CURMUDGUCATION: To A Teacher At The End Of A Discouraging Week

CURMUDGUCATION: To A Teacher At The End Of A Discouraging Week

To A Teacher At The End Of A Discouraging Week

It just sucks. You spend the time and effort (and maybe money) to create a lesson that you hope will be engaging and provide your students an exciting, maybe even fun, break from routine. And it bombs. More than once. Not only do your students not appreciate it, but they bitch about it. Sure, these are students who generally bitch and moan about everything (that's partly why you went an extra mile for them), but this still feels like you stayed up late to bake someone a beautiful cake and they just took a bite, spit it out, and threw the rest back in your face.

It feels personal, but it also shoots straight to your core as a professional (because, let's face it, your personal and professional selves are pretty intertwined anyway). Maybe my pedagogical sense is not very strong, you think. Maybe I'm not very good at motivating or connecting with the students. Maybe I just suck at this whole teacher thing.

I was in the classroom for thirty-nine years, and I still remember, way too vividly, those days, or weeks, or, in one case, the better part of an entire year. It just sucks. And nothing anyone can say really makes it any less sucky. Nevertheless, let me offer you a few pieces of hope.

You Don't Always Know

Here's a story. In February of my first year of teaching, one of my students entered my classroom CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: To A Teacher At The End Of A Discouraging Week

Mitchell Robinson: We Measure What We Treasure, and Other Myths About Education Policy… | Eclectablog

We Measure What We Treasure, and Other Myths About Education Policy… | Eclectablog

We Measure What We Treasure, and Other Myths About Education Policy…

I received a phone call from a music teacher last night whose principal had recently marked her down on an unannounced, “drive-by” observation…because the students “weren’t engaged.”

When she asked how the principal had come up with that rating, she was told the “evidence” upon which the comment was made was based on the principal’s observation that “only 10% of her students were looking at her” during an exercise in beginning guitar class while the class was learning a finger picking example.

Mind you now, this principal acknowledged to the teacher that she “knew nothing” about music in general, and had never touched a guitar in her life. But there she was, making evaluative judgments about this certified, qualified music teacher’s ability to teach guitar

A few thoughts…

A. There were 13 students in the class, so that means 1.3 kids were allegedly looking at her–I mean, data is data, right? If a teacher’s job security is going to be determined by a reliance on CONTINUE READING: We Measure What We Treasure, and Other Myths About Education Policy… | Eclectablog

Bugs in Teachers’ Ears? What We Should Be Doing Instead. | Teacher in a strange land

Bugs in Teachers’ Ears? What We Should Be Doing Instead. | Teacher in a strange land

Bugs in Teachers’ Ears? What We Should Be Doing Instead.

EdWeek re-ran a piece this week about teachers getting remote coaching via earpieces from ‘experts’–always the experts! –who were watching them teach via live video feed:

Virtual teacher-coaching services have become more popular in recent years—teachers record their lessons, and remote coaches review the videos and offer feedback. This approach has been especially popular in rural schools, or in districts that can’t afford to staff their own coaches.

But bug-in-ear coaching takes the approach one step further, happening in the moment. It’s a harder sell to both coaches and teachers, experts say, since it requires a level of vulnerability among both parties.

John Merrow responded with a hilarious send-up of what that might look like, in real life: Insect-based Teacher Training.  Once I stopped laughing, though, I started pondering just who would benefit from a Secret Agent Man earpiece, in any skill-based occupation that depends almost entirely on human communication.

A remote observer may be able to talk a novice plumber through fixing a leaky pipe– or teach someone to master a person-thing activity, like brushing teeth or scrambling an CONTINUE READING: Bugs in Teachers’ Ears? What We Should Be Doing Instead. | Teacher in a strange land

CURMUDGUCATION: NH: No, Again, To Federal Charter Money

CURMUDGUCATION: NH: No, Again, To Federal Charter Money

NH: No, Again, To Federal Charter Money

A month ago, the Granite State's Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee said, "No, thanks" to an offer of $46 million from the feds to be used in doubling the number of New Hampshire charter schools from 28 to 55. The money was to come from the federal Charter School Program, a grant program that has come under fire due to a recent pair of studies showing massive waste and fraud by recipients of CSP money. The legislature was concerned that doubling the number of charter schools would harm public schools and existing charters.

But that, it turns out, was not the end of it.

This frickin' guy.

Frank Edelblut is currently the grand poohbah of education in NH. He was previously a businessman, venture capitalist, and one-term state representative. He took a swing at the governor's office, but was beaten in the primary by Chris Sununu; he then supported Sununu who, upon becoming governor, appointed Edelblut to the education post based on God-only-knows-what. Edelblut has no education background, pushed vouchers as a representative, and homeschooled all his kids.

But Friday (1/10) Edelblut brought the $46 million back to the table for the committee with what I suppose he thought was a sweetener-- a quote from Democrat Maggie Hassan, former governor and current senator for New Hampshire. Hassan had supported a similar grant in 2016, writing:

An objective of this grant is to use best practices from positive outcomes at our charter schools to CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: NH: No, Again, To Federal Charter Money

Wisconsin: Taxpayers Angry About Supporting Two School Systems | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wisconsin: Taxpayers Angry About Supporting Two School Systems | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wisconsin: Taxpayers Angry About Supporting Two School Systems

The Eau Claire County Board was asked to endorse a resolution saluting “School Choice Week,” but homeowners turned out to denounce the loss of money from their public schools that was sent to voucher schools.

One after another, homeowners asked why they were supporting two school systems, why the money intended for their public schools was being diverted to religious schools, why their taxes were being used to subsidize the tuition of students who had never attended public schools.

That discussion followed a report by the state Department of Public Instruction showing Wisconsin taxpayers will spend $349.6 million on school vouchers this school year, up from $302 million the previous year. A total of 43,450 students are receiving voucher funds this year, an increase of 3,411, or 8.5 percent,  from last school year..

Concerns about the impact of that funding shift on public schools surfaced at a December meeting of the Eau Claire County Board, where residents spoke against a resolution proclaiming Jan. 26 to Feb. 1 as Eau Claire County “School Choice Week.” Speakers told board CONTINUE READING: Wisconsin: Taxpayers Angry About Supporting Two School Systems | Diane Ravitch's blog

Newsom budget proposes $900 million to address teacher shortage - Los Angeles Times

Newsom budget proposes $900 million to address teacher shortage - Los Angeles Times

Newsom’s budget includes $900 million to address California teacher shortage 

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed state budget includes $900 million to recruit and retain teachers, part of a plan to attack a critical statewide shortage of instructors, especially in math, sciences and for students with disabilities.

The plan, included in his $222.2-billion budget unveiled Friday in Sacramento, was among a range of education measures that also includes the creation of an early childhood development department, significantly more money to cover the costs of teaching students with disabilities and a funding boost to the school lunch program, a hedge against possible reductions at the federal level.

Overall, permanent funding increases were modest as Newsom relied on one-time spending as a safeguard against potential leaner revenue in future years. Higher education and K-12 schools combine to represent about half the state’s general fund spending.

The final budget must be approved by the Legislature and will be updated in May.

 The governor expressed disappointment with student achievement levels, noting that Latino and black students continue to score on the low end of an unacceptable achievement gap. Despite some measurable performance gains, Newsom said, “none of us are naive, and none of us are spiking the ball.”

Newsom’s proposals would make it more affordable to become a teacher and offer more pay for them to serve where most needed. One proposal would provide $100 million to fund a $20,000 bonus for teachers who work four years in a high-need subject at a high-need school.

The governor said 75% of state school districts face a shortage of fully trained teachers, especially in high school math and science and at all grade levels for CONTINUE READING:  Newsom budget proposes $900 million to address teacher shortage - Los Angeles Times

New York’s Jim Crow Schools – Dropout Nation

New York’s Jim Crow Schools – Dropout Nation

New York’s Jim Crow Schools

Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them . . . John Adams, Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780.

Each year New York City’s elite Stuyvesant High School admits on the basis of the Specialized High School Admissions Test nearly 1,000 ninth grade students, fewer than 10 of whom are Black, about 10 percent from the Black and Hispanic groups combined.  

The SHSAT, essentially a math test, violates a cardinal principle of test design:  It is not aligned with the New York City Mathematics curriculum (or even with the rest of the city’s curricula). Also, no one really passes it because admitting schools determine who can get in without so much as a set cut score, and its purpose since the passage of the Hecht-Calandra Act in 1971 is for discrimination and exclusion, a point previously made on these pages.

However, its annual results are effective in drawing attention to the inequities in the opportunity to learn across the city’s neighborhoods and among its racial and ethnic groups of students.

New York State’s Mathematics Assessment at grade 8, when the SHSAT is given, allocates student performance in four categories:  Levels 1 to 4. It is reasonable to assume that students scoring at Level 4 would be well-qualified for attempting the further hurdle of the specialized high school test if that test were aligned with the CONTINUE READING: New York’s Jim Crow Schools – Dropout Nation

Bob Shepherd Reviews “SLAYING GOLIATH” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bob Shepherd Reviews “SLAYING GOLIATH” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bob Shepherd Reviews “SLAYING GOLIATH”

Bob Shepherd is a polymath, a man of remarkable learning, an author, a scholar, and at the capstone of his career, a classroom teacher.

Regular readers of this blog know him as a frequent contributor and a source of wisdom and humor.

Here is his review of my new book, SLAYING GOLIATH: THE PASSIONATE RESISTAMCE TO PRIVATIZATION AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS, which will be released on January 21 by Alfred A. Knopf, one of the nation’s finest trade publishers.

He begins:

In these dark days of Trumpism, reasons for optimism are the spar to which the rest of us, the passengers on the now disastrously helmed ship of state, attempt to cling. Diane Ravitch’s new book, Slaying Goliath is such a spar. It’s a celebration of those who have pushed back against the oligarch-led disruption and attempted privatization of our preK-12 educational system. But it’s more than just a lot of cheering stories (though it is that, and we need those; reading this, you will find yourself cheering again and again). It’s also, effectively, a manual for the CONTINUE READING: Bob Shepherd Reviews “SLAYING GOLIATH” | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Picture’s Worth | radical eyes for equity

A Picture’s Worth | radical eyes for equity

A Picture’s Worth

I found this photograph
Underneath broken picture glass
Tender face of black and white
Beautiful, a haunting sight

“Photograph,” R.E.M. with Natalie Merchant

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.

“This Is a Photograph of Me,” Margaret Atwood

I’m afraid of everyone

“Afraid of Everyone,” The National

There’s a joke I repeat quite often: When I was in high school, I had scoliosis, owned 7000 comic books—and no girlfriend.

People usually laugh, and then I add: That isn’t funny; it’s true.

This is me circa mid- to late 1970s, silk shirt and barely visible brace for scoliosis:

The hair, glasses, and 70s fashion weren’t exactly working for me then. But many years before the four years in a full-body brace, I had already begun practicing all the survival skills needed for my anxiety, introversion, and crippling low self-esteem (terrified I was not and never would be the sort of masculine man that my father had imprinted on me).

It has been a couple years now since my parents died. My nephews, who my parents raised, and I cleaned out my parents’ house, and my oldest nephew, Stephen (who we call Tommy) gathered all the photographs, himself a photographer, to have them scanned. He sent the first almost-900 files CONTINUE READING: A Picture’s Worth | radical eyes for equity

2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 5. Be an Education Voter | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 5. Be an Education Voter | Live Long and Prosper

2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 5. Be an Education Voter

2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions
5. Be an Education voter!

It’s a new year and as is our custom here in the USA, we make resolutions which, while rarely kept, can be redefined as goals toward which we would strive had we the strength.

[Updated and edited from 2018]

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION #5

• Be an Education voter.

Have you been teaching long enough to remember when

• there was enough time in your day to do things with your class like reading aloud, learning about dinosaurs, developing a science project, or playing a learning game…just for fun?

• primary grade students had a morning recess, a recess after lunch, and an afternoon recess?

• standardized tests weren’t CONTINUE READING: 2020 Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions: 5. Be an Education Voter | Live Long and Prosper

Thurmond Praises Governor Newsom’s 2020 Budget - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Thurmond Praises Governor Newsom’s 2020 Budget - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Praises Governor Newsom’s 2020 Budget

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today praised Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2020–21.

“Over the last year, my team and I have been collaborating with educational partners, including teachers and administrators all over the state, through my 13 workgroups, to establish and validate the areas of focus and priority initiatives for the California Department of Education,” said Thurmond. “Today, we were pleased to hear that many of the budget announcements were aligned with the work we have been doing. Governor Newsom and his team have produced a budget that is comprehensive, aligns with our goals to ensure equitable education for all students, and allows us to focus on helping our most vulnerable students in underserved communities.”

The budget includes the largest K–12 education per pupil expenditure in history. It proposes increasing K–12 education by $3 billion, with an investment of approximately $900 million for teacher preparation and retention.

“The Governor mentioned that students should have teachers that look more like them, and we couldn't agree more,” said Thurmond. “We look forward to having the opportunity to invest in our teacher workforce and the pipeline of future teachers coming into the profession, specifically teachers of color and in the fields of science, math, and special education.”

The budget includes funding to allow schools to add key staffing to provide coordination and delivery of services that will help students have a healthy start and remove barriers that get in the way of academic and social success with a $300 million community schools grant and an additional $300 million in opportunity grants for wrap-around technical assistance. This will provide resources to train administrators, teachers, and students with curriculum and strategies that will solidify California’s investment in the social and emotional well-being of students.

The budget also proposes significant increases to funding for special education, both in terms of increased funding to address the growing need for existing services as well as funding for districts to provide increased or improved services.

“Our districts are faced with financial challenges to keep up with the needs of our most vulnerable student populations, and we are thankful for the financial support from the proposed budget to help our schools provide equitable educational opportunities for all of our students,” said Thurmond.

For the first time in over 10 years, the budget includes a 40 percent increase in state funding for school nutrition programs to boost the quality of meals provided and to expand access. It also includes $10 million for grants to foster innovative farm-to-school linkages that support sustainable agriculture and make more healthy foods available to our students.

Generators to help schools prepare for disasters and stay open during unforeseen power outages will be provided through a larger emergency fund through the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). This gesture alone shows that the Governor and his team are listening to the needs of school districts, even when they are unprecedented and ever-changing with these new challenges brought on by public safety power shutoffs.

“I appreciate that even with declining resources, Governor Newsom has found a way to keep education as a key priority in the budget. We look forward to continuing a close partnership with him, the Legislature, and stakeholders in the next few years to increase our state’s education resources so that we can close opportunity gaps, and make sure all of California’s students have equitable opportunities to excel,” Thurmond said.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Thurmond Praises Governor Newsom’s 2020 Budget - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

CATCH UP WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

NewBlackMan (in Exile)

CATCH UP WITH NEWBLACKMAN (IN EXILE)

On Work, Hunger and the Starvation of the Welfare State

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

'Anthropologist Maggie Dickinson examines the intersections of hunger, work and the collapsing US welfare state - as the government pushes work requirements for social programs, food assistance subsidizes low-wage jobs, empowers the profits of capital over the lives of workers, and entrenches deep poverty across society. Dickinson is author of Feeding the Crisis: Care and Abandonment in America's

J Hoberman: Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump and the American Political Imaginary

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

'Legendary film critic J Hoberman joins LA Review of Books to discuss Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan , which is the the final installment of his film history trilogy Found Illusions. Hoberman describes how he set out to tell the story of how cinema operated as the social and political unconscious of American society throughout the Cold War and discovered along the way that Ronald

JAN 05

Bill Rhoden On Sports: Thoughts on the Legacy of David Stern & The NFL's Black Coach Problem

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' William C. Rhoden , Jamal Murphy and Eryn Ashleigh Mathewson talk about the legacy of former NBA commissioner David Stern and the NFL's problem with minority coaching hires and more.' -- BROSpod

Director Of 'Just Mercy' Depicts Characters 'In All Of Their Complexities'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' Bryan Stevenson 's bestselling book Just Mercy may not seem like the most obvious candidate for a splashy Hollywood movie adaptation. It's about the founding of a not-for-profit advocacy organization that helps low-income people who were denied fair trials. And the plot follows the grueling legal work necessary to appeal the sentences of convicted murderers on Alabama's death row, not all of wh

JAN 04

Rhiannon Giddens on African American Contributions to Music

by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

' Rhiannon Giddens is a folk singer and multi-instrumentalist who also happens to be a classically trained opera singer. Having grown up in North Carolina, she’s now on a mission to re-frame the history of African Americans and their contributions to the musical landscape. Giddens sits down with Walter to discuss her latest album, “There Is No Other,” and play a little banjo.' -- Amanpour and Com

Single Mothers and the Boys and Men Raised by Them

by Mark Anthony Neal / 7d

'Filmmaker Daphne McWilliams joins All Of It to discuss her documentary , In a Perfect World , about the experience of boys raised by single mothers.'

An Alternative to Our Broken Prison System

by Mark Anthony Neal / 7d

' On the Media co-host Bob Garfield speaks with Danielle Sered , author of Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair . As executive director of Common Justice, an organization based in New York City, Sered pioneered the practice of restorative justice with violent offenders at a local level. She discusses the profoundly transformative power of making amends.'

Gregory Porter: Personal Stories For Universal Songs

by Mark Anthony Neal / 7d

'The smooth, booming voice of Gregory Porter brought a galvanizing force to jazz when he broke onto the scene about a decade ago. It's a voice of exhortation, flowing out of the gospel church. A voice of dignity, in the mode of 

NewBlackMan (in Exile)