December 2010
24 posts
2 tags
Teacher Bonuses Failed To Improve Test Scores
This article from eSchool News merely states what teachers already know, it is not solely money that motivates us. Teachers want adequate supplies, good working conditions, proper support, valuable professional development, and the ability to collaborate with colleagues to work on shared concerns.
Of course, once again, the measure of teaching success is test scores on standards-based...
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Last Comment on a Wretched Movie - Waiting For... →
I’m sick of the movie and all the commentary. It is a conservative attempt to diminish public schooling in America by attacking teachers and their unions. I will say, this eSchool News article is well-written and agrees with my feelings on the matter.
November 2010
25 posts
3 tags
The Science Of Teacher Development →
This article discusses the importance of professional development, especially for new teachers. I was blessed to have a very supportive and nurturing department chair who pointed me toward professional organizations and grants for professional development early in my career. Now that I’m the department chair, I try and do the same for our new teachers. Of course the internet and its use for...
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White Kunckles Among the "Reformers" →
I couldn’t say it better!
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I Am Just A Teacher →
“The most hurtful public message was that I was to blame for just about every academic, social, economic and political problem in America.” Thanks to @edtechworkshop
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Teaching For America Has It Partially Right!
Tom Friedman’s <column> in the today’s NY Times gets it right, in part. He writes, “whoever out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow.” He then goes on to say we are now fighting back, which is a good thing.
After providing some points to show the sorry state of education in America (I’ll let you read them, but they strike me as a bit...
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Blogging Makes Better Teachers →
Writing your own blog, as well as reading the blogs of others will make you a better teacher. To an experienced teacher/blogger this is self-evident. However, to so many others, this is a call to take ownership of your professional development and growth as an educator.
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What Diane Ravitch Told KIPP and Teach For America →
This article from The Washington Post says much that I believe to be true. Teach For America is undercutting professionalism in education. Give a recent college graduate five weeks training and tell them they are better than twenty-year professionals - right! The reform idiots love this and use it to justify attacking teachers and their unions as holding back positive change.
Ms. Ravitch also...
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The Teaching Experience →
“The idea that experience doesn’t matter after five or so years incorrectly implies that test scores are the only relevant outcome.”
Good, well-thought-out article which presents a balanced look at the controversy that seems to be dominating education news - what is the value of experience in the classroom? As it turns out, there can be a lot of value.
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Why Standardized Tests Kill the Joy of Learning -... →
adventuresinlearning:
We need to wake up. When a bureaucracy rewards schools primarily for high standardized test scores, teaching becomes self-serving—for school districts, not for children. Impressive school rankings are meaningless if schools don’t embrace the value of a lifelong love of learning as the clearest pathway to success.
And this is the reason why I get so mad at politicians,...
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Time For Schools To Stop Damaging Children - Give...
I’m reading Ruth Bettelheim’s “Time for Schools to Stop Damaging Children” in the Huffington Post, and I’m a bit insulted. Dr. Bettelhiem begins by parroting the litany of complaints against schools: they are based on the factory model, children are taught in lockstep, nothing has changed since the middle of the 20th century… She then goes on to tell us that children learn best when they are...
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More Blame The Unions →
State/union (teacher) relations in New Jersey hit another low when the acting Commissioner of Education Rochelle Hendricks was a no-show at the annual New Jersey Education Association meeting. The NJEA and New Jersey governor Chris Christie have been feuding over the governor’s proposed education reforms, which the unions oppose. These reforms stress standards and test scores over the...
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Ohio (and the nation's) Bipolar View of Education
In a recent <editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer>, the point is made that Ohio’s education dollars must be stretched further due to the poor economy and the election of John Kasich as governor. Mr. Kasich has pledged NOT to raise taxes. The editorial goes on to explain why people fail to pass so many school levies in Ohio and blames the education system for excess in a time of...
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Where Would You Go? →
This Gallup poll shows that developed nations, the USA included, would attract younger people but not necessarily the best education people. Take a look at the tables.
I see the implications of this as either, the best educated are now going to other countries and this has negative implications for the developed world - or attracting the young gives countries a chance to educate and keep them.
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Resegregation, What's The Answer? →
This article from Educational Leadership and Jonathan Kozol, discusses the resegregation of America and what can be done about it. Potential solutions discussed include regional desegregation, insistence of excellence for all schools, connecting students in high-poverty schools to the rest of society, and addressing housing inequity.
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The Myth Of Charter Schools →
Good review of Diane Ravitch’s book, The Myth of Charter Schools. All educators should read this review, and the book. Dr. Ravitch was a proponent of No Child Left Behind when she worked for the government. Now she has become an outspoken opponent of both No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top, as well as the recent spate of teacher-bashing that has been taking place.
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Your Child Left Behind →
I had a long post written on this article in The Atlantic, however it was lost due to problems with the servers at Tumblr. Therefore, I urge readers who are interested in education and America’s low performance on international measures of math learning. There is an interactive chart that allows readers to compare their state with other states and nations.
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Irresponsible Journalism, Or Just Plain Mean? →
The teachers I know are hard-working and rather reticent about being in the public eye. They love working with students and enjoy watching students do well. Let the students get the accolades.
This past summer the L.A. Times decided to post names of 3rd and 5th grade teachers and their value-added scores on California’s standard-based tests. It looks as though one of the teachers...
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New Congress - Common Ground On Education - Right! →
A good, short article to get teachers fired up. The best line in it - “The fact that anyone believes ”We need to fix No Child Left Behind.”, or that Bush’s train wreck of a law is even fixable, tells you where this “bipartisan effort” is heading.”
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Online Learning Is On Campus →
The reasons for the growth of online learning are several, and among the foremost is cost. We are investigating adding an online component to what we teach at the high school level. I think it will be with us sooner rather than later.
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Students Are Not Products and Teachers Are Not... →
“Politics ought to be as remote from the classroom as it is from friendship.”
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The Flaws of Teacher Evaluation →
Bill Ferriter has won numerous awards, yet his knows and admits his weaknesses in the classroom. He epitomizes the teacher we all strive to be; one who is always questioning what he does in the classroom, who notes what does and does not work, and who knows the teacher evaluation system is flawed and cannot be counted upon to provide the feedback he craves.
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Incompetent Teachers or Dysfunctional Systems? →
…”poor teaching results more often from poorly functioning systems than from individual
shortcomings.”
An article from Phi Delta Kappan which looks at reengineering systems rather than blaming the individuals at the bottom of the food chain - teachers.
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In Defense of Public School Teachers →
An articulate defense of public school teachers by Mark Naison of Fordham University. He speaks from both personal and professional experience with teachers from the Bronx.
A key quote, “The teachers who come to these schools and give students love as well as instruction are not cynically collecting their paychecks, they are taking responsibility for all the problems our society has...
