March 31, 2006

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Halfway Through the Year….

Filed under: New Teacher Diaries by BXMSTeacher @ 5:58 pm

And a lot has happened for me. I’m sitting here in this extended all day PD (half of the staff at my school were assigned to grade the state math test. Those who weren’t–such as moi–are in the first of two ALL DAY pd sessions which were very vague and convoluted….but pd in general tends to be convoluted and vague.), and I’m reflecting on my first year of teaching.

It has been a very difficult year. I didn’t know much about Literacy, didn’t agree with the Workshop model and spent half the year figuring out what works for me and what doesn’t. It’s working now–I feel more comfortable with it and it’s actually been very effective in helping my students with learning.

But my middle school experience overall has been very frustrating and upsetting and I have decided to move into high school, or a 7-12 program where I can maybe teach a split schedule (8th and 9th grade, for example). And it’s nothing against middle school–I love my kids. They are some of the most talented and intelligent kids anyone can have. I do love middle school.

However, I think I have had too many issues with administration at my school and I do not see myself coming back for a second year at this particular school. I don’t want to leave…I want to see my kids graduated and find out where they go for high school. I just feel that this particular school isn’t a good fit for me and I want to find a place I teach at where I a) can grow as an educator b) be supported by my supervisor and feel as if I can come to him or her when and NOT receiving constructive advice and criticism for how to improve and c) actually feel as if I’m doing a good job and not feeling as if I’m the biggest screw-up in the classroom.

I really struggled with this. I waited until the last minute to turn in my preference sheet for next year. Part of me still feels as if I should come back for another year and gain experience. But I know that things aren’t going to change here and I need to put myself in a position where I can really grow as an educator and really give my kids the instruction they need so they can be successful. And, I think that going to another school for my second year will allow me to do just that.

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Testing Culture

Filed under: Testing by Kombiz Lavasany @ 5:57 pm

The NCLBlog has apparently received exclusive video from a focus group on the future of high stakes testing. Meanwhile if tomorrows Education Gadfly is any indication Checker Finn and pals seem to be in an ideological free fall. On a rare personal note, as a first generation immigrant I’m always surprised by unusual giant announcements around this time of year that never pan out after the first day of April.

March 29, 2006

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Teaching history and freedom struggles

Filed under: Teaching by Kombiz Lavasany @ 5:57 pm

Ms. Lee in Summer, a Hong Kong based teacher, reports on her blog what happened when she showed her middle school students the famous picture of the Chinese man who faced down a line of tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. [Her blog in the original Chinese is here; an English translation is here.] She was shocked that initially so many of them thought that it was a scene from Iraq, and that only one or two connected it with the Tiananmen protests.

There is a temptation is to blame the historical illiteracy on the totalitarian regime, and they probably do play a role. But Ms. Lee teaches in Hong Kong, where millions filled the streets in protest of the bloody repression of June Fourth that ended the Tiananmen protests, and where hundreds of thousands commemorate that event every year. It seems to me that state repression can explain only so much.

A social studies educator remarked that “the problem goes deeper, to the ways in which teaching in engaging ways the heroic struggles for democracy and human rights that were the best moments of humanity in the twentieth century.”

How many American high school students, let alone middle school students, could identify the image? [Perhaps more than one might think, given the citation of this event in an episode of the Simpsons]

America, which provided the inspiration for the goddess of liberty which graced Tiananmen Square during the protests, is now associated in the popular imagination of students in Hong Kong and elsewhere with the tank, rather than the heroic protester.

This link came via a Global Voices Online, a fascinating project designed to bring together bloggers in dialogue from around the world. Last week, they reported that their editor for northeast Asia, Hao Wu, had been detained by Chinese state security.

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From the Edu-Blogosphere

Filed under: Education by Kombiz Lavasany @ 5:55 pm

Nancy has a information about the New York City Writing Project upcoming semiar for teachers who are interested in attending. Ms. Frizzle has information about a movie screening of Granito De Arena.

The AFT’s NCLB blog has a series of posts on this weekends NY Times story which reported, to everyone’s suprise, that NCLB was pushing school to narrow their cirriculum. There’s been a lot of discussion around the teacher blogs about the issue and the NCLBlog catches a few of them.

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Celebrating Teaching and Learning

Filed under: Teaching by JColletti @ 3:57 pm

This past weekend Channel 13 and WLIW21, in partnership with JP Morgan Chase did something rare–they celebrated and showed respect for the hard work of educators. In addition to some provocative speakers and great workshops, there were over 100 exhibits so no one need be without a pen, shopping bag or key chain, and about 7,000 educators from the tri-state area and then some in attendance at the way too cutely named “Unconventionl Center” way out west on Pier 94. The New York State United Teachers, the New Jersey Educational Association, NEA and, well, of course, the UFT were sponsors.

Frank McCourt was on hand to share his charmingly subversive take on death, administrators, high school students and teaching as a way of life– in that order. At a town hall forum on Friday evening speaker after speaker talked about the narrowing of the curriculum caused by the NCLB test culture, a day (and about two years) before the New York Times made it official by putting it on the front page.

Conspicuous by their absence was anyone or anything from the New York City Department of Education. One can only guess at their reasons for declining to participate in a celebration of teaching and learning.

Note: I would recommend the little video clip “Dance of the Administrators” available at NYC Educator’s blog as well as Shut Up and Teach and various other krazy edukashunal blogs. It’s a wonderful satire of the data driven “gotcha” culture that passes for educational leadership today. Look for the mainstream media to catch up with this trend in about a year.

March 28, 2006

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Thank Goodness they don’t make furniture for IKEA

Filed under: Education by JColletti @ 12:43 pm

This just in–Someone up at the New York State Education Department (possibly the same person who declared courses in statistics were not math courses) has just issued this clarification for test scorers:

“The rulers for the Grade 8 Mathematics Test were printed correctly, but in a very small number the perforations were misaligned during manufacturing. Therefore, when some of the rulers are punched out, a small section may be missing.

In light of this, the Department is providing the following scoring clarification for Grade 8, Book 2, Question 30:

* An acceptable range of measurement for the line drawn between Sydney and Brisbane in the illustration will be between 2.0 and 2.5 inches. Therefore, the acceptable distance will be between 600 and 750 miles as long as it is based on the student’s measurement of the line illustrating the distance between these two cities.”

Oops! It’s really not such a big deal as geography is no longer taught so who cares how far apart Sydney and Brisbane are. It’s like those trains leaving different stations at different times. Who cared when they crashed headon. And the results of this test only determine whether or not a kid graduates or whether the school is designated in need of improvement.

March 27, 2006

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Teachers of Tomorrow Program deadline extended

Filed under: Other Topics by Edwize Admin @ 4:58 pm

The Teachers of Tomorrow Program, a New York State program backed by the UFT, offers teachers in eligible schools the opportunity to apply for tuition assistance and loan forgiveness. This year’s program enables eligible teachers to receive up to $3,400 to offset their educational expenses. The DOE has sent out the list of eligible schools for the 2005-2006 Teachers of Tomorrow program. The DOE has extended the Teachers of Tomorrow Program application deadline to April 12, 2006.

March 24, 2006

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A Balancing Act

Filed under: New Teacher Diaries by Bimsmile @ 3:19 pm

Sometimes I feel like it’s not about having good ideas; it’s about making them happen. I have so many ideas, and who is to say they are good or not, but finding the time and the way to make them happen is so tough. Balancing being a first year teacher with two classes of graduate work is not easy. What do I dedicate my time to? What do I dedicate myself to? Doing all this and keeping my sanity is proving to be a most difficult task.

Over the course of this past year I have dedicated so much of my time to teaching. There have been times when I feel like I sleep, eat and breathe teaching, more specifically my students. I know it’s a choice, but I’ve found it hard sometimes not to think of my students and ways to better teach them. However, I’m tired.

I’m tired of always having something to do - papers to grade, lessons to plan, activities to create, books to read, suspension forms to fill out, referrals to write, phone calls home to make, tests to makeup, training’s to attend, make-up assignments to create, parent-teacher conferences to attend and graduate coursework to top it all off. Is it too late to invite John Stossel into my world for a day, because I gladly would?

Helpful hints on how to teach, educate myself and remain sane at the same time are very welcome!

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French lesson

Filed under: Labor by Michael Hirsch @ 2:35 pm

Pay attention to what happens in France next week. There are lessons for us, too, as French unions call a nationwide “day of action” on Tuesday aimed at forcing the nation’s center-right government to nullify labor legislation that would create temporary “first employment contracts” and a substandard wage for young job-seekers.

The government claims it’s trying to put a dent in sky-high youth unemployment and avert a reprise of the riots that rocked immigrant quarters outside Paris and other main cities last fall. The Conservatives say job prospects would brighten, especially for those poorly educated first generation French citizens and recent immigrants who frequently leave school with no skills or qualifications, if labor regulations on business were loosening. (more…)

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News You May have missed

Filed under: NCLB by Kombiz Lavasany @ 2:26 pm

John at the AFT’s NCLBlog runs them down.

Michele and John also provide a rundown of a special education assesments conference that took place earlier this week.

* An overview from Michele

* John runs down a conversation among teacher bloggers on the subject.

* This post from Michele and response from John on how to some states move ahead even with an absence of research.
* Michele and John roundup therir discussion on the subject. I’m certain that this is a discussion that will come up again and again, and if there are special ed readers feel free to discuss some of the issues you’ve encountered with NCLB at the AFT’s NCLBlog.

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