Owner: The Chancellor's New Clothes URL:http://avoicecriesout.com/ Join Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:47:21 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Commentary about the political influences on our educational systems.
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Did You Get The Memo? 2008-03-30 20:23:32 Posted by avoiceinthewilderness
I was teaching summer school classes in a voluntary program for high school children. My class was playing Jeopardy to review some of the concepts we had been learning. The game was heating up; the score was really close. In retrospect, I should have calmed the kids down a bit, but I [...]
Why We Look To Teachers To Solve Our Problems 2008-03-29 00:18:05 Posted by avoiceinthewilderness
They slice. They dice.
They have the ability to cause children who never come to school to pass standardized exams.
They can overcome broken families, drug addiction, institutional racism, media saturation and all other effects of a society in complete regression.
Look up in the sky, it’s a bird! It’s a plane. No, it’s a teacher!
Naturally, [...] Read more:Solve
“You Have No Business Becoming A School Administrator” 2008-03-27 16:42:51 Posted by avoiceinthewilderness
Quote, end quote.
The above statement was made to me by a superintendent of a large school district on Long Island in front of about twenty other graduate students . The weird thing is, I didn’t get upset.
He was my teacher and the class was a part of an administrative program. The comment was [...] Read more:Business
, Becoming
, School
“Behold, I Send You Forth as Sheep in the Midst of Wolves” 2008-03-26 15:26:38 Posted by learnersinherit
There is a Great Divide between old and new teachers, but according to the welcoming committee at the NYCTF New Teacher Ceremony, the reason is because “older teachers don’t like you. And they shouldn’t. They are afraid of you because you have the power to do what they can’t. You can change the [...] Read more:Behold
, Forth
, Sheep
, Wolves
Maybe If The Elderly Needed Standardized Testing, They Would Get Some Attention 2008-03-24 21:08:09 Posted by avoiceinthewilderness
When a political or governmental institution has profit as its motivation, certain aspects of the population are likely to be ignored. Such segments are usually those who can’t turn a profit for the powers that be. In our country, those who fall into this category are the very young and the very [...] Read more:Maybe
, Testing
Indoctrinated and In Shambles 2008-03-23 20:20:52 Posted by Learnersinherit
From the NYCTF Program Overview
“Because effective teachers dramatically increase their students’ academic success, the mission of the NYC Teaching Fellows program is to recruit and prepare high-quality, dedicated individuals to become teachers who raise student achievement in the New York City classrooms that need them most.”
Translation: Because veteran teachers are unwilling to overlook [...]
The Brilliant Plan That Paved the Way for the New York City Teaching Fellows Program 2008-03-23 11:22:31 Posted by Avoiceinthewilderness
My good friend, Learnersinherit, makes some brilliant points about alternative teaching programs. I love her candor and insight and could not agree more with her comments. I’m not sure if she realizes, however, that the conditions that paved the way for the New York City
Teaching Fellows
were deliberately and brilliantly orchestrated. Machiavelli [...] Read more:Brilliant
, Program
, New York City
Alternative Teacher Certification Programs Damage the Soul of Education 2008-03-22 14:16:47 Posted by learnersinherit
Programs
like Teach for America and the New York Teaching Fellows have helped to staff some of the most difficult school districts, but while the idea of these programs often looks good, the truth is that they are aiding and abetting in the destruction of education.
As an unsatisfied graduate of the NYTF program, [...] Read more:Alternative
, Teacher
, Certification
, Damage
, Education
High Stakes Testing Takes Away From the True Purpose of Education 2008-03-21 11:44:22 Posted by avoiceinthewidlerness
I was asked to conduct a workshop for a small group of high school teachers yesterday. Their supervisor asked me to talk about the concept of “purpose” when planning a lesson. I planned for the workshop by starting backwards; in order to plan a lesson we must first plan a topic, in order [...] Read more:Testing
, Education
, Stakes
, Purpose
In Case You Thought I Was Exaggerating…. 2008-04-01 19:18:31 Posted by avoiceinthewilderness
I was a little nervous about publishing my last post, “Did You Get the Memo?” because I was afraid that it tackled the often unspoken subject of the lack of expectations that some educators have for inner city children.
And then a friend sent me the following story. I’m still in shock over [...]
The Value of Traditional Teacher Preparation Programs 2008-04-06 12:00:42 An Assistant Principal asked me to meet with a prospective teacher for next year. It’s pretty common for us to lose a percentage of our staff each year. We’ve learned to start interviewing early.
This particular teacher caused a great deal of excitement. She had come through a traditional teaching program! She [...] Read more:Value
, Traditional
, Teacher
, Programs
Finally, Catholic School Teachers Fight Back!!!! 2008-04-05 09:27:20 The story has been getting sparse publicity, but it has been covered by some major news stations. Apparently, the Catholic
school teachers are threatening to strike… and it’s about frigging time.
See, I have a confession to make; I worked as a Catholic school teacher. I was employed by the diocese for about a month [...] Read more:Finally
, School
Fill in the Blanks… 2008-04-06 19:39:17 Please take a moment to read the following information and fill in the blanks.
____________ approached the teaching profession with some suspicion. They could not fire all the existing teachers, but saw many as uncommitted to the ____________ or even hostile. _______ had the curriculum rewritten to provide a ________approved curriculum. Teachers had much less [...]
The Giving-Up Reaction 2008-04-06 18:27:22 “Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.” [...] Read more:Giving
Why I Don’t Recommend the NYCTF to Those Who REALLY Want to Teach 2008-04-06 17:49:27 I received seven weeks of pre-service training from the Fellows program before I entered the classroom. During those seven weeks I took courses in Educational Psychology, Teaching Students with Disabilities, Classroom Management, Lesson Planning, The History of Education and more. They were accelerated classes which meant that we briefly glossed over whatever the professors thought [...] Read more:REALLY
Biased Research Throws Veteran Teachers Under a Bus 2008-04-09 11:42:42 The Urban Institute released a report on March 27, 2008, stating that Teach For America teachers are more successful getting students to pass standardized exams than more experienced veterans. The authors of the report write:
The findings show that TFA teachers are more effective, as measured by student exam performance, than traditional teachers. Moreover, they suggest [...] Read more:Research
, Veteran
A 9-Hour Crash Course Encourages Failure and Undermines Educators 2008-04-09 07:27:58 Full credit for a course is awarded based on 180 hours of class time. However, schools all across NYC will be offering “Credit Recovery Courses” sometime this year. These courses will meet for 3 hours a day, for 3 days and will allow students who have failed an English or Social Studies course to earn [...] Read more:Educators
Where Will We Be Without The Baby Boomers? 2008-04-08 18:50:53 I accompanied my union rep to Albany one year to lobby for education. If you’ve ever been on such a trip, then you know that it requires a great deal of walking up some really steep hills. Most of the other people who participated were at least ten years or more older than [...] Read more:Boomers
, Baby Boomers
Why Can’t Johnny Read? 2008-04-08 09:47:26 I’m home sick today, so I was checking out some news stories. I was greeted by two particularly awful ones concerning teenagers. One story deals with a group of teenagers who attacked an Australian school with bats and a Machete this week.
I encountered the other story on Newsday’s home page. This one [...] Read more:Johnny
Who Moved Our Pride? We’re all just mice in a maze. 2008-04-10 21:48:09 Those of you who have been in the New York City Public School system when Bloomberg came into power may remember, the “Who Moved My Cheese” phenomena that took place. Who Moved My Cheese is an allegorical book that discusses the trials and tribulations of two human characters who, along with their mouse friends, [...] Read more:Pride
When Did Our Children Become Commodities? 2008-04-11 23:05:56 Balanced Literacy. Ramp Up. SAT’s. ACT’s. CTB’s. Riverside Tests. NCS. Whole Language. NWEA. Acuity. The list goes on…
Different year, different program, different method of assessment. As teachers we enter in September, only to learn that the program we used to teach our kids last year isn’t going to be [...] Read more:Children
, Become
“Be More Like Mice, Little People” - an article by Paul Street 2008-04-11 15:44:57 Paul Street
, well known author of several books including Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11 and Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in the Post Civil Rights Era addresses the “Who Moved My Cheese” topic far more eloquently than I do.
He describes the plot of the book and offers an analysis:
They (those in the [...]
Are Teachers Professionals? 2008-04-14 15:48:43 Lately, many theoreticians seem to be debating the nature of teaching as a profession: Do teachers deserve the right to be called professionals? Are teachers ready to handle the stress that comes with accountabilty?
Apparently, the private sector feels that we have it easy. We’re all just sitting back, saying a few lines, [...]
What Do Test Publishers Think of Teachers? Apparently, We’re Not Too Smart. 2008-04-17 20:44:01 The Association of Test Publishers
was formed, according to its website, in 1992 and describes itself as a “nonprofit organization representing providers of tests and assessment tools and/or services related to education, employment, certification/licensing or clinical issues.” Nonprofit? There’s some irony there.
They also call themselves, “The Intelligent Voice For Testing.”
Well, I for one am [...] Read more:Smart
Differentiating Instruction-The New Tracking 2008-04-16 20:57:42 Here’s a true story.
A friend of mine is severely dyslexic. He doesn’t choose to tell people this for obvious reasons, but he confided in me when we became friends. His disability was caught fairly early and he was lucky enough to attend a private K-8 school. In high school , he went [...] Read more:Instruction
, Tracking
Dysfunction Junction 2008-04-19 08:35:58 Some of you may remember “School House Rocks,” the Saturday morning cartoons that taught kids about different subjects such as grammar and history. Comedy Central has their own version entitled, “Public School House Rocks.” It’s a spoof, but it’s actually kind of telling:
You may also like...April 14, 2008 -- Are Teachers Professionals? (5)April 9, [...] Read more:Junction
KIPP Schools-Brainwashing the Disenfranchised 2008-04-20 19:10:33 What does it take to reach an inner city child? Teach them to nod on cue.
Paul Tough of the New York Times wrote an article entitled, “What It Takes To Make a Student”, in which he discusses, among other things, charter schools. He focuses on KIPP schools which were founded by [...] Read more:Schools
, Brainwashing
Moral Dilemmas-Does Bloomberg Have These? 2008-04-20 08:13:17 Mayor Bloomberg
with Harold and Nancy McGraw, publishers of Acuity Tests
My mouse at home is acting crazy. It’s time to buy a new one. I was sitting in my classroom Friday, staring at the extra ones that I have lying around, when the thought came to me; “I can take one of [...] Read more:Moral
What Would KIPP Have Done With Edgar Allan Poe? 2008-04-23 17:51:39 Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna man, you should’ve seen them kicking EdgarAllan
Poe-The Beatles
Edgar Allan Poe; miscreant, individualist, literary innovator.
I’m trying to picture it in my head.
I’m shopping for my groceries, looking through the scribbled notes that I call a list. I take out my coupons. Nope. Scratch that. I [...]
Welcome to the Church of KIPP 2008-04-22 13:38:28 “Now would be a great time to stop by your local KIPP school.”
“In order to be “successful” by KIPP standards, I would have to BECOME one of them”
A former teacher from a KIPP school published this comment:
“I was attracted to KIPP for the same idealistic reasons I wanted to teach in the first place. Mind [...] Read more:Welcome
, Church
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