. GLSEN has plans for elementary, middle, and high schools.
Use a safe place to share stories. Have your students

1-17-14 THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG - Starting the Year with Great Habits — Whole Child Education

Starting the Year with Great Habits — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGStarting the Year with Great HabitsJanuary 17, 2014 by Adrian BertoliniA little over two years ago I sat down with two primary (elementary) school teachers to have a conversation with them to discover what had them be so successful with developing their students to learn. It was one of those conversations that connect

by mike simpson / 21h

Salon.com: National Charter Management Organizations Exposed | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Salon.com: National Charter Management Organizations Exposed | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Salon.com: National Charter Management Organizations Exposed

Filed under: Charter Schools — millerlf @ 3:43 pm

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

The truth about charter schools: Padded cells, corruption, lousy instruction and worse results

Charter schools are sold as an answer. With awful discipline and shocking scandals, many really cause new problems

Jeff Bryant Salon.com Friday, Jan 10, 2014

Imagine your 5-year-old boy went to a school where he was occasionally thrown in a padded cell and detained alone for stretches as long as 20 minutes.

Or you sent your kid to an elementary school where the children are made to sit on a bare floor in the classroom for days before they can “earn” their desks.

Or your kid went to a school where she spent hours parked in a cubicle in front of a computer with a poorly trained teacher who has to monitor more than 100 other students.

Maybe you don’t have children or send them to private school? So how do you feel when you find out the local school that you pay for with your taxes is operating a scam that diverted millions of dollars through fake Medicaid billing?

Or the school used your tax dollars as “grants” to start up other profit-making enterprises … or pay lavish salaries – $300,000, $400,000 or more – to its administrators … or support a movement linked to areclusive Turkish cleric being investigated for bribery and corruption.

Welcome to the world of charter schools.

Are there wonderful charter schools doing great things for kids? Probably. Are all these cumulative anecdotes an unfair representation of the value that charter schools can bring to some communities? Maybe.

But neither of those questions matters because of what the charter

Thoughts on the “civil rights issue of our time” Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Thoughts on the “civil rights issue of our time”:

“civil rights issue of our time”

My wonderful pastor husband read the excerpt below from Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in his sermon yesterday.

Dr. King’s words are painfully appropriate for our own church right now, but also for the state of education reform, where wealthy white folks are decimating public education in the name of civil rights (see especially this excellent essay written in honor of D. King’s birthday Joanne Barkan).

From Dr. King’s Letter:

I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in

- See more at: http://pureparents.org/?p=21087#sthash.IHAoFeRC.dpuf

Politically Hyperventillating – redqueeninla

Politically Hyperventillating – redqueeninla:

Politically Hyperventillating

Written by redqueeninla in LAUSD

I am an LAUSD parent, and I am scared.

They say you have to name your problem, and this is it. I feel that I am part of an overwhelmingly vast educational institution, that has been usurped by corporate political forces. And I feel there is no one out there protecting my interests, the educational interests of my children.

This weekend comes the news slipped in below last week’s headlines that the new LAUSD’s Board of Education (BOE) president, Dr Vladovic, has opted to disband the Common Core Technology Project Committee. Known endearingly as CCTP – an acronym even a mother would have trouble loving – the ponderous name belied a simple purpose: watch the implications of the new Common Core and its primary, corporate-driven dictat that Technology be brought front and center to K12 education.

Chaired by corporate-interests nemesis Mónica Ratliff, this committee has been highlighting issue upon issue regarding the rollout of a (minimum) $1B technology-equipment purchase. There has been a steady stream ofembarrassing details featuring incompetence, ignorance and corruption

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 1-20-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:

New Gun Control Laws... What!

On January 5th of 2014 President Obama laid out a comprehensive package for reducing gun violence in America, a multi-part plan he said will not only "help prevent mass shootings" going forward but also "reduce the broader epidemic of gun violence in this country."Obama announced two new executive order on gun controls. He wants to make it easier for states to provide informati

by Ka Bao Thao / 7min

Loophole for Lawmakers

With many regulations on how much money Lobbyists and Lawmakers can spend and receive in gifts they have found a new way to circumvent system set in place. Instead of paying for luxury trips out of pocket that come with many regulations they are now payed for by the lawmaker's PAC's or Political Action Committees so they are not considered gifts but everything is still indirectly payed for by the

by Aidan Flynn / 58min

Sochi Winter Olympic Threat

Over the weekend two men released a video threatening the Winter Olympics. They say that they have a "present" prepared for the olympics and its tourists that it will attract. These men are known to be the suicide bombers from the back-to-back bombings in the Russian City Volgograd in the past month, making people even more worried about the threat and their safety at the games. The wint

by Susanna Gonzalez / 0min

The Future of Glassholes

By now, most of us have heard of Google’s latest endeavor to give us what we…may or may not need: smart glasses. These futuristic ‘Google Glasses’ allow users to access a world of holographic information, making it possible to use the internet (and more) without having to drag out those cumbersome smartphones. Though critics have been quick to poke fun at the unattractive eye gear, deeming it ‘imp

by Heather Mewton / 0min

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 1-18-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:untitledIn Kingston, Jamaica a mosquito-borne virus appears to be spreading quickly in the Caribbean during the winter tourism season just weeks after epidemiologists first found local transmission occurirng in the French dependency of St. Martin. Scientists said that St. Martin now has as many as 200 cases of chikungunya, a virus found mainly in Africa and Asia that can

by mike simpson / 29min

UPDATE: Tonight: Continuing the College Affordability Conversation Student Voice #StuVoice

Student Voice:

Reflecting on #StuVoice Chat with Arne Duncan

Khaair Morrison is a youth activist and a cofounder of VOYCE. Morrison is originally from Queens, New York, but currently takes most of his classes at Hunter College as a student of the CUNY Baccalaureate. —– On Twitter, I tend to follow news reporters, politicians, musicians, advocates and activists to keep up with what is going on in the world. Seldom do I have the opportunity to speak with ce

by Editor Admin / 15min

Last week we had a chat with the US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Join us this Monday (tonight at 8:30PM EST) as we continue the conversation about college affordability with Grant Lichtman and Dante Barry. We will be discussing things such as how college should be valued, and whether there are adequate alternatives to a four year degree.

- See more at: http://stuvoice.org/blog/2014/01/20/tonight-continuing-the-college-affordability-conversation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tonight-continuing-the-college-affordability-conversation&utm_reader=feedly#sthash.ex8v6qZk.dpuf

teacherken at Daily Kos 1-20-14: "Teachers teach. Well-trained teachers teach better. Great teachers change lives."

Daily Kos: "Teachers teach. Well-trained teachers teach better. Great teachers change lives.":

"Teachers teach. Well-trained teachers teach better. Great teachers change lives."

That is a quote from page 34 of my friend Dave Greene's new book, Doing the Right Thing: A Teacher Speaks, for which I will provide a review in this space in the next week or so. It is also my new sig line here. It is for others to decide what kind of teacher I am. My intent is to change lives by challenging and empowering my students. Other than my commitment to Leaves on the Current, it is the m

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 3min

teacherken at Daily Kos This Week 1-18-14

teacherken at Daily Kos:teacherken at Daily Kos This WeekThe semester comes to a close - a teacher's reflectionon his first term back in the classroom. Yesterday was the last day of classes. We are on an A-day B-day schedule, with 4 90 minute periods a day. Students with a full load have 8 classes (I had 5 in high school). Next week, each day, there will be 2 two-hour exams, beginning Tuesday,

by mike simpson / 31min

When You Fail, I Fail – Approach To Leadership | Connected Principals

When You Fail, I Fail – Approach To Leadership | Connected Principals:

When You Fail, I Fail – Approach To Leadership

by sblankenship • January 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

As school leaders, we must realize we are in this together. If we can create the following conditions, we can experience success together.

Supervision of Instruction occurs between 8:00 and 3:00 or it doesn’t get done!

The power to change education, for better or worse, is and always will be in the hands of teachers. Therefore, principals as instructional leaders must separate the managerial side of the principalship with that of improving teacher effectiveness. No longer is it acceptable to sit in an office, work on state reports, complete teacher evaluations, or engage in any other activity that can be completed outside the school day. An effective principal designates school hours for students, teachers, and parents, every day.

Try this:

Teach a class and model technology integration, differentiation, embedded interventions and other proven instructional strategies.
Seek opportunities for professional dialogue with your teachers to build collegiality. Social media can be an effective tool to think, learn, and grow together with your teachers.
Engage in a “Lunch and Learn” with an ineffective teacher to follow-up on his/her growth plan.
Cover a class to allow a teacher the opportunity to visit a colleague’s classroom. Make sure to schedule a time for self-reflection with the teacher.

If your faculty refers to walkthroughs as “drive bys,” failure may be just around the corner.

One of the most important and mandatory responsibilities of a principal is making classroom visits. Frequent informal

1-20-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

For Martin Luther King, it wasn’t “bad” segregation vs. “okay” segregation.

It was June 23, 1963 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading the Great March on Detroit, which has also been called “The Walk to Freedom.” Speaking to a crowd of more than 25,000 people at Cobo Hall in Detroit King said: “For we have come to see that segregation is not only sociologically […]The post For Martin Luther King, it wasn’t “bad” segregation vs. “okay” segregation. appeared first on W

5 by jonpelto / 21min

1-19-14 Wait What?

Wait What?: A look at Steve Perry’s record of absenteeism and use of social media to bully othersOn Tuesday January 21, 2014 the Hartford Board of Education will hold a special executive session to discuss Capital Prep Principal Steve Perry. The public has the opportunity to address the Hartford Board of Education starting at 5:30 pm. The meeting is taking place that the Journalism and Media Mag

by mike simpson / 0min

The Story of Matthew, the Bravest Little Guy in New York. | Truth in American Education

The Story of Matthew, the Bravest Little Guy in New York. | Truth in American Education:

The Story of Matthew, the Bravest Little Guy in New York.

Filed in Common Core State Standards by truthed on January 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

By Michael Bohr

There is a very brave young man in NY by the name of Matthew. He is 12 years old and has some serious learning challenges that he was in control of and learning to excel beyond them.That was until the middle of the 5th grade when the Common Core arrived two years ago.

During the last 2 years as the school continued to implement the Common Core, Matt’s IEP was increasingly ignored due to the demands of the NYSED and the Common Core. The longer it went on, the harder things became for this young man, until this year when enough was enough… he just couldn’t take what the Common Core was doing to him. He refused to go to school.

Such was the pressure placed upon Matt that at the age of 12, he knew he had to take a stand, even though doing so was extremely traumatic for himself and his parents. He continues to stand his ground despite even more pressure being placed on him to go back, but as his mom was telling me today, it is taking it toll on him.

Being a dad of two middle schoolers who are facing the onslaught of the Common Core as well as the uncle of two beautiful young ladies who themselves have IEP’s and are finding themselves left further and further behind by a system that ignores their individuality and forces them to contend with more than they can handle, I was inspired to write some words that came rushing into my mind. I posted them to his mom because I wanted her and her son to know that they are not alone… that he is not alone. That people everywhere are fighting for him as he fights for himself. That we are amazed, inspired and in awe of the strength that he has shown by saying, "No

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