Tuesday, April 28, 2009

It's been a while since I missed making a Monday update on Educators' News (since Christmas week, last year). Mondays are usually pretty easy, as I can spend the weekend picking up bits and pieces of news. There usually are feature and human interest stories in the education sections of the major Sunday newspapers to choose from. That just wasn't the case last weekend.

Other than the Oregon special education case in which the Supreme Court is trying to decide when taxpayers must foot the bill for private schooling for special education students, President Obama pushing for more research in education and science, and Eduwonk's take on the New York teacher barricading himself in a school for several hours last week, there just wasn't much going on yesterday.

Thank goodness Maria Glod posted a story today about improvements in some areas on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In Younger Students Show Gains in Math, Reading Skills, she relates that "9- and 13-year-olds are doing better in math and reading than in the early 1970s, but average scores for students approaching high school graduation haven't budged."

The dearth of education news did give me the opportunity yesterday to get out and till up a large area for our squash, melons, and sweet corn. I got carried away and ended up with a plot around 30x125'! I popped out between showers today to grab the shot below.

While transplanting the squash and melons, I noticed that the hills, when filled with transplant solution, looked a bit like miniature volcano crater lakes! After the heavy rain last night, there wasn't much left of the hills, but the plants seemed to be doing fine.

Since we use the SH₂ varieties of super sweet corn which don't germinate well in cool soil, I held off on planting any corn. We'll also use this large plot to isolate tomato and pepper plants from which we plan to save seed.

Since I'm already way off task, let me add that my Nikon Coolpix P60, which I reviewed in October and December, is out of service after just five months of use. Last month images began being vignetted on the right side. Since our youngest offspring was getting married near the first of this month, I held off sending the camera in until a week or so ago. The malfunction was annoying, but by zooming and with careful compensation in composition, the camera was useable (barely) for snapshots at the wedding.

I really had gotten to like the P60, as it takes good pictures (see composite below of our girls), but such an early failure is really scary. I wonder how long it will hold up. I also had a fatal failure with my last camera, a Nikon Coolpix 4300. It went down just out of warranty with an unresolved issue with many Nikon digital cameras. I ended up paying almost what the camera was worth getting it repaired. But...it's filling in now for the P60.

I really like the convenience of entry level point and shoot digital cameras, but I'm worn out with early failures from Nikon products. If I ever move up to a digital SLR, I'm going to have to think long and hard about brands and reliability. I still have my 30+ year old Canon AE-1 SLR that has never had a problem!

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

NAEP Results

Results released yesterday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress have produced a lot of articles around the country. As reported here yesterday, the results showed 9 and 13-year-olds doing better in math and reading than in the early 1970s, but high school graduation rates not improving much. Greatest gains were shown by elementary and low-achieving students.

• Associated Press: Math, reading scores: National study shows students improving by Libby Quaid
• New York Times: ‘No Child’ Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap by Sam Dillon
• Christian Science Monitor: High-schoolers have made little progress since the 1970s, study says by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
• Washington Post: 'Nation's Report Card' Sees Gains in Elementary, Middle Schools by Maria Glod

In a related posting on Education Week, What's Missing in Obama's Education Plan, Daniel M. Koretz looks at how to improve the No Child Left Behind law. He notes the focus on reading and math have led to the de-emphasis of other subjects and suggests any new standard take a broad approach. He also discusses NCLB score inflation and comments on test-based accountability, "We should admit that our ideas for a better educational accountability system, however thoughtful, are partly unproven, need evaluation, and may require midcourse corrections."

Security Tips for Mac Users

A lot of schools out there are still Mac based, and Computerworld's Ryan Faas takes a look at 15 easy fixes for Mac security risks.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Schools & the Flu

The spread of the H1N1 (swine) flu virus has moved into school news as many schools consider closing as a precautionary measure. eSchool News reports that Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control, in Obama warns of more school closings as saying that "there are confirmed cases now in 10 states, with 51 in New York, 14 in California, and 16 in Texas. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts, and Michigan, while single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada, and Ohio." The Associated Press's Libby Quaid and Cristian Salazar look at the ripple effects of current and potential school closings in Closing schools may not stop flu transmission.

The Department of Education's web site, Ed.gov, provides some good links to Additional Flu Resources for School Leaders Seeking Guidance, H1N1 Flu & U.S. Schools: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (72K PDF document), and their Emergency Planning: Influenza Outbreak page for school administrators.

The President's First 100 Days in Education

Among all the first 100 day reports on the news, NPR's Claudio Sanchez looks at the first 100 days in education in Obama's Long Education To-Do List Awaits Action. It's part of a larger series of reviews, Benchmarking Obama: President's First 100 Days.

Looking Ahead

The month of May presents a few teachable holidays and a few others you really shouldn't miss. Tomorrow, May 1, is May Day and Space Day. May 5 is National Teacher Day (Be sure to buy yourself something nice!) with May 6 being National School Nurse Day. Mother's Day is May 10. The folks at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM are offering their 30 gifts for under $30 collection, including tulips and roses for $29.99 (before tax, shipping, and whatever else gets added on). And closing the month's holidays is Memorial Day on the 25th.

Check out The Teachers Corner May calendar for all the special days next month, many with links to helpful teaching resources.

Odds 'n' Ends

I was moaning about the lack of education news last Tuesday here on Educators' News. With the spread of the H1N1 virus, we suddenly have more education news (about the swine flu) than we really want. Kids are going to have questions about the flu, and teachers will need to be prepared with accurate, non-alarmist answers.

When I poked around the web for resources, I ran across the Free Technology for Teachers blog that has a number of good links to teaching resources about the flu. Teaching about swine flu on the JREF Forum is another source for teaching links on swine flu appropriate for high school.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Schools & the Flu

The Washington Post's Maria Glod and Daniel de Vise look at the national school closing picture in Hundreds of Schools, Most in Texas, Shut. The AP's Samantha Gross looks at the flu outbreak at St. Francis Preparatory School, the site of the largest swine flu outbreak in the U.S., in School had long week as illness became outbreak.

Odds 'n' Ends

Marcus Moore writes in the Gaithersburg Gazette (MD) about a gifted and talented program going without that title in ‘No label' pilot program working. Teacher Magazine has an interesting discussion in Dealing With Missing Homework by John Norton.

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