Monday, September 14, 2009

Shuttle Discovery Lands Safely

The space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth safely Friday evening (8:53 P.M. EDT) from its STS-128 mission to the International Space Station. "Thunderstorms and otherwise unstable weather conditions" changed the landing site from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the alternate Edwards Air Force Base site in California. The next shuttle launch, mission STS-129, is scheduled to launch November 12, 2009. Just six more scheduled missions remain before the space shuttle fleet is retired from service in 2010 or 2011.

The Constellation program that is planned to replace the space shuttles is currently testing the booster rocket, Ares I shown above right, and the Orion crew module. A Space.com article by Clara Moskowitz, NASA's New Moon Rocket Passes First Engine Test, relates that the Ares I "is slated to begin operational flight no earlier than 2015." Moskowitz also discusses the political and financial issues facing the Constellation program. An article from April in The Space Review, The Constellation Squeeze by Jeff Foust, also addresses "concerns about the multi-year gap between the retirement of the shuttle and the introduction of Constellation."

Washington State Teachers' Strike to End

A two week strike by teachers of the Kent School District in Kent, Washington may end this week with a tentative contract agreement reached over the weekend. The strike was a bit unusual, as told by Donna Gordon Blankinship in Teacher strike in Washington focused on class size. Teachers struck to force the district to use some of its $21 million cash reserve to reduce class size and overcrowding. Teacher strikes are illegal in Washington State, and Kent teachers could have faced a threatened $200/day fine for the strike.

D.C. Contract "Taking Shape"

Bill Turque reports in Rhee, Union May Be Close to Deal that an agreement in the long-running negotiations between the D.C. Schools and the Washington Teachers Union may be near. Chancellor Michelle Rhee said the two sides are "very close" and characterized the talks as "down to a couple of smaller issues." Union President George Parker stated, "There are a few very critical issues that both sides have very strong opinions about. The question is whether we can craft language that both sides can live with. We're at 50-50."

As always, the comments section about Turque's column and the situation is always an interesting read. The Washington Teacher blog also contains some of the proposed contract language.

Foreign Language Cuts

The headline, Foreign Languages Fall as Schools Look for Cuts, pretty well tells the story. Winnie Hu tells about school districts eliminating elementary and secondary foreign language programs.

School Techs

School administrators often have a rocky relationship with their school system's technology folks. Jeff Ello's The unspoken truth about managing geeks on Computerworld might give admins some insight into the makeup of techies and how to manage them more effectively. Jeff Ello manages IT for the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Resource Sites for Teachers

I did a feature article last April on Resource Sites for Teachers. It's a review of sorts of a number of portals that host or link to online teaching resources, particularly interactive activities, that may be useful to classroom teachers. I went back and checked the links in the article today and am mentioning it here today, as it may be more appropriate now than it was last April. There's really something there for everyone. I had a ball researching and writing this one.

CFT President Speaks Out on Race to the Top

Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers, speaks out on what it takes to make "successful education reform" in 'Race to the Top' - we expected better. Hittelman writes that many of the funding mandates required for Race to the Top federal grants "are controversial because they have never been shown to improve student learning." He zeros in on evaluation procedures that rely on individual students' standardized test scores and compensating teachers based on those scores.

Let me set the record straight: We are for reforms that work, which include standards-based and common curricula that have multiple source assessments; student data available for classroom teacher use based on a comprehensive approach; smaller class sizes; new teacher mentoring; and peer assistance and review. What we oppose are reforms based on the latest bright idea that has caught the eye of a politician or pundit with no experience teaching.

Odds 'n' Ends

Stephen Sawchuk's Growth Model in Education Week tells of the Teach For America (TFA) Program and profiles one of its Program Directors. Sawchuk tells of high expectations and improvements in TFA's training and support for new teachers. What he doesn't mention is that the profiled director taught just three years in the classroom before moving to a mentoring position for TFA.

Friday, September 18, 2009

D.C. Budget Woes

Washington Post education writer Bill Turque has been busy with a couple of related articles: D.C. Schools Face Bigger Classes, Layoffs Due to $40 Million Gap and Gray Claims Fenty Just Wants to Fire Unionized Teachers. It appears that the D.C. schools will take a big hit in the overall Washington, D.C. budget reductions. Turque writes that the "$40 million budget cut is likely to deliver the biggest hit the city's public school teaching corps has taken since December 2003, when school officials dismissed 545 employees to balance the system's operating budget." He quotes DC councilman Kwame R. Brown as saying that Chancellor Michelle Rhee has mislead parents into thinking the council did not adequately fund the school system. "We gave them more money than they ever had before, and now they are saying they are $40 million short? That just doesn't go together."

On Science@NASA

Dr. Tony Phillips has an interesting and creatively named posting this week on Science@NASA, In Search of Dark Asteroids (and Other Sneaky Things). He writes about the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) that will scan the sky in infrared, looking for "nearby asteroids that might pose a threat to Earth...WISE will also help answer questions about the formation of stars and the evolution and structure of galaxies, including our own Milky Way."

Odds 'n' Ends

I subbed this week in a special ed room, and it took me another day just to rest up from it! Part of my weariness was from the frustration I saw in the faculty and staff of a good school that didn't make its test numbers last year. They're doing all interventions all the time now. There's no social studies or science and very little freedom in how one teaches. I spent a good deal of my time just getting used to their required scripted teaching. The comment I heard most was that the "art of teaching" was dead there.

The overall picture in Indiana is pretty dim right now, as results released just this week show that 39% of Indiana's students failed one or both portions of the newly revised state competency test. Lower ISTEP scores leave schools disappointed by Andy Gammill on the Indianapolis Star gives the grim results.

A bit more upbeat item is that "our" heron haven't left their Turtle Creek Reservoir nesting and feeding areas yet. We live less than a mile from the reservoir and even closer to some of its inlets and tributaries, so we frequently see a good bit of the heron as we drive to and from town.

As I drove to town yesterday, the Great Egret (white heron) shown above stayed around long enough for me to switch to my long lens and grab a few shots of it. As I started to pull away, I noticed the Great Blue Heron shown at left.

I'm not sure if the heron are getting used to me and my red pickup truck, or if I've just been lucky this summer, but I've gotten better shots of them than ever before. In July I got a shot (top right) of a blue heron landing near a white heron (who quickly flew off). Then in August I caught a gathering of six white heron (bottom right). I'm not sure if it was a convention or good fishing, as there were lots of other blue and white heron in the area. The photo of the blue and white heron is available for free educational use on Pics4Learning.com. Every now and then I look through my recent photos to see if there is an image other teachers could use and upload it there.

Of course, part of my success in capturing images of the heron this summer has been that I've been working with better photo equipment since early July. But the heron are definitely being more tolerant of my presence as well.

Have a great weekend!

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