Monday, February 28, 2011

Mobile Devices in the Classroom

Jennifer Nastu's Mobile learning: Not just laptops any more on eSchool News is an interesting discussion about the use and potential use of mobile devices. She notes that some education consultants are saying that by 2016, "nearly every K-12 student in the U.S. will be using a mobile handheld device as an important part of his or her education." Nastu focus is primarily on cell phone and iPod Touch types of mobile devices, spending a good bit of time discussing security and filtering issues with these devices.

Writing about homework and small, mobile devices, Nastu observes:

Students with smart phones, 3G (or 4G) access, and a data plan can use the device on the school bus to look up information for a report on their way home in the afternoon. They can do their homework while waiting in the dentist's office.

If a student has to go to his little sister's soccer practice after school, he's not going to carry his books, he's not going to carry his homework. But he's certainly not going to watch his little sister play soccer, either, so he'll pull out his smart phone and get it done.

Looking Ahead

I haven't done this section for several months, but couldn't pass up the chance to post the hat ad. Dr. Seuss's birthday and the NEA Read Across America day will be upon us this Wednesday (March 2). St. Patrick's Day is a little further out (March 17).

The Teachers Corner's March calendar also reminds one that Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday is March 8.

Possibly of more significance is the listing for daylight saving time, reminding us to set our clocks forward Saturday night, March 12, as daylight saving time begins on Sunday, March 13, 2011. (Spring forward, fall back)

Let's hope the first day of spring, March 20, truly ushers in some splendid weather.

Termination Notices for all Providence Teachers

The Providence, Rhode Island, school board voted last week "to send termination notices to all of the city’s 1,926 teachers." School officials claimed that terminating all teachers protected the schools from financial obligations that would remain under layoffs. Union officials claimed the move was to circumvent seniority rules.

• The Providence Journal: Providence plans to pink slip all teachers by Linda Borg
• The New York Times: Mayor Tries to Reassure Providence Teachers as Furor Grows Over Firing Notices by Abby Goodnough
• The Answer Sheet: Providence threat against teachers highlights hypocrisy by Valerie Strauss

Odds 'n' Ends

The folks in Wisconsin turned out 70,000 demonstrators on Saturday. Most of them were there voicing opposition to Governor Scott Walker's union-busting budget bill. Democratic members of the Wisconsin Senate are holed up somewhere in Illinois to deny the necessary quorum for a vote on the measure. Dan Simmons' Anatomy of a protest: From a simple march to a national fight is a good review of what occurred to produce the walkout and some interesting details of how it took place. About 600 stalwart protesters allowed to stay in Capitol overnight tells how common sense avoided a potentially nasty situation.

Meanwhile, Indiana House Democrats, minus two left behind to keep tabs on things, are "meeting" at the Urbana, Illinois, Comfort Suites, denying a quorum for votes on a host of legislation aimed at gutting Indiana's teachers' unions and pushing through the governor's education plan. Stand Up for Hoosiers has a good summary of the bills.

Compton school board rejects parent trigger effort relates that a California school board rejected a petition by parents last week to allow a charter operator to take over their school. Teresa Watanabe relates in the Los Angeles Times that this case`"represented the first test of a new law giving parents the power to petition for major reforms of low-performing schools."

Send Feedback to

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Way to Go, Girl!

Neither Diane Ravitch nor I are young enough to use the headline colloquialism, but I used to hear our now adult daughters use it frequently, and it just seems to fit. Diane Ravitch ripped off an incredibly good rant about what is currently going on in education "reform" in A Moment of National Insanity. I'll just share one of her introductory paragraphs here:

Yet the reality on the ground suggests that the corporate reform movement—embraced by so many of those same leaders, including the president—will set American education back, by how many years or decades is anyone's guess. Sometimes I think we are hurtling back a century or more, to the age of the Robber Barons and the great corporate trusts.

Diane's response to this posting was, "Thanks, Steve. I accept all positive comments!"

Diane is scheduled to appear Thursday evening on The Daily Show.

Poll: Majority Back Public Employee Unions

A New York Times/CBS News poll found "a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits." Majority in Poll Back Employees in Public Sector Unions relates that "Americans oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent."

Turque and Strauss Honored

Bill Turque and Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post were recently honored by the Education Writers Association, the national professional organization of education reporters. Turque won first prize for Beat Reporting for his coverage of DCPS with his D.C. Schools Insider. Strauss won second prize in the Journalism Blogging category for her The Answer Sheet blog (Gotham Schools won first prize in that category).

Potential NYC School Layoffs

Fernanda Santos relates in City Details Worst-Case School Layoffs that the projections of New York City Schools may never materialize, but in a worst case scenario, 4,675 teachers could lose their jobs. Mayor Bloomberg is, of course, pushing the state for more school support and the abolishment of seniority rules.

Gotham Schools has some excellent coverage of the LIFO (last in, first out) bill to be voted on soon in the New York Senate.

Odds 'n' Ends: Sometimes I'm Glad I Didn't Say (Write) Anything

While I obviously admire the folks putting in their time carrying protest signs in Madison, Indianapolis, and elsewhere, I also think we hurt ourselves sometimes with our carelessness. I was going to make a brief comment about some of the misspellings on signs teachers were carrying, but I decided to just let it go, as they were there in the cold, and I warm at home in front of my keyboard.

This evening while doing some month-end chores on my Senior Gardening site, I discovered I had posted the following early in the month:

While you could hear branches creaking, braking, and falling to the ground during the ice storm, especially at night, we suffered little damage.

Despite the fact that I'd spell checked the section and had the lovely voice of Vicki on my Mac read the posting back to me (a great editing trick), you really couldn't hear screeching tires of branches braking. There are some errors such as the wrong word that spell checkers and other editing tricks just don't catch. You could, however, hear the eerie sound of branches creaking during the winter storm, sometimes followed by a loud crack and crash of the branch breaking. Hmmm....branches breaking. Yeah!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Going for the Jugular

The national assault on teachers' bargaining rights by Republican governors continues unabated. The Washington Post's Nick Anderson quotes Indiana AFT President, Rick Muir, in Midwest union battles highlight debate over improving schools as saying, "This is big. It's not one item. It's not two. They've seized the opportunity to go on the attack. They're going for the jugular." Anderson writes:

Teachers unions are suddenly on the defensive across much of the nation. Debates over collective bargaining rights are flaring in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Idaho and Tennessee. GOP governors in New Jersey, Nevada and Florida have mounted a drumbeat against teacher tenure, opposing seniority-based job protections in much blunter terms than the president and most other Democrats.

Here in Indiana, Governor Daniels couched his school voucher program in terms of helping the needy. When one looks at the proposed cutoff for the vouchers, $80,000 for a family of four, it becomes obvious that Daniels' proposal is a foot-in-the-door for future, all out vouchers for everyone. Eighty grand in Indiana is pretty good money these days!

Trip Gabriel has a good, related article in today's New York Times, Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn? Mark Bennett's Parent involvement can change education in ways that new laws can’t in today's Terre Haute Tribune-Star is also a good, related read.

Cheating Charters Not Renewed

Howard Blume reports in L.A. school board to close six charter schools caught cheating:

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to shut down six charter schools that were accused of widespread cheating on last year's standardized tests, citing the malfeasance and an insufficient response to it.

The board took the initiative to revoke the charter of the Crescendo organization despite an earlier recommendation by the district to reauthorize its schools for another five years. District staff had said they believed that the charter board had taken adequate steps to deal with the scandal.

Not What I Hoped For

Yesterday, Barbara Barrett's Duncan, Dems embrace education reforms on the Raleigh News & Observer raised my hopes with its first line, "U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a group of Democratic senators this morning embraced a slate of education reforms that move away from rigid testing and toward flexibility for local school districts."

As I read on, I really didn't find anything new in the article. I found that the proposal "unveiled" was pretty much more of the same from the Administration. The promise of moving away from rigid testing was followed by plans for more tests "tailored to individual schools' specific situations...'a more nuanced approach.'" I've heard that one before. It simply meant more emphasis on high stakes testing, more money diverted from classrooms into test companies' coffers, a drastic narrowing of school curriculum, and linking teacher evaluations to student test scores with unproven tests and models (value added).

Senate Moderates Release NCLB Overhaul Plan on Education Week tells a bit more, but it's pretty much, "same old, same old."

Maybe the Administration will flesh out these ideas and we'll see something that might really help. But as long as the President and Secretary of Education hold to their flawed views that testing and teacher bashing will improve education, they give cover to governors such as those in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio who are using education as a means to defeat their political enemies, not improving education.

Odds 'n' Ends

Other than Barbara Bennett getting sucked in on an Arne Duncan "slate of education reforms," there wasn't much online about education yesterday that I wanted to link to. Walt Gardner's excellent debunking of the recent Bill Gates article on the Washington Post was certainly a worthwhile read, but not a posting all by itself. So, I just took the day off and worked in the yard. It didn't hurt that it was sunny and 54^o here yesterday.

While it's still nice outside today, there's a bit more online to share. Alyson Klein's Stopgap Spending Bill Severs Array of Education Programs tells of what got axed in the federal budget extension. Deborah Meier's Solidarity With Strangers is also a good read that winds up with the following knock-out punch:

P.S. Re. Madison: Who can resist this argument? Only five states do not currently allow collective bargaining for educators.
Those states and their SAT/ACT rankings are as follows:

South Carolina: 50
North Carolina: 49
Georgia: 48
Texas: 47
Virginia: 44

Friday, March 4, 2011

What Was That Bright Light in the Sky?

I spent a good bit of time on our back porch Wednesday night enjoying the unseasonable warmth and an incredibly clear view of the constellation Orion. While watching the night sky, I saw a faint meteor move through the constellation. I thought, "Wow! A meteor!" I continued looking for another thirty minutes and saw two more vary faint streaks near Orion.

When I came inside, I began googling for "minor meteor shower" and the like. I could hardly believe I'd been fortunate enough to see three meteors in a little over a half hour. While there isn't a major or minor meteor shower going on right now, I did find an appropriate page on Science@NASA, What's Hitting Earth? On that page, Dauna Coulter begins the piece, "Every day about 100 tons of meteoroids -- fragments of dust and gravel and sometimes even big rocks – enter the Earth's atmosphere."

Coulter goes on to tell about a new effort and web site, NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network. The site asks and attempts to answer the question, "What was that bright light in the sky last night?" The network is in the process of deploying 15 "specialized black and white video cameras with lenses that allow for a view of the whole night sky overhead." Three cameras are currently in service. They have overlapping fields of view, so the same fireball can be detected by more than one camera. That allows NASA scientists to calculate the height, speed, orbit, and sometimes the source of the meteor. 

I gave the site a try, only to realize that the meteors I'd seen were not bright enough to be recorded by the All Sky Network. They were about the fourth magnitude, while the network records meteors at or greater than the magnitude of Venus (-4.89 at its brightest). So while my sightings weren't confirmed by the site, it was a cool web exploration. And it's one more tool that could prove useful to teachers.

A Good Evening on TV for Teachers

It was an interesting evening on television last night. Actor Matt Damon, appearing on CNN's Piers Morgan Show, twice in an hour interview pointed out that the current education "reform" plan of President Obama is flawed. Damon's mother is an educator. From her experiences, he was able to say that the current emphasis on high stakes testing and merit pay were not effective ways to improve schools.

Later, Diane Ravitch appears as the guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart did a good job of setting Diane up with good questions for her to express what is wrong with the popular education"reform" efforts today by government and big business foundations. Stewart stated:

God forbid you do the job of a teacher for a year. It will blow your mind at how hard...My mother was a teacher for years...I couldn't be more impressed by what she did and the work she did in her life. Those people have no idea. And yet, that's the conversation.

Valerie Strauss's The Diane Ravitch myth is a good defense of Ravitch, who, as the current, defacto leader of those who feel poverty and other social issues must be addressed before significant improvement in America's schools can be achieved, has come under considerable criticism.

Odds 'n' Ends

In Wisconsin, "Senate Republicans Thursday ordered the forcible detention of their 14 Democratic colleagues, who fled the state two weeks ago to avoid a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget repair bill." In Indiana, "Indiana House Democrats who are boycotting the legislature over labor and education bills they oppose will be fined $250 per day under a decision made by Republicans on Thursday that increased tensions in the political standoff."

• Wisconsin State Journal: Senate orders arrest of missing Democrats by Mary Spicuzza and Dee J. Hall
• AP via the Ball State Daily News: Indiana House sets $250 daily fines for boycotters by Tom Davis
• Wisconsin State Journal: Walker budget bill would effectively kill unions by Steven Verberg
• Education Week: Wisconsin Labor Bill Could Vex District-Union Relations by Sean Cavanagh

Adding to the fun of our democracy, Indiana's Republican Secretary of State has been indicted and arrested for seven felony counts that include voter fraud! The AP's Charlie Wilson writes, "The man whose job is to maintain the integrity of Indiana's elections ignored mounting calls for him to step down or resign after his indictment Thursday on charges he broke the laws he's supposed to enforce."

To balance things out, former Democratic Eighth District Congressman Brad Ellsworth, after losing his bid to become a U.S. Senator, has traveled through the government-business lobbyist revolving door to become an executive at Vectren Energy, a major utility in Indiana. After just two terms as a U.S. Representative, Ellsworth ran for the open senate seat vacated by Evan Bayh. Bayh had conveniently decided not to run again after it was too late to have a primary for candidates. Ellsworth, whose ambition apparently has no bounds, got the nomination from the State Democratic Committee. Vectren, seemingly having difficulty avoiding the word "shill" for Ellsworth's new post, issued a news release today saying Ellsworth's position "is designed to enhance the company's presence with local government officials, community leaders and customers in the 49 Indiana counties served by the utility."

• AP: Indiana's top elections official charged with voter fraud refuses calls to step aside by Charlie White
• Evansville Courier & Press: Former U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth takes Indianapolis-based job at Vectren

Have a great weekend!

Ads shown on this site do not represent an endorsement or warranty of any kind of products or companies shown. Ads shown on archive pages may not represent the ads displayed in the original posting on Educators' News.