Friday, October 10, 2008

Student Videos on TV

An innovative producer at KCSM, an independent public television station in San Mateo, California, has created a new show featuring three-to-five minute student videos. In 'Spotlight!' puts teens and their films on TV, the San Francisco Chronicle's Reyhan Harmanci relates that the new TV show will feature original films by " talented high school filmmakers whose works are selected at a film festival." The first episode airs this afternoon at 2 P.M. (PDT).

More on Merit Pay

A couple of postings on merit pay caught my eye this week. The first was a DOE press release, Secretary Spellings Hosts Roundtable Discussion on Performance Pay for Teachers. The second was a Jay Mathews column from The Washington Post, Merit Pay Could Ruin Teacher Teamwork.

Social Networking Sites and Teachers

I ran a link in August to Teaching Secrets: Take Charge of Your Classroom, an excellent article by Gail Tillery. In it she gives some good advice: "Take down your Facebook and your MySpace pages. Period." eSchool News today has a good general discussion about the pros and cons of teachers using social networking sites in Schools grapple with teachers' Facebook use.

Odds 'n Ends

Last week, the Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor decided to start implementing the system's 90 day evaluation and dismissal plan. Rhee Bypasses Talks, Imposes Dismissal Plan tells a bit of the story. Eduwonkette had some fun with Michelle Rhee this week in Driving Michelle Rhee, Plus: Joel Klein Needs Your Help!

Carlos Sadovi tells in the Chicago Tribune City leaders to recommend approval of gay high school. "Pointing to studies showing that gay high school students are at greater risk of dropping out because of stigma and fear of violence, Chicago Public Schools leaders said Wednesday that they will recommend opening a campus aimed at these students."

And yet another study has been released documenting and lamenting that " while girls can be just as talented as boys at mathematics, some are driven from the field because they are teased, ostracized or simply neglected."

• Making math uncool is hurting America, report says
• Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Wind Power

Annie and I drove to northern Indiana last weekend to hear our oldest daughter, Erica, sing with some Chicago blues legends (Carlos Johnson, Mike Wheeler, Melvin Smith, & Pookie Styx). It was really cool.

What might be a bit more appropriate to Educators' News is that on our trip along US 41 just north of Boswell, Indiana, we saw that a wind farm there is being greatly expanded. The wind farm has been there for years, but it appears that it is being tripled or more in size. That has to be a good thing for our country's clean energy needs.

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