Monday, November 23, 2009

Obama Pushes STEM Education

President Obama will announce today a new push "to encourage students, especially in middle and high school, to pursue science, technology, engineering and math." According to White House Pushes Science and Math Education by Kenneth Chang, the Educate to Innovate campaign will "focus mainly on activities outside the classroom" by enlisting "companies and nonprofit groups" to attract students to STEM education. Commercial-free programming on the Science Channel, a two-year focus on science on Sesame Street, and endorsements from personalities such as astronaut Sally K. Ride are already lined up.

Also see Private Sector Leaders Committed to Efforts Focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education on Sally Ride Science.

D.C. Evaluation Evaluation

No, that's not a misprint. Jay Mathews has opened up a can of worms with an article today, It's time to evaluate the evaluation, that includes one teacher's critical comments of D.C.'s new IMPACT system for assessing teachers. The article is already producing responses, such as Dan Goldfarb's evaluation--D.C. schools and Goldfarb respond from Mathews's Class Struggle page.

Short Weeks

It always seemed to me that short weeks such as Thanksgiving week were harder work that almost any full week of school. The kids are in shutdown mode, apparently mentally extending their four day vacation from school. And quite honestly, lots of teachers and school staff are far more concerned about Aunt Martha's travel arrangements and whether the dinner rolls will raise properly for their Thanksgiving feast than in any educational advancement of their students.

NCLB Study

Study Finds NCLB Law Lifted Math Scores relates that NCLB "has significantly boosted mathematics achievement, but no evidence exists that it has done the same for reading." The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement notes "large increases in the math scores for 4th graders and moderate ones in that subject for 8th graders. The gains in math were concentrated among white and Hispanic students, students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches, and students at all levels of performance. But the researchers did not find evidence of a similar impact on reading scores."

Odds 'n' Ends

Voting continues through December 4 on the DOE's I Am What I Learn student video contest.

While I was rummaging around my old school files, I ran into some coloring calendars our kids had done the last year I was in the classroom. The activity was a great success, but it took a bit of time to complete. I put together calendars based on DLTK's Free Printable Custom Calendars page, had the kids color them, and sent them home before Christmas vacation.

When I tried to recreate a few today, I found that I needed to grab a screenshot of each calendar page, rather than printing a hard copy or saving them to a PDF file.

I found this gem of teaching wisdom on Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It:

If you want to see powerful, meaningful instruction taking place, look for schools teaching struggling learners. The students may not be scoring on standardized tests as well as their middle class peers, but I'd bet they're making more progress on a daily basis thanks to their hard work and their teachers' dedication.

This one on Organized Chaos made me grin, and this one made my eyes wet.

I spent a good bit of time over the weekend cleaning up the archives of this site. Some of the weekly files that were originally created in Claris Home Page hadn't held up so well and were difficult to read. So, I set about, starting at week 1, correcting them. I also needed to add a navigation bar at the bottom of the pages so folks could move easily to the previous or next week.

I managed to get the first two years of Educators' News Archives cleaned up. That was the period of time when this site was most active before a period or near dormancy for several years. Being a bit random, I'd also done much the same thing some months ago starting with current archives working backwards in time. There are still some files "in the middle" to be done, but the worst of the problems are now corrected.

I'm also working on an end-of-year feature that will include all the freewares and free sites I've mentioned this year. I last did one of these features with The Educational Freewares of 2001. Somewhere along the line, I stopped doing them, but this year, there have been so many cool new free sites and applications that I couldn't resist doing one again.

Send Feedback to

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Race to the Top Rules

Education Week's Stimulus Rules on 'Turnarounds' Shift by Lesli Maxwell relates that "the final rules for the $4 billion Race to the Top competition give states and districts more leeway in how they intervene in chronically underperforming schools." Maxwell writes that states have more flexibility in using federal money "to use a turnaround approach that many educators favor: providing professional development and coaching for a school’s current staff, and making changes to curriculum and instruction." The turnaround approach previously was only allowed if other, harsher methods were not feasible. Those methods still include "replacing the principal and at least half its teachers; reopening the school under a charter operator or other outside manager; or shutting the school down."

D.C. Layoffs Stand

WTU Loses Court Challenge To Layoffs relates that "a D.C. Superior Court judge has ruled against a bid by the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) to roll back the Oct. 2 layoffs of 266 DCPS teachers and staff."

Odds 'n' Ends

Heading into a four-day holiday weekend for many, education news has slowed to a crawl. There are, however, a few interesting links. I was tempted to lead today with the headline Monster Waves on the Sun from Science@NASA's Monster Waves on the Sun are Real. It describes the real phenomena of towering waves of hot plasma racing along the sun's surface! I also found Tips for the Admissions Test ... to Kindergarten interesting, if a bit of a sad comment on our society. Education Week's Majoring in Math Not Always a Classroom Plus confirmed what I already thought! NEA's 10 FREE Things for November was okay. And Speaking Out of Turn on NEA's Works4Me made me smile.

Like many of you, we will have family home for Thanksgiving Day and will be celebrating the many blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Happy Thanksgiving

Friday, November 27, 2009

Shuttle Atlantis to Land this Morning

The space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land this morning at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Weather forecasts for the potential morning landing times (9:44 A.M. and 11:19 A.M. EST) look good.

The NASA Image of the Day above was taken "by the Expedition 21 crew on the International Space Station soon after the shuttle and station began their post-undocking separation" on Wednesday.

David Brooks on The Other Education

On a slow news day for education, New York Times columnist David Brooks offers something a little different in The Other Education. Brooks writes not of traditional education , but of The Other Education, an "emotional education," that comes indirectly, seeping through the cracks of the windowpanes, from under the floorboards and through the vents. It’s generally a byproduct of the search for pleasure, and the learning is indirect and unconscious." He's writing, of course, about his introduction to the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and rock 'n' roll.

It's not your typical schoolroom article, but it's a good read.

New Resources on Teachers' Domain

The November WGBH Teachers' Domain newsletter carried word today of a number of new and interesting resources now carried or linked to by the site. Two that were highlighted are:

• The Supreme Court collection funded by The Booth Ferris Foundation produced by WNET/Thirteen
• Learning Through Video Production: A teacher's guide to creating your own media project in the classroom funded by AVID

New "Download and Share" resources include:

• Turtle Defense from WPSU
• Geothermal Power from Vegas PBS
• Quantus from KET
• The Physics of Baseball from KQED
• Brain Trauma from WGBH
• Tangrams from WNET

Have a great weekend!

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