Big Education Ape

Saturday, June 13, 2020

The Student-Teacher Relationship is One of the Most Misunderstood and Underrated Aspects of Education | gadflyonthewallblog

The Student-Teacher Relationship is One of the Most Misunderstood and Underrated Aspects of Education | gadflyonthewallblog

The Student-Teacher Relationship is One of the Most Misunderstood and Underrated Aspects of Education

When I came back to school for the first time since the Coronavirus closed the building, there were a pile of letters waiting for me in my mailbox.

I took them to my empty classroom and read the first one:

“Hello Mr. Singer, I just thought you should know that you are the greatest teacher I’ve had since Kindergarten all the way to my freshman year of High School and probably will remain that way forever. You always helped me with my work when I was behind and gave me extra time to finish it. Your class was the class I looked forward to every day. You were always a nice and funny man. Thank you for being there for me and everyone else in your classes. I’ll be sure to visit you after school every now and then…”

I picked up another:

“You have no idea how much I miss you… I quite miss our talks after class about video games, movies and musicals. As cheesy as it sounds, I always looked forward to them; especially during the days I was having problems with other students, your wise words always helped…”

And another:

“…we had fun times in your class. There wasn’t one non-fun day that we had because if we was going to have a bad day you made it better and way more fun. You also helped us a lot even when we didn’t ask for it. When people CONTINUE READING:
The Student-Teacher Relationship is One of the Most Misunderstood and Underrated Aspects of Education | gadflyonthewallblog

"My Child Doesn't Like to Read" - Teacher Habits

"My Child Doesn't Like to Read" - Teacher Habits

“My Child Doesn’t Like to Read”

During the debate over Michigan’s third-grade reading law, I read this article that contained this quote from a mom: “My son doesn’t like to read. It’s hard to force him, but he does well in every other subject, so they should not be forced to stay back.”

And I agree that he should not be held back.

But how in the world have we gotten to the place where a mom can admit to a reporter, on the record, that her kid isn’t a very good reader because he doesn’t like it and it’s hard to make him?

I mean, I get it. I don’t like forcing my daughter to do things she doesn’t like, either. And sometimes, I don’t because some of the things I think are important aren’t actually that important. They’re just a reflection of my values.

But there are some things that are non-negotiable because they’re just too important.

She has to go to bed at a certain time because sleep is inarguably, scientifically-proven to be extremely important. And even if science CONTINUE READING: "My Child Doesn't Like to Read" - Teacher Habits

“No More Police” – Parenting for Liberation

“No More Police” – Parenting for Liberation

“No More Police”

In this moment of mass uprising, where people all over the country & globe are demanding justice & dignity for black lives which necessitates the end of the police & police state, we are reminded and keep coming back to a conversation with Cecilia Caballero (@ceciliacaballerophd) of Chicana M(other)work (@chicanamotherwork) from 2016. Cecilia shares her experience in processing the murder of Jesse Romero, a 14 year-old boy killed by LAPD, and the conversation she had with her 6 year old son at the time.

We share this today knowing that as we get activated around dismantling systems of white supremacy and violence, we must imagine what comes after we #defundpolice. We must stay in constant practice around imagining and creating liberation right now, and that work involves our children. Our children & young people are our greatest guides. Listen to them. Give them space to question, imagine, play, make sense, make anew.

The reflection and practice questions included here are from the book. Pre-order your copy from @FeministPress or your favorite black or woman-owned business. Let us know if you use the liberated strategies here and your thoughts!

You can also listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform. CONTINUE READING: “No More Police” – Parenting for Liberation

There Trump goes again bashing ‘bad government schools’ - The Washington Post

There Trump goes again bashing ‘bad government schools’ - The Washington Post

There Trump goes again bashing ‘bad government schools’

President Trump was in Texas on Thursday, where he was part of a discussion about race and policing, and used the opportunity to take new shots at public schools.

At Gateway Church in Dallas, Trump met with law enforcement officials, pastors and business owners and talked about his four-point plan to “build safety and opportunity and dignity” for communities of color. He did not discuss why the police chief, sheriff and district attorney of Dallas — all of whom are African Americans, were not invited to the event focused on injustice and policing.

Trump bashed public schools, calling them “bad government schools” in which African Americans get “trapped” — although Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams said at the same event that it was important for schools to reopen safely as soon as possible. Trump himself has said repeatedly that schools should open after being closed for months during the covid-19 pandemic.

Here are the four points that Trump spoke about on Thursday:

Pursue “economic development in minority communities.”
Confront “health-care disparities, including addressing chronic conditions and investing substantial sums in minority-serving medical institutions.”
“Encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force, including tactics for de-escalation.”

And the fourth, not surprisingly, was urging Congress to “enact school choice,” which in Trump’s lexicon means his proposal to spend up to $5 billion on tax credits for individuals and groups who donate to help children attend private and religious schools.

He said, according to a transcript provided by the White House:

Today, politicians make false charges, and they’re trying to distract from their own failed records. They have some very bad records. And these are usually the ones that cause the problems or can’t solve the problems. These are the same politicians who shipped our jobs away and took tremendous advantage of all Americans. But African American middle class — so much of that wealth and that money and those jobs went to China and other countries. And they get trapped. They get trapped. They get trapped in a CONTINUE READING: There Trump goes again bashing ‘bad government schools’ - The Washington Post

‘This is cruel’: Betsy DeVos bars certain students, including DACA recipients, from COVID-19 relief funds – Raw Story

‘This is cruel’: Betsy DeVos bars certain students, including DACA recipients, from COVID-19 relief funds – Raw Story
‘This is cruel’: Betsy DeVos bars certain students, including DACA recipients, from COVID-19 relief funds

“These extreme eligibility requirements will not only harm students, but they are also contrary to congressional intent,” said Sen. Patty Murray.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sparked outrage Thursday by doubling down on an April guidance that bars U.S. higher education institutions from giving any federal coronavirus relief funds to foreign, undocumented, and certain other students.

“As students across the country are struggling to make ends meet in the face of unprecedented financial challenges, Secretary DeVos’ efforts to deny some much-needed aid is cruel.”
—Sen. Patty Murray

“Secretary Betsy DeVos’ rule makes clear that even though Covid-19 doesn’t discriminate, this administration does,” declared Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s second-largest educators union.

“Our country is facing three major crises—a public health crisis, an economic crisis, and a racial justice crisis—all of which exacerbate the inequalities in our communities and require more help from our federal government, not less,” she said. “Yet in our moment of greatest need, this administration doubles down on its bigoted, anti-immigrant stance, and DeVos does the dirty work by cutting off any aid that could help our undocumented students.”

The announcement came after Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of California Community Colleges, and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson brought legal challenges against the April guidance in May—the same month the Department of Education claimed (pdf) the guidance was “preliminary” and would not be enforced.

However, the new interim final rule (pdf)—which reiterates the guidance’s eligibility requirements—will carry the force of CONTINUE READING: ‘This is cruel’: Betsy DeVos bars certain students, including DACA recipients, from COVID-19 relief funds – Raw Story

About Joe Biden… | Teacher in a strange land

About Joe Biden…

If you only read this blog for thoughts and opinions about education, here’s one you can skip.

I’ve been thinking about Joe Biden.

If you think this is going to be one of those ‘Joe Biden was not even close to my favorite candidate but we all have to vote for him because we’re at the edge of the abyss’ blogs—it’s not. (Although that’s true.)

It’s also not a blog about how we have to fix Joe Biden, by pushing him leftward and micro-managing all the choices he makes, beginning with the woman who ultimately becomes his Vice-Presidential pick. It’s already obvious that whomever he chooses, there will be a segment of likely Democratic voters who think she’s the wrong choice and will post long strings of articles critical of her former career, lack of proper experience, age, and personality.

Nor is it a blog about policy, although policy is totally, totally my thing. We can fly-speck every piece of legislation Joe Biden has ever had his hands on, going back more than 45 years, the reasonable and the terrible. But as the guy currently occupying the White House illustrates—a policy platform is just a piece of paper, not (as you may have assumed) an important statement of the party’s core principles and goals.

I mean this literally—the Republicans just announced they will, in fact, be recycling their old platform from 2016; Jared wants to shrink it down to a bulleted 3 x 5 card. He probably wants to drown it in a bathtub, too.

This year, for them, it’s all about Trump: Love him or leave him. The rest? Meaningless CONTINUE READING: About Joe Biden… | Teacher in a strange land

Wendy Lecker: Combatting Racism—on the Streets and in School | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wendy Lecker: Combatting Racism—on the Streets and in School

Wendy Lecker is a civil rights lawyer who writes frequently for the Stamford (CT) Advocate, where this article appeared.

The brutal police killing of yet another unarmed African-American man, Minneapolis’ George Floyd, preceded by the midnight police killing of EMT Breonna Taylor in her home in Louisville, and followed by the police killing of Louisville restaurant owner David McAtee, reinforce that Black Americans live a different reality than White Americans do.

It is not just the horrifying fact that African Americans are disproportionately the victims of police brutality. Medical research demonstrates that police killings of unarmed African Americans exacts a unique and lasting psychic toll on African Americans — beyond those directly affected by the killings. In a study published in the medical journal, The Lancet, researchers found that Black Americans exposed to police killings in their communities suffered adverse mental health effects, CONTINUE READING: Wendy Lecker: Combatting Racism—on the Streets and in School | Diane Ravitch's blog

Andre M. Perry: To add value to Black communities, we must defund the police and prison systems @BrookingsInst

To add value to Black communities, we must defund the police and prison systems

To add value to Black communities, we must defund the police and prison systems

The Minneapolis Police Department’s murder of George Floyd epitomizes what Black taxpayers have never truly received: quality law enforcement. Black people are overrepresented in stops, arrests, convictions, and deaths at the hands of police. The failure to prosecute murderous police typifies a bad overall track record with solving violent crimes: Approximately 38% of murders, 66% of rapes, 70% of robberies, and 47% of aggravated assaults go uncleared every year.

Given the magnitude of the expenditures allocated to police departments and incarceration in municipal and state budgets at the expense of services that prevent crime (not to mention the human cost to the community), it’s an understatement to say that Black communities are not getting adequate returns on their tax dollars.

As COVID-19 forces cities and states to restrict their budgets, governments must prioritize helping people find themselves in healthier living arrangements and in a job with a living wage—rather than sick, behind bars, or dead. This will require investments that increase economic mobility, not in services that literally arrest it.

As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” If we want more economic mobility and protection from COVID-19, we have to invest in systems that drive toward those ends. Money for that must come from the systems that throttle economic mobility: policing and prisons.

Policing hamstrings municipal governments

States play a small role in financing policing, mostly through highway patrols. Instead, most police spending occurs at the municipal level (86% in 2017), according to the Urban Institute. Because of this decentralized funding structure, defunding the police will mean paying particular attention to those municipalities whose budgets show the most egregious imbalances between police and community improvement expenditures.

A 2017 report by the Center for Popular Democracy, Law for Black Lives, and Black Youth Project 100 examined the budgets of 12 major U.S. cities and counties over the last three decades. They found that funding dedicated to incarceration, corrections, and policing has come at the expense of CONTINUE READING: To add value to Black communities, we must defund the police and prison systems

Andre M. Perry

Fellow - Metropolitan Policy Program

@andreperryedu

David Harshbarger

Research Analyst - Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings

DBHarshbarger

Carl Romer

Research Intern - Metropolitan Policy Program

_cromer043

Kristian Thymianos

Research intern - Metropolitan Policy Program

kthymianos

What's the Real Purpose of Classroom Management? - Alfie Kohn

What's the Real Purpose of Classroom Management? - Alfie Kohn

What’s the Real Purpose of Classroom Management?

Everyone knows why classroom management skills are considered a critical part of teacher training. The reason we need to minimize “misbehavior” and get students to show up, sit down, and pay attention is so we can teach them stuff. That proposition is so obvious that it’s rarely defended or even spelled out, except maybe on the first day of Classroom Management 101. While we may disagree about strategies — for example, the relative merits of discipline versus self-discipline (getting kids to regulate and manage themselves) — we take it for granted that the whole point is to create an environment conducive to learning.

But what if that wasn’t entirely true? What if, at least for some teachers and administrators, an orderly classroom was the ultimate goal? And what if the curriculum and the model of teaching were actually chosen with that goal in mind?

I first encountered this unsettling possibility some years ago in a book called Contradictions of Control. Its author, Rice University professor Linda McNeil, had spent a lot of time observing in classrooms and thinking about what she saw. Rather than treating discipline as “instrumental to mastering the [academic] content,” she concluded, “many teachers reverse those ends and means. They maintain discipline by the ways they present course content.”[1]

Once I let that idea sink in, I had to admit that a traditional curriculum (lists of facts to be memorized and skills to be practiced) and a traditional approach to pedagogy (lectures, textbooks, worksheets) make it much easier for a teacher to maintain control over students. Just compare that sort of classroom to one in which kids are encouraged to construct meaning and understand ideas from the inside out — an approach that’s collaborative, open-ended, project-based, and driven by students’ interests. If the first model suggests a rehearsed solo performance by the instructor, the second offers instruments to everyone in the room and invites them to participate in a kind of jazz improvisation.

If your goal were order and conformity, which would you choose?

What’s true about course content and teaching method is also true about assessment. Grades are not particularly reliable or valid indicators of intellectual proficiency, and CONTINUE READING: What's the Real Purpose of Classroom Management? - Alfie Kohn

Dabo Swinney and the White-Man No-Apology Apology – radical eyes for equity

Dabo Swinney and the White-Man No-Apology Apology

After a series of critical challenges to the highest paid college football coach in the U.S., Dabo Swinney, concerning weak responses to the uttering of racial slurs by a Clemson coach (and Swinney) and Swinney sporting a “Football Matters” shirt in the wake of George Floyd’s death underneath the knee of a police office, a calloused death sentence executed in 8:46, Swinney wants everyone to believe he is offended equally by the N-word and GD:

You see, Swinney’s racial awareness is as hollow as his Christianity, worn on his sleeve 24/7.

In a statement lasting about 5-plus minutes longer than Floyd’s last breaths, Swinney launches into the white-man no-apology apology.

Swinney isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, to practice the art of no-apology CONTINUE READING: Dabo Swinney and the White-Man No-Apology Apology – radical eyes for equity

Resolution to End Police Contract with Milwaukee Public Schools | Educate All Students, Support Public Education

Resolution to End Police Contract with Milwaukee Public Schools | Educate All Students, Support Public Education

Resolution to End Police Contract with Milwaukee Public Schools

Milwaukee Public Schools: Resolution Advanced by Directors Paula Phillips and Sequanna Taylor

WHEREAS, The Milwaukee Public Schools for many years has contracted with the Milwaukee Police Department for School Resource Officers (SROs), the original intent of which was that they would be deployed in schools to respond proactively in the event of an emergencies or other situations requiring a police presence; and

WHEREAS, Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Police Department have been collaborating since 2005 to provide a police presence at high schools between 3:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to provide dedicated patrol and presence at such school-related events as dismissal, social/sports events, gatherings of outsiders, etc.; and

WHEREAS, Wisconsin Statutes, §119.55, Youth service centers, truancy abatement and burglary suppression, states as follows,

(a) The [school] board shall establish one or more youth service centers for the counseling of children who are taken into custody under s. 938.19 (1) (d) 10. for being absent from school without an acceptable excuse under s. 118.15. The board shall contract with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee for the operation of the centers.

(b) The board shall establish 2 youth service centers under par. (a).

The board shall pay the city a sum sufficient to pay the costs of salaries and fringe benefits of 4 law enforcement officers to work on truancy abatement and burglary suppression on a full-time basis.

WHEREAS, The Milwaukee Board of School Directors has declared that, as part of the vision of the Milwaukee Public Schools (Board Governance Policy BG 1.01 and Administrative Policy 1.01)

Schools will be safe, welcoming, well-maintained, and accessible community centers meeting the needs of all. Relevant, rigorous, and successful instructional programs will be recognized and replicated. The district and its schools will collaborate with students, families, and the community for the benefit of all; and

WHEREAS, Of 74,633 students in MPS in 2018-19, 89.9% (approximately 67,095) were students of color; and

WHEREAS, Research has shown that Black students are disproportionately more likely to come into contact with police in their neighborhoods than are other students; and CONTINUE READING: Resolution to End Police Contract with Milwaukee Public Schools | Educate All Students, Support Public Education

NYC Educator: School in the Time of Covid

NYC Educator: School in the Time of Covid

School in the Time of Covid

Florida has set a new record for new Covid cases. This, evidently, is what happens when you have some MAGA moron in charge whose sole interest is promoting business and commerce at the expense of humanity. What can the rest of us learn from that?

Israel opened schools. They have about 40% more students than NYC does. However, since they reopened, they've had to close 130 schools, and the number is growing rapidly. Are there any lessons there, and is Bill de Blasio paying the remotest attention?

Well, there's the obvious. Covid is still around, and when people get together it spreads. I've seen friends die, family sick, and watched others I know lose family members. I know a UFT member, generally healthy, in his 30s, who spent weeks in a hospital fighting Covid-induced pneumonia. I'm sure you have your own stories. Everyone does.

Despite this, the governor, mayor and chancellor can't wait to open school buildings. They labor under the outlandish misconception that, if we provide space, schoolchildren will practice social distancing. These are the same guys who deemed it CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: School in the Time of Covid

A Powerpoint is not a Plan / NYC Schools in September | JD2718

A Powerpoint is not a Plan / NYC Schools in September | JD2718

A Powerpoint is not a Plan / NYC Schools in September

The New York City Department of Education issued a planning document for September, on June 9. They were very, very late. And, big surprise, it turns out not to be a planning document. It’s more like a poorly thought out framework.

The story gets worse, but for now, let’s look at their powerpoint.

Nothing special about the cover, except you should notice it is dated June 9 and “Preliminary.”

You might need to click this image to open it. But that dark blue stage, that’s May and June, except this document was not issued as a preliminary draft until June 9, not explained to principals until June 11, and that dark blue arrow? That’s all stuff we haven’t started, or have just started.

Removing implicit bias from the school system is a higher priority than removing implicit dishonesty, but we shouldn’t skip either.

The “Design Areas” are essentially a list of questions for principals, that many principals will treat as preapproved options: CONTINUE READING: A Powerpoint is not a Plan / NYC Schools in September | JD2718

CURMUDGUCATION: Never Mind The Personalized Learning. Let's Do Personalized Learning Instead.

CURMUDGUCATION: Never Mind The Personalized Learning. Let's Do Personalized Learning Instead.

Never Mind The Personalized Learning. Let's Do Personalized Learning Instead

As the education world scrambles to figure out what next fall will look like, many, many voices are speaking up for reimagined schooling. One particular model has surfaced repeatedly, and it’s not at all new—but it could be.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has set aside some of the stimulus fund for a competitive grant that would reward state-wide virtual schools, much like the model she admires in Florida. Many commentors are arguing that now is the perfect time to “innovate” and shift to personalized learning, or its twin sibling, competency-based education. One clue to what these folks are really talking about is the market research, which focuses on education tech companies. But Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a clear signal when he was announcing that Bill Gates would be helping reimagine New York schools:

The old model of everybody goes and sits in the classroom, and the teacher is in front of that classroom and teaches that class, and you do that all across the city, all across the state, all these buildings, all these physical classrooms — why, with all the technology you have.

What most advocates have been selling for years is not actually personalized at all, but is a system in which content delivery and assessment are handled by software. An algorithm, often touted as Artificial Intelligence, decides which assignments to deliver to the student. There may be a human “mentor” available to the students, but the computer manages most of the “educating.” The CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Never Mind The Personalized Learning. Let's Do Personalized Learning Instead.

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