Blogboard

Robert Pondiscio at The Core Knowledge Blog has some suggestions for a California calculus teacher who is offering product placement on student tests to cover printing expenses that were shaved from his school's budget. The cost to place an ad is nominal--$10 on a quiz, $20 on the chapter test, and $30 for one on the final--and he's made more than enough to cover his printing costs and to help others in his department. But Mr. Pondiscio says teachers shouldn't stop there.

Just about every elementary school teacher has taught probability or graphing using a packet of M&Ms. Stop thinking of that as a lesson plan–it’s a product placement opportunity! (Face it, Mars Inc., Skittles or Reese’s Pieces would work just as well. What’s a captive audience of twenty-five 3rd graders worth to you?) Endorsement deals! (”Ticonderoga…the official No. 2 pencil of Room 501″)

Posted by Jeff Lambert at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ron Isaac of edwize is a big Thanksgiving fan. For Mr. Isaac it is the holiday teachable moment in America—all about family harmony and absent of corporate corruption. He goes on the record to all-but-declare its holiday perfection.

Thanksgiving Day stands alone among American holidays. Its inspiration is timeless and universal and it lends itself to teaching across all curriculums and cultures. There’s nothing about that holiday that is irksome to anybody regardless of national, political, or religious ideology. And its original meaning has not been eroded by entrepreneurs or braggarts of any stripe.

Thanksgiving Day is about the cohesion of the nuclear family and the link to the whole genealogy of all the races … It is about “family values” in the sense of that term before it was polluted by reactionary misappropriation.

Do you agree with Mr. Isaac? Share your thoughts on Thanksgiving here.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The teachers in Tim Stahmer’s school district have been getting lots of email reminders lately that their budget is going to take a hit as the economy continues to slide. While this is certainly going to create serious problems, Stahmer doesn’t know if it will be all bad.

Ok, so no one’s getting a raise, class sizes will be increased, an assortment of programs will be scaled back or cut, and we’re certainly not going to be buying new technology.

However, I’m wondering if that last part might not be an opportunity.

Stahmer says that being forced to cut back on technology and make do with what’s already been purchased might help schools reevaluate gadgets in the classroom.

Are those interactive whiteboards really effective teaching tools or just a highly motivational way to do the same old things?

When things get better should we buy more “clicker” (student response) systems or are they just an expensive gimmick?

Could there be better ways to use all the computers and other equipment we already have other than creating bad PowerPoint slide shows and drilling for standardized tests?

Posted by Josh Cohen at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dennis Fermoyle of In the Trenches of Public Ed sees a potential glimmer of hope in America’s dire economic situation: better student performance. In his experience, students work harder in school when they’re concerned about their future employment. Fermoyle used to teach in a town where students were all but guaranteed good employment after high school working for the taconite companies, the town’s main industry.

I remember asking one mediocre student, who I thought had some talent, why he didn't try harder. He turned to me and said, "Why should I? [After I graduate] I'll be making more money than you are."

About two years after this incident, the floor fell out from under the taconite industry…

There seemed to be a definite improvement in overall effort and performance of our student body. With so few jobs available, and so much unemployment, it was clear to a lot of our kids that if they ever wanted to be able to make a decent living, education was going to matter.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some students at Hobo Teacher's high school have taken up illicit bicycle jousting (using other kids' bikes, no less). HT's not exactly wild about the idea that teachers are now expected to intervene:

They want me to go up against savages who have used their wits to arm themselves with vehicles for destruction. What is this? Mad Max? Tina Turner was right; we don’t need another hero.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The news that the Dallas school district has been assigning fake Social Security numbers to employees gives Dallas educator Mister Teacher reason for pause:

Meanwhile, I'm thinking I might need to take a look at my own social security number. I always was suspicious of the fact that it was so easy to remember, but now I'm guessing 555-55-5555 is probably fake as well...

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back in 2004, outgoing national teacher of the year Betsy Rogers made a commitment to work at a disadvantaged school in Alabama for five years. In an inspiring recent post, she reflects on what she's learned:

Being at Brighton has been the greatest challenge and learning experience of my career. Even though I have not been a classroom teacher at Brighton as I first imagined — and so desired — I believe I have been able to make a difference. I know I am a better teacher today that when I was named Teacher of the Year. I have grown in so many ways in my knowledge and depth of understanding as I have worked side by side with the Brighton teachers. I have also had to look deep inside myself and ask "Do I really have what it takes to survive in a school labeled failing?" After four years, I would say yes, but it is hard work and takes much more patience than I ever dreamed.

Sounds as if she may stay beyond the five years, too.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Doug Noon of Borderlands reviews the latest on assessment reform, arguing that the current standardized testing regime used in schools is too simplistic and too top-down to give teachers the means to create real learning gains. He offers a memorable analogy:

If we’d have used an NCLB-style approach to the Apollo moon mission, President Kennedy would have simply ordered NASA to fly conventional airplanes higher and higher until they fell out of the sky, and then blamed the pilots for lacking the will and the know-how to get the job done.

If you're interested in this topic, it just so happens we currently have a forum discussion going on about how the Obama administration should change testing.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A D.C. charter public school teacher has had enough.

Hat tip: DCist.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dangerously Irrelevant isn’t a huge fan of the way professional development is currently run. He’s got five big ideas on how to improve it, including not wasting time on multi-day PD workshops and looking inside the schools for expertise. Most interestingly, he proposes student led professional development workshops for technology training.

When it comes to digital technologies, our kids often are (or, given the chance, could rapidly become) the experts. We ignore this expertise in most school organization. Shame on us.

The kids get the learning power and social/emotional benefit of being teachers and leaders. Adults and other students learn from the true experts.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Doug Johnson sees lessons for schools in the Obama campaign's intensive use of social networking sites to reach out to voters.

Might one of the victories of this election be that social networking sites will be seen by more educators as educational and civics tools, not just for recreation? I hope so.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Core Knowledge blogger Robert Pondiscio makes an interesting point that I haven't seen before: The new first couples have a lot of professional experience in the education field. (But I don't know: In Michelle Obama's case, does working as an administrator for University of Chicago Hospitals - impressive as it is - constitute an education job?)

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Skoolboy, filling in for eduwonkette, runs some numbers and warns against thinking that Obama's election means we suddenly live in a post-racial society in which educational inequalities no longer persist:

The odds of completing high school are twice as high for whites as for blacks, and the odds of obtaining a bachelor’s degree conditional on graduating from high school are also twice as high for whites as for blacks. ...

The election of Barack Obama to the Presidency is a signal event, and the consequences of his breaking the color barrier will reverberate for many years to come. Although our President-Elect is a singular, charismatic individual who is the right man at the right time, the social, economic and political forces that shape the educational opportunities of African-Americans in U.S. society are deeply entrenched. Sadly, the scourge of race will not be easy to overcome.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Cindy Rigsbee, who grew up in the still-segregated South, thinks students need to understand the significance of the country's election of an African American as president.

It's a conversation that should be happening in classrooms all over America. Regardless of party affiliation, political opinion, or the color of our states on that big interactive map (my state is one of three that hasn't been designated red or blue yet), we should recognize and explain to children the reasons why this election, and the outcome, is so important.

And like Mei Flower, she too thinks Obama's win offers a much-needed sense of potential and opportunity for African-American students:

So now we have a Black president. And when I stand in front of my students, especially my African American ones, I can say, "You can be anything you want to be. You can even be President" and know that it's true.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've been trying to highlight election-related posts today, but this one is too good to not to link: Teach Baltimore realizes, too late, that he apparently missed the memo about school "pajama day" being cancelled this year.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mei Flower notes, from her teacher's perspective, that one of the most positive results of Obama's win may be its effect on African-American boys:

In the past few weeks, I've noticed a difference in these students. I've noticed that they hold their heads a little higher. I've noticed that they've buckled down a little harder. I've noticed that they've looked me in the eye, and they've gotten a spark of enthusiasm, and they are talking about their futures because they believe they HAVE futures now. ...

It's possible that Barack Obama will leave office without passing even one law, without forging one new alliance, without solving one single economic problem.

[Obama's] greatest achievement won't ever reach the newspaper or be broadcast on the news. No, the best thing he's done--the best thing he'll ever do--is give my students HOPE, and in doing so, he gave them a FUTURE.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Web 2.0 enthusiast Will Richardson says it's a day for print newspaper covers (even if you can do it, with your students, on the Web).

No matter how the impact of paper newspapers is declining, at moments like these, there’s still nothing like the front page of the paper, not the website, that gives me goosebumps. And in that vein, I’m cruising through the hundreds of covers from around the world at Newseum. Amazing.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eduwonk guesses at the implications of Obama's victory.

The economy was a key to the broader coalition Obama was able to assemble in this election and trumps other issues. That likely means (a) more rhetoric from our field about how education and the economy are linked and (b) despite that, second tier status for education for at least a while.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mr. Teacher reports on the mock election at his school. Talk about your undecideds:

Walking around the room while the kids were voting, I noticed that one child had put a check in the box for McCain, and he was writing in Obama's name on the write-in line. I had to explain to him how this was not proper procedure.

The results, in case you're wondering, follow the trend in child voting this year. .

When the kids heard that Obama had won, they went nuts cheering. I had no idea that 3rd graders were so into the political fray, or that they were such big supporters of Barack Obama.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oakland science educator Anthony Cody, who grew up in a hub of student activism in the 60s and 70s, says he's never seen young people so excited about a presidential election.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Renee Moore also has some advice for the next president: Increase respect for teachers and "change the compensation system". She writes:

One way to attract and keep effective teachers in high needs schools is a well-designed performance pay plan that recognizes and rewards the kind of teaching we know works with our most challenging students in our most demanding schools. Imagine a pay system that is designed to encourage and proliferate quality teaching in every classroom, not one that simply rewards people for showing up.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott McLeod is encouraging edubloggers to write a letter to the next president. Bill Ferriter (characteristically) wastes no time, telling the candidates to stop placing the blame for schools' woes solely on teachers:

I think successfully educating all children in America requires something more than sounding warning bells and asking teachers to “pull up their boot straps” time and again. For me, improving education means being willing to significantly rethink how “school” is done in our country.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to Will Richardson, the decline of print newspapers points to significant changes in the way information is being consumed, but schools have yet to catch on:

The problem for us is that we’re still teaching like our kids are going to be reading those edited, linear, well-written newspapers when the reality is they’re not. And the bigger problem is that, by and large, we still don’t know enough about the “new” media world in our personal practice to push those conversations about change in any meaningful way.

We better figure it out pretty quickly, or we’ll be mourning much more than old media…

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)