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Maria Mahon

Harlem Success Academy Prepares for Tests at Queens Farm Museum - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...20farms.html

standardized test Field trip

shared by Maria Mahon on 23 Oct 09 - Cached
  • New York State’s English and math exams include several questions each year about livestock, crops and the other staples of the rural experience that some educators say flummox city children, whose knowledge of nature might begin and end at Central Park
  • Educators have long known that prior knowledge of a subject can significantly improve a child’s performance on tests.
    • Maria Mahon
      Maria Mahon on 23 Oct 09
       
      I think this factor of prior knowledge of a subject matter is one of the most difficult things to contend with in the debate about standardized tests. If students walk in to a learning experience with this lack of prior knowledge it becomes very difficult for them to ever catch up to the test's expectations.
  • The New York State Education Department runs statistical analyses of its tests to look for gender, racial or socioeconomic bias, but it does not compare the performance of rural and urban students, partly because it is hard to isolate whether a disparity is the result of a lack of familiarity with an environment or is caused by other factors like socioeconomic status or quality of classroom instruction.
    • Maria Mahon
      Maria Mahon on 23 Oct 09
       
      Some of the examples provided in this article provide clear examples in my opinion of why the department should compare the performance of rural and urban students.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Only the prekindergarten and kindergarten classes at Harlem Success schools — about 450 students — attend the farm trips, though the state exams do not begin until third grade. Students in other grades go on nature-related field trips, like camping, that help acquaint them with unfamiliar settings, Ms. Moskowitz said.
  • Maria Mahon on 23 Oct 09
     
    The Harlem Success Academny takes its students on field trips that aim to help students do better on standardized tests by taking them on fields trips to introduce them to subject matter that will be on the test, such as a farm.
Stephanie Beer

Human Rights Reports - 6 views

www.state.gov/hrrpt

human rights state department country reports research resources

shared by Stephanie Beer on 04 Oct 10 - Cached
    • Stephanie Beer
      Stephanie Beer on 04 Oct 10
       
      The State Department publishes human rights reports each year on countries throughout the world. The information is very up to date.
    • Stephanie Beer
      Stephanie Beer on 04 Oct 10
       
      This website would be a valuable resource for teaching students about human rights. Students could use the country reports to research human rights conditions in a country of their choice.
    • Stephanie Beer
      Stephanie Beer on 06 Oct 10
       
      This site could be used in conjunction with a unit on Human Rights perhaps using the Model UN organization's Global Classroom curriculum on Human Rights. Students could use this website as a resource to research human rights conditions in different countries around the world.
  • Stephanie Beer on 04 Oct 10
     
    This site gives human rights reports listed by country and year. It is an excellent resource for information on human rights conditions throughout the world.
  • Adrea Lawrence on 04 Oct 10
     
    How might teachers use the site?
Maria Mahon

American Album - Once Convicts' Last Hope, Now a Students' Advocate - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...19teacher.html

career change teacher education

shared by Maria Mahon on 23 Oct 09 - Cached
  • But this is precisely where Mr. Dunn chose to be, having seen too many people at the end of lives gone wrong, and wanting to keep these students from ending up like his former clients.
    • Maria Mahon
      Maria Mahon on 23 Oct 09
       
      I also think the presence of a strong, committed male figure can make quite an impression on the students.
  • Maria Mahon on 23 Oct 09
     
    I think this is a great story about an individual who gave up a successful legal career to become a teacher. It caught my attention because the teacher with whom I am doing my practicum placement left a career at the State Department to become a teacher for some similar reasons.
Joellen Kriss

Education chief calls for teacher prep overhaul - Yahoo! News - 1 views

news.yahoo.com/...us_obama_teachers

education policy Arne Duncan

shared by Joellen Kriss on 01 Nov 09 - Cached
  • The Obama administration is calling for an overhaul of college programs that prepare teachers, saying they are cash cows that do a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the classroom.
    • Joellen Kriss
      Joellen Kriss on 01 Nov 09
       
      Anre Duncan scores in my book once again! He's getting his information from young TEACHERS who've gone through teacher schools!
  • Duncan said he has talked to hundreds of great young teachers while serving as Chicago schools chief and later as President Barack Obama's schools chief. The teachers have two complaints about education schools, he said.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • most of them say they did not get the hands-on teacher training about managing the classroom that they needed, especially for high-needs students
    • Joellen Kriss
      Joellen Kriss on 01 Nov 09
       
      These are both interesting points. I think the AU program does a lot to give you hands-on training but the second point, is true. We get told a lot about the data and everything, but never really what it means to us and what we can do with it.
  • second, they say there were not taught how to use data to improve instruction and boost student learning
    • Joellen Kriss
      Joellen Kriss on 01 Nov 09
       
      Teacher schools make money, but the money they make is spent on different areas of the college...interesting.
  • Their large enrollment and low overhead makes education schools cash cows for their universities
  • profits have been diverted to smaller, more prestigious graduate departments such as physics and have not been spent on research and training for would-be teachers
  • most states and school districts don't link the performance of teachers to their education schools to identify which programs prepare their teachers and which don't
  • administration is using stimulus dollars to reward states that tie student achievement data to the education schools where their teachers had credentials
    • Joellen Kriss
      Joellen Kriss on 01 Nov 09
       
      We might get jobs after all everyone!!
  • A third of veteran teachers and principals are Baby Boomers who are poised to retire, which could create a milllion new teaching positions in the next four years, according to the Department of Education.
  • Joellen Kriss on 01 Nov 09
     
    This article is about a speech Arne Duncan gave about the reevaluation of teacher programs in the country. Every time I read something else he's said or written, I like Arne Duncan more. He knows his stuff from a practical standpoint and goes where it matters to get his information: right to teachers and students. This article is small but pretty interesting.
Lindsay Andreas

U.S. Standards Initiative Seeks to Equalize Benchmarks - washingtonpost.com - 1 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009101101456.html

skills knowledge local education federal great works Common Core State Standards Initiative

shared by Lindsay Andreas on 12 Oct 09 - Cached
  • can be accepted nationwide without leaving the impression that states and school boards have ceded control of what is taught.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 12 Oct 09
       
      This sounds really great but I think we all know the reality. Local districts always freak out when they are asked to give up their discretion. Right or wrong, I really don't see things changing on that front.
  • His administration might provide money to help states develop tests aligned with the standards, if they are adopted. But the U.S. Education Department is not drafting the standards, and Congress will have no vote on approval.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 12 Oct 09
       
      This seems like a reasonable compromise to me.
  • work backward through secondary and elementary grades to develop more detailed benchmarks for content knowledge and skills.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 12 Oct 09
       
      Backwards planning, that seems logical, know where you want to end up so you can better understand what it takes to get there, very logical.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • on the proposal posted at www.corestandards.org. On Thursday, the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a prominent advocate of more rigorous standards, graded the effort with a B in both subjects.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 12 Oct 09
       
      I'm always curious what these expert firms deem as good and bad, it all just seems so arbitrary. What does that firm even do? I feel like there are way too many hands in the cookie jar at this point, but that's policy making, oh well.
  • The math proposal spans equations, expressions, functions, statistics and several other topics. For instance, it says students should understand four core concepts about equations and be able to exercise six core skills.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 12 Oct 09
       
      I'm obviously not a math person but I would think math standards are pretty straightforward, there really aren't the same kinds of debates over content like Social Studies and English. I'm sure there is more to it, but that seems to be the impression I get.
  • . "They would have gotten into a century-long battle over reading lists, multiculturalism, which authors to read and so on. They decided to duck that."
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 12 Oct 09
       
      This is what I see as the main problem with standardizing content in English and Social Studies.....bottom line we will never agree, so get over it. I realize that is cynical but seriously, especially, with the whole multiculturalism, it just seems never ending. I plan on taking on a multicultural approach but I'm sure there would still be some multiculturalists that would criticize that I didn't go far enough.
Laura Wood

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence - 5 views

www.free.ed.gov

lesson plans Primary documents Social Studies Civil War resources education curriculum teaching Animations Music Art photos science lessons

shared by Laura Wood on 23 Oct 09 - Cached
  • History & Soc Studies
    • Laura Wood
      Laura Wood on 23 Oct 09
       
      Okay so there isn't quite as much information on this site as I was hoping there would be. You CAN search by time period within the United States History. So if you're working through a US History text, this might be a great one stop shop to hit up and see what sorts of primary documents are available in a wealth of federal sites. For example, 1607-1763 has links to colonial documents from: the National Park Service; the Smithsonian; the National Endowment for the Humanities; History Matters; the National Archives, etc You can also search by US History topics (Government, Famous People, Wars, or Ethnic Groups . . . hmmm) or by World Studies. Each of these branch out into more subtopics. It's worth checking out.
    • Laura Wood
      Laura Wood on 23 Oct 09
       
      Haha. My new web browser hates Diigo. This is supposed to say "Animations" So the animations page is super science heavy. They do have a couple of links to global warming and environmental issues and a link to a Napolean Game where you can wage wars and see how well you do at Waterloo . . .
    • Laura Wood
      Laura Wood on 23 Oct 09
       
      There are 135 Primary documents. I would recommend searching for these in a different way.
  • ...2 more annotations...
    • Laura Wood
      Laura Wood on 23 Oct 09
       
      The video section is also worth checking out. 30 links to videos, some are about science but some are clips of Roosevelt or McKinley. Again, US History stuff. The only place I've found World History stuff is specifically under the Social Studies, World History links.
    • Laura Wood
      Laura Wood on 23 Oct 09
       
      This lists all of the topics contained on the site in each of the subheadings (Of particular interest: World History, US History, US Time Periods. Check it out!
  • Laura Wood on 23 Oct 09
     
    FREE is a website pool of teaching and learning resources from various branches of the federal government. From the website: "More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly. . . . FREE is maintained by Peter Kickbush and Kirk Winters, Office of Communications and Outreach, with support from the Development Services Team in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Education."
  • Lindsay Andreas on 23 Oct 09
     
    This site is amazing, I was just playing around with it and I am definitely using some of the resources for my unit. :)
jbdrury

The History Place - Irish Potato Famine - 0 views

www.historyplace.com/...coffin.htm

history irish history potato blight potato famine irish emigration

shared by jbdrury on 02 Oct 09 - Cached
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 02 Oct 09
       
      As this is a privately-owned website, I thought it important to provide a little info on its managers. This is taken from the Home Page information: " The History Place contains many examples of man's inhumanity to man as well as notable examples of humans rising to the occasion to fight tyranny and preserve freedom, and overall, reaffirms, in the words of the American Declaration of Independence, that all human beings have "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 02 Oct 09
       
      Although I don't doubt the veracity of much of the information on this site, I think it is important to keep in mind who is providing the information. Also from the home page: " The History Place is a private, independent, Internet-only publication based in the Boston area that is not affiliated with any political group or organization. The Web site presents a fact-based, common sense approach in the presentation of the history of humanity, with great care given to accuracy....The site was founded and is owned and published by Philip Gavin"
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 02 Oct 09
       
      This account of the Potato Famine has multiple pages to flip through; I have started here as this is the page detailing the Irish flight to America.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Coffin Ships
  • The first coffin ships headed for Quebec, Canad
  • Up to half of the men that survived the journey to Canada walked across the border to begin their new lives in America. They had no desire to live under the Union Jack flag in sparsely populated British North America
  • They viewed the United States with its anti-British tradition and its bustling young cities as the true land of opportunity
  • American ships were held to higher standards than British ships by the U.S. Passenger Acts, a set of laws passed by Congress regulating the number of passengers ships coming to America could carry as well as their minimal accommodations. Congress reacted to the surge of Irish immigration by tightening the laws, reducing the number of passengers allowed per ship, thereby increasing fares. America, congressmen had complained, was becoming Europe's "poor house."
  • During the trans-Atlantic voyage, British ships were only required to supply 7 lbs. of food per week per passenger
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 02 Oct 09
       
      Each page has a few of these contemporary images that could be used in the classroom.
  • Before boarding, they had been given the once-over by doctors on shore who usually rejected no one for the trip, even those seemingly on the verge of death
  • The poorest of the poor never made it to North Americ
  • Despite the dangers, the Irish knew that once they landed on Britain's shores they would not starve to death. Unlike Ireland, food handouts were freely available throughout the country
  • The cheap lodging houses were also used by scores of Irish waiting to embark on ships heading for North America. Three out of four Irish sailing for North America departed from the seaport at Liverpool. Normally they had to sleep over for a night or two until their ship was ready to sail. Many of these emigrants contracted typhus in the rundown, lice-infested lodging houses, then boarded ships, only to spend weeks suffering from burning fever out at sea.
  • jbdrury on 02 Oct 09
     
    The History Place is a privately-run website that provides content to educators on a wide variety of historical subject. I have included this section on the Irish Potato Famine, as it was one of the more compelling narratives I found on the internet.
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