Web Watch

The Downward-facing Dog and the Pyramid Pose are a few techniques that Needham High School seniors in Massachusetts are learning in their mandatory yoga classes. Instituting mandatory yoga and hiring relaxation consultants is the work of the school’s newly formed Stress Reduction Committee.

Headed by principal Paul Richards, the student committee is part of a growing movement among administrators to combat anxiety caused by the competitive and academically driven culture of many affluent suburban high schools. “A lot of these kids are being held hostage to the culture,” Richards says.

The environment, which places great emphasis on grades, test scores, and acceptance at Ivy League institutions, detracts students from fully engaging with school, according to Richards, who has headed the school for three years. Other Boston schools have followed suit, with some requiring students to get parental permission to enroll in Advanced Placement courses, and others experimenting with school start times so students can get more sleep. Richards says his goal is not to alter the school’s record of high achievement, but instead, he insists “it’s...about bringing the culture to a healthier place.”

Posted by Danielle Woods at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Don’t look now, but it may not be long before ed schools have to start adding courses in music theory. In an attempt to give their lessons added flare and stickiness, according to The Washington Post, a growing number of teachers are incorporating music into their instruction. Web sites selling educational songs are flourishing (see, for example, www.songsforteaching.com), while educator-songwriters find themselves in increasing demand. To wit: The Chromatics, a group comprising mostly research scientists that performs standards-based songs about astronomy, has sold nearly 15,000 copies of its albums.

Eric Chandler, a guitar-toting 2nd grade teacher in Loudon County, Va., says his heavily song-based instructional approach was inspired in part by Quantum Learning, a teaching method that emphasizes the importance of classroom atmosphere. Chandler, who reportedly beguiles his students with a stream of pop-inspired ditties on everything from subtraction to geography, eventually plans to record albums covering the Virginia Standards of Learning for every elementary grade level. Don't smirk: He just got a grant to buy a portable recording studio.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

English High School in Boston is the oldest public school in America, as well as one of the most prestigious, having graduated the likes of J.P. Morgan and Leonard Nimoy. But now it's facing closure by the state if its students' achievement doesn't improve this year.

Today English has a 25 percent senior dropout rate, the worst student retention rate of Boston’s high schools, and the second-worst test scores. In an effort salvage the school, the state has given current headmaster José Duarte—along with the threat of closure—an extra $1.2 million in funding, greater freedom to adjust the curriculum and class sizes, and the authority to make faculty appointments.

In turn, Duarte replaced a third of his staff, in some cases hiring younger, less experienced teachers to take their place. He has also implemented some rather unorthodox staff training, including a "ropes course" to encourage team building and lectures about physical appearance and classroom cleanliness. Duarte’s concerted efforts to save his school and his career are reflected in what has become the educator’s mantra in recent months: “I cannot fail.”

Will English make its deadline? To find out, keep an eye on the The Boston Globe, which plans to cover the school's progress over the next year.

Posted by Danielle Woods at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Student-contracted staph infections, which in at least one case has been terminal, have recently been reported from New Hampshire to Georgia. Four cases of teachers infected with the methicillin-resistant MRSA have also appeared in local headlines. And a national report released this week indicates that staph infections killed more people in 2005 than HIV/AIDS, proving that it is more common than previously thought.

According to The Press of Atlantic City, an elementary school teacher in Bridgeton, N.J., has been out of work for two weeks since acquiring the infection during a hospital stay. Upon notification of the teacher’s infection—10 days after the teacher fell ill—Cherry Street School contacted the county health department and hired an environmental firm to determine if bacteria remained in the building. “The school has gone above and beyond what they could do in the situation,” said Robin Priggemeier, an area health educator. The teacher has declined to reveal his or her identity. Other states reporting teacher staph infections include Louisiana, Ohio, and West Virginia.

The CDC reports that poor hygiene is one of the most frequently associated causes of MRSA. To discourage infection, the health organization suggests frequent hand washing with soap and water or hand sanitizer and avoiding skin-to-skin contact, the sharing of towels, and other people’s open wounds.

Posted by Elizabeth Rich at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teachers in Loudoun County, Va., decided to stir the status quo by mixing honors, regular, and special education students in the same class.
Three teachers at Blue Ridge Middle School in Purcellville, Va., hope to inspire the “slower-developing students to see new possibilities,” school administrators said in a Washington Post article by Jay Matthews.

"It’s more challenging for the kids,” said Inez Lemmert, a sixth-grade teacher of the class. “They bring themselves up to these new expectations, rather than someone dumbing down all the work for them."

The experiment is taking place in an English- and social studies-infused class, where the teachers parallel studies of literature and history.

This nontraditional concept of fusing the two subjects helps make the lessons seem more practical in the everyday world, suggests Pat Graff, a National Council of Teachers of English expert on combining subjects, in the Post article. It also cuts down on the number of teachers the students have to see each day.

Posted by Brian Freedman at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Ever wonder where teachers go when they’re bad—or even, apparently, when they’re just accused of making a mistake? In New York at least, they go to the “Rubber Room.” According to a New York Times story by Samuel G. Freedman, the city's Department of Education runs 12 teacher “reassignment centers”—essentially holding pens for some 760 educators awaiting rulings on termination actions brought by schools administrators. While some of the teachers assigned to the centers have been accused of assault and other crimes, Freedman says, others are there for seemingly far lesser serious reasons, such as receiving unsatisfactory evaluations or making a profane comment to a student.

The accused teachers are paid their full salaries, but must report every school day (sometimes for years) to their center, where they are prevented from doing much of anything. For security and administrative reasons, they are not allowed to leave personal belongings overnight. The "rubber room" Freedman visited had “no windows, no land phone, no Internet access, no wall decorations, not even a clock.” Though designed to hold 26 people, it was filled with more than 75 teachers. “There is a spirit of the K.G.B. about it,” says Ivan Valtchev, an art teacher from Bulgaria who has not yet received a formal letter explaining why he was terminated. “The main strategy is to destabilize the person, reduce his self-respect.”

Indeed, Freedman questions the constitutionality of the way the teachers are treated: “the stale, Spartan conditions and the absence of any physical or intellection stimulation provide a ceaseless reminder that in some respects they are guilty until proven innocent.”

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

An association of Christian high schools is suing the University of California system, alleging unconstitutionally biased admissions, according to a Chicago Tribune article. The UC system is accused of discounting core courses from Christian high schools because of their religious viewpoint. UC does admit that “the process of reviewing [high school courses] has become more regularized and rigorous over time,” according to Christopher Patti, counsel for UC.

The decision of this unprecedented case could have a large impact on curriculum—not only for California’s approximately 800 religious secondary schools, but also for religious high schools around the country. "If...the university prevails, then it seems to me to send a message across the country that a religious viewpoint at a religious school can get you in trouble,” said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, a non-partisan foundation dedicated to free press and free speech. “That's a chilling message. That can hurt your graduates, and that is also a disincentive to go to a religious school.”

Posted by Amanda Jones at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

In the perennial discussion over how to get parents more involved in their children’s education, one teacher has arrived at a solution, according to the New York Times. Damion Frye, a 9th grade English teacher from Montclair High School in New Jersey, has been asking parents to read and respond on his blog to their children’s classroom reading assignments or face a consequence—their child’s grade could be lowered. Says Frye, who is a Montclair alumnus, “Parents complain about never getting to see their kids’ work. Now they have to.”

Parent response has been mixed. Some are happy to do the work, others not so much. Lydia Bishop, whose daughter was in Frye’s class last year, balked, “When my daughter told me about the homework, I looked at her and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. I graduated. I’m done.’” Issues have arisen in the three years since Frye began spreading the homework around, but so far neither busy schedule, language fluency, nor computer access has been a deterrent.

Posted by Elizabeth Rich at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)