August 31, 2007

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Faith Rewarded

Filed under: New Teacher Diaries by progressiveteacher81 @ 1:53 pm

[Editor’s note: progressiveteacher81 is the pseudonym for an elementary school teacher in Manhattan who is starting a second year of teaching.]

Three weeks before I started my second year of teaching, a friend theorized that faith was the acceptance of a new situation, knowing through personal experience that one would get through it. A week before reporting back to school, this quite secular notion of faith came back to me with resonance.

I learned early in my first year of teaching the power of three. The first time I’d introduce something a few students would understand, often leaving me feeling demoralized about the rest of the class. The second time, maybe one third of the students would start to understand. By the third time, most of the class would get it.

But, for any given concept, there were a few students for whom it took many more lessons and a great deal of creativity before they mastered it. One student in particular constantly baffled me. (more…)

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Teacher News of the Day

Filed under: Roundup by Steve Perez @ 11:22 am

The third UFT-run charter school is going through the application process.

Meet JoAnne Raffaele, a computer-technology teacher in Queens.

Students at PS 57 in Clifton will be wearing uniforms when school starts.

An argument for smaller class size.

And the New York Times prints six responses to its article on teacher turnover. Take the poll: Which arguments in the letters-to-the-editor that the Times ran do you agree with?

August 30, 2007

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Teacher News of the Day

Filed under: Roundup by Steve Perez @ 2:38 pm

With school about to start, 300 teachers and aides from District 79 are up in the air about where they’ll be.

Backlash in the Bronx against a principal who wouldn’t work with her school.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver doesn’t want a board to manage the state pension fund.

The Sun explains why lower SAT scores are ok.

The Post explains why more reports of school violence are ok.

City Comptroller Bill Thompson and Citizens’ Committee for Children ED Gail Nayoler think more can be done now to expand prekindergarten.

And Mike Gravel has a plan to reform education.

August 29, 2007

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Teacher News of the Day

Filed under: Roundup by Steve Perez @ 6:21 pm

School enrollment is going down to the wire.

Parents can’t get the Department of Education to answer the phone.

Some charter schools have already started.

Funding drops for after-school programs . . .

. . . and rises for prekindergarten programs . . .

. . . while the program paying public school students to get good test scores gets covered in Newsweek.

SAT scores slip.

A federal judge upholds New York City’s metal bat ban.

Khalil Gibran International Academy is almost full . . .

. . . while two new schools in Bensonhurst are underenrolled.

More school seats are coming to Queens.

Meet Marcia Lyles, Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning.

Weighing in on cell phones in city schools . . .

. . . merit pay for teachers . . .

. . . and teacher retention.

No Child Left Behind revisions get proposed.

And here are some back-to-school statistics.

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NCLB–Not on the horizon?

Filed under: NCLB by Maisie @ 4:41 pm

In catching up with the last couple of weeks of email, one theme emerged rather starkly: you know NCLB? Um, it doesn’t appear to be working.

A new piece of research, in the peer-reviewed Educational Researcher of the American Educational Research Association, finds that “earlier test score growth [in the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP] has largely faded since enactment of NCLB in 2002.” Bruce Fuller, a longtime education scholar, and several co-authors looked at 4th grade NAEP reading scores from 1992-2006. They found that from 1999 to 2002 4th graders grew some one-quarter of a grade level in reading. After 2002 those scale scores were flat. “Some policy mix, rooted in state-led accountability efforts, appears to have worked by the late 1990s. But growth flattened out in fourth grade over the 3 years after enactment of NCLB.” they write. (more…)

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Partisan Polarization And The Electoral Endorsements Of Teacher Unions

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 3:39 pm

Much is often made of the fact that in elections, teacher unions endorse more Democrats than Republicans, a trend that has seemingly become more pronounced in recent years. Perhaps Kevin Carey is right that teacher unions are too defensive about the subject, although we doubt very much that the editing of Wikipedia entries, which in many cases could use work by knowledgeable folks, demonstrates much of anything. Yet without a frank conversation of the reasons for the electoral endorsements of unions, superficial claims that teacher unions endorse more Democratic candidates because of the partisan predilections of their leadership remain unchallenged.

The long-standing endorsement policy of the UFT [and many other teacher unions] is that we will support any incumbent — regardless of party — who has a positive record on the educational, labor and human rights issues that are important to us. Upon occasion, we have been criticized for supporting a Republican incumbent by those who think we should have a more ideological stance and always support the more progressive candidate, regardless of the record of the incumbent or the likelihood of their victory. Our view, however, is that as stewards of the interests of public schools and public school educators, the UFT must support incumbents who have supported public schools and public school educators. Anything less would undermine our credibility and our influence with all legislators. (more…)

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One Freak Out Monster at a Time

Filed under: New Teacher Diaries by Mr.History @ 10:56 am

It’s time for round two, my sophomore year at work. It’s hammer time.

This past summer was as long as it was short as it was surreal. I married a wonderfully imperfect woman in August, and then we sailed on a cruise to the Caribbean. Not in June or July or the first week of August when the wedding planning was ordered chaos nor now that we are settled into our apartment together a week from day one, year two of my teaching career did I – in all honesty – ever give a thought to planning for the 2007-2008 school year. Make of that what you will. (more…)

August 27, 2007

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Rallying for a Child’s First Teachers

Filed under: Labor by Steve Perez @ 5:19 pm

Mark your calendars: August 28th at 7pm we take the next step toward bringing home child care providers together with the UFT’s public school teachers.

For many families, their child’s first teacher is one of New York City’s 28,000 home child care providers. Home child care providers take care of kids from low-income families in pre-school and after-school settings, helping them with reading and learning colors and numbers.

But home child care providers aren’t protected by a union. Their average salary is $19,000 a year in New York City with no pension, health insurance or paid sick days. And that makes home child care providers among the lowest-paid workers in the region. Something needs to be done to make sure these providers get the respect and wages they deserve. (more…)

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Teacher News of the Day

Filed under: Roundup by Steve Perez @ 4:17 pm

Schools districts across the country are struggling with teacher turnover . . .

. . . and revisiting their cell phone bans.

Scarlett Jimenez and Sarah Rodriguez from the Mott Hall School in Harlem are going to the semifinals of the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.

The transcript is up for a panel discussion in Chicago on unions and charter schools.

Keeping teenage parents in school.

A charter in Brooklyn is heading to a new building.

State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith writes in support of charter schools.

School bus rules have changed.

And the print edition of the New York Sun covers UFT President Randi Weingarten blogging.

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Teacher Turnover Tribulations

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 1:03 pm

While some watch the water rushing through the dikes and still claim all is right under the heavens, the New York Times has a front page article today, With Turnover High, Schools Fight for Teachers, on the real problems schools and school districts face as a result of high teacher turnover. “This is an acute problem that is becoming a crisis,” Kansas Education Commissioner Alexa Posny told the Times.

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