...dedicated to...hmmm, we're still figuring that one out...
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About September 11 in the Classroom A column that appeared on Friday by Los Angeles Times writers Erika Hayasaki and Joe Mathews clearly defines teachers' dilemma in dealing with 9/11 in the classroom. In Teachers Look for the Lessons of Sept. 11, the authors write that the day is "an occasion for special lessons on history and technology, poetry and psychology, art and architecture, hatred and patriotism," but note that "many classroom instructors are wary of being drawn into political, emotional and pedagogical debate over how to teach about terror, its causes and aftermath." A Boston Globe column from last week tells of the mess the National Education Association got into when conservatives accused the teachers union's of being soft on terrorism because of a site link to the document ''Tips for Parents and Schools Regarding the Anniversary of September 11, 2001'' by psychologist Brian Lippincott. An unfair attack on teachers union by Cathy Young tells of the attack on the NEA by the Washington Times and various conservative groups. Richard Rothstein's most recent Lessons column, Conservatives, Teachers Unions and Poisoned Debate, goes further by saying, "So use of this material to attack the union's patriotism is curious, showing how poisoned public discussion about education has become." While the link to the document noted above has been moved, the NEA's Remember September 11 page remains online as an excellent resource for teachers. No Child Left Behind Transfers in Conflict with Court Ordered Desegregation Plans An interesting column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Desegregation complicates school transfer law, describes the plight of several Georgia school systems "caught between long-standing desegregation orders and a new federal law that allows students to transfer out of low-performing schools." The Bush Department of Education is pushing the school systems to immediately comply with the transfer provisions of No Child left behind despite a court ruling that the schools could set aside the transfer requirements for one year to insure court mandated racial ratios remain in effect. Software Jeff Baker has updated his shareware RPN Calculator (1.8.5) and his freeware PolyRoot (1.4). Both Macintosh applications have received various bug fixes and minor feature additions. Other updated Mac programs include Econ Calculator and Econ Calculator Deluxe from Econ Software, Master Grade 1.3, and Mohannad Hashem's Quadratic X 2.1 freeware. On the Windows side ArsLexis has released Noah Lite 1.0 for Windows as a companion to their Noah Pro English dictionary shareware. ArsLexis also produces Noah Lite and Pro dictionaries for the Palm OS. Devotion For September 8-14, 2002 Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is Striving For Distraction-Free Living. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals. If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please .
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About September 11 in the Classroom September 11 observances will vary today in classrooms around the nation. The Sacramento Bee's Sandy Louey tells about various ways of observing the day in Teachers confront a living history lesson. She notes that schools and teachers need to look at what is appropriate for students based on their age. The Boston Globe's Megan Tench tells of a more passive approach to observances in Schools' plans to observe 9/11 spark debate. An Associated Press posting yesterday, Students to Say Simultaneous Pledge, reports that President Bush and Education Secretary Rod Paige will lead students across America in the simultaneous saying the Pledge of Allegiance next Tuesday, September 17, at 2 P.M. (EDT). Letters...We Get Letters Longtime reader and contributor Ken Kashmarek wrote this week with an email entitled "Nice to see you back." Ken often shares a link, some insight, or just his commentary on what is going on in education. He wrote that he's now to the point in life where he no longer has any kids in school, but still keeps and eye on his local school system. He commented on the new federal mandates for education: "No Child Left Behind really means 'No educated child left behind'. Of course, all the un-educated children will be left behind," and added a link I ran last Monday, Failing Schools Find Hole In Law. While the link runs to a good column, Ken expressed some sentiments I felt when I followed the link to the Washington Post. "I became severely annoyed by the Washington Post web site, attempting to extract personal information from me, such as my sex, date of birth, and zip code. Oh, yeah, zip code isn't personal, that is just where I live. Of course, the tendency is to give someone else's personal information so yours remains protected. You should avoid such references or identify their nefarious needs." I totally agree with Ken, but must admit I gave the Post bogus identity information! Ken also had a few sage words on the current round of federal intervention in our public schools. "I suspect that most of the Federally inspired education programs will go the way of the Dodo bird. The primary key is that all Federal legislation languishes and chokes on its own bloat. It won't take long before all the data is garbage and a new Administration in Washington, D.C., ignores the problem. Most state laws in education impose requirements (Iowa for sure) but provide no funding. Federal laws provide funding but only as bait to give up local control. Now, if all students were special ed students... My thanks to Ken for continuing to share his views with me (and us on Educators' News). He's been a faithful reader of my stuff since I got started on the old MacTimes News Network in 1998. He's also part of the gang of readers that came over from Tom McKenna's G3 All-in-one Stop Shop when Tom decided to cease publication and get a life. (BTW: Tom is now happily married and has a child!) New from SchwabLearning.org The new column this week on the Schwablearning.org site is Preparing for Your Journey through the Special Education Maze. As always, links to all of the new and updated SchwabLearning.org articles are available in the Schwab Learning Online Newsletter (link expires 9-15-02). 
TGIF Another week is "in the can," as we sail through September 11 and Friday the thirteenth in the same week. I shortened my teaching week with a business day to work on my dad's computer. He'd lost his hard drive, but is back up and running now. He began computing three years ago at age 86! Other than using a large screen resolution on a 17" monitor and an oversized mouse, he's had little trouble learning to use email, printing pictures, writing letters, and even occasionally surfing the web! Beyond articles about how schools handled 9/11, there really isn't much education news for this update.
USA Today did run an editorial, Student laptops are a luxury, that's a good read. The column assails the Maine laptop initiative, saying:
The editorial questions the relative value of laptop purchases, pointing out that investing in more teachers would produce greater positive results in student test scores. They conclude with some pretty good advice to educators, "...educators need to pinpoint their biggest educational challenge and decide whether it's apt to be solved with a laptop." Speaking of the Maine laptop initiative, eWeek's rumor columnist, "Spencer F. Katt," titled this week's column How Life Should Be: Using Gates' Money to Learn Mac. The Katt writes, "Spencer couldn't help chuckling at the divine irony of Gov. Angus King's statements that Maine's schoolteachers will receive excellent Mac training thanks to a million-dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 'Me-ouch.'" Jeff Adkins remarks in his recent Mac Lab Report, Time for Apple to Do the Right Thing, "I lost the illusion that Apple was a company worthy of my loyalty some time back." Jeff has a really good and sensible list of suggestions for Apple...that they will almost certainly ignore. It's the kind of Apple attitude that made Microsoft what it is today! I did miss a good column while the site was down in late August. Mark Marcantonio offers some thoughts based on his own teaching experience about the effective use of technology in the classroom in Technology in Education: A Reality Check, Part 2. Mark reviewed Clifford Stoll's 1999 book, High-Tech Heretic, last month. If any readers have had experiences with Don Johnston's Co:Writer they'd like to share, please drop me an email. I'm working on a review of the product for publication...someday:-). We're making good use of the evaluation installation of Co:Writer on one of our iBooks in my classroom while awaiting an administrative decision on how many titles we can purchase.
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