Archive for July, 2008

10 Things I Learned in Summer School Credit Recovery

1. Students are only required to attend 4 out of 10 days to receive a passing grade and full credit.
2. If they sit in the class for at least four days but only do 1 out of the 6 assignments (5 essays and a research paper) they can still earn a “P”.
3. When told to [...]

Heard Around the Building During Start of the School Year PD

EDIT: to fix and apologize for all the typos and tweak the title. This hosting thing is hard!

Last week’s edition can be found over at Education Wonk.
Next Weeks Edition will be hosted by 2 Pass the Torch who asks that you submit entries that highlight good news about young people.
We agreed to host the carnival [...]

Early Hollywood Depictions Find Their Way Into Modern Film and No One Seems to Care

I have been teaching three summer school courses focusing on the Origins of Black-American Stereotypes and Their Use in Modern Society. My students laughed at me as I explained hidden racial stereotypes in movies Like “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” and “Shrek.” They were upset to find that the movies and TV shows that they watch [...]

Where Are We Headed?

This is my last post for a while.  I’m going to be unplugged for a bit.  My co-author will still be plugging away, though.
Isn’t it funny that we have the most interesting interactions with people when we are leaving the place we live?
I was waiting on line at what has to be the worst Post [...]

Do Children Become Adults?

Apparently, we haven’t decided if this is a fact yet.
NYC Educator points out that DC Public Schools Chancellor, Michelle Rhee, is helping to eradicate adults’ rights and establish future patterns which will ensure that the average working person faces even dimmer prospects.  This is all done, of course, under the guise of helping children.
NYC Educator asks [...]

Questionable Associations

“Racism developed in Europe as part of a rational and scientific project to understand the world.”
Guiding Question:
What reason would “educational reformers” possibly have to be frequent guest speakers at an organization who publishes this?
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.18082,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
Is Racism a Western Idea?
By Dinesh D’Souza
The contemporary mood of frustration and pessimism about racism springs from the conviction that American society may [...]

Attacking Labor Unions

If anyone thinks that the attack on teachers’ unions is about children, then they are sadly mistaken. The attack on unions has always been, throughout history, about profit, control, and power.
Here is an interesting commentary on the subject of labor unions in a “conservative” environment from the University of Hawaii. It discusses [...]

Educational Reformers Celebrate “The Bell Curve”

Who can forget the infamous book entitled “The Bell Curve” by Richard J. Herrnstein and American Enterprise Institutes’ Charles Murray, which made the assertion that intelligence is a predictor of income and success. The book also argued that some differences between racial groups has to do with intelligence, citing lower test scores among African [...]

Nobody Cares

I don’t usually find my nail salon to be a source of stimulating conversation, but yesterday was different.
I was sitting in the pedicure chair, reading my book and looking up now and then to people watch. I noticed a vivacious and chatty group of women, who ranged in age from late twenties to mid [...]

Principal Apologizes for Testing

Amazing story at EdNotes about a principal who felt compelled to apologize for all of the time and money spent on testing and “For making his focus as a principal no longer helping his staff teach students but helping them teach test indicators.”
Wow.
Read the post here.