Friday, September 12, 2008

Obama Education Speech

Barack Obama gave a major speech on his education plan on Wednesday. Sam Dillon in the New York Times tells about it in If Elected ... Obama Looks to Lessons From Chicago in His National Education Plan. The full text of the speech is available from the UFT site at Senator Barack Obama: "A 21st Century Education".

An article by San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jill Tucker, Half S.F. kindergartners not ready for school, tells a bit of why Obama's support for more emphasis on early childhood education is critical to improving schools. What unfortunately hasn't been spelled out by Obama or McCain is a way to address the clear connection of social and economic disadvantage and low student achievement. The Broader, Bolder Approach to Education site has a pretty good report and roadmap on that issue (which is critical if we are actually going to improve schools).

Edwize has a pretty blunt (and accurate) blog posting about McCain's educational plan in McCain Mendacity: The Bankruptcy Of The Republican Educational Platform.

On Science@NASA

Dr. Tony Phillips has another interesting posting this week on his Science@NASA site, Naked-Eye Gamma-ray Burst Aimed Directly at Earth. It tells about the brightest gamma ray burst ever detected. Phillips writes in part:

Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the Universe. Most occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As a star's core collapses, it creates a black hole or neutron star that, through processes not fully understood, drive powerful gas jets outward. These jets actually punch through the collapsing star, carrying matter and beaming radiation into space.

Also see "Pi of the Sky" observation of GRB080319B.

Who wants to be a teacher?

Christian Science Monitor staff writer Stacy Teicher Khadaroo tells about a recent survey on teaching amongst non-teachers in Who wants to be a teacher? A whole lot of people, a new survey finds. She writes, "Forty-two percent of college-educated 24- to 60-year-olds would consider teaching as a career, according to a survey out Wednesday from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, N.J."

Note

There's not been much time of late for postings on Educators' News. One of our kids got married last weekend, and I think Annie and I are still resting up from all that involved! It was a wonderful occasion, though.

Between the wedding, helping with grandkids, substitute teaching (just to keep my hand in education a bit:-), and keeping up with the house and garden, our schedules are pretty busy. Retirement is a pretty cool gig.

Our garden is just teeming with produce and I'm canning, freezing, and giving away stuff as fast as I can! Our first watermelon weighed in at 28.6 pounds, considerably more than Annie and I could eat. We're also getting cantaloupes, peppers, tons of tomatoes (grape and regular), and green beans.

Catching Up

It's late Friday night, and I finally have time to catch up posting some articles and things I've run across in the last week or so.

The Opera Dev site has posted a free Web Standards Curriculum course by Chris Mills. It is a "course designed to give anyone a solid grounding in web design/development, no matter who they are—it is completely free to use, accessible, and assumes no previous knowledge." In one section of the introduction Mills writes, "If you are an individual who just fancies learning something about web design and development, then again, this is an inexpensive way to get some help with your endeavors." Pretty cool, huh?

The IES What Works Clearinghouse has published a guide for classroom teachers and specialists for increasing the reading ability of adolescent students. Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices (1.3 MB PDF document) contains recommendations "to help students gain more from their reading tasks, improve their motivation for and engagement in the learning process, and assist struggling readers who may need intensive and individualized attention."

Finally, a couple of articles caught my eye in the last week or so. College is not a must by Walt Gardner is an excellent read. And in our age of integrating technology into the curriculum to help our students, Computer Off, Pencil Up: Course Helps Kids Get a Grip on Writing is a good reminder that penmanship is still important.

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If you're canning or freezing lots of tomatoes, let me recommend a product we've used for years, the Squeezo Strainer. I bought our first one during our farm years, only reluctantly letting it go at our farm auction. Our second one came used via eBay, as the Squeezo is rather expensive, but worth every penny. The Squeezo Strainer takes whole, washed tomatoes and juices them, spitting the seeds and skins out one way with the juice and pulp another. It also is great for making applesauce.