Sad story here, detailing how an old school that served as a free source of texts for Philly teachers has closed.
The real tragedy is that most suburban high schools have closets full of texts and materials Philadelphia teachers would happily use. Textbooks aren’t the only answer — I would have happily traded all my textbooks for a high-speed copy machine with a real service contract — but they’re a start.
AUSTIN, TX—University of Texas professor Thom Windham once again furthered the cause of human inquiry in a class lecture Monday, as he continued his longtime practice of finding connections between things and other things, pointing out these parallels, and then elaborating on them in detail, campus sources reported.
Cool article describing some data that shows that kids with behavior problems do not necessarily remain troubled.
“I think these may become landmark findings, forcing us to ask whether these acting-out kinds of problems are secondary to the inappropriate maturity expectations that some educators place on young children as soon as they enter classrooms,†said Sharon Landesman Ramey, director of the Georgetown University Center on Health and Education, who was not connected with either study.
Especially as elementary classrooms become more academic (smirk) these sorts of studies will be crucial.
The brouhaha about NYC’s “grading” of public schools produces yet another politician describing the ability of students to transfer as a result of a poor performing school.
Just once I’d like a reporter to hold one of these politicos’ feet to the fire and demand direct answers about where these kids might transfer: the well-protected middle-class magnet? The suburban rancher with a carport and low class-sizes?
Sorry, family, these schools are C-L-O-S-E-D to you.
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest proper models of human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.
Cited in Robert Pinsky’s powerful review of Elizabeth Samet’s book in Sunday’s Times.
This article details an alternative to teacher certification programs, one that’s apparently based upon student teachers spending lots of time in the classroom.
Sounds like a great program.
My only question — why is it that most alternative routes to certification claim to be moving outside of the university setting but don’t actually eliminate university coursework? In other words, intern candidates may BEGIN teaching but they still have to complete university courses to get certified.
As a graduate of a teacher education program, and as a teacher educator, I do believe that there is great worth in a university based certification. But if we’re going to create alternative routes, let’s make sure they’re actually something different.
This sort of staff development school, where teachers certify new teachers, now that’d be something.
There’s a congratulatory article in today’s Inquirer detailing the ways in which a comprehensive high school has sought to increase graduation rates.
Great. Pat yourselves on the back. You’ve managed to have more children “pass” their classes.
But there’s no mention in the article of the content of these classes or whether or not students actually have a command of the content. While I’m certainly no advocate for standardized tests or attaching graduation to high-stakes exams, I think the press has a duty to question what’s happening in the classroom before writing such an article.
What’s the point of graduating kids who have proved that they can comply with requirements without assessing whether or not they’ve learned anything?
Reading this wonderful ethnography, First Year Out, and I’m struck by how surprised the author is by the student’s willingness to share their lives and world views with him.
My experience is that high school and college students are desperate for an adult to ask about their ideas, that they’re desperate for a chance to integrate their own ideas with the coursework. Some, perhaps even most, arrive ready to do so, but within a few weeks, it’s back to business as usual.
Every teacher has experienced the sudden electricity when every student in the room is thoroughly engaged. Unfortunately, it usually occurs by accident, when a student or the teacher somehow trips an invisible switch; only the most skilled practitioners can create this sort of engagement on purpose.
