March 2011
14 posts
4 tags
A Sad Day For Ohio
The Ohio legislature has passed the bill limiting public employees’ collective bargaining rights. It’s another sad day for Ohio, in what seems to be a parade of sad days for this once great state. Cleveland is dying, the new governor is slashing state spending to balance the budget. Money from the federal government for high speed rail service has been refused. The list goes on and...
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The Bi-Polar Nature Of The Debate Over Teacher Pay
My local Sunday paper was loaded with commentary on teachers and schools; what is wrong with them and how to “fix” them. I find it humorous in an ironic way that there are articles saying we need to pay teachers more and attract the “best and brightest” to the profession, and other articles saying teachers are paid too much and enjoy “cadillac” benefits.
My...
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Dr. Jong Zhao - Educators Should Know Him →
Last summer I read Jong Zaho’s book, Catching Up Or Leading The Way. Right away it grabbed me and meshed with my feeling on the reform movement in education. His survey of “reform,” going back to Sputnik, and weaving up through A Nation At Risk, No Child Left Behind, and Race To The Top, is a devastating look at the politicization of education at the expense of public schools and...
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Degrees and Dollars from Paul Krugman and the NY... →
“So if we want a society of broadly shared prosperity, education isn’t the answer — we’ll have to go about building that society directly. We need to restore the bargaining power that labor has lost over the last 30 years, so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages. We need to guarantee the essentials, above all health care, to every...
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The illusion of standardization « Cooperative... →
adventuresinlearning:
We need to understand what we are actually prescribing to when we standardize curriculum and assessment.
Children are not widgets that simply require a better regiment of assembly line workers. Children are not interchangeable cogs that would benefit from simply being treated more like their peers.
We have to stop pretending that we can meet one learners’ needs by...
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What Do You Think?
I just read Megan McArdle’s article Why Fire Teachers? in the Atlantic. I disagree with her assumptions, yet I am getting overwhelmed by the criticism poured out by so many against my chosen profession. After reading the article, I read the comments, and many were equally critical.
Here is my proposal - Take a look at the article and the responses to it. What do you think? How do you...
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Robert Reich: The Birth of the People's Party →
robertreich:
Look at the outrage in Madison, Wisconsin. Look at the crowds in DesMoines, Iowa. Look at the demonstrations in Indiana and Ohio and elswhere around America.
Hear what they’re saying: Stop attacking unions. Stop making scapegoats out of public employees. Stop protecting the super-rich from paying…
I’ve been thinking about this myself. If neither the Democrats or...
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How To Extend Your Teaching Career →
“If Mayor Bloomberg gets his way, teachers will turn over faster than fry cooks at McDonald’s.”
This tongue-in-cheek article by NYC teacher Arthur Goldstein summarizes the anger and frustration the nation’s teachers have with the increasingly hostile attacks on their profession. Let’s turn teachers into the parrots of the conservative establishment, too uneducated to...
adventuresinlearning asked: Are you interested in doing a guest post over at the cooperative?
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Peter Berg's comment on Teacher Sabrina's Post... →
adventuresinlearning:
Peter Berg on March 4, 2011 at 7:31 pm said:
Sabrina, I enjoyed reading your post you brought up many points of contention within our current political and education system. As David, mentioned IDEA is working to do what you suggested while recognizing that we must not alienate any stakeholder or constituent, so that we are not excluding anyone from the table or even...
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Reclaiming the Table | Cooperative Catalyst →
adventuresinlearning:
by Teacher Sabrina
Over the past few months, I’ve started to feel cautiously hopeful that things might be taking a turn for the better. It started when I read and signed the Declaration of Professional Conscience for Teachers earlier this year, and continued as I watched groups like Parents Across America pick up steam, and as I got more involved with the Save Our...
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Union Busting SB5 Rammed Through By Republican... →
world-shaker:
positivelypersistentteach:
world-shaker:
SB5 passed the Ohio by a razor thin 17-16 vote, with 6 Republicans switching sides and voting with Democrats against the bill. Before the vote could take place, SB5 had to clear 2 committees where it didn’t have the votes needed.
That is the point where Senate President Tom Niehaus (R) did something never before done: he made the...
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Were The L.A. Times' Findings On Value-Added...
This is big news. Last summer the L.A. Times came out with ratings of third and fifth grade teachers in the L.A. Unified School District based on a value-added calculation which the newspaper performed. Teachers were named and a database created so parents could check their child’s teacher’s supposed value-added score. Teachers were horrified, embarrassed, and in one case, possibly...
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The Attack on Teachers Continues
The Republican attack on teachers continues and increases in intensity. Some of the things said by the attackers are simply incredulous. The pundits make it sound as though an average teacher salary of $51,000 is a lot of money for someone with a masters degree and experience. One idiot claims teaching is a “part time job” with summers off and the day ending at 2:30 PM. He...
