I have just finished reading this article from the Washington Post.  It basically reports that the Maryland Board of Education has decided to put several public schools, which are consistently underperforming, in the hands of private contractors and charter schools.  The plan is that the private contractors and charter schools will be better trained and motivated to improve the schools and thus put them on track to pass the NCLB deadline.

I am not sure how I feel on this issue.  On the onset it appears to be a logical plan, if the current administration doesn’t do the job properly, get new administration.  However, I am not sure how the private contractors will fare relative to the old administration, or even why this type of step is taken.

It seems to me that another logical plan of action would have been to hire new administrators in those public schools.  Although I do not know if they have done this, the article seems to give hints that this has not.  From this, I am forced to think of a reason why the BOE has decided to take a large step, such as this, so early.  The only one I can think of at the moment is Politics.  They could be trying to say “Hey, look at us, we are really trying to get our schools on track, we are special.”  This would be a huge vote-getter if someone on the BOE wanted to run for office.

Website:

Anderson, Nick.  “Control of 11 Schools Seized.”  Washington Post.  30 March 2006. 

I just finished listening this podcast from the Education Podcast Network.  The topic of this is one that is very near my heart, i.e. Trivia.  Although I did not do very well answering the questions, I can see the potential of podcasts.

If I wanted to allow students the possibility for extra credit, I could produce a trivia podcast in a similar manner, and then have the students answer and turn it in by some arbitrary date.  I could ask random questions, and have the students look up the answers on the internet.  By doing so this would allow students to do independent extra credit work, and perhaps inspire an independent interest in history, as it isn’t in-class material that inspires life-long interest.

Another way to use podcasts for classroom enrichment is an explanation of homework, or even a lecture.  In a social studies class, I could podcast either the lecture portion of the class, or summarize the main points in a briefer podcast.

Either way, podcasting does seem to have a great deal of potential with regards to classroom enrichment.

This article, from the Washington Post, has introduced a new aspect of teaching which I have yet to seriously think about, the parents of the “Millennial Generation.”  These parents are hyper-involved in their child’s education, so much so that it has become a problem for some teachers.

Personally, I am surprised that this has even become a problem; the emphasis of concern is generally on the non-involved parent.  From this article, however, it seems these parents frequently interfere in the classroom by emailing, text messaging, or even coming in person, to deal with their child’s problems.

As pointed out in the article, this interferes with the student’s ability to deal with his or her problems when his or her parent’s aren’t around to deal with it for them.  Overall this seems like these parents are the exact opposite of the do nothing parents, and just as damaging to the student’s ability and psyche.

Websites:

Strauss, Valerie.  “Putting Parents In Their Place: Outside Class.”  Washington Post.  March 27, 2006.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001167.html?nav=rss_education

This article, entitled “Fla. To link Teacher Pay to Students’ Test Scores,” initially had me skeptical, but by the end of the three page article, it almost has me convinced.

Essentially, the plan is to introduce a new test, which will be assessed and then compared to the student’s past performance on the test.  From the improvement, the teacher of that student for that subject will receive points.  These points will be added together and then compared against other teachers in the school.  The top 10% of the teachers in the subject will get a bonus of 5%.

Although I initially thought, ‘Oh no, another standardized test,’ I am also convinced that the one way to make encourage teachers to ‘teach better’ is to offer them rewards.  It also does not state that the ‘worst’ teachers will be punished for their ‘lack of ability to teach’.  If it did, I would then be not willing to support it.  I would like to think, optimistically, that every teacher is trying his or her hardest to be the most effective teacher out there, I must accept the fact, based on my personal experiences, and experiences of those I have heard stories from, that there simply are teachers who do not care about the students, or do not care about new, more effective, ways of teaching.  I believe that this would be a decent, although by no means flawless, way of encouraging teachers to re-educate themselves in the most effective ways of teaching.

Website:

Whoriskey, Peter.  “Fla. To link Teacher Pay to Students’ Test Scores”.  Washington Post.  March 22, 2006.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101545.html?nav=rss_education>

Through my bloglines, I have discovered a new tool that could be used for educational or recreational purposes. It is a catalog of NASA images and animations of Earth. It includes day and nighttime satellite photographs. I personally find this sort of catalog incredibly interesting, as, during the nighttime photographs, one can actually see the outline of industrialized areas exceptionally well.

In an educational setting, I can foresee that this could be used as a way to initialize discussion over some topics, such as how industrial nations have become so industrialized, and if it is a positive thing. It could also be used in a geographical sense, noting major cities and relating the size of these major cities by how bright their ‘dot’ is on the map.

Overall, I find this to be incredibly interesting, and I plan on looking into this new tool in more depth.

Websites:
”Visible Earth.” NASA. March 20, 2006. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1438>

As I was reading my bloglines this morning, I came across this article from CNN.com. This article, entitled “Top schools preserve social rifts,” deals with the top private schools in England, and how the affect the country.

A very large section of the ruling elite, including Prime Ministers, Lawyers, Princes, have gone to schools such as Eton College, and will, most likely, send their sons there as well. Private schools, where parents pay huge sums of money per year, offer students a great deal of personalized attention and a high class education. As one father states in the article, “the advantage of a private education is that even if you are not that bright, you can get on much better.”

This article struck my interest because of the question of fairness. Obviously parents who are poor or middle class cannot get their children into the private schools. Does this mean that these children do not deserve the same chance to have a high class education and join the ranks of the elite? Please note that this question stems from the American ideal of upward mobility, but this question is also pertinent in America. From the point of view of the poor, middle class, or hard core equalitarianism, the answer would be no, every student deserves to receive an equal education and have the potential to achieve anything they have the ability to do so. This point is valid and logical because not only does this support upward mobility, where the best rises to the top. This also helps the society as a whole since there is a large pool of people, there will be a greater amount of crème that will rise to the top.

However, from the point of view of the rich, they have a great amount of money; shouldn’t they be able to spend that money to improve the lot of those important to them? This is also logical and valid. If those with money can buy any material good from the marketplace, why should they not be able to buy immaterial goods, such as a quality education? The argument would continue with the idea that the rich are still supporting an education for the masses through taxes, and the rich are not attempting to seal off the ruling elite from the masses, but rather society is doing so by putting a great deal of importance on the name and reputation of the school attended.

Websites:
“Top Schools Preserve Social Rifts.” CNN.com. March 12, 2006.

Colorado Teacher, Jay Bennish, has been put on a paid leave after a lecture in February that compared Bush’s State of the Union address to any number of Hitler’s speeches.  Fox News has two articles, here and here.  Washington Post also has an article on Bennish’s reply to these charges.

To me, this is more than just an issue of freedom of speech.  As teachers I believe that one of our jobs is to create thoughtful, critical thinking citizens, and debate is an excellent tool in accomplishing this.  This entire situation has come about due to the airing of a 20 minute section of his 50 minute lecture.  Bennish claims that the remaining 30 minutes of his lecture was rationalizing his argument and presenting the other side of the argument.  From what I have read of Bennish, and my own experience with teachers who spend most of their class time on subjects not related to the class, I would tend to discount this, but I cannot say for sure.  But what is interesting is the idea of where class discussion and debate turns into a teacher ranting on random subjects, the appropriateness of each in the classroom.

As I have already stated, I am in support of using debates in order to train the students to think critically.  Assuming I am in a history class which covers the rise of any demagogic figure (pretty much every segment of history has at least one demagogue), or a political science class, I could make the point that many of the tactics used by President Bush to rally support were used by Hitler, Churchill, or even Gandhi.  I would then go into those tactics, why they are effective, how they are often used to inspire action, positive and negative instances of their use, and how not to become wrapped up into the emotional ‘heat’ of the moment and make rash decisions.  This, in my opinion, is incredibly appropriate in a Social Studies class.

A teacher ranting on any number of subjects, despite the subject matter, seems to me to entirely inappropriate.  Note that I am not personally accusing Bennish of doing this, but it does appear, from the news stories, that this is what he was doing.  To me, ranting should be made in the company of friends, down at the local pub or in the comfort of your own home.  If it is done in public, any number of laws might get broken, such as sedition, slander, or obscenity laws.  Also people who might not be educated in this matter might take to your view without thinking through the subject carefully.

Websites:

“Colo. Teacher Defends Lecture on Bush.” The Associated Press. Washington Post.  March 7, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030700734.html>

“Colorado Teacher On Leave After Alleged Anti-Bush Remarks.” The Associate Press. Fox News. March 02, 2006. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186672,00.html>

“Suspended Colo. Teacher Won’t File Lawsuit Against School.”  Fox News. March 03, 2006.  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186708,00.html>

As I was browsing the Washington Post through my bloglines this week, I came across this article, dealing with a volunteer program that has senior citizens coming into schools to tutor students.

This program helps, essentially, everyone: schools, the students, and the volunteers.  The schools receive free help and become able to provide individualized instruction that would otherwise be impossible to provide.  This, in theory, would also help students with their state testing, which would also provide more money for these schools.

The students, obviously, also would benefit.  Their grades generally improve, as does their behavior.  Many times, this time together with an adult gives the students the attention they desire and deserve, but don’t get from teachers, due to the large classroom size, or from parents, due to their jobs.  This desire for attention would often degenerate into troublemaking, being the class clown, or other behavioral traits.

Finally, the volunteers also benefit.  It allows the adult to continue doing things after they retire, which is often a complaint of retirees.  It also continues to keep the adults on their toes.  At one point in the article, it states that retirees who participate in this program score higher on memory tests than their counterparts.

Although I know this idea isn’t for all retirees, but if a sizable majority of say, the baby boomer generation, were able to volunteer to help students, they would be able to make, in my opinion, a very large impact in our future.

Websites:

Glod, Maria.  “Wisdom, Knowledge of Elders Stream into Area Classrooms.”  Washington Post, 21 February 2006.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/20/AR2006022001335.html?nav=rss_education>

I have been keeping an eye on the Muslim response to the Danish Cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb on his head instead of a turban.  Ultimately, to me, the entire situation boils down to the fact that some Danish cartoonists created this cartoon, ignorant of how the nation of Islam would take offense to it.  Now, according to this article, a prominent Iranian newspaper has offered to run a cartoon making fun of the Holocaust.

I see one very big problem with both sides of this.  Ignorance of other cultures.  The Danish cartoonists exhibited their ignorance of the Islamic culture by publishing the cartoon and then going into hiding, rather than asking for forgiveness for their faux pas.  Many Muslims blamed the Danish government for insulting their religion, and demanded that the government punish the guilty Danes, despite the provisions that protect freedom of the press.  This seems nearly as ignorant as the initial offense.  Attacking a government that is not legally allowed to do is not going to produce any results other than inspiring the ire and wrath of other people who don’t particularly have any influence over the matter.

Finally the Iranian Newspaper’s plan to show the west’s error of its ways will do little to correct the situation.  As planned, the west will experience uproar due to the holocaust cartoon.  However, the uproar will not be because of the reasons that the governments intend it to be.  The uproar will not only be because of the issues dealt with in the cartoon, but also with the government support and instigation of the cartoon’s creation.

Although we, as teachers and citizens, cannot truly affect the current situations, we, as teachers, can, at least in part, can possibly affect future misunderstandings.  We can do this by teaching our students not only about other cultures, but how to investigate them to understand the motives of other cultures.  To do this, we can use the Olympics, in the way described in this article.  Essentially, it states that the Olympics can be used as a cultural and social training tool.  Teachers could assign students to do reports on the cultures of select countries being represented in the Olympics, or the different sports and their origins.  Socially the Olympics can teach students about good sportsmanship, dedication, endurance, and the spirit of competition.

Overall, I believe that we as teachers cannot entirely prevent episodes like this from erupting, but if we could ameliorate the circumstances by limiting those who engage in these destructive events, or even by teaching those who might one day find the solutions to these dilemmas, we would have succeeded (in part) in our jobs.

Websites:

In Olympics, A Golden Opportunity.  Hacker, Jeffrey S.  Washington Post. 9 February, 2006.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020801379.html?nav=rss_education>

Iran invites cartoons on Holocaust.  Associated Press. CNN.  8, February, 2006. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/07/iran.cartoon.ap/index.html>

Today, I came across an interesting article from Xplanazine.  As the title indicates, this article comments on the relevance of textbooks and educators.  With the advent of computers and the internet, the price of information (as opposed to knowledge, defined as information that is supplemented with context and interactivity) has dropped significantly.  The author then declares that if teachers are merely passing along information, they should be phased out, just as every obsolete job or service should be.  A good teacher, he continues, transmits knowledge rather than mere information.   Many textbooks, on the other hand, are based on providing information rather than knowledge, and thus they need to either provide knowledge, or be priced competitively against other information sources.

I would argue, even though they are overpriced for the service they provide, that the role of the traditional textbook should still hold a high value in the classroom.  The textbook provides a common denominator of information for each student’s knowledge to be built.  I believe that the teacher’s main purpose is to take information given to the students, and make it understandable and useful to them (i.e. take information and make it into knowledge for the students).  Taking this to be the purpose of teachers, then a single repository of all the information the teacher wants to transfer as knowledge to the students would still be valuable.  To that end, I believe that textbooks are still relevant in today’s classroom.

Website:

Reynolds, Rob.  “The Relevance of Textbooks.”  Feb 2, 2006. http://www.xplanazine.com/archives/2006/02/post_9.php>