It’s a kind of glamorous position from the viewpoint of those of us who just see it all on TV – fancy balls and photo shoots (I don’t think he can shake hands with anyone without an obligatory pause for the camera), interviews and news briefs, meeting all the most important people in the entire world and getting a private jet to go anywhere in the world.

The unfortunate thing about being President is that the people of the Nation in which you lead have this little thing called hope and trust and we like to place it in the person in charge. Students hope and trust in their teacher to make learning fun and interesting and keep them safe and relatively sane during the process. Kids hope that parents will make them happy and trust that they will keep them safe.

We place our hope and trust in police officers and emergency personnel to keep us safe and respond quickly in the event of a crisis.

And we place our hope and trust in our President – we want him to make life better, to keep us safe, to provide support and make things happen that need to happen. We also want him to create an environment in which we can all have jobs. (Yes, I too want world peace…)

The president has hundreds of people working for him – people to write his speeches (you didn’t think he thought any of that up himself, did you?), people to pick out his clothes (makes you wonder if he has help getting dressed…), people to tell him where to go and when to be there, people to tell him how every area of his realm is functioning. Like the job market.

So when I hear that the President told a lady whose husband doesn’t have a job that “It is interesting to me … I’d be interested in finding out exactly what’s happening right there because the word that we’re getting is that somebody in that type of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away.” it kind of makes me wonder if our hope and trust is a bit misplaced… By the way he also wants the woman to send him her husband’s resume. Come on, where in the job description of presidency is the phrase “collect resume’s from unemployed persons and find them jobs”?

But of course, what he’s being told is that there’s no reason for people in an engineering field to be out of work – so all you unemployed engineers, you’re in luck! Oh, and if you were considering your college major, I’d consider the source – will you go for engineering because the President said you should be able to find a job fast? Or will you go with something else because the President said you should be able to find an engineering job fast?

Something to think about…oh and if you don’t have a job? Send your resume to the President! (who knows, if he spends all his time finding people jobs, maybe the economy would improve…)

Related posts:

1. President Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
2. The Obama Effect
3. President Obama’s Take on Education

Reading this should cause a variety of conflicting emotions – first, a bit of outrage at how young they’re starting, a bit more outrage at the fact that they are hoping the abstinance education be eliminated, and a final bit of outrage at the parents who are not teaching their children and instead are leaving it up to the teachers.

Second, a bit of relief, knowing that children will actually be taught about their bodies, something that is ironically lacking in today’s society. Girls in particular are growing up either unfamiliar with their bodies and too scared or embarrassed to find out, or are finding out too much too soon, even before leaving elementary school in some cases.

First it is important to note that the standards for our youngest children (k-2) are simple and basic – the ability to use proper terms for body parts, understand that all living things reproduce, be able to identify differences between boys and girls and be able to identify the different make up of various family structures. (Well, I guess that’s important in our “anything goes” society) They also will learn what bullying is and understand they have the right to tell anyone to not touch them in any way that makes them uncomfortable. (yeah… this goes back to abstinence but come on, shouldn’t we also be teaching to not touch others?? Seems the onus always has to be on the victim there, huh?)

Now the Education Week article I read that discussed this had a link to a study on abstinence education that was fascinating to me – in fact, there seems to be no impact on children’s behavior when taking one of these classes, so the point there is why spend money on them if they are not working? Take a quick second to just scroll through it to look at the graphs – the control groups are almost identical.

Want more info on the standards? You might if you care what your child knows about sexual orientation by the end of 5th grade. I suppose the easy way to sum up the new standards is this: by the time all students enter high school, after going through each standard, they will know everything about everything… I guess the question left is will the kids be allowed to eat the banana after the lesson is over?

Bad thing? maybe not but if you care about what your kids are taught in reference to, well,  who, where, when, why, or how… you best be on top of it at home because teachers are going to cover all that too, not just the what anymore.

Related posts:

1. Common Core Standards
2. Should We Raise School Standards?
3. More Education Cuts – 12th Grade?

In comes the Obama administration, and in the zeal to demonstrate just how terrible the Bush administration was, we now have a new educational reform hitting the schools: Race to the Top.

The idea behind Race to the Top is that American education should be the best in the world – thus we begin the race to the top of the world in educational standards. (Kind of reminds me of kids playing King of the Hill) Along with this lofty ideal of being the best, we have sweeping changes including standardized core objectives for all states to adopt (if they want to, of course), new testing, new evaluations for teachers and much more.

There are a lot of questions that I have, and my biggest concern is that the entire education system doesn’t trip on the race to the top. If teachers evaluations are to be linked to student test scores, how do you differentiate between schools in affluent areas where the parents are involved and the students simply WILL achieve more? If teachers in that area are up against teachers in low income areas with absentee parents or parents who simply don’t care, then I know where I would want to teach.

If instead, teachers are evaluated based on individual growth of students over a single year in school, that would be better, the problem still remains those things which are out of the teacher’s control, like attendance. Missing school has a statistical impact on student scores according to the National Center for Educational Statistics, but is not something that teachers can have any control over, so how can we penalize teachers for that?

I suppose only time will tell, but it seems to me like more of the same, or if it is arguably different, then different for the wrong reasons… Because I know we all want to improve the educational system in America just so that we can be better than the Japanese and Swedish, right? I know everything I strive to do better at is for the purpose of being better than the person next to me…

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1. The Obama Effect
2. Maryland is $50 Million Richer…
3. 2011 Proposed Budget for Teachers

I, along with many other educational professionals have preached the importance of meeting students where they are so they learn best – display information, give auditory information and allow students the chance to manipulate objects, so that all three learning styles will be addressed and all students will have the best chance at learning the information. Likewise, I have been a huge proponent of home schooling because the parent can focus instruction in whatever way is best for their child’s learning style.

A group of men have come together to review the literature on learning styles and have determined two things:

First, most studies done on learning styles do not follow a randomized trial methodology and are thus not valid.

Second, those that are valid reveal contradictory results, meaning that studies that support the idea of learning styles are not able to be repeated, thus negating the theory.

An Idea Better than Learning Styles: Research Based Teaching

An NPR report on the issue provides a better idea – follow research based ideas for teaching:

Psychologist Dan Willingham says that studies show that “mixing things up” will help to boost attention and the closer students pay attention, the better they will learn. Additionally, studies show that the human brain retains information better when learned over months as opposed to cramming information into a short period of days or even weeks.

One benefit of mixing things up is this will also help maintain classroom management. The idea of spreading things out over months instead of weeks flies in the face of the modern education system, though. Teachers often complain about the lack of time available to teach any one concept. A commonly agreed upon statement is that teachers have the time to introduce concepts, and the bright students will master these concepts, but there is no time to extend the concepts into the abstract for mastery for all students.

Changes Needed in Curricula and Teaching Methods

I would be willing to bet that this concept of spreading learning out supports the spiral curriculum method, where students are able to return to the same concepts over and over as they learn. That said, I would think that the traditional “grade level” curriculum, specifically for math skills, needs to be revamped in order to avoid teaching skills in isolation. This is something that Shiller Math does a great job of.

It’s time to stop spending what precious few dollars we have in the schools on in-service training that focuses on learning styles and instead focus on how students are similar. Really, the idea is intriguing – do students learn best differently or the same? I would bet that the assembly line method of grouping students together by age might be less an issue than it is a precursor – we grouped students by a similarity and then tried to separate them after the fact by learning style. How does that make sense?

Maybe we need to find more ways that students are similar instead of spending so much time focusing on differences. One similarity I can think of off of the top of my head is the fact that ALL students, without exception, will learn better when interested and excited about learning. Maybe that is a better place to start lesson planning!

Related posts:

1. Teaching to Learning Styles
2. Do not Differentiate Your Instruction…or Should You?
3. Educational Quotes on Learning

For those still looking for info on teaching, here is a website with information:

Lesson Plans on September 11

Looking for more? There’s a lot available if you do a quick search on google.

Some Principals, one for sure that I know of so I would guess others are in the same position, are not allowing their teachers to mention September 11 this week. This is a very difficult place for teachers to be put in and is similar to issues of religion. A historic event that impacted EVERY American, changed our lives forever and has ramifications to this day should not be ignored or brushed under the carpet in the hopes of avoiding “difficult” conversations.

The truth is this day was very painful for many people and led to a war that has been painful to more people. We should recognize what happened and share facts with our students. It is not our place to pass judgement on what happened but it is also not our place to ignore what happened. Whether you had a loved one die or not, whether you agree with the war or not, whether you have Muslim friends or not, to ignore a major turning point in American history is to do our children a disservice.

Principals, step up and give teachers the right to teach history.

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2. Tricks for Kids Who Need to Follow the Text as they Read
3. Obama has no idea why you don’t have a job…

So what are these Common Core Standards?

They are exactly what they sound like: core standards that are common to everyone. Different states have had different standards, which has led to discrepancies between states; take an average student from Maryland and from Florida and you will see what I mean. These common standards are designed to eliminate this discrepancy.

The Core Standards are NOT Federal Mandates from the Government – this was a state led initiative, read more about their creation on their website. That said, in the FAQs there is talk about how the Federal Government can “support” schools in their adoption of these standards, kinda of reads like “no, the Federal Government didn’t create them, we did! Who cares if they are the ones who hired us to do this…” (Easier to get someone else to do your dirty work, right?)

Where Did these Core Standards Come From?

According to the Common Core State Standards website, teachers, school administrators (scary!) and “experts” (hmmmmm) developed the standards. While the collaboration may seem a bit suspect, I actually think the standards are probably pretty ok. I mean, educators don’t like to reinvent the wheel (even if the wheel is broken, perhaps) so likely they just took the “best” standards from various states (at least, they claim to not have formed the lowest common denominator, so I would hope they picked the best). So while they may look new, don’t panic, it’s probably not going to change what you do in the classroom all that much.

Who is Using the Common Core Standards? Are they Mandatory?

These Core State Standards are not mandatory – indeed not all states have adopted them yet. I wonder how long those remaining few states will hold out, though, peer pressure being what it is. So yes, they are voluntary and yet I am sure it will not be long before it is accepted by everyone.

Will This Lead to a Common Curriculum too? 

Check out the FAQ on their website and you get a lot of legalese – Read between the lines and you get “we’d love there to be a single common curriculum for all schools in all states, it would make it so much easier to ensure our agenda is accomplished!!!”

Beyond that, I withhold judgement until the results are in – For some teachers it will mean a change in the curriculum and for others it will be business as usual. Perhaps in 10 years we’ll all be glad for uniformity in standards… or perhaps not.

Related posts:

1. National Sexuality Education Standards
2. Don’t Trip on the Race to the Top
3. Should We Raise School Standards?

Teacher salaries – ok, so there’s a lot of debate about this one – how much should teachers make for babysitting a bunch of kids? Why pay teachers more when kids are not passing state tests? (Note the sarcasm – if in fact you added up the amount of money a babysitter would make to simply sit and play with 20-30 kids from 8-3 five days a week, that argument would go away in a hurry… and that doesn’t include the actual teaching…think about it).

But, if teacher salaries doesn’t make a difference to you, what about 12th grade? Should highschool seniors go to school or is it a waste of money? In Texas, that question is on the table.

So let’s think about this – heaven forbid those politicians consider taking a pay cut, (it’s easier to cut teacher salaries, they’re a dime a dozen) only so many teachers you can cut? Well then let’s start looking at cutting entire grade levels, no one needs 12th grade, right?

And people wonder what’s messed up with the public school system.

Read More: Who Cares About Education?

Related posts:

1. What is the value in teaching?
2. Where does the Money Go?
3. Focus on Remediation

So… should we raise school standards? Raises a few questions, doesn’t it?

Related posts:

1. Common Core Standards
2. National Sexuality Education Standards
3. The Importance of Wait Time

While on the one hand this seems like a logical step – the kids who will be tested need to have the help necessary to catch up and be “on level” for their grade in math.

On the other hand, the logic seems a bit backwards – the kids who now will not receive the math lab in second grade will be the ones who will eventually have to participate in the remediation in older grades.

Putting a bandage on a problem, like remediation for students with poor test scores, can help heal the wound (poor test scores), but why do this at the expense of those students who are at high risk for needing remediation later?

Any Dr.will agree that preventative medicine is the best – eat healthy, exercise, get plenty of sleep. If the medical industry stopped focusing on these healthy lifestyle choices, teaching individuals how to care for themselves and stay healthy, and instead focused all their time and energy on healing those who became sick, that would turn our health care system upside down. While Dr’s (and remediation) are absolutely necessary, preventative medicine (and perhaps math labs for second graders) is just as important if not more so.

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1. How to Increase Student Motivation
2. Prince George’s County Schools Implement Controversial New Grading Scale
3. Mom, Sit Here!

All assignments given during the first two quarters of the 2009-2010 school year must be scored according to that grading scale. As of the beginning of the third quarter, though, teachers are allowed to give students a 0 on assignments that were not attempted. So if a student does not turn in an assignment or turns in a blank assignment with no attempt, the teacher is able to give the child a zero for that assignment or test.

The concern with this new scale is the gray area of what constitutes “attempt”. If a student puts his or her name on the paper and turns it in does that count? If a student puts nonsense answers does that count?

On the other hand, a child who does poorly on one or two big assignments still has the ability to pull his or her grade back up. What do you think? Should the minimum score a student receives be a 50%?

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1. Prince George’s County Schools Implement Controversial New Grading Scale
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