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Steven Szalaj

No Learning Without Feeling - NYTimes.com - 67 views

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    An essay on an effect of Common Core Standards on the selection of literature to be studied, particularly in middle school
Steven Szalaj

Raise the bar with national exam for teachers - chicagotribune.com - 53 views

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    Editorial about a recommendation by the AFT Pres to develop a professional certification for teachers.  It's about time...
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    About time for what? For standardized tests to ruin the teaching profession like it has ruined our kids? For the government to control, from the top down, what education departments teach their students? Looks like a HUGE power grab and a very bad way for a Union, who professes to stand against standardized tests to act! Shame on them! Go to Fairtest.org to find out more about the scam of standardized testing. If you think a standardized test can improve education, you must also think you can fatten a calf by weighing it!
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    Michelle is right. More standardized testing is not the answer for anything, least of all teacher certification. Come on, Steven .. use your critical thinking skills. Don't encourage the bean counters and bureaucrats who are so enamored of things that can be measured and filed into neat categories. The most valuable things cannot be measured in any "objective" way. To focus on what's measurable is to focus on what's shallow.
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    Mark & Michelle, thank you for your comments. When I posted this I knew the words "standardized test" would be a flashpoint. It is for me too. With nearly 40 years in the classroom, teaching a creative art (music) to all different levels (kindergarten through college and well beyond), I have often railed against reducing any education, any student, to a number. Very little in what I have taught can be measured with a pencil-and-paper test. What I see here is different than this. It is the union that she is saying should be the "gate-keeper" to our profession, rather than some generic government standard test. Yes, tests would be a part of the certification, but from what I read, so would much more, including actual classroom work. The certification would be similar to the AMA for physicians or the Bar for attorneys. These are certifications designed and administered by the profession - not the government - and validate a candidate's readiness to practice. Yes, I too am strongly against the government, or any organization outside of our profession, to certify, to validate, a teacher's ability to do the job. But we have to admit there is a problem with teacher certification and validation. There are people who simply should not be in the classroom (haven't we all seen them?). It is very difficult to remove folks who are dragging the respect for our profession down. Yes, there is remediation. Yes, it should be a difficult process to remove someone in order to protect against administrative abuses. But what is talked about here is the profession policing itself - something that the teacher's unions, in general, have steadfastly refused to do. What the AFT Pres is suggesting is that the best thing we can do to raise the status of teaching as a profession is to take action ourselves to make it happen. Really, if we in the profession do not do this, then it will be imposed from those outside who do not know what we do, how we do it and why we do it.
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    You are still talking about a standardized test. Let's face it--doctors have to have specific knowledge to do their job. Whether or not they are creative or engaging is not as important as their knowledge base. The same with lawyers--knowledge of the law is essential, and everything else is secondary. However, in teaching, although educational theory and knowledge of their subject area is important (and already tested, by the way) the most essential aspect of teaching is how you can creatively engage students, interact with parents and peers, and stay organized and motivated. These things CAN'T BE TESTED. Right now, teachers already go through extensive training, evaluation, and continuing education. Do you REALLY think that a standardized test will really improve teaching? I know a lot of university professors who can easily pass a test, but few of them can teach worth beans.
Andrew Spinali

Teachers - Will We Ever Learn? - NYTimes.com - 4 views

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    Interesting read on teacher education reform. I'm not sure if I agree with everything, but the author makes some great points and had some strong suggestions to aid reform.
Enid Baines

In a Gaudy Theme Park, Jay-Z Meets J-Gatz - NYTimes.com - 22 views

  • “But what most people don’t understand is that the adjective ‘Great’ in the title was meant laconically,” he said. “There’s nothing genuinely great about Gatsby. He’s a poignant phony.
  • Owing to the money-addled society we live in, people have lost the irony of Fitzgerald’s title. So the movies become complicit in the excessively materialistic culture that the novel set out to criticize.”
BalancEd Tech

It's the P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as the I.Q. - NYTimes.com - 104 views

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    Tom Friedman
anonymous

» The Power of Conversation Upside Down Education - 49 views

    • anonymous
       
      Isn't this what we want students to do?  Don't we want them to think?  Don't we want them to help one another understand concepts?  Don't we want those concepts to stick with them long after they leave our classroom?
  • When not in sessions, conversations didn’t end.
    • anonymous
       
      Isn't it wonderful when that happens outside our classrooms?  :)
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  • Sometimes as teachers we forget this. We get caught up in curriculum, information, delivering it, that we don’t stop and allow kids to just talk about it. We don’t give them time to state opinion. I’m really bad about pushing for class discussion instead of small group discussions. I know I wouldn’t have spoken out as much to the group as a whole as I did in smaller groups.
    • anonymous
       
      Doesn't this follow the concept of the college professor who is teaching college students in a new way?  Rethinking the Way College Students Are Taught: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/lectures/rethinking-teaching.html 
David Hochheiser

The union wants an evaluation deal  - NY Daily News - 1 views

    • David Hochheiser
       
      This shouldn't be an issue, but I don't like the word "sunset" either in that it implies a need to start over, from scratch.  Perhaps it should be stated that certain pieces will be reviewed and re-considered for a formal signing again in 2 years, after evidence is presented.
    • David Hochheiser
       
      This is posturing and politics on both sides.  Get over yourselves. 
    • David Hochheiser
       
      Are teachers really "waiting to receive a curriculum from the DOE"?  That seems ridiculous.  Aren't we all working on improving the work we already do and infusing the CCSS into our learning objectives?  Has there ever really been a full curriculum handed to teachers?
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    • David Hochheiser
       
      The state tests are getting more difficult this year? Yet to be seen.
    • David Hochheiser
       
      The union should come up with a better system for this.  Even if there are tough principals to work for, this is a problem.  
    • David Hochheiser
       
      This writing ought to have been edited by Mulgrew and the paper.
    • David Hochheiser
       
      Framework of best practices???  What's that going to look like?  Different from UDL?
    • David Hochheiser
       
      It is insincere of you to take none of the responsibility for this.  Seriously...the union's innocent?  Where is your concession?  
  • w evaluation system for every district in the state, pointed out that hundreds of other districts have precisely these provisions, and that such provisions do not prevent the districts from getting rid of teachers who don’t measure up
  • put on the table a two-year “sunset” provision that would have negated the effects of the evaluation process
  • We are now working on a framework of best practices that the Education Department can use as part of the training system it must outline to King by Feb. 15 if it wants to avoid the loss of even more state and federal funds.
  • But if we are going to be successful, we will need people on the other side of the table who are interested in creating a system that will truly help teachers improve, not in leaving a legacy of blame.
Theresa Christensen

The Boys at the Back - NYTimes.com - 70 views

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    Gender differences measured with success in school
Steven Szalaj

What changed my mind about the Fourth of July - chicagotribune.com - 25 views

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    An essay on freedom in America, and particularly in journalism and education
anonymous

Bringing Twitter to the Classroom - Atlantic Mobile - 59 views

    • anonymous
       
      This could all be done within Diigo if Twitter isn't an option for students...
  • Learning to be concise, engaging in online dialogue about serious and important topics, condensing information, and forming an opinion in real time—these are skills that will only become more important as technology takes deeper root in society.
    • anonymous
       
      Life skills - not just reading/ELA/school skills!
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    • anonymous
       
      This is the same principle as using Edmodo or Google Classroom discussion forums in a way.  Just a different, more concise platform.
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    Good example of Twitter use in classroom. Seeing more examples like this one popping up daily.
Carrie Wyatt

How to Fix the Schools - NYTimes.com - 93 views

    • Carrie Wyatt
       
      We as teachers put in the same or more long hours as white collar professions.
  • Alienated labor is never a good thing. “I
  • t is not possible to make progress with your students if you are at war with your teachers,” says Marc Tucker.
Steven Szalaj

Testing My Twins - NYTimes.com - 46 views

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    Observations by a parent of twin girls regarding testing and true educational progress, with a reflection on measuring this progress.
Dan Bench

Dan Pink's Drive: A Scholarly Book Review - 20 views

  • we have a responsibility to ensure that our students develop skills to perform heuristic tasks in order to compete in the job market.
  • According to SDT the three basic psychological needs for motivation are competence, where one feels effective and efficacious; relatedness, where one feels close and connected to others; and autonomy, where one feels causation and ownership of one’s behavior
  • Starkey (2011) suggests that creativity is the penultimate learning experience and that sharing the knowledge is the ultimate goal (p. 25), a concept supported by Siemen’s (2004) connectivism learning theory, where learning and knowledge rests on a number of opinions that when connected allows us to know more (2004).
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  • Overall, promoting mastery through flow-friendly classrooms is certainly a reality and adds weight to the Motivation 3.0 model
  • So as Lent (2010) suggests, providing opportunities for students to be part of something larger than themselves is clearly a viable proposition where students pursue “purpose” goals that serve others as opposed to “profit” goals, such as good grades, that only serve themselves (Pink, 2011, p. 142).
Michael Lewis

Video: A tour through French noir | Sight & Sound | BFI - 17 views

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    French Noir
Xiaojing Kou

How Listening and Sharing Help Shape Collaborative Learning Experiences | MindShift | KQED News - 30 views

  • 1. How Listening and Sharing Works
  • In school, getting people to share can be difficult. Learners may be diffident, or they may not have good strategies for sharing. Children often do not know how to offer constructive criticism or build on an idea. It can be helpful to give templates for sharing, such as two likes and a wish, where the “wish” is a constructive criticism or a building idea.
  • But more often than not, it is because one or more of five ingredients is missing: joint attention, listening, sharing, coordinating, and perspective taking.
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  • Using a common visual anchor (e.g., a common diagram) can help people maintain joint visual attention.
  • Sharing operates on two levels: sharing common goals and sharing ideas.
  • Many college students dislike group projects. Some of this is naïve egoism and an unwillingness to compromise
  • Collaboration requires a great deal of turn-taking coordination.
  • It can be useful to establish collaborative structures and rules.
  • primary reason for collaborating is that people bring different ideas to the table. The first four ingredients—joint attention, listening, sharing, and coordinating—support the exchange of information. The fifth ingredient is understanding why people are offering the information they do. This often goes beyond what speakers can possibly show and say (see Chapter S). People need to understand the point of view behind what others are saying, so they can interpret it more fully. This requires perspective taking. This is where important learning takes place, because learners can gain a new way to think about matters. It can also help differentiate and clarify one’s own ideas. A conflict of opinions can enhance learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2009).
  • An interesting study on perspective taking (Kulkarni, Cambre, Kotturi, Bernstein, & Klemmer, 2015) occurred in a massive open online course (MOOC) with global participation. In their online discussions, learners were encouraged to review lecture content by relating it to their local context. The researchers placed people into low- or high-diversity groups based on the spread of geographic regions among participants. Students in the most geographically diverse discussion groups saw the highest learning gains, presumably because they had the opportunity to consider more different perspectives than geographically uniform groups did
Javier E

Obama's War on Inequality - The New York Times - 16 views

  • what can policy do to limit inequality? The answer is, it can operate on two fronts. It can engage in redistribution, taxing high incomes and aiding families with lower incomes. It can also engage in what is sometimes called “predistribution,” strengthening the bargaining power of lower-paid workers and limiting the opportunities for a handful of people to make giant sums.
  • We can see this in our own history. The middle-class society that baby boomers like me grew up in didn’t happen by accident; it was created by the New Deal, which engineered what economists call the “Great Compression,” a sharp reduction in income gaps.
  • Obamacare provides aid and subsidies mainly to lower-income working Americans, and it pays for that aid partly with higher taxes at the top. That makes it an important redistributionist policy — the biggest such policy since the 1960s.
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  • between those extra Obamacare taxes and the expiration of the high-end Bush tax cuts made possible by Mr. Obama’s re-election, the average federal tax rate on the top 1 percent has risen quite a lot. In fact, it’s roughly back to what it was in 1979, pre-Ronald Reagan, something nobody seems to know.
  • What about predistribution? Well, why is Mr. Trump, like everyone in the G.O.P., so eager to repeal financial reform? Because despite what you may have heard about its ineffectuality, Dodd-Frank actually has put a substantial crimp in the ability of Wall Street to make money hand over fist.
  • these medium-size steps put the lie to the pessimism and fatalism one hears all too often on this subject. No, America isn’t an oligarchy in which both parties reliably serve the interests of the economic elite.
  • Money talks on both sides of the aisle, but the influence of big donors hasn’t prevented the current president from doing a substantial amount to narrow income gaps — and he would have done much more if he’d faced less opposition in Congress.
Sharin Tebo

JOLT - Journal of Online Learning and Teaching - 62 views

  • All of them responded that Twitter allows them to build connections with educators beyond those in their immediate vicinity. These connections are purposefully made as a way to find and share resources and to provide and receive support. For example, Participant 8 stated, “My primary purpose is to connect with other teachers, so that I can learn from them and share resources that I find.” Similarly, Participant 9 wrote, “I am the only biology teacher at my school. I use it [Twitter] as a means of obtaining advice, resources and collaboration…I also use it to find out about new tech tools.”
  • Twitter has helped me to build a strong professional reputation
  • they follow educators. They also follow content experts and others who share professional interests.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Participants explained that they choose to follow people who are open, positive, and constructive.
  • “If their tweets seem to be of interest - providing ideas or resources, as opposed to just opinion - I will network with them.” Similarly, Participant 6 stated, “I look for people who interact and don't just post links.”
  • those they trust
  • Since Twitter is considered to be a social networking website, one aspect of this study looked at dialogue that transpired between followers to show evidence of collaborative conversations rather than unidirectional sharing of information.
  • Survey results show that nine out of ten of the respondents were able to give concrete examples of collaboration that occurred with fellow Twitter users.
  • These examples included ideas such as creating units, sharing of resources, students collaborating on projects between classrooms, exchanging professional materials and readings, writing book chapters, and even co-presenting at conferences.
  • beyond 140-character messages. That teachers moved discussions to forums that allow for deeper discussion and expansion of ideas is encouraging; Twitter does not seem to be a place to collaborate in depth, but rather to make those initial connections - a "jumping off" point.
  • how using Twitter has benefited them professionally. Four unique themes emerged from their responses: Access to resources Supportive relationships Increased leadership capacity Development of a professional vision
  • practical resources and ideas as a benefit.
  • opportunities for them to take leadership roles in developing professional development, organizing conferences, publishing, and grant writing.
  • This research study provides new insight into how teachers use social networking sites such as Twitter for professional purposes.
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    Impacts of Twitter on professional lives
Comrad Compadre

Why Men Fail - NYTimes.com - 42 views

  • This theory has less to do with innate traits and more to do with social position. When there’s big social change, the people who were on the top of the old order are bound to cling to the old ways. The people who were on the bottom are bound to experience a burst of energy. They’re going to explore their new surroundings more enthusiastically.
    • Comrad Compadre
       
      Yes essentially, when women see the next Facebook, they will slowly start leaving it, then a few months after it is a dry ass place, dudes will follow, naturally, to where the women are.
  • But, in her fascinating new book, “The End of Men,” Hanna Rosin posits a different theory. It has to do with adaptability. Women, Rosin argues, are like immigrants who have moved to a new country. They see a new social context, and they flexibly adapt to new circumstances. Men are like immigrants who have physically moved to a new country but who have kept their minds in the old one. They speak the old language. They follow the old mores. Men are more likely to be rigid; women are more fluid.
    • Comrad Compadre
       
      They adapt easier, including to different job types. Many females my current age are in PR and Marketing with small companies that don't pay them nearly as much as PR people used to make. It's a new lower earning PR job market and they are taking all those jobs.
  • Forty years ago, men and women adhered to certain ideologies, what it meant to be a man or a woman. Young women today, Rosin argues, are more like clean slates, having abandoned both feminist and prefeminist preconceptions. Men still adhere to the masculinity rules, which limits their vision and their movement.
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