Why One Good Teacher Decided To Quit

There are a lot more great teachers leaving education, even more leaving the high needs schools than people realize.




From CNN

Well Said

Here's the link:

From CNN

Night School

The majority of my college years was spent going to school in between or after my work hours. This meant a lot of night classes. I'm so glad things have come a long way from my fighting ASU to get the prerequisite math classes for my Bachelors degree available at night. When I went there, they were only available during the day. I remember sitting down with one of the staff counselors at ASU and telling them that they are not servicing my needs as their customer (student). It was entirely true. Up until the late 1990's to early 2000's, the majority of the upper level classes required for graduation were only available during the day. If you were supporting yourself - and in my case paying my own way through college - leaving work to take these classes was not an option.


Here's the article the video came from:

The Great Recession's Lost Generation

An Idea With Promise

How about a school where children are placed in classes and groups based on abilities, rather than grade level? Some schools are doing it.

On CNN

Science Fairs Are Still Lagging

Surprised? I'm not. Why? Go spend a day at a school teaching English Language Learners to speak and read in English and you'll find out why.

Science Fairs Are Lagging

Finally Some Answers

Where others just want to whine about our education system, here is someone with some ideas based on what is working in other countries.

Experience Marketing

I just found this talk while going through some of the other TED Talks on their web site and found it quite interesting.  If you've read my blog for the last little while, you might remember my using Barry Manilow as an example for how experience marketing could help sell tickets to his show in Vegas:

http://genealotech.blogspot.com/2010/07/marketing-102.html

Turns out I might be closer to a solution to that problem than I realized.  :-)

The next question is:  If "experiences" are what sell in today's market, does "experience" education work?  Is this how schools and districts looking to attract students should be marketing themselves?  Of course, this means they are going to have to innovate in order to provide for these "experiences", which would mean a new model for teaching in the classroom.  The tuition based schools are already doing this, but how do you incorporate this in publicly funded schools?

School Pics

We've all had them, the good, the bad and the ugly.  This one didn't turn out so bad!

Notes From Students

The most fun part of working in education comes in the form of notes, conversations and interactions with the students.

Last week, for my birthday I received colorful homemade cards of flowers and cakes from all four of our kindergarten classes, and one very thoughtful teacher even escorted five students from another teacher's class to my computer lab to serenade me a happy birthday.

That wasn't the only serenade, though, as all of the classes for that day, the second and third graders at my lunch duty as well as the sixth graders over speaker phone also sang happy birthday.

Today was another treat.  I was outside doing my crossing guard job when one of the students handed me a baggie with a cookie, a napkin and a note while saying thank you for keeping her alive.  She meant safe, but the way people drive through school zones these days, there's probably more truth to that than I'd care to admit to.

When I later had time to enjoy the cookie (homemade chocolate chip, the BEST), I read the note.  Keep in mind, this is from a second grader, they still don't have the proper word usage and grammar down yet.

Dear Mrs. Bushman
Thank you for the cross.  And for keeping us alive.


Your Friend,


(Student's Name)

Priceless.

Ken Robinson - Schools Kill Creativity

Sugata Mitra: The Child-Driven Education From TED Talks

What Teachers Make

The edited version:




The unedited version:

Fixing Public Schools

Fixing Public Schools from CNN

The Start of A New School Year

This has been what I've felt like this past week as my summer ended and my adventure into a new school year began.

If you are unfamiliar with education, all I can tell you is it's an entirely different world than the world of business. It's the most similar to retail, however your pint sized "customers" don't really understand the big picture of why they are there. They do have goals, they do know they need to learn to read, write and speak English, learn math and it's crazy rules, get taught about a bunch of old dead people, see and read about really cool science stuff (if that customer likes science, it's cool), run around a lot and learn new games (PE), learn how to sing on key (a challenge for some), and play on the computers (that's where I come in).

This retail experience is also where the "customer" must be monitored at all times and the "customer" doesn't always "want" what it is you're trying to "sell" them. By monitoring that also includes crossing the street and eating meals. Because of this, in addition to the normal job requirements there are what are called "duties" where staff are monitoring the "customers" getting on and off the bus, crossing the street, eating breakfast and lunch and playing on the playground. Staff members don't get additional pay for it, it is considered to be part of the job.

In addition to pleasing the customers, the staff also make attempts to please the families of customers (ie parents) with how well the end product (knowledge) is being given to our "customers" and how well they are receiving it. The staff must also please the local, district, state and national administrators, and most importantly, the voters in the area, most of whom have never met the staff at all.

Other differences from a traditional retail "world" is that the majority of the staff are highly trained and educated people. If you want to know what kind of strategy you need to assist a "customer" with a math problem, there are people trained to help you with a higher degree of assistance than on the job training.

There is just one problem with this scenario. You see, there are families out there with "customers" who are demanding Saks Fifth Avenue quality on a Wal-Mart budget. As with the real world of retail, it doesn't work that way. If you want the best quality, you should be willing to pay for it.

In the meantime, I'll be busy working with our little "customers", attending meetings into the evening (this past week I had crossing guard training and we had meet the teacher night) and doing homework to try to keep up with the demand, and doing my best to help our little "customers" who are sick, crying, having accidents or just having a bad day. :-)

The School of The Future

Mircrosoft High School

This was something I was interested in when they first opened it, I wanted to see how things worked out. I guess it was a little more work than the planners anticipated, but at least the kids got something out of it.

Coming From My Alma Mater

I attended high school at Corona del Sol. I'm glad there are some students there who are already asking the hard questions about why our state government here in Arizona is cutting the funding for education, including the Career Technical Education program.



Here's a story about the fallout from this video on AZCentral: Tempe Student Questions Huppenthal

Also keep in mind that Huppenthal is currently running to become the next State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Something New and Interesting

I'm wondering if he's going to share the video and techniques with other schools to make them better. I'd like to see if my school could use some of this!

What's Wrong With Education

Here is one view, and he makes some very good points.

Another Argument Against Charter Schools

This has been true for a number of years.

Study: Charter school growth accompanied by racial imbalance.

From Edutopia

Some of the things schools around the world do that the U.S. is not doing in educating our children.