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Monday, April 18, 2011 - Tenth Anniversary Edition Ten Years of Educators' News (sort of)
The graphics at the top of this section were pulled from the old Claris Home Page application, an early graphical web page editor I quickly turned to after beginning this site. I also used them here a couple of years ago when we turned eight. I still fire up Home Page from time to time when the code in an old page is so munged that Dreamweaver can't figure it out. And yeah, I quit smoking last year...but started again. Dumb! Over the last ten years, the primary focus of Educators' News has been teaching and the technology we use to help us do that job. With the advent of the current school "reform" movement, some of that focus has shifted to news of what is going on in the name of improving education around the country and becoming a voice for reason in school improvement. I'm currently trying to throttle my political views a bit in favor of more tools and just plain cool stuff teachers may enjoy. Today's posting may be a bit unusual. But hey, it's our birthday (anniversary). NPR Reader While running some errands in the truck recently, I was listening to All Things Considered on our "local" NPR station, WSIU. While Carbondale, the home of Southern Illinois University, is about 130 miles away (as the crow flies), WUSI in Olney, Illinois, a network station for WSIU is just 40 miles away and comes in pretty well at our house.
Estell was up to Chapter 8 or 9 of his current book when I tuned in, but I got interested after just a few lines. It turned out the current book, airing on NPR April 4 - May 18, 2011, is The Confession Heading towards ending up this rather long and odd section posting, my used copy with shipping ended up costing just $8.51, a bit less than Amazon's pre-order price for the paperback. My savings were diminished somewhat, as my conscience got the best of me and I made a donation to WSIU that I'd been meaning to make for some time. But I do love Grisham's novels.
Somehow I like the idea of having a box-type radio to listen to, even if it does rely on the internet instead of the airwaves for its content. In college in the late 60s, we listened late at night on the strongest (receiving) radio we had to R&B offered up by the "gravelly, drawling voices" of DJs from WLAC, Nashville. I still have that Emerson AM-Shortwave radio that I first listened to in my grandfather's woodworking shop. The Other Shoe Just 24 hours after the Indianapolis Star proclaimed Indiana will pay for full-day kindergarten, it appears our Governor was choosing his words carefully at the staged "town hall" meeting with Arne Duncan on Friday. Saturday's Terre Haute Tribune-Star brought us back to reality with Sue Loughlin's Plan will not fully fund all-day kindergarten. Loughlin relates that after the Governor's announcement, "State officials later clarified that the funds for full-day kindergarten would be added to the existing full-day kindergarten state grant." A Vigo County Schools financial officer cautioned that the announced plan "does not" fully fund full-day kindergarten in Indiana. "It does not … That’s a misnomer," Donna Wilson said. "It’s important people understand that." It makes one wonder what the Governor really wanted people to think and understand. NASA Image of the Day
Not quite on board with how the thing will look when completed and launched, I visited the James Webb Space Telescope site and found a nice artist's representation of what the telescope may look like in space. Along the way, I read a NASA press release, NASA Telescopes Help Discover Surprisingly Young Galaxy, that eventually led me to another article (with the same name but a different URL and content), NASA Telescopes Help Discover Surprisingly Young Galaxy on the Spitzer [Infrared] Space Telescope site. Below is just a sampling of the many images I found there. Fun food for the eyes!
When I wrote the feature story, Out of this World Desktop Photos, one really had to work at it a bit to find really good space images suitable for use as wallpapers or desktop images or to use in the classroom. I used to plaster my room and the hallway outside my room with fantastic space images with captions...to get my special ed kids interested and reading. It worked! Now, it's almost too easy to quickly find incredible space images. Isn't that great! Pics4Learning and Desktop Photos
Annie and I (and other nearby relatives) are enjoying our first heavy picking of an asparagus patch I started from seed five years ago. While we both like asparagus, by last Friday night, we'd had steamed asparagus three times during the week. So I varied things a bit by cooking asparagus, yellow squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and portabello mushrooms in olive oil, butter, and a touch of lemon juice. Only the asparagus and carrots came from our garden, but it was good enough that both of us had it again for lunch the next day. The carrots are from last year's garden, stored all winter in our refrigerator in green bags Getting back to photos, I did a search last week on Pics4Learning for "asparagus" and came up empty. While I didn't upload the frying pan photo, I did upload four other asparagus shots.
While they're not the best of shots, at least the site will have something now for "asparagus" when they get them reviewed and posted in a week or so. I really liked the feathery seedling photo at the far left and the ground level shot of our asparagus patch. But that's just me. Several years after launching Educators' News, I decided to share some of my better photos for others to use as wallpapers or Desktop Photos on their computers. My photos lean toward nature shots and sunsets a bit, but may be useful for classroom use as well. But they are a bit unusual, sometimes.
The "use" statement at the top of the Desktop Photos page is pretty clear:
And if you're not going to publish your classroom stuff and need to use one of my images, I'll never know.
A Perfect Record Shattered
I'm somewhat encouraged that the White House has now at least acknowledged my latest message to them about education "reform." It may just be that the White House is now in re-election mode and responding to letters and emails has become more of a priority in the effort to get the President re-elected. The email/letter was sent in response to a scathing message I sent about the President's duplicity in saying one thing about too much standardized testing (concerning his children), and his Department of Education's policy of doing exactly the opposite (concerning our children). The response from the White House did not address any of the issues I raised about the President and Secretary of Education's misguided plan to continue pushing teacher evaluations based on more high stakes testing and closing neighborhood schools in favor of potentially for-profit charter schools, but instead highlighted Secretary Duncan's misguided initiative to turn school funding into a series of contests. As I wrote a year ago in the editorial, They're Not Listening, "I really didn't expect either President Obama or Arne Duncan to pick up the phone and call me to get the straight stuff on education." When I sent my first message long, long ago, I had hoped for some kind of response from a staffer that came close to addressing my concerns. None came. I asked in my most recent email to the White House:
The response from the White House contained a sound bite that danced around the issue, but provided no real answer:
The question remains, and the education of our children hangs in the balance. Oops, It's Important! I left out a very important event for teachers on our last Looking Ahead section. Secretary's Day falls this year on Wednesday, April 27. If I were making a list of school employees I want "on my side," school secretaries, custodians, and school nurses would all probably rank above school superintendent and principal! Odds 'n' Ends Robert King added another good column yesterday to his series about the kindergartners at Indianapolis Public School 61. Talk about progress deals with teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) kindergartners. He tells that IPS has nearly 3,900 students (about 12%) "who show up for school speaking 46 languages, but little or no English." Most speak Spanish, but there are also students who speak only French, Russian, German, Chinese, Yoruba, Dinka, Urdu, Swahili or Gujarati. He relates that instruction of the students is assisted by an ESL teacher and a Spanish speaking teaching assistant, but that it often is sink or swim for the kids. He also notes that kindergartners do better than older, new, non-English speaking students at picking up English, sometimes quickly outperforming some of their native English speaking peers. The complete list of King's articles appears in our Educators' News Archive. The headline for Sharon Otterman's Incoming Schools Chancellor Seeks Calmer Debate seems to promise some moderation from the new New York City Schools Chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott. But when one reads her piece, it appears Walcott is saying some of the right things while still plowing ahead with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's business oriented school "reform" plan.
Otterman notes that Walcott emphasized his role as a listener, "a sort of listener in chief," who plans "to visit so many schools that the city’s reporters would have to wear track shoes to keep up." Many of us still remember the President and Secretary of Education's much heralded Listening and Learning Tour, where neither one listened nor learned much from students, parents, and teachers about what it's going to take to improve our nation's schools. If they would actually listen, there are many qualified folks in the field, not people who are trying to make a buck and/or a name on education "reform," who could help them formulate a plan to improve schools that has a chance of success. Joanne Yatvin's An unorthodox school reform blueprint might be an excellent place for them to start listening and learning. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker testified in Washington, D.C., on Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Capital Times associate editor John Nichols tells in Walker admits it’s all about union busting of Walker's response to some tough questioning from Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Nichols writes of the exchange:
Dave Mosher brings us up to date on anti-science bills around the country in 7 Science-Education Battlegrounds of 2011. Mosher covers pending and sometimes dead legislation in Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. I'm a person of faith, but like many science teachers around the country, I don't have a problem with the theories of evolution, the big bang, etc.. That appears to be what scientific research supports. My God is big enough that He/She could have used the big bang and evolution in the creation of the universe and man. For Him to have done so doesn't denigrate God, but merely shows His glory. And Michael Winerip's In Public School Efforts, a Common Background: Private Education lists the private schools attended by some of the biggest movers and shakers in the current education "reform" movement. Don't be put off as you begin to read his article. Winerip's sarcasm takes a bit of time to brew. Send Feedback to |
I began publishing Educators' News on 
by John Grisham. After listening for a few minutes, I was hooked. I looked in vain for a copy of the book at our local discount store and the grocery's newsstand. When I got home, I checked online and found that The Confession won't be released in the more affordable 
version until July 19. Debating trying to find an affordable hardcover copy, I noticed Amazon's 
("I wish I had a pencil thin mustache...the Boston Blackie kind."). When Annie and I took in a 
! I don't know if we just got lucky on the carrots storing, or if the green bags are the wonder they're advertised to be.
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Interesting Spoof Valerie Strauss today shares a research spoof from Education Tweak, an irregularly published PDF newsletter, Teacher Effectiveness Linked to Height — Stunning report. While funny, I actually liked the second and considerably more irreverent story from EdTweak's current issue (392K PDF document) a bit more, Governor Walker Says He Did It To Impress Michelle Rhee. A more serious, but rather whiny guest posting on The Answer Sheet blog carries information about a report by the Educational Testing Service of "16 variables that impact student achievement," most beyond teacher control. Diane on the Cathie Black Debacle Diane Ravitch's What Did We Learn From the Cathie Black Debacle today on she and Deborah Meier's Bridging Differences blog is possibly one of her best postings ever. Diane blasts Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his selection of Cathie Black for NYC Schools Chancellor and in a wonderful exercise in sarcasm, "lauds" the Mayor's choice for a replacement, Dennis M. Walcott: "Unlike Black, who had no experience or qualifications whatever, Walcott had spent 18 months teaching kindergarten in a daycare center many years ago." The Morning After
Houston Handgun Incident Juan A. Lozano relates in Kindergartner brings gun to Texas school, 3 hurt that three kindergartners sustained non-life-threatening injuries when a loaded handgun fell out of a student's pocket and discharged Tuesday at a Houston elementary school. He writes that "all three children were in stable condition and seemed to be in good spirits at Texas Children's Hospital. In a related story, Emily Lumina shares some views about Education Changes After Columbine Tragedy Source of Security, Terror. Brizard to Head Chicago Schools It appears there will be no honeymoon period in the press for Jean-Claude Brizard, Rahm Emanuel's choice for Chicago Schools CEO. Maybe it's just the news sources I visit, but no one had much nice to say about Brizard. Failing finding a nice article, I settled for a biting but coherent one from the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn, Our kind of guy to lead Chicago schools. He wrote:
Wow! On the Blogs I haven't done this section in a while, but always enjoy visiting the blogs of teachers still in the classroom. They have a special perspective on kids and education that can be inspiring, heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking. Of all the blogs I visit, Mike Doyle's Science Teacher consistently entertains me and usually is an uplifting experience. In a recent posting, Fear, fatigue, and failure, he moves from writing about digging clams and fixing his clam rake to eating overwintered kale and brussels sprouts, followed by schools in crisis and teacher professionalism. He worries about how his students, fatigued from the rigorous school year, will do on the big tests. And he winds up talking about a robin's egg he found in his garden. That's a lot of territory to cover, but when you read his blog, it all fits Teachermandc wistfully asks, Who’s Looking Out for Tiffany? Tiffany was a neighborhood friend of his daughter, left behind in the old neighborhood in an underperforming school. Teachermandc moved his family (twice) to find the right school for his children. He asks what happens to those children whose families lack the wherewithall and/or motivation to seek out a better learning situation. Mrs. Lipstick, along with several of my other favorite teacher bloggers, is expecting this year, so her delightful postings on Organized Chaos are a bit less frequent. But she has one that will have you laughing if you've ever had that special, active child to monitor, teach, protect, and discipline on a trip to the zoo (or...wherever). We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, How about you, you, you... is a great read. Getting a bit into the political spectrum, Tim Furman moves outside his typical School TechConnect themes in The New Soft Bigotry. Furman shares his views and his outrage at the recent revelation that many of the movers and shakers in the school "deform" movement never attended a public school. This edition of On the Blogs is pretty brief. A few of my favorite bloggers have just quit posting without explanation. (That happens, sometimes.) Others are so heavily into local and national politics about school "reform," I find their writing a downer. (EdNews is guilty of that one, too.) Sadly, several others have "gone Hollywood," writing about making presentations here and there or linking to their postings on other, national publications to the exclusion of writing about their kids. Presenting and writing professionally can be a big rush. I've done both, but teaching (in a good situation) is far more satisfying. It's really easy to slide into self-promotion when presenting and/or writing.
Annie's mom had called earlier from western Illinois to warn us of the severity of the band of storms. They had golf ball sized hail in their area. Ours was only pea sized! But there are a lot of folks around the country who've suffered mightily from the recent spate of severe storms. Indiana - Another One Bites the Dust With apologies to Queen
Happy Birthday, HST!
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched April 24, 1990, from the space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-31. Its discoveries have revolutionized astronomical research. "To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment into space, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, pointed Hubble's eye at an especially photogenic pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813." NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said of the event:
Great Space Puzzles from Melissa & Doug
Image links above are to Amazon.com. April Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight - Tomorrow Morning Space.com columnist Joe Rao relates in April Meteor Shower May Be Outshined by the Moon that viewing conditions for the April 16-25 Lyrid Meteor Shower may be spoiled by the Moon in its waning gibbous phase (approximately 68 percent illuminated). That's too bad, as Rao says "The April Lyrids have been described as 'brilliant and fairly fast,'" often leaving "a shining trail behind it for a few moments." A Stellarium representation allowed me to look ahead at the conditions for viewing the shower (early Friday morning):
SpaceWeather.com adds some background about the shower:
Meteor Showers Online has a good page on the Lyrids. And Skyscrapers, Inc. (The Amateur Astronomical Society of Rhode Island) has a great listing of all the meteor showers for this year. Even with the moonlight issues, I may be laying on a blanket in the yard early tomorrow morning! New Series on the Planets
Note: If you're looking for something a little more elementary on the planets, check out the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Welcome to the Planets site. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I was still teaching, I made up a set of worksheets for my special ed kids to go along with the original Welcome to the Planets CD. They're a bit dated now, but still available for download on our Freebies page. Community Schools Today's posting was shaping up to be Space Day come early until I found an excellent column on Education Week about the schools in Evansville, Indiana, making good use of community resources to improve their students' lives. Mary Ann Zehr writes in School's a Community Effort in Indiana District:
Zehr also tells about how the Evansville Vanderburgh Schools have enlisted "churches, social service agencies, nonprofit community groups, and other local organizations" to "built a web of support to nurture schoolchildren across the entire district from 'diaper to diploma.'" She also notes that the system has won some serious federal assistance for their efforts, including being part of the federal Full-Service Community Schools Program. "The 23,000-student Evansville Vanderburgh system was one of 11 school districts that received grants from the $10 million competition for that program in fiscal 2010. The Evansville grant is for $2.5 million over five years." Earth Day Tomorrow
I also ran across a page of Earth Day images this morning on MyCommentCodes. I'm going to stick my neck out and use one at right, but I do wonder about copyrights on the images. Any use you might make of the images on teacher-made worksheets and such should qualify as "fair use." Odds 'n' Ends
When I was writing the Hubble section a couple of days ago, I thought about how cool it would be if I could find an HST floor puzzle or jigsaw. I didn't find one, but did find the Melissa & Doug brand puzzles shown above that seemed appropriate. Floor puzzles were a real lifesaver the last year I taught. I'd chosen to take the K-3 section when my K-6 special ed room was split into two sections because of way too many kids with way too many exceptionalities. As with most activities with my kids, anything you wanted them to do, you really needed to teach them how to do. So I spent several enjoyable periods on the floor with them doing mostly Melissa & Doug floor puzzles. Later, they were able to do them independently as individuals or small groups. (We had a lot of floor puzzles.) And although it's become common to see recognizable student images on teacher blogs in recent years, I still can't bring myself to do so. I've used smileys to obscure the faces of the kids facing the camera. The one girl who isn't facing the camera is the subject of what I wrote in my online bio:
I hope you're having a day that feels like that. Friday, April 22, 2011 - Earth Day Earth Day Photos Sometimes it's hard to know what to publish here on Educators' News on occasions such as Earth Day. I decided yesterday that I'd share a few warm, earthy photos from our free Desktop Photos page. Each photo is linked to a larger image, but you can access a variety of sizes on the Desktop Photos page. I hope you enjoy them.
A Political Comment from EPI Just from the images above, one might say that they are blessed just to be alive in a world of such beauty. I've been blessed in many, many ways. Even with the growing aches, pains, memory lapses, and other problems of aging, I'm fortunate that I when work pretty well dried up for me, I had a small teacher's pension and Social Security to fall back on. That way, I could be retired instead of unemployed. An email yesterday from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) contained a reminder of some of the disturbing things currently going on in our nation's capital. It also contained the "short, humorous video" embedded at right, Work 'Til We Die, released by Strengthen Social Security, a coalition EPI helped found. The text of the email read in part:
My wife, Annie, is almost ten years younger than I. While I'll be grandfathered in (in more ways than one - eight grandchildren to date) on Social Security, she will probably have to work until...she drops? That certainly won't be true for Congressman Paul Ryan and other leaders in Washington pushing these proposals. Annie has faithfully paid into the system, but may run out of years before she ever collects a dime in Social Security. That's not fair! No one wants to pay more taxes, but we do have important programs to support. Here in Indiana, Governor Daniels' property tax "reforms" have made funding for Indiana's schools and cities a disaster. Looking at what I "saved" in property taxes under the Gov's cuts, I'd gladly give it back and more to have decent roads, fire and police protection, and adequately funded schools. But, of course, Mitch is rich and has no empathy for those his policies so severely impact. And...he wants to run for President. The Republican War on Education
Sadly, I haven't found any online access to the article for non-subscribers. The good news is that a year's subscription Update: The Republican War on Education is now available free online from The Progressive.
Walt Gardner is on a bit of a roll on his Reality Check blog, with an excellent posting on Wednesday, Why Become a Teacher Today? I had reason to contact Walt yesterday, and he wrote back, saying, "When people are anxious, they look for scapegoats. Teachers (and other public sector employees) serve that purpose so well." He also added, "On Friday, I write about what I believe is a preview of the educational landscape of the future." I'm afraid we may need to change the words of the popular Ed Bruce/Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson country hit to "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Teachers!" There goes another 99¢ on iTunes. Ramblings of an Old Geezer I either got inspired or went around the bend a little yesterday and ripped off another column, The Morning After Edition.
Clipped - Snowplows and Education I ran across this item a couple of days ago when trying to find a link I'd posted long ago. It comes from the February 17, 2003, posting of Educators' News. While our snowplows are gone for now, I think the message still rings true. I just wish our President, Secretary of Education, Governor in Indiana, and other "reformers" could get the message:
I shared the clip yesterday with our President and Indiana's Governor. I do hope you can put aside all the craziness in education "reform" for the weekend and enjoy yourself.
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runs just $14.97. Of course, while the late Senator Everett Dirksen was famous for the statement, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money," for most of us, $14.97 here and $14.97 there...is real butter and egg money! Interestingly, the 
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©2011 Steven L. Wood