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Maria Mahon

The History of Jim Crow - 5 views

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    This website deals with the History of Jim Crow and has many valuable resources for teachers. The History and Geography sections of this website are quite rich in information and I think well-organized and easy to use. The website provides the in-depth essays and/or other materials to be used in the lessons. The American Literature section provides some interesting unit and lesson plans for well-known books such as A Raisin in the Sun and To Kill a Mockingbird. The Teacher Resources section provides a variety of lessons… some involve images, music, literature, simulations, etc. Quite a few seem to incorporate the PBS series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Overall, I am very impressed with this website. My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird and I think the Unit on this book is interesting in the way they link it to an integrated literature/social studies unit on the case of the Scottsboro Boys and life in the 1930s.
Maria Mahon

D.C. Schools Face Bigger Classes, Layoffs Amid $40 Million Budget Shortfall - washingto... - 0 views

  • District law allows Rhee to make reductions in the teaching force without regard to seniority or other factors. She said that the first few weeks of the term have allowed principals to see their new instructors in action and that all personnel would be evaluated on the basis of performance and the needs of their schools.
    • Maria Mahon
       
      Rhee said that principals will have had the first few weeks of the school year to evaluate their new hires in action. This leads me to believe that the teacher reductions will take place during the academic year. In addition to worries about larger class sizes, I wonder what the impact could be to the children of changing teachers during the year? I feel that aside from upsetting established routines, it could, in some cases, lead to feelings of abandonment and mistrust.
Erin Power

Reauthorization of ESEA: Why We Can't Wait -- Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the Mo... - 1 views

    • Joellen Kriss
       
      What a conundrum this is...
  • People want support from Washington but not interference. They want accountability but not oversight. They want national leadership but not at the expense of local control.
  • And now that I'm here I'm even more convinced that the best solutions begin with parents and teachers working together in the home and the classroom.
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  • Many teachers complain bitterly about NCLB's emphasis on testing. Principals hate being labeled as failures. Superintendents say it wasn't adequately funded.
  • And many parents just view it as a toxic brand that isn't helping children learn.
    • Joellen Kriss
       
      I like how he/his speech writers recognize here that schooling is something that belongs to the states. It seems like he's saying that the federal government is just stepping in for a moment, until things start going well.
  • Until states develop better assessments—which we will support and fund through Race to the Top—we must rely on standardized tests to monitor progress—but this is an important area for reform and an important conversation to have.
  • it places too much emphasis on absolute test scores rather than student growth—and it is overly prescriptive in some ways while it is too blunt an instrument of reform in others.
    • Joellen Kriss
       
      SUPER DUPER BINGO! NCLB encourages hig TESTING standards, but not LEARNING standards!! Good for you Arne (that's what he wants his staff to call him...in case you didn't know.)
  • NCLB is that it doesn't encourage high learning standards. In fact, it inadvertently encourages states to lower them. The net effect is that we are lying to children and parents by telling kids they are succeeding when, in fact, they are not.
    • Joellen Kriss
       
      This is one of the issues in my practicum schools and one of the big debates there right now.
  • They are simply not ready for college-level work when they leave high school.
    • Joellen Kriss
       
      ...because the goals are and always have been, decent, but the means, are and always have been, bad (to keep it clean.)
  • In my view, we should be tight on the goals—with clear standards set by states that truly prepare young people for college and careers—but we should be loose on the means for meeting those goals.
  • We don't believe that local educators need a prescription for success. But they do need a common definition of success—focused on student achievement, high school graduation and success and attainment in college.
    • Joellen Kriss
       
      But do they really?
  • Before we do, however, we want to hear from you. We want your input.
  • We don't need another study. We must stop simply admiring the problem. We need action.
  • And so the work of reauthorizing ESEA begins in states and districts across America—among educators and policy makers, parents and community leaders. This work is as urgent as it is important.
  • And yet we are still waiting for the day when every child in America has a high quality education that prepares him or her for the future.
  • Our shared goals are clear: higher quality schools; improved student achievement; more students going to college; closing the achievement gap; and more opportunities for children to learn and succeed.
  • Let's build a law that respects the honored, noble status of educators—who should be valued as skilled professionals rather than mere practitioners and compensated accordingly.
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    Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's speech at the Monthly Stakeholders meeting this past week. It's a part of a series of town hall style meetings that the secretary is holding with those who have a stake in the policy they will be shaping: teachers, parents and others. The speech is interesting mostly because, what he's calling for sounds great to me, but I wonder if there's any possibility of anything this reasonable ever happening. Secretary Duncan seems like an ok guy (didn't know he is a former superintendent) but I still wonder what the next big thing is going to turn out to be and how/if it's going to help.
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    The Duncan speech we were talking about in class
Laura Wood

Center for Civic Education Home - 2 views

  • Listen to today's podcast
    • Laura Wood
       
      Daily 60 second podcast!
    • Laura Wood
       
      Also, you can search previous podcasts to find ones that have to do with your specific lesson. Listening to the Podcasts could be a "Do now" activity or an activity at a station students rotate through.
  • Daily civics quiz
    • Laura Wood
       
      Daily 1 question civics quiz! These questions are not always about post Constitutional US. Some of the questions that I have seen had to do with Enlightenment thinking, the middle ages, ancient Greece, etc.
    • Laura Wood
       
      Mission Statement From the site: The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy in the United States and other countries. . . . The Center specializes in civic/citizenship education, law-related education, and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. Programs focus on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; American political traditions and institutions at the federal, state, and local levels; constitutionalism; civic participation; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
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    • Laura Wood
       
      "Resources" contains lesson plans for various grade levels, online resources, links to other organizations, etc.
    • Laura Wood
       
      The cite largely correlates to the classroom text: "We the People"
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    So this may be my favorite organization ever. They have an international branch, a branch in DC and a branch in California. They have a daily civics quiz on the the website and a daily 60 second civics podcast . . . I'm in <3.
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    I'm just overwhelmed. I want to work at this organization . . . so many incredible incredible programs, teacher trainings, professional developments, etc. Lynn Cohen worked with Civitas in Bosnia.
Alan Edwards

"The Public Be Damned" A Thematic and Multiple Intelligences Approach to Teaching the G... - 3 views

    • Alan Edwards
       
      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.
    • Alan Edwards
       
      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.
    • Alan Edwards
       
      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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • III. Populism--Visual/Spatial Intelligence. Political cartoons have always been a popular and powerful means for critiquing society's ills.
jbdrury

Suit looming against California over school funding - San Jose Mercury News - 1 views

  • California spends $35.7 billion, or about 30 percent of its budget, on its 10,000 public K-12 schools
  • California has trailed national per-pupil spending since 1979, and now the gap is $1,700 per student
  • Since 1979, cases have been brought in about 30 other states. But while 14 resulted in court-ordered funding increases, cases decided in the past four years have tended to favor the states
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    • jbdrury
       
      I may be wrong, and I don't know how feasible it is, but it would seem to me a better solution would be to redistribute property tax revenue, as opposed to putting burdens on the state government to come up with additional funding for the educational system.
  • But Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity, which successfully sued to win more money for New York City schools, said that achievement has improved dramatically, especially among minority and low-income students, after lawsuits in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont.
    • jbdrury
       
      This is an important point; the very size of California's population and economy has always made it a key influence on national trends.
  • Without reform, Hanushek said, because the state is so big — it educates one of every eight children in the nation — and because its schools perform so poorly, "California is dragging down the nation
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    As those of you in my EDU 522 class know, we have spent quite a while on the issue of unequal school funding. The Kozol video we watched in class raised the question of how each state pays for its public schooling, and as a result I have been trying to determine which states still use local property taxes (thus perpetuating the inequality of schools within the state) and which have instituted reforms to equalize funding. The problem is, none of this information is compiled in a concise manner. This is a recent article discussing this issue; I am still trying to find others.
jbdrury

PBS - THE WEST - Documents on Anti-Chinese Immigration Policy - 4 views

    • jbdrury
       
      Both the exclusion treaty and the exclusion act are included
    • jbdrury
       
      Each of these episode tabs also includes more primary source documents and images
    • jbdrury
       
      The use of the term "embarassments" is interesting
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  • WHEREAS, in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof
  • he coming of Chinese laborers to the United States, or their residence therein, affects or threatens to affect the interests of that country, or to endanger the good order of the said country or of any locality within the territory thereof
  • If Chinese laborers, or Chinese of any other class, now either permanently or temporarily residing in the territory of the United States, meet with ill treatment at the hands of nay other persons, the Government of the United States will exert all its power to devise measures for their protection and to secure to them the same rights, privileges, immunities and exemptions as may be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation, and to which they are entitled by treaty
  • and the embarrassments consequent upon such immigration
    • jbdrury
       
      I think it is fascinating to read the language of this document; how they managed to couch discriminatory practices in such legalise
  • That the master of any vessel who shall knowingly bring within the United States on such vessel, and land or permit to be landed, any Chinese laborer, from any foreign port or place, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars for each and every such Chinese laborer so brought, and may be also imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year.
  • SEC. 14. That hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship; and all laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.
    • jbdrury
       
      This definition covers just about anyone
  • SEC. 15. That the words "Chinese laborers," whenever used in this act, shall be construed to mean both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining.
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    I was frustrated by my inability to find primary source documents on my last mini-lesson for the Conscription Act; however I was happy to stumble upon these in regards to this week's Takaki reading. PBS already provides a great wealth of resources to teachers - including lesson plans - and I couldn't resist posting this one. The rest of the site includes other primary source documents as well as images, all broken down over periods that correlate to episodes from their "The West" series.
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