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Philadelphia Privatization Failing? The Pennsylvania School Reform Commission that has overseen Philadelphia's schools since 2002, voted to take back control of six privatized schools and gave 20 others one more year to show substantial progress, or they, too, would revert to district control. Twelve privatized schools will get new, three-year contracts. The commission noted that students at Philadelphia's schools have made improvements overall, but "the private-run schools are not doing any better than the schools remaining under public control." The schools were evaluated on their academic performance and their climate, including attendance and violence. Edison Schools took the biggest hit in move, as they managed four of the six schools being returned to state control and twelve of the others "effectively put on a one-year probation to show significant improvement."
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Odds 'n Ends It's a slow education news day (so far) with just a couple of items that might be of interest. Barbara Morgan, who served as Christa McAuliffe's backup in the Teacher in Space Program, is leaving NASA to return to teaching. She will be at Boise State University. Morgan flew aboard shuttle Endeavour's STS-118 assembly mission to the International Space Station in August 2007. In the NASA press release Morgan stated, "I'm especially proud that we have three other teachers who are astronauts, and there will be others in the future." Dr. Tony Phillips has another good Science@NASA posting in The Tunguska Event--100 Years Later. Mac GUI City As a Mac user, I sorta embarrassed that I hadn't noticed Mac GUI City before. I did today, as proprietor David Finnigan was kind enough to send along a couple of links for my Vintage Mac Software page. The main Mac GUI City site offers an awful lot of good, free features for Mac users. They're described in a press release (that I also missed previously). What's That Bright "Star" Up There? If you were up really late last night, you may have noticed a very bright "star" in the southern sky. Actually, it was the planet Jupiter blazing at a -2.28 magnitude. It will be visible for almost the entire month, reaching its highest point in the sky before midnight late in the month. Along with the month-long Jupiter show, there will be a cool alignment of planets at around sunset on Friday (July 4) and Saturday (July5). Dr. Tony Phillips's Science@NASA covers that event in Planets Align for the 4th of July. I really like his postings, as they're written in terms for laymen and contain excellent charts, images, and such to clearly illustrate his subjects. They're also available as sound files and in Spanish. I should admit right here that when I looked out the window at 2 A.M. last night that I wasn't sure what planet I was seeing. It was bright enough that I was pretty sure it was a planet. So this morning, I fired up my copy of the excellent, open source (free) planetarium software, Stellarium, adjusted the time setting to late last night, and used it to identify Jupiter.
Stellarium is one of those applications that are easy to install and use, but also carries lots of features that you can grow into if you wish. I also used it to give me an idea of what the Saturn-Mars alignment would look like for the weekend.
Along with Stellarium, there are a couple of other great "toys" that I frequently use to identify celestial bodies. I've worn out several of Edmund Scientific's Star and Planet Locators On the high-tech end of things, the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium is an incredible tool for learning about and identifying objects in the night sky. The Sky Scout uses GPS technology to identify stars, planets, and constellations with point and click convenience. You can also use it to locate celestial objects by selecting the object's name from the menu and following the directional arrows through the viewfinder. It even comes with an earphone for listening to audio descriptions of what you're looking at!
Nice Report Since we, as teachers, live in a time and an environment of "failing schools," it's nice to read that folks in New York City are pretty happy with their teachers and schools. Students, Teachers and Parents Weigh In on State of the Schools by Jennifer Medina tells of the results of an annual survey by the New York City Schools. A Very Cool New School It's really incredible what can be done when you have a dedicated group of parents, volunteers, and teachers (and enough money to do the job). Paul Nyhan writes in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the new Academy for Precision Learning in School for children with autism centers on customized learning. It's a very small (5 kids last year with 10 enrolled for next year) school with a primary focus on kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder. "Over the next four years, the board of directors hopes to enroll 90 students spanning six grades." Tuition runs high, though, so the school isn't for everyone. But from a quick read of Nyhan's article, it sounds like some folks are "doing it right." Changes in NCLB...for Six States The US Department of Education has announced that six states have been approved "to use the Differentiated Accountability Pilot aimed at helping states differentiate between underperforming schools in need of dramatic interventions and those that are closer to meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind. Differentiated Accountability will allow states to vary the intensity and type of interventions to match the academic reasons that lead to a school's identification for improvement." "Examples of changes the states plan to make include requiring schools to offer tutoring earlier than is currently called for and a greater reliance, in Indiana for example, on testing throughout the year to catch academic weak spots." The Indiana program was announced last December by Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Suellen Reed. "Beginning next fall, Indiana schools may voluntarily opt to use new computer-based testing to support reading and math instruction for grades K-2 and English/language arts, math, science and social studies for grades 3-8." The K-2 program will apparently involve teachers using a type of wireless Palm device to record individual, one-minute student assessments. Testing for grades 3-8 will occur on regular computers in the classroom or a computer lab. The stated purpose of the new program is to "offer immediate feedback on student mastery of state academic standards," and "help Indiana teachers better diagnose student learning needs, focus instruction accordingly and predict whether students are on track to pass ISTEP+ at the end of the year." The voluntary part of it drops away for Indiana schools identified for Comprehensive improvement. They are required to offer tutoring services and school choice for non-proficient students, provide targeted professional development for teachers and take corrective action to address the needs of students not making AYP (annual yearly progress), participate in the state’s new computer-based diagnostic testing tools program, hire full-time literacy and math coaches, participate in the state’s reading and math academies, and work with state support teams. While NCLB will undoubtedly see major changes with a new president and congress, the changes for some states are a move in the right direction. I'm not much of a fan of high stakes testing, but the Indiana program of mini-tests might be useful.
K-12 Content on iTunes U I'd noted a few weeks ago the addition of a good bit of PBS programming on iTunes U. Today, eSchool News has an article about iTunes adding K-12 content from a number of states and school corporations in Free K-12 content available through iTunes U. Need a Great Bald Eagle Shot? If I were hunting a good, clear shot of our national bird, the bald eagle, for use in the classroom, NASA would probably not be on my list of sites to search. But the NASA Image of the Day yesterday was this great shot of a bald eagle resting near a pond at NASA's Kennedy Space Center!
For some great nature shots, the Earthshots.org is a great place to start. They also have a dandy widget for including their shot of the day on web pages (shown at right). My Desktop Photos page may have something you could use as well. (Note: All of my images on this site are copyrighted, but may be used as desktop photos or by classroom teachers in school materials not for commercial use without prior permission.) There's also a links listing towards the bottom of the page of other desktop photo pages. If you're hunting for space images, especially for use on your classroom or school web site where copyrights are an issue, NASA's terms of use are great for teachers. Not all astrophoto collections are so generous.
A good place to start a hunt for space images is the NASA Multimedia Images search page. I did an Educators' News feature, Out of this World Desktop Pictures, a few years ago that has a long list of links to space image galleries. NECC News eSchool News has added a summary page for the recent NECC convention. Living with Learning Disabilities Two great articles about adults living successfully with learning disabilities are Aaay! The Fonz wows at the Teaching Awards and Disabled and Driven. In the first article, actor Henry Winkler talks about school and his learning disability. In the second, "Judy" talks about how effectively compensating for and hiding her learning disability hurt her in one job. NCLB Article An article in The Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Education achievement gap narrows, talks about some progress in narrowing the achievement gap, specifically in Louisiana. The gap numbers quoted in the article are still staggering. The unattributed author of the article may have hit the target in the last paragraph:
What? A whole week of Educators' News with no mention of the garden! Ah, well, I was pulling giant ragweed from the cornfield next to the garden (farmer turns off the herbicide sprayer to protect our evergreens and garden), and I sorta tuckered myself out! Pulling the ragweed protects our garden from weeds and the byproduct ends up in our compost heap! Actually, we're enjoying lots of broccoli, the last of our first planting of cauliflower, a few grape tomatoes, and I even dug a couple of garlic (regular and elephant) bulbs for a great garlic chicken and shrimp dish we enjoy. I'll probably be busy this weekend taking the first of our baby carrots and some beets. And as you can see, our sweet, white onions (Walla Walla) are bulbing. I'll also have to replant our green beans, as heavy rains took out most of the three rows I'd seeded a week or so ago.
And What About All Those Flowers in the Garden... Almost from when I began gardening, I've worked flowers into the vegetable plantings. Sometimes they're for bug control, such as nasturtiums to deter nematodes and smelly marigolds to deter...uh, I forget what. Okay, you've got me. I just like flowers in the vegetable garden. They do serve a purpose beyond aesthetics, though. If you look closely, the photo below reveals that many of the flowers are at the ends of vegetable rows. Rather than leave my stakes and string after planting seed, I often just transplant a flower on each end to serve as row markers.
Whether in the garden or at the fireworks, have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July weekend!
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over the years. They currently run just $2.95 each, with classroom bundles of 25 going for $39.95 (possible Christmas present for students?). Even with some high-tech gadgets and software such as Stellarium, I still keep a couple of them around.
Yea! More free teaching stuff from iTunes! 
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©2008 Steven L. Wood