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[Note: I goofed and overwrote Monday's posting. The info below is a quick reconstruct of what I think was there.] Secretary of Education Time Magazine's Kathleen Kingsbury takes a look at who President-Elect Obama might pick for Secretary of Education. In Who Will Obama Pick as Secretary of Education, Kingsbury lists the pros and cons on the apparent front runners, Joel Klein, Linda Darling-Hammond, Arne Duncan, James Hunt, Jr., Janet Napolitano, and Colin Powell. Public or Private School for Obama Children In the seventh season of The West Wing television series, President-Elect Matthew Santos and his wife struggle to find the right school for their daughters. Mrs. Santos favors a private school, but the fictional President-Elect, who appeared onstage with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama during the real campaign, suggests looking for a public school. In A Crucial Decision For the Obamas: Public or Private, Jay Mathews tells of the same decision that faces Barack and Michelle Obama for their daughters, Malia and Sasha. Mathews looks at the highly regarded Georgetown Day School that may end up where the girls go, but also suggests a public school near the White House, Strong John Thomson Elementary School. Veterans Day Info The Department of Veterans Affairs has a good page on The Origins of Veterans Day and an excellent links page to other Veterans Day info. Send Feedback to
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - Veterans Day (US) Phoenix Mars Lander It appears the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander is complete. "As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments." The last signal received from the lander wa on November 2. The lander "verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface" and has "returned more than 25,000 pictures from sweeping vistas to near the atomic level using the first atomic force microscope ever used outside Earth."
Meteor Shower Hunt Dr. Tony Phillips has an interesting posting in NASA Begins Hunt for New Meteor Showers on Science@NASA. Phillips tells of Bill Cooke's all-sky Sentinel camera in a posting that could be used with intermediate through high school students. 2008 Election Teaching Site No, this isn't an overdue posting. The AFT has assembled a number of resources from the recent election that may still have some teaching value in the classroom., including biographies of civil rights leaders and a timeline of key events in America’s continuing effort to provide equal opportunity for all.
Teacher Tenure and the Washington, D.C., Schools Sam Dillon has an excellent column about teacher tenure and the Washington, D.C., public schools in A School Chief Takes On Tenure, Stirring a Fight. D.C. Schools' Chancellor Michelle Rhee proposed a contract last summer that included a program where teachers could "receive thousands of dollars in bonuses and raises, funded with foundation grants, for relinquishing tenure." D.C. teachers were lukewarm about the contract proposal, and Rhee instituted a plan to begin removing teachers (allowed under the current contract) on her own in October. Dillon reviews the basics of the situation in D.C., complete with some really nasty sound bites about teachers from Rhee, before going on to a more general look at what giving up teacher tenure might mean. Rhee, of course, is desperately trying to improve instruction in the D.C. schools, but appears to have a "superstar superintendent" mentality of big fixes before moving on...something most teachers can't do. The AFT's President, Randi Wingarten, commented, “Michelle does not view teaching as a career. She sees it as temporary, something a lot of newbies will work very hard at for a couple of years, and then if they leave, they leave, as opposed to professionals who get more seasoned.” The importance of the D.C. situation has grown from both John McCain and Barack Obama mentioning Rhee's actions in a favorable light during the presidential debates. As the Obama Administration looks at changes for education, avoiding the conservative rhetoric about teachers' unions and tenure might make a lot of teachers more approachable. Many outstanding teachers still support tenure, as they sometimes have to go head-to-head with administrators with, at best, weird ideas about how instruction should occur. At worst, many of us have had to take a stand when administrators propose flat out breaking the law (IDEA) in regard to some students. Without the protection of tenure, many would be out on the streets for their actions and students would be the ones hurt. Some Rhee quotes:
Dillon's article is one that every classroom teacher should read. What Priority is Education to Obama Nicholas Kristof takes a look at the Obama Administrations' educational priorities in Obama and Our Schools. Kristof writes that the Obama team may be "sending signals that education may be on the back burner at the beginning of the new administration." He argues such a move would be a mistake. "We can’t meaningfully address poverty or grow the economy as long as urban schools are failing." Kristof also writes that a fair amount of evidence suggests that the crucial factor in the source of America’s greatness has been our school system. He notes that America's school system, "for most of our history, was the best in the world but has foundered over the last few decades. The message for Mr. Obama is that improving schools must be on the front burner." A related eSchool News article, Survey reveals economy's impact on schools, talks more about the recession's effect on technology in schools, but includes a list of cuts school superintendents have made or are considering from a recent American Association of School Administrators survey.
From the list you can tell that they're not talking about cutting out the fat in their budgets. They're down to the bone, now. Totally Unrelated to Education I guess I'll sneak this item in here since I'm linking so much to the New York Times today. Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas L. Friedman takes a good look at the possible Detroit automaker bailout in How to Fix a Flat. It's a good read, and admittedly, totally unrelated to education. But, Educators' News was often viewed as Mac-centric web site in its early years, and I found Friedman's final paragraph in his column to be a real gem.
Odds 'n Ends Apparently, Bill Gates indicated an expansion of support by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for education recently at a Gates Foundation meeting on education. While there's currently not a press release on the Foundation site, the Seattle Times reported in Gates Foundation releases ambitious new giving plans for education that the Foundation wants "to double the number of low-income students who complete some kind of college or post-high school degree. Efforts also would be made to identify and pay higher salaries for good teaching, help average teachers get better, devise better tests and create a national set of learning standards for high schools." Paul Kilduff writes in the San Francisco Chronicle about a new, student produced series in Adina's Deck: A series of lessons that click. Current Adina's Deck episodes include Solving Cyber Bullying Mysteries (cyber-bullying), The Case of the Online Crush (online predators), and The Case of the Plagiarized Paper (plagiarism). If you ever wonder about how important your school's intruder drill could be, take a look at Gunman arrested at elementary school. Julie Rasicot has a good article in the Washington Post in Arts Integration Aids Students' Grasp of Academics. The title sorta tells the tale. In space news, there's Cassini Finds Mysterious New Aurora on Saturn and a good photo and description at Saturn's Polar Aurora. And the weather for the scheduled launch tomorrow evening of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126) appears to be improving: Forecast Improves for Endeavour Launch. (Also see Educators' News Space Tidbits.)
TigerDirect Exclusive Deals! Limited Time Offers! Act Now And Save! Endeavour On Its Way The Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126) was successfully launched this evening at 7:55 P.M. (EST).
Girls and Asperger's Syndrome Jeneen Interlandi has a good article in Newsweek, More Than Just Quirky, about how Asperger's Syndrome may be different in girls than in boys. She writes, "Some experts have begun to suspect that...Asperger's manifests differently, less obviously in girls, and that factor is also causing them to slip through the diagnostic cracks." Have a great weekend!
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©2008 Steven L. Wood