What Teachers Are Talking About This Week
March 17, 2016 | Sign up to receive The Teachers Edition.
 There’s still much to do to ensure that the United States leads the world in college completion and that all students can complete quality post-secondary programs that do not saddle them with unmanageable debt. John King, confirmed by the full Senate as Secretary of Education on Monday, is leading that effort. He launched the “College Opportunity Across America” tour to meet with students, professors, and college leaders in three states and Washington, D.C. to hold discussions about campus sexual assault, campus diversity efforts, the role of historically black colleges and universities in STEM fields, college completion, protections for student loan borrowers, and other issues.
|
 Facing a Student She Expelled Changed Her Approach to School Discipline
Coming face to face with a student she had expelled changed this principal's approach to discipline. Nancy Hanks, now a top administrator for the school system in Madison (Wisc.), is playing a key role in revamping district-wide discipline policies, replacing the old zero-tolerance approach with an approach built on the conviction that suspension and expulsion don’t solve problems at the root of student misbehavior. Watch her speech at the 25th anniversary summit for Teach for America (Brown, Washington Post).
|
 More than 31 million children in the United States consume most of their daily caloric intake at school. Yet many school lunches still have oh-yuck reputations. The Christian Science Monitor published a list of 16 places that are doing school lunch differently. Sure, Finland and Japan make the list, but so do Memphis, Baltimore, and San Francisco to name a few. An innovative program in Alaska aims to help students gain a better understanding of local seafood resources and fishing culture by including locally-caught seafood in the school lunch program.
|
The cost of professional development for teachers is an estimated $2.6 billion at the federal level and some $8,000 - $12,000 per teacher in districts. Yet for many teachers, PD has been an "empty exercise in compliance, one that falls short of its objectives and rarely improves professional practice," writes Laurie Calvert (2010 Washington Teaching Ambassador Fellow) in a new report from Learning Forward and NCTAF. She lays out seven steps district and school leaders can take to improve professional learning, starting with ensuring at least 50 percent teacher representation on planning and implementation teams.
Students from a public school in the South Bronx teamed up with students from a Manhattan private school for a discussion that centered around the ways in which their schooling experiences are different. The Bronx kids are working to get rid of the metal detectors in their school; a Manhattan student said, "if they tried to put in metal detectors, our parents would be in an uproar." Social studies teacher Alan Singer drew a connection to Jacob Riis' classic How The Other Half Lives.
A newly released book raises questions about the kinds of math
we teach in schools, positing that things like calculus and trigonometry are "a harsh
and senseless hurdle" for American students looking to graduate high
school. Instead, the author argues that we should emphasize numeracy
and the kinds of math people do in the real world (Kamenetz, NPR).
Meanwhile, in Virginia, teachers are integrating the arts into math instruction
-- for example, casting students as animals to measure the sizes of their steps
-- to better student achievement (Balingit, Washington
Post). Finally teacher educator Corey Drake offers four small changes teachers can make for deeper math
learning, including offering daily mental math (Hechinger Report).
Teacher Offers Lessons
from Teaching While Black
There is lots of discussion about the way that school systems are structured can be disengaging to students of color; teacher Pamela Brown
suggests that it's "disengaging to our teachers of color as well. There are
many teachers or potential teachers that take issue with the current system of
micromanagement or the lack of respect for teacher expertise."
In an interview with The Huffington Post, and in her new book, Teaching While Black, she writes that teachers
shouldn't be colorblind; they should "promote our children's ability to
see themselves," including their race.
Resources to Use
National
Environmental Education Week (EE Week) is held each spring around Earth Day and inspires environmental learning and stewardship among K-12
students. This year's theme is Greening STEM: Rooted in Math. EE Week
celebrates the educators who are making a difference in environmental education
and STEM learning and provides them with the resources they need to continue
inspiring the next generation of lifelong environmental learners. Make a difference by registering your event, lesson or project.
History Buffs Take Note. The
American Battle Monuments Commission has created a resource for
teachers and educators full of activities, lesson plans, and videos about WWII
history.
Too Small to Fail Launches NEW Community Newsletter. Too Small to Fail has launched a NEW quarterly newsletter,
highlighting exciting developments in community campaigns to boost early brain
and language development across the country. It includes new resources and
research, along with promising practices and approaches to support families
with young children.
 5. "You can't keep asking me to wear a new hat each year without letting me take a hat off at some point" (Teacher, South Carolina).
4. "When learners have a sense of purpose, they learn. It just happens" (Teacher, Illinois).
3. "Teacher leadership shouldn't have to be a choice between working with students and working for students" (Teacher, Washington).
2. "Why is innovation always talked about in terms of what new thing to do instead of what old thing can we remove?" (Teacher, Connecticut).
1. "The fact that students in one district have 1:1 technology while the neighboring district has plumbing problems is absurd" (Teacher, South Carolina).
|
|
