Fake Trump Tweets – A Fun Way To Face The Coming Trumpocalypse | gadflyonthewallblog

Fake Trump Tweets – A Fun Way To Face The Coming Trumpocalypse | gadflyonthewallblog:

Fake Trump Tweets – A Fun Way To Face The Coming Trumpocalypse

Forgive me. I couldn’t help it.

Someone made a Website that allows you to make your own fake Donald Trump tweets, and I went to town.

I must have made a hundred of these suckers.

Can you blame me?

It’s so hard to resist making that narcissistic blowhard say whatever you want!

And it wasn’t just me.

It was all over my Facebook feed this weekend. All my virtual buddies were getting in on the act.

Perhaps that says something about me – I’m the kind of person that chooses to associate with people who would spend their precious leisure moments pretending to make the President-elect say stuff on Twitter.

But whatever. I guess that’s me.

Trump is the perfect target for ridicule. He’s going to be the chief executive of the United States, the Leader of the Free World, and he’s such a shallow, conceited asshole.

He’s lining up the worst kind of multi-millionaire white trash to populate his cabinet putting each person in exactly the position they’d be best suited to destroy.

He got into office exploiting middle America’s sexism and racism and, yes, economic hopelessness. These are the same folks who chide black people in Ferguson for rioting when a white cop gets off murdering a black teen. And then these same working class white folks go ahead and throw a brick through our collective Fake Trump Tweets – A Fun Way To Face The Coming Trumpocalypse | gadflyonthewallblog:

Schools Matter: Kids in Cubicles: The Wonderful World of Work

Schools Matter: Kids in Cubicles: The Wonderful World of Work:

Kids in Cubicles: The Wonderful World of Work

Eliminate sharing and student communication!  Order before midnight tonight!

Remove Distractions With These Portable Student Desk Privacy Shields!

Keep students' eyes on their own work with these attractive and functional privacy shields made of economical, long-lasting, corrugated cardboard. Great for everyday classroom use, computer labs, and writer's workshops, they make a fun way to set up "offices" for your students, too.

Ideal for both pencil-and-paper and computer-based testing (including PARCC and other standardized tests), privacy shields are a must have for any teacher or testing coordinator. These shields come in an assorted 12 pack of red, blue and green, fold easily for storage, andSchools Matter: Kids in Cubicles: The Wonderful World of Work: 

A teacher’s nine wishes for 2017 - The Washington Post

A teacher’s nine wishes for 2017 - The Washington Post:

A teacher’s nine wishes for 2017

Peter Greene is a veteran teacher of English in a small town in Pennsylvania who write about all kinds of education-related topics on his Curmudgucation blog. He has, for example, written recently about Betsy DeVos, President-Elect Donald Trump nominee for education secretary, whom Greene called unqualified for the job, as well as about standardized testing, challenged books, teacher evaluation and a lot more. Here is his piece on his wishes for public education in 2017. See if they match yours in any way. This appeared on his blog, and he gave me permission to republish it.

By Peter Greene

When you find that you must concentrate on calling out and pushing back against the many, varied attacks on public education these days, it is easy to forget to articulate what you actually want to see occur to improve schools. So as a New Year’s palate cleanser of sorts, let me lay out what things I want to see happen in the world of public education in the year ahead.

I should note that this is an ideal wish list, and I recognize that it’s a really long journey to get from where we are to reach these goals. But even if we can’t get there, these are the stars we should steer by.

1) The end of Big Standardized Testing

We are achieving literally nothing by forcing kids to take high-stakes standardized tests, other than wasting huge amounts of time and money, and twisting the entire sense of public education’s purpose. If I could only achieve one wish on this list with a wave of my magic wand, it would be this one. Test-centric education is a poisonous acid, eating education from the inside out.

I’d settle for some sort of initiative to find systems of accountability that would give taxpayers the assurance that their money is being well-spent, to replace the test-centric system that does not actually deliver anything that it promises. Other goals that have been given by test A teacher’s nine wishes for 2017 - The Washington Post:

Rotting School Buildings and Magical Digital Learning Transformation

Rotting School Buildings and Magical Digital Learning Transformation:

Rotting School Buildings and Magical Digital Learning Transformation

The key issue to watch in 2017 is the spiraling drive to privatize public schools through digital learning.

One way this is done is through charter schools. Another strategy could be by not funding the upkeep of public school facilities then recreating them as blended learning schools.

Allowing schools to crumble in order to justify all-digital learning programs is a concern.

Remember Detroit? They had schools with mold growing out of their walls and other horrors. Local and state school administrators claimed there was no money in the midst of corruption.

School conditions impact student learning. You can be the best teacher in the world, but if your students are taking a test in an overheated classroom, under a leaky roof, worried about rats, or not getting a break due to lousy playground equipment, or Rotting School Buildings and Magical Digital Learning Transformation:

SFUSD Responds to Hate and Intolerance in Schools - SF Public School MomSF Public School Mom

SFUSD Responds to Hate and Intolerance in Schools - SF Public School MomSF Public School Mom:

SFUSD Responds to Hate and Intolerance in Schools

You may have missed it, but last year, as one of their final acts as of 2016, Commissioners Matt Haney and Shamann Walton proposed an important resolution calling on the superintendent to define clear protocols for schools in addressing hate and bias in our schools, and provide more support for site staff in creating safe and inclusive learning environments for all students.

While this is a continuation of the district’s ongoing work since it outlined “access and equity” as one of the three main goals of its Strategic Plan, many years ago, it is also a response to the rise in hate speech and bias related incidents being witnessed in our schools across our nation as a result of Trump’s election.

Thank you to all our Board members for unanimously approving this important resolution!

The work continues…

As anyone involved in social justice work knows, this work is ongoing. No system (or person) will ever be perfect. The work will never stop…

Nonetheless, I am hopeful we can move farther “beyond the talk” (as the district proposed many years ago) to tangible, measurable actions, that will ensure all our kids and families feel they are valued and respected members of our school communities. Even though we have come a long way in this regard, since I first became an educator over 20 years ago, there is still much work to be done.

As the Interim Superintendent, Myong Leigh, wrote in a letter to the SFUSD community last fall:

“We believe strongly in social justice, which means we fight against systemic oppression. We stand up for those who are vulnerable and hope others will do so for us when we need them. We put students’ needs first, and we will protect them now.”

(Download the message in English (Español | 中文| عربي |  Tagalog | Tiếng Việt)

It will “take a village” as the African saying goes to ensure this resolution is fully SFUSD Responds to Hate and Intolerance in Schools - SF Public School MomSF Public School Mom: 

Educators Have to Step Up | The Merrow Report

Educators Have to Step Up | The Merrow Report:

Educators Have to Step Up

As schools reopen in the New Year and Donald Trump’s inauguration draws near, the reality of dramatic increases in hate speech and hate behavior cannot be ignored. Educators need to know that merely reacting to offenses will not be adequate. The adults in charge need to step up and be proactive. They must draw some very clear lines about what behavior will not be tolerated.  It’s not enough to offer counseling and sympathetic hugs after the fact!

Why? Not just for the right reason–to support vulnerable students–but also to cover their own butts, because ‘after the fact’ actions, no matter how warm and supportive, are insufficient, inappropriate and almost certainly illegal.

The law is very much on the side of the victims, and school authorities ought to know that they are obligated under federal law to protect young people. I am not referring to anti-bullying legislation, which differs to state to state, but to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, sometimes known as ‘That damned sports law.’  Title IX clearly prohibits sexual harassment, and, even when bullying is ostensibly directed against an individual’s race, ethnicity or religion, it almost invariably includes sexual references.  Girls are called “sluts” and “hos,” boys are called “fags’ and other names.  Sexual rumors and comments are frequent.  And the above behavior violates the granddaddy of all laws in this area, Title IX.

Title IX also prohibits these behaviors outside the school, such as when personal computers are used, when the behavior is disruptive to learning or affects a student’s ability to partake of the opportunities for learning and in other opportunities provided by the school.  In short, schools and school administrator, under Title IX, are obligated to stop sexual cyber-bullying. Moreover, they stand to lose federal funding if Educators Have to Step Up | The Merrow Report:

Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au | Seattle Education

Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au | Seattle Education:

Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Garfield High School

Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center

400 23rd Avenue

Seattle, WA 98122  

This event is supported by the Garfield High School PTSA, Seattle Equality Educators (SEE),the Center for Race and Equity and the Seattle Education Association.

Carol Burris, Executive Director of the Network for Public Education Foundation, will deliver a keynote address regarding the tremendous benefits of detracking, and how ranking students based on their perceived intellectual abilities creates de facto segregation in our schools.

Wayne Au, Professor of Education at the University of Washington, Bothell, will also be joining us on a panel of local educators and students who will share their stories and insights regarding inclusion and high-stakes testing.

Carol Burris is the Executive Director of the Network for Public Education Foundation and has been a teacher in both middle and high schools. She received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, and is a former high school principal. In 2010, she was named Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, she was named SAANYS New York State High School Principal of the Year. Dr. Burris co-authored Detracking for Excellence and Equity (2008) and Opening the Common Core: How to Bring ALL Students to College and Career Readiness (2012), and authored On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the 21st Century Struggle against Re-segregation (2014). We welcome her to Seattle to share her wisdom, as we strive for equity and excellence in all of our schools.

Click here for a flyer.

Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au | Seattle Education:

Boycott Carl Paladino

Boycott Carl Paladino:

To the best of our knowledge, these businesses are owned and/or operated, in part or in total, by Carl Paladino and/or Ellicott Development. While we take pity on the employees of these businesses, we feel no one should work for a known racist.

Charter Schools (read more about Paladino’s charter school dealings here)

• Aloma D Johnson Community Charter School
• Applied Technologies Charter School
• Charter School of Inquiry
• Health Sciences Charter School
• Tapestry Charter School
• West Buffalo Charter School

Convenience Stores

• Big Tree Trading Company - 3405 Big Tree Road, Hamburg
• Hamburg Trading Company - 4973 Clark Street, Hamburg
• Allentown Trading Company - 553 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
• Elliott Square Trading Company - 295 Main Street, Buffalo
• South Buffalo Trading Company - 1005 Abbott Road, Buffalo
• Downtown Trading Company - 51 Broadway Street, Buffalo

Parking Lots

• Swan Parking Ramp - 48 Swan Street, Buffalo
• Main & Swan Parking Lot - 270 Main Street, Buffalo
• Pearl & Court Parking Lot - 50 Court Street, Buffalo
• Pearl & Swan Parking Lot - 100 Pearl Street, Buffalo
• Washington & Swan Parking Lot - 285 Washington Street, Buffalo
• Elliott Airport Parking - 4301 Genesee Street, Cheektowaga

Hotels

• 500 Pearl Street, Buffalo (read more here) (mixed use)
• Country Inn & Suites Buffalo South - 164 B Slade Avenue, West Seneca
• Days Hotel Buffalo Airport - 4345 Genesee Street, Buffalo
• The Giacomo Hotel - 222 1st Street, Niagara Falls
• Hampton Inn Buffalo South - 1750 Ridge Road, West Seneca
• Staybridge Suites Buffalo-Amherst - 1290 Sweet Home Road, Amherst
• Staybridge Suites Buffalo - 164 Slade Avenue, West Seneca
• Wingate by Wyndham Ellicottville - 11 Mill Street, Ellicottville
• Wyndham Garden Buffalo-Williamsville - 5195 Main Street, Williamsville

Apartment buildings

• 1 Delaware Road, Kenmore Avenue, Kenmore
• 10 Symphony Circle Apartments, Buffalo
• 14 North Street Apartments, Buffalo
• 17 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo
• 172 Franklin Street, Buffalo (mixed use)
• 176 Franklin Street, Buffalo
• 173 Elm Street, Buffalo (read more here)
• 269 Colvin Avenue, Buffalo
• 301 Ohio Street, Buffalo
• 351 Linwood Avenue Apartments, Buffalo
• 373 Elmwood Avenue Apartments, Buffalo
• 414 Franklin Street Apartments, Buffalo
• 857 Delaware Avenue Apartments, Buffalo
• 960 Busti Avenue, Buffalo (read more here)
• 1088 Niagara Street, Buffalo
• 1285 Main Street, Buffalo
• 1350 Eggert Road, Amherst
• 2450 Main Street, Buffalo
• 3900 North Buffalo Road, Orchard Park (mixed use)
• The Antonio - 269 Pearl Street, Buffalo
• The Bellasara - 540 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
• The Belesario - 514 Main Street, Buffalo
• The Commodore - 1240 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
• Ellicott Square Building Block - Swan and Washington Streets, Buffalo
• Fairmont Creamery Apartments - 199 Scott Street, Buffalo (read more here)
• The Graystone - 24 South Johnson Park, Buffalo (read more here)
• The Mosey - 5191 Main Street, Williamsville
• Pasquale at Waterfront Place - 132 Lakefront Boulevard, Buffalo
• The Sherwood - 140 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo
• Waterfront Place Townhomes - 13 Ojibwa Circle, Buffalo

Miscellaneous

• Dollar Rent-a-Car - 4301 Genesee Street, Cheektowaga (read more here)
• Thrifty Car Rental - 4646 Genesee Street, Cheektowaga (read more here)
• See Rite Aid entry under the Commercial Realty Section.

Go to the Boycott Carl Paladino: website

New Year, New Congress - Lily's Blackboard

New Year, New Congress - Lily's Blackboard:

New Year, New Congress

We Urge Members to Hear Our Voices.

However painful 2016 was, a new year offers a fresh start.  This year, we will take nothing for granted.  The challenges we will inevitably face may mean that we can see new strategies and new solutions that would have eluded us in the past.  

2017 marks the start of the 115th Congress, and we’re reaching out to members of Congress to encourage them to approach the unfolding year with a different perspective, too. We’re asking them to put families ahead of partisan politics and renew America’s commitment to public education so that all students, regardless of ZIP code, have the support, tools and time to learn.

The 114th Congress made history in 2015, when it passed the end of National Test and Punish and replaced it with the Every Student Succeeds Act. It passed because of bipartisan will in the light of the disastrous No Child Left Untested.  Congress came together and listened to educators, and the real winners were our students.

Please take a minute to read our full message to the 115th Congress. Also, follow the conversation on Twitter @NEAMedia.

New Year, New Congress - Lily's Blackboard:

John Thompson: Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down? | The Huffington Post

Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down? | The Huffington Post - Linkis.com:

Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down?

As 2016 comes to a close, we must think deeply and communicate sincerely about the lessons to be learned from the election of Donald Trump. During the holidays, I forbade myself from writing on policy so I wouldn’t be distracted by specific policy issues, as opposed to contemplating the big picture questions about the causes, the effects, and the alternatives to Trumpism.

I didn’t go cold turkey in forsaking the analysis of school improvement issues, however. When the craving became irresistible, I exchanged emails with neoliberal and conservative school reformers. I proposed that regardless of our positions on test-driven, competition-driven reforms, we should put them on the backburner, unite, and oppose the racism, sexism, and xenophobia that Trump proclaims. The Trump presidency is fundamentally different than even that of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, or George W. Bush. Education activists certainly shouldn’t collaborate with such an administration in order to expand charters or advance any other specific agendas.

Neither should educators take advantage of the split between conservative and neoliberal reformers if it undermines an opportunity for us to collaboratively fight Trump’s hate-filled persona and irresponsible and dangerous policies on immigration, the climate, civil rights, and foreign policy. (If reformers continue to treat teachers as the enemy, however, then our educational civil war will continue to undermine progressive alternatives.) Although the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Rick Hess may not agree with much of my proposal, I’m pleased that the conservative Hess is responsive to the call for a new conversation.

Hess’ “Seven Reflections on School Reform in 2017” begins with advice to his allies, “Keep an eye out for thought bubbles. It’s easy to talk only to people who think like you do.” He warns top-down school reformers to “steer clear of words that have been stripped of meaning,” such as “best practices,” “differentiation,” “21st century skills,” “rigor,” and “accountability.” The inimitable Hess observes:

Most of the time, it’s not clear what any of these placeholders really mean. They’re often just a way to skip past complicated questions. The problem is that mushy Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down? | The Huffington Post - Linkis.com:

Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy | The Progressive

Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy | The Progressive:

Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy

As the Obama administration winds down, it’s only natural that some officials make their legacy statements. So here comes former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to sum up what, exactly, we have to show for his eight years in office. This may seem like a pointless exercise, but as we move into the Trump-DeVos era, looking at all the targets that Duncan and the current Education Secretary John “Duncan Lite” King set up, shot at, and missed can help us understand where we are.

For those of us who have been following him, Duncan’s narrative was familiar; (you can find similar bits and pieces in his 2010 UNESCO speech). Here’s the gist:

U.S. schools are failing and lying about it—telling students they’re doing well when they aren’t. The answer is national standards to create a uniform data base that would let us measure every student against every other student. That, in turn, would let us find all the great teachers. (And then we will move those teachers around so that all students have access to them). Meanwhile, we will foster the growth of a charter school industry which will foster laboratories of innovation, creating whole new methods of teaching. We’ll get things started early,with pre-K schooling, building an all-inclusive cradle-to-career pipeline, and turn the education system into a lean, efficient machine for cranking out super-duper citizens, who will make the nation so competitive that their educated awesomeness will erase poverty.

Now let’s look at Duncan’s self-proclaimed list of achievements:

• Most states have higher learning standards and better assessments.

The dream of unified national standards, measured by uniform national standardized tests, is dead. The Common Core has gone into hiding, afraid to even speak its own name, and the national testing framework is a shambles.

• We have more children in early learning programs.

As of 2014, only around five states have more than 50 percent enrollment in pre-K. And we have no idea how good any of these programs are. Meanwhile, K-2 programs increasingly cut critical play and recess time for inappropriate academic learning. Duncan also cheers the fact that test scores are up in lower grades; he does not talk about what it has cost to raise those Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy | The Progressive:

Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone - NEA Today

Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone - NEA Today:

Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone

When you walk into school in the morning, you want the climate to be happy, welcoming and supportive. But what if you are unable to feel any of those things? In some schools, hostilities seethe under the surface and boil over into bullying and fights. Rather than connection there’s a sense of alienation that hangs over the school like a storm cloud. In schools with negative school climates, achievement and attendance drop, and teacher churn begins to rise.

Following the tumultuous events of 2016, our schools and our young people are determined more than ever to create positive school climates. Indeed, events from last year—including a factious presidential election—highlighted the importance of a positive school climate, where everyone in the school community feels a sense of safety, belonging and well-being.

To learn more about school climate and what some schools are doing to improve it, NEA Today talked to Maureen Costello, Director of Teaching Tolerance, a program of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

What are some school climate programs in place that educators can adapt for their schools at a low cost?

There are a lot of them – Not In Our School, No Place for Hate , Day of Silence, and one of our programs, Speak Up at School, to name a few. These are all programs that encourage students to be “upstanders” rather than bystanders and to confront bullying and bias when they hear it. Another way to improve school climate is Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone - NEA Today:

 

Girding For The Education Fight Ahead

Girding For The Education Fight Ahead:

Girding For The Education Fight Ahead

If you want to get an idea of what kind of education policies to expect from a Donald Trump administration, Wall St. has a clue for you.

A report from BuzzFeed explains, online charter schools are “gearing up for a boom during the Trump administration, judging by where investors are placing their bets.”

The article points to K12 Inc., which is the country’s largest operator of online charters, whose stock price has risen in value by more than 50 percent since Election Day – hitting a 2-year high at one point.

The article quotes K12 executives who’ve “told investors the company was one of the ‘best positioned under Trump,” especially due to the “‘personal’ experiences that high-level Trump administration members have with the company.”

Among Trump personnel who’ve had these “experiences” with K12 is his pick for US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

As the article notes, Betsy DeVos’ husband Dick is “an early investor in K12.” Another in the Trump entourage who is close to online charters is his Vice President-Elect Mike Pence. As governor of Indiana, Pence advocated for more “school choice” in the state, including online charters.

Online charter schools operated by K12 have a particularly poor track record for academic achievement, as the BuzzFeed story notes.

A recent article in the Washington Post reports on a study that finds these schools are so bad that students enrolled in them “lost an average of about 72 days of learning in reading and 180 days of learning in math during the course of a 180-day school year … In other words, when it comes to math, it’s as if the students did not attend school at all.”

A recent assessment of the academic performance of online charter schools in Indiana found that nearly half of them are doing poorly or failing.

Trump’s “school choice” agenda will also likely include a way to give parents school vouchers they can use to pull their Girding For The Education Fight Ahead:

Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource

Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource:

Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect

The first week in January is like the first day of spring training: Everyone’s an expert on predicting what Gov. Jerry Brown will sign and veto and who’ll win the World Series.

Some forecasters, though, are more clairvoyant than others. A year ago, I predicted with absolute certainty that state voters would defeat a $9 billion school construction bond (they passed it) and that the courts wouldn’t even take up the Vergara lawsuit, involving teacher protections, in 2016 (they ruled on it).

More on those predictions below. Unchastened, I offer 10 K-12 issues to follow in 2017, with a forecast of what, if anything, will happen during the year. The scale ranges from 1 to 5 “Fensters,” with 1 meaning no chance, and 5 meaning highly likely.

The Trump effect

Keep one eye on Washington and the other on Sacramento this year to see if the Trump and Brown administrations are in conflict or in concert on a bunch of issues this year. There may be contentious disagreements.

Vouchers

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump put forward a vaguely-worded $20 billion school choice plan that included vouchers for private schools. Then, as president-elect, he nominated Betsy DeVos as the next secretary of education. She’s a crusader for school vouchers that would give parents tuition for the traditional public, charter, private or religious schools of their choosing. But California voters have twice overwhelmingly defeated private school voucher initiatives, and the Democrat-dominated Legislature and Brown would spurn the idea, too.

There are many scenarios for a Trump-DeVos voucher/school choice plan, some of which would meet more resistance in Congress than others.

Likelihood that Trump immediately will propose a $20 billion voucher plan that would eat into Title I funding for low-income students and require Congress to revise Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource: