Thursday, December 24, 2009
Happy Holidays
For/to anyone who reads this blog....I want to wish you and yours a very Happy Holiday! We are lucky to have chosen education as our career of choice. Not everything about what we do is on the level of wonderful, but I do absolutely enjoy going to work every day and dealing with learning!
Education Week: Charter Schools: Education's Fox in the Henhouse?
I have reported for years that the potential for privatization of education was/is real and that warehousing of those who "can't" in public schools is a real possiblity...
Education Week: Charter Schools: Education's Fox in the Henhouse?
Education Week: Charter Schools: Education's Fox in the Henhouse?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Learning from the Health Care Debacle - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
Absolutely right on but it will take more than the unions to make the right things happen....I am worried!
Learning from the Health Care Debacle - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
Learning from the Health Care Debacle - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
Monday, December 21, 2009
National Journal Online - Education Tracking Continues To Stir Debate
I disagree with both assertions! Neither goes far enough....If we don't know what the end game is after 20 years of writing standards then something is terribly wrong. Tracked or not we know what children should know and be able to do when the matriculate....The method of getting many of them there means offering them caring adults in any environment that works for them (the student).
National Journal Online - Education Tracking Continues To Stir Debate
National Journal Online - Education Tracking Continues To Stir Debate
AASA :: Fishing Blindly for Quality Teaching
Obviously, this is a propriatory organization but it sounds like a more aggressive approach to heirarchy to me and I am not ready to go there. I feel bad having to say this but we have no history of administrators being quality instructional leaders. Some are great managers but instructional leadership takes a paradigm shift that I have never seen.
AASA :: Fishing Blindly for Quality Teaching
AASA :: Fishing Blindly for Quality Teaching
Education Secretary Arne Duncan Says Merit Pay Should Be Tied to Student Growth - US News and World Report
Once again....It will be fun to see who and what gets funded next year. It will define the future reauthorization of NCLB
Education Secretary Arne Duncan Says Merit Pay Should Be Tied to Student Growth - US News and World Report
Education Secretary Arne Duncan Says Merit Pay Should Be Tied to Student Growth - US News and World Report
Flypaper: Education reform ideas that stick, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Good stuff if you want to know where the rub is!!!!!
Flypaper: Education reform ideas that stick, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Flypaper: Education reform ideas that stick, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Education Week: Is Merit Pay the Answer?
This is an extremely well written assessment of the whole merit pay conversation. Make sure you don't miss the comments about value added teaching. Also, the comments at the end about what we should be doing with this issue right now are right on!
Education Week: Is Merit Pay the Answer?
Education Week: Is Merit Pay the Answer?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
36 States Plan to Apply for Race to the Top, Round 1 - Politics K-12 - Education Week
Please note! North Dakota is not applying for Race to the Top funds.....38 states are....I cannot imagine for one minute that there is not something that we could do that would be able to allow us to qualify for some support. Our system of education is still constantly on the verge of not being able to deliver. The new rules will leave us further behind than we are already.
Is anybody home at the DPI or the media looking into this?
36 States Plan to Apply for Race to the Top, Round 1 - Politics K-12 - Education Week
Is anybody home at the DPI or the media looking into this?
36 States Plan to Apply for Race to the Top, Round 1 - Politics K-12 - Education Week
Monday, December 14, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Theatre vs Skills center
I don't often do this but as I move toward leaving this career for another I have "rant a bit." I have to be the advocate for the students with whom I work.
The school I work in was started in the 80's in Roosevelt Elementary. This is a physical facility that had already been closed as an elementary school because it was beyond repair. We spent many years there until the boilers and most of the other systems just gave out. We then moved to our present site. We are in the west wing of the Division of Vision services building. As soon as we moved in and division moved to the east wing of the building they completely gutted and remodeled the first floor to a very nice place.
A little known fact:
We rent our side of the building from the state...so we can do nothing without permission from the state. We have never had new student/teacher desks. We have no lab for science. We cobble our computer systems together by moving old machines from our lab to our classrooms. Our art room is part of our kitchen. We have to fight to keep our lunch program going. We have air conditioning on one side of the hall only. We have a heating system our of the 50's.
I have repeatedly sent proposals to the school board asking them to consider the possibility that Grand Forks could use a new Skills Center ( like the $12 million dollar one being completed as we speak in Bismarck or the one in Fargo). A place for our students...for people looking for additional training in computers and other businesses, an adult learning center, a place where local businesses could train on new computer software, even a place where a variety of tech schools could offer on site classes.
I picked up the paper this morning and saw that the district is going to spend $14 million on new theaters and music facilities. These are great programs and SPA has done a lot for many Grand Forks students. These two schools were completely redone after the flood. Where was the forethought then? If I had the choice I would vote for us first! We didn't even make the radar. We are not on a "burner" much less the back burner.
GFPS hired a consultant to look into the facilities for these arts programs but there was no consultant looking into programs for my population of students. This is a huge sum of money dedicated to a limited but powerful group of students. The students I work with have no advocates in the community other than the small group of staff members who work with them daily.
Folks, will say I am whining! You bet I am! These kids and these programs deserve the same facilities that the rest of the students populations gets. And a skills center would be a huge asset to this community if it was designed and built correctly.
The school I work in was started in the 80's in Roosevelt Elementary. This is a physical facility that had already been closed as an elementary school because it was beyond repair. We spent many years there until the boilers and most of the other systems just gave out. We then moved to our present site. We are in the west wing of the Division of Vision services building. As soon as we moved in and division moved to the east wing of the building they completely gutted and remodeled the first floor to a very nice place.
A little known fact:
We rent our side of the building from the state...so we can do nothing without permission from the state. We have never had new student/teacher desks. We have no lab for science. We cobble our computer systems together by moving old machines from our lab to our classrooms. Our art room is part of our kitchen. We have to fight to keep our lunch program going. We have air conditioning on one side of the hall only. We have a heating system our of the 50's.
I have repeatedly sent proposals to the school board asking them to consider the possibility that Grand Forks could use a new Skills Center ( like the $12 million dollar one being completed as we speak in Bismarck or the one in Fargo). A place for our students...for people looking for additional training in computers and other businesses, an adult learning center, a place where local businesses could train on new computer software, even a place where a variety of tech schools could offer on site classes.
I picked up the paper this morning and saw that the district is going to spend $14 million on new theaters and music facilities. These are great programs and SPA has done a lot for many Grand Forks students. These two schools were completely redone after the flood. Where was the forethought then? If I had the choice I would vote for us first! We didn't even make the radar. We are not on a "burner" much less the back burner.
GFPS hired a consultant to look into the facilities for these arts programs but there was no consultant looking into programs for my population of students. This is a huge sum of money dedicated to a limited but powerful group of students. The students I work with have no advocates in the community other than the small group of staff members who work with them daily.
Folks, will say I am whining! You bet I am! These kids and these programs deserve the same facilities that the rest of the students populations gets. And a skills center would be a huge asset to this community if it was designed and built correctly.
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