Rhee is investing $4 million in the system, called IMPACT, which will also assess teachers against an elaborate new framework of requirements and guidelines that cover a range of factors, including classroom presence and how carefully they check for student understanding of the material.
But IMPACT is likely to be another flash point in Rhee's turbulent relationship with local and national teachers union leaders. They say that growth statistics are too unreliable to include in performance evaluations and that the new assessment system -- which the District can legally impose without union consent -- is an instrument to identify and remove struggling teachers, not a means to help them improve.
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Zimbabwe calls for extradition of Cecil the lion's killer - 0 views
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The Urban Institute | Teachers - 0 views
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This is a list of articles surrounding current teacher policy issues compiled by the Urban Institute. There is also a tab on the left side of the page that lists other education policy issues of interest. Since, many of us will be doing our practicums and/or student teaching in DC, an urban schooling environment, it is important to keep on top of the current debates.
ElectroCity - 0 views
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shared by Laura Wood on 02 Oct 09
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Upfront - 0 views
teacher.scholastic.com/...index.asp
library of congress social studies New York Times current events political cartoons upfront news history research resources education teaching articles magazine scholastic
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The teacher that I'm observing for my thesis research (let's call her Teacher 2) gets tons of these every month and distributes them to all of her students. They use some of the articles, cartoons and pictures for their class but I've also heard other teachers say that the kids just read them in their down time. SWEET!
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Each issue contains a cover story, International story, National Story, Technology story, Environment story, History portion, Columns and Cartoons (and more!). The content is designed for teens. They also newly have an Ethics column, where teens can exercise critical thinking, opinion forming and values exploration.
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OKAY! So "Times Past" has historical events framed in a modern context. Each issue a different historic event is featured. If you were collecting these things, pretty soon you'd have a whole curricular arsenal of articles written for teens, framed in a contemporary lens, about history. It might be interesting to contrast these against newspaper articles from say the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
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D.C. Launches Rigorous Teacher Evaluation System - 0 views
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Bill Turque's article in yesterday's Washington Post feels like a balanced view about a controversial plan. It definitely relates to some of the issues we've been chatting about in and out of our classes. These issues of teacher evaluation, standardized tests, teaching methods, and unions is important for anyone teaching in DC.
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DCPS will use a team of expert teachers to evaluate the teachers in 2 of the 5 evaluation sessions. They will look for active student engagement, diverse teaching methods, and teachers who work to create a safe learning environment for their students. I think that it's great that teachers will be a part of this evaluation process because great teachers have opportunities to give the best advice for these teachers. Moreover, the experts would have a degree of independence from the school's administration and union influence.
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This year only reading and math teachers in grades 4 through 8 -- fewer than 20 percent of the District's 3,800 classroom instructors -- will be evaluated on the basis of growth on the annual District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System, or DC-CAS. Student value-added will account for half of their evaluation.
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To allay teacher concerns that assessments will be tainted by personality clashes with principals, IMPACT will employ a corps of third-party "master educators" to conduct two of the classroom observations. The District's old system, like those in most other cities, required fewer classroom visits and left them largely to school administrators, who often had neither the time nor the expertise in subject matter to render fair evaluations, educators say. The master educators, who do not report to the principals, have backgrounds in the teachers' subjects.
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IMPACT documents suggest that no nuance will be left unexamined in the 30-minute classroom visits. Observers are expected to check every five minutes for the fraction of students paying attention. Teachers are supposed to show that they can tailor instruction to at least three "learning styles" (auditory, visual or tactile, for example). They can lower their scores by "using sarcasm that visibly hurts or decreases the comfort of one or more students." Among the ways instructors can demonstrate that they are instilling student belief in success is through "affirmation chants, poems and cheers."
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"What Can You Get By Warre": Powhatan Exchanges Views With Captain John Smith, 1608" - 1 views
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“What Can You Get By Warre”: Powhatan Exchanges Views With Captain John Smith, 1608" Captain John Smith was a soldier and adventurer in Europe and Asia before he became involved in the Virginia Company’s plan to establish a settlement in North America. He was aboard one of the three ships that reached Virginia in April 1607. The first settlers, ill prepared for life in the harsh environment, had few useful skills but great expectations of easy profits. They suffered from disease, malnutrition, and frequent attacks by Indians in the early years; over one half died the first winter. Smith took over Jamestown’s government amid this chaos and death; he explored the region and traded for desperately needed supplies with the Indians. Smith recognized the need to establish peaceful relations with the powerful Powhatan Indians of the coastal region, and he traded English manufactured goods for much needed Indian corn. Smith recounted this exchange with the Indian leader Powhatan in his 1624 Historyie.
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shared by Elliot Borg on 04 Oct 10
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National Constitution Center: Educators - 0 views
www.constitutioncenter.org/ncc_edu_Educators.aspx
Constitution founding revolution history resources convention
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Under "Classroom resources," teachers can find print resources links to sites that provide students with the tools they need to better understand the context and content of the Constitution
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This site uses decades of commentary and sites from other organizations to provide the most access points to students to promote a good learning environment for them all.
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In an American History or American Government class, this site would prove extremely useful to better my students understanding of the dense, old, and vague language of the Constituion.
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Teaching Cops to See | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine - 0 views
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Suspecting that some of the cops were first-timers to the Met, she tried to ease the pressure. "Remember," she said, "there are no judgments and no wrong answers."
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As we talked about in class, making students feel comfortable to start exploring works of art is a crucial step if teachers are going to use them in their lessons. In much the same vein, Herman had to make sure the policemen felt comfortable in this new environment and did not feel inhibited from sharing their ideas or observations just because it was a new medium.
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shared by Laura Wood on 18 Sep 09
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Millennium Development Goals - 0 views
www.un.org/...index.asp
United Nations millenium goals social justice World global UN hunger HIV AIDS education girls pregnant schooling food action projects 2015 gender environment
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For each goal there is: * Information about the goal * Information on how much progress has been made towards that goal * Projects that other students have done * What still needs to be done * Links to more information This information is not particularly engaging but it is condensed in an easy to find location. It's certainly not a game or anything and kids won't be tricked into learning by any cool effects or anything.
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From the Millenium Campaign website: "*End poverty by 2015.* This is the historic promise 189 world leaders made at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when they signed onto the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet the "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).":/goals The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world's poorest people. World leaders have agreed to achieve the MDGs by 2015."
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This short (3.34) youtube video is much more enticing than the webpage. http://www.youtube.com/mcampaign Perhaps a teacher could show the video and then ask students to research one of the goals using this site. The culmination could be designing an action to participate in on the date of action. This year that is Oct 16th-18th. May be a good introductory activity to get kids to see the importance of global issues before launching into global history (or concurrently :-) Website for the event: http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/
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"The Public Be Damned" A Thematic and Multiple Intelligences Approach to Teaching the G... - 3 views
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This article and lesson plan was created by two professors (a secondary social studies prof and a history prof) at Ball State University. It was published in The Magazine of History, a publication of the Organization of American Historians. Each edition of the magazine includes a section on educational materials. Often they include websites that are helpful for teachers and students.
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The first part of this website is a brief summary of important themes of American history between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the 20th century. The second half of the page is a 5 lesson plans on the time period. Each of the lesson plans is designed for a different multiple intelligence.
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The mathematical intelligence lesson asks students to compare rents charged to white and black tenants in the late 20th century. This reflects the move to the cities as well as racial discrimination. The information on rents comes from Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Live. Like all the other lesson plans offered, they include procedures, handouts, and possible assessment questions. This is a great resource for teachers who are looking for fresh ideas and methods of incorporating MI into their classrooms.
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Urbanization--Logical/Mathematical Intelligence. The first activity allows students to compare the rents charged to white and black tenants during the Gilded Age.
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Rise of Jim Crow--Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence. Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry provides an ideal vehicle for students to analyze the various perspectives taken by African Americans toward Jim Crow laws and civil rights. Lyrics of Lowly Life (1895) illustrates one perspective, the accomodationist paradigm adopted by Dunbar and others during this period.
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V. Immigration--Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence. In his 1890 landmark book, How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis discussed the dismal conditions in which thousands of New York immigrants lived. Most of the residential tenements were "unventilated, fever-breeding structures" that housed multiple families. Riis's floor plan of a twelve-family tenement provides an ideal prompt for an activity that illustrates the dark, cramped living quarters germane to these Gilded-Age dwellings.
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VI. Westward Expansion--Naturalist. Like many Americans during this period, John Wesley Powell was lured by the majestic beauty of the West. Following his service as a Union army soldier (in which he lost his arm at the Battle of Shiloh), Powell ventured westward. In 1869, he initiated the Powell Geographic Expedition, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. Powell recorded his experiences in a diary, which today serves as an outstanding resource for students to better understand the transformation the West went through during the Gilded Age.
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VII. Industrialization--Interpersonal. During the Gilded Age, technological innovations provided an impetus for unprecedented industrial growth and urbanization. While laborers fueled this growth, they certainly did not reap the rewards. Instead, they found themselves economic victims of industrialization and urbanization. In an 1884 study, the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics detailed the economic status and living environment of numerous laborers in Chicago, Illinois.
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VIII. Imperialism--Intrapersonal. Numerous Americans witnessed firsthand the impact of imperialism on indigenous people, through their military service during the Spanish-American War. One particular American soldier, James Miller, discussed what he witnessed during his exposure to the war in Puerto Rico.
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IV. Politics--Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence. One of the most effective instruments at the disposal of politicians has always been the campaign song. The Populists, perhaps more than any other political party or movement in the late nineteenth century, were prolific songwriters. The Populists were often quite critical of monopolies, railroads, and old party bosses in their songs. The 1890s campaign song My Party Led Me, by S. T. Johnson, provided voters with a rationale for leaving their old political party and joining the Populist cause.
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III. Populism--Visual/Spatial Intelligence. Political cartoons have always been a popular and powerful means for critiquing society's ills.
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shared by jbdrury on 09 Oct 09
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Integrating Film and Television into Social Studies Instruction. ERIC Digest. - 0 views
www.ericdigests.org/...film.htm
film social studies history teaching film in the classroom movies film and social studies
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Visual media also address different learning modalities, making material more accessible to visual and aural learners
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It reinforces the passive viewing and unquestioning acceptance of received material that accompanies growing up in a video environment.
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an excellent starting point is John E. O'Connor's IMAGE AS ARTIFACT: THE HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF FILM AND TELEVISION
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Teachers should be familiar with editing techniques, camera angles, the uses of sound, and other aspects of the presentation.
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Beyond the cultural and social aspects of the film, what influences were at work in shaping the document?
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Thirty years ago this meant teaching students to read the newspaper critically, to identify bias there, and to distinguish between factual reporting and editorializing. Critical viewing skills must be added to this effort.
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While film can serve as an engaging introduction to a subject, students should be aware of the constant shading and biases, why these occur, and what they accomplish.
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An examination of filming and editing, circumstances surrounding production and distribution, and the producer's intentions are essential for studying such material.
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"Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies" at http://h-net2.msu.edu/~filmhis/.
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This is sort of a basic review of how and why we as teachers might use film in the classroom. This is my first post on this issue; I am searching for some more in-depth sites that might have models for lesson plans. Many sites have lesson plans based around a specific film; a site that provides lesson plan templates that are applicable across a wide variety of films would be more applicable/useful. However, the comments made here by Paris provide a good base from which to start thinking about the idea.
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Harlem Success Academy Prepares for Tests at Queens Farm Museum - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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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
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Educators have long known that prior knowledge of a subject can significantly improve a child’s performance on tests.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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shared by Laura Wood on 01 Dec 09
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Globalization 101 - 1 views
www.globalization101.org
human rights global issues World Bank globalization geography global resources economics reference trade migration women environment IMF development
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Great resource on globalization. I used the issues briefs for my unit plan. They have different collections of articles about various global issues. Supposedly they are academic and opinionless, which is nice because it gives more balance than most of the other stuff you get. :-)
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Oh. But the lesson plans are for college level so . . . I wouldn't use those. Or you could adapt them. :-)