January 2012
53 posts
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The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125... →
“If you’re putting together a list of ‘the greatest books,’ you’ll want to do two things: (1) out of kindness, avoid anyone working on a novel; and (2) decide what the word ‘great’ means. The first part is easy, but how about the second? A short list of possible definitions of ‘greatness’ might look like this:
1. ‘Great’ means...
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TENNESSEE RESTAURANT THROWS OUT ANTI-GAY LAWMAKER →
stfuconservatives:
karmabum submitted
A restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee refused to serve state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R), the man who sponsored the state’s “don’t say gay” bill, compared homosexuality to bestiality, and most recently told Michelangelo Signorile that it’s virtually impossible to spread HIV/AIDS through heterosexual sex. “I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels...
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Early Capitol Hill Response Mixed on Obama Higher... →
creative-education:
Race To The Top produced such positive results for K-12 education that The President is proposing the same thing for Higher Ed! (sarcasm)
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What If We Treated Doctors The Way We Treat... →
What if we indeed held doctors and other professionals to the same bloat and condescension that we currently hold teachers? I can predict some of the responses that physicians might make: “We can’t control what our patients do or eat outside of our offices to maintain minimum levels of health. Also, these variables — BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure — are limited and...
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“In a world that is so worried about fitting in we many times don’t think about...”
– -B.D., one of my 8th grade students
This is an excerpt from a blog he writes on his own to frequently highlight lessons he has learned and values. In my class, we studied 1984 and The Crucible, which seems to have inspired this particular post. Stumbling upon things like this is what really makes...
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“Higher education is not a luxury. It’s an economic imperative that every family...”
– President Obama speaking in Michigan today about his plans to make college more affordable (via barackobama)
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The True Cost of High School Dropouts →
ONLY 21 states require students to attend high school until they graduate or turn 18. The proposal President Obama announced on Tuesday night in his State of the Union address — to make such attendance compulsory in every state — is a step in the right direction, but it would not go far enough to reduce a dropout rate that imposes a heavy cost on the entire economy, not just on those who fail to...
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How To Get Kids To Read? Give Them Banned Books →
“Learning, knowledge, reading … all of that tends to be frowned upon by the kids we’re trying to reach (and, sadly, by many of the adults in their lives),” writes Stanley by email. “At best, it’s ‘nerdy,’ at worst, it’s ‘selling out.’ We’re playing off a teen’s inherent sense of rebellion. The same teen who would never think to read The Great...
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Only Six Percent Of Scientists Are Republicans:... →
And creationism should be taught beside (or in place of) evolution, according to some conservative science teachers I know. Absurd.
“These results were not a complete surprise,” said Scott Keeter, Director of Survey Research at Pew, in an interview with the Huffington Post. He said they can be mostly attributed to “the difference between Democratic and Republican parties with...
“The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized...”
– Fidel Castro Calls Republican Field a ‘Competition of Idiocy’ - NYTimes (via brooklynmutt)
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Are You Sick Of ‘Highly Paid’ Teachers? →
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit!
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Judge says Obama must appear in 'birther' suit →
Although it is unclear whether a court could force a sitting president to appear in a court case, Georgia Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi has denied a motion by the president’s lawyer to quash a subpoena that requires Obama to show up.
A Georgia resident made the complaint, which is intended to keep Obama’s name off the state’s ballot in the March presidential primary.
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A TEACHER STORY: WHY I’M LEAVING PUBLIC EDUCATION →
This week I let my principal know that I am looking for work outside public education. I am heartbroken and will miss my students dearly, but I realize that I can neither teach them properly nor fight for their education while trapped in silent submission.
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Tennessee Tea Party ‘Demands’ That References To... →
Finally, Tennessee moving to dispel rumors that the founding fathers had slaves. I think I’ll fill that gap in my curriculum with more things about Jesus.
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More Agreement Than Disagreement On How to Assess... →
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1 Student Arrested Every Day In NYC Schools, 94%... →
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“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to...”
– Winston Churchill (via julie911)
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Sign this petition to stop banning of books in... →
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“I used to think that technology could help education… But I’ve had to come...”
– Steve Jobs | 1996 interview with Wired.com (via courtenaybird)
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Online schools aren't answer for education →
Handing our kids’ education to distant companies, over which local school boards have little or no control, is not the answer for struggling schools.
This is a dangerous experiment, and our children are the guinea pigs. There is no evidence cyber classes are superior to or even as good as traditional classroom instruction. A study at Western Michigan University found that only a third of...
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“…Studying requires the development of rigorous discipline, which we must...”
– Paulo Freire from Teachers as Cultural Workers (via educatedtodeath)
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State program reaches out to keep kids in school →
“[Since issuing] a dropout challenge to [Detroit] school districts in June 2009, about 1,300 schools and 190 districts have signed up, agreeing to identify 10-15 students at risk of dropping out and intervening in their lives.”
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12 Books You Need on Your Bookshelf →
But if you’re going to buy hard covers with at least one eye on the opinions of visiting friends and relatives, these are our choices of the titles you really should have on display.
Glad to see Hitch, Zinn, and Rushdie on the list! And glad to see that they highlighted the whole Morrison censorship debacle going on in my hometown right now.
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Colbert Running for President, and 11 Other Times... →
I realize this has nothing to do with teaching, but still obsessing over this genius exposure of American political corruption through satire.
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‘Tea Party’ behind book banning attempt →
Apparently, a slate of “tea party” candidates ran for the school board in Plymouth last November, and two of the four candidates that were endorsed and financed by the Congressional District Republican Committee were successful. One of the unsuccessful candidates, Matt Dame, recently complained that Graham Swift’s “Waterland” and Pulitzer-prize winning author Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” were...
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The Value of Teachers →
A great teacher is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to each year’s students, just in the extra income they will earn…Conversely, a very poor teacher has the same effect as a pupil missing 40 percent of the school year.
Our faltering education system may be the most important long-term threat to America’s economy and national well-being, so it’s frustrating that the presidential...
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“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who...”
– Charles Darwin (via lmaoatheist)
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Tennessee's New Education Plan →
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“Tell me, I’ll forget
Show me, I’ll remember
Involve me, I’ll understand”
– Chinese Proverb (via quote-book)
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Parents outraged over math problems referring to... →
The question was a word problem that said, “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” Another math problem said, “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”
Wow.
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No Child Left Behind Turns 10 Facing Mixed Results... →
By 2014, the law said, 100 percent of public schools would have students proficient in math and reading.
But as the sweeping education law reaches its 10th anniversary this Sunday, the jury is still out on NCLB’s effects. While the law did shine a light on underperforming minority groups, scores on national standardized tests have seen little improvement and are still low, especially...
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Matt Damon & Mother Decline Education Award... →
“I have decided that because of your collaboration with TFA, it would not be wise for me or for Matt to be nominated for the Friend of Education Award,” Carlsson-Paige writes in her letter. “I regret this turn of events.”
Carlsson-Paige writes to Van Roekel in her Wednesday letter:
I am a life long teacher educator. I believe that one of the first things we must do to...
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New Year's Resolutions for Teachers: The 30 Goals... →
New Year’s doesn’t mark the start of the school calendar for teachers, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an opportunity for them to set new professional goals. But going at it alone can be tough. A new collaborative effort, The 30 Goals Challenge, invites educators to become part of a virtual community designed to help them change the way they view their classrooms and...
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Tennessee Bill: It’s OK To Bully Gay Kids If... →
…never one to be outdone on religiously inspired bigotry and hate, Tennessee has seen fit to introduce the same kind of “exemption” [as Michigan’s Anti-Gay Bullying Law] but take it so much further.
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” - F. Douglass
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“The person who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid.”
– Jane Austen (via Swanfeather Songs)
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Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain! →
WASHINGTON — Elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings, according to a new studythat tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years.
