A sad day for lovers of awesome educators, as the man who inspired the movie Stand and Deliver has died at age 79. Read the news article here.
And read more about the movie he inspired here.
Archive for March, 2010
30
Mar
10
Checking in
For the past few weeks, I’ve been getting to know the people on my beat a little better.
I’ve met teachers, principals, superintendents, computer technicians, advisers, students and more.
For a reporter, I think the best thing about the job is that we get to get out from behind the desk and see new things, meet new people, hear ideas and stories from a brand new point of view each time you hear it from a different person.
I used to joke that I was born a few decades too late, being that I enjoy many things a lot older than myself. But when it comes to education, I think I was born two and a half decades too early. There are so many fascinating new methods, ideas and ways of teaching that I wish I could experience firsthand. Math is no longer this scary thing to people anymore. A robotics club would have been an unimaginable pipe dream when I was in high school, but now it’s a reality and better yet, a local school is excelling with theirs.
Thus far, it has certainly been an exciting time to be writing about the things going on in education, and I’ve certainly learned quite a few things. And that’s just at the beginning. Now I’m looking forward to seeing how things play out and what the big stories are next.
Graduation is close at hand and plenty of students are looking forward to next year, with college, jobs or other goals in mind. Look for those stories to feature prominently in the coming month. Feel free to submit any other concerns or ideas you might have. Who knows? I might just use one of your ideas.
Quick post on a news story I caught earlier today.
No Child Left Behind was the biggest education-related initiative of the George W. Bush administration, but now it is facing a rewrite, thanks to a proposed plan that President Obama is pushing.
In essence, the changes would rewire NCLB and instead of tying it to a stringent set of tests and requirements, would focus more on creating college and work-ready students. How it will do that is yet to be seen though…
Have a read of the article here.
16
Mar
10
Define “textbook”
Meant to post this yesterday, but alas, schedule conflicts trumped awesome blog content…
Now, a bit of a warning, this link goes to a fairly left-wing site. I don’t agree with some of the language that they use in terms of bashing the people behind these Texas textbook changes, but at the same time, the facts they quote are not only accurate, but scary.
On a personal level, I have nothing but respect for people of any faith. Having faith is a difficult thing, since it requires believing in something you may not necessarily be able to directly see, taste, touch, feel, etc.
At the same time though, I don’t think that religion has any place being taught as fact in schools, simply based on the fact that one of the core principles of this country is a separation between church and state. Teaching about religions is all well and good. I’m all for it because I think it promotes tolerance and understanding. But teaching a certain religion as if it’s 100 percent certain that’s how it happened isn’t right, because not everybody believes the same thing. Even people who call themselves Christians believe different things. That’s why you have Catholics, protestants, and the subgroups of Methodists, Lutherans, etc.
Anyway, have a read of the article and let me know what you think. Should anyone have the power to rewrite textbooks as they see fit, based on religion and personal opinion?
Updated at 1:34 p.m. The New York Times had an editorial on this topic, which forwarded onto me by Owen Covington, Opinion Editor at the M-I. Read it here.
A couple weeks ago I wrote that Kentucky was the first state to commit to the Core Standards Initiative that would set the bar for education in almost every state in the nation.
On Wednesday, the core standards draft was released and you can read it at http://www.corestandards.org.
The new standards are going to redefine how schools teach and assess their students. In a nutshell, they’re tackling the issues of reading and math, which are basically the foundation of education’s pyramid. If you can read and you can add, you can learn just about anything, I hear.
Keep your eye out for more news about how Kentucky, and Daviess County in particular, help set the bar for these core standards, especially since Daviess County Public Schools are one of six districts in the state actually developing the new assessments that will be a part of these core standards.
10
Mar
10
Fresh links
Just a quick-hit entry today as it’s kind of late in the day.
First, a look at education and culture. The earthquake that devastated Haiti weeks ago has exposed some of the underlying issues at fault with their culture. Education isn’t something that all children in Haiti had access to even before the quake that devastated the capital and killed tens of thousands.
This link takes you to the New York Times education blog and shows teachers a way they can teach about the differences in education and culture using Haiti as an example. Click here to see it.
And on a darker note, things may be bad in Kentucky and education may be a big issue, but in Rhode Island, one underperforming school’s district administration decided that the way to fix the problem was to fire everyone and start anew. Will such a drastic move work? Read for yourself and tell me what you think.
For those who don’t get the title reference, Asimov was a writer-type who developed the three laws of robotics, which basically say robots do everything for good, can’t hurt humans and are generally pretty cool.
Anyway, I caught this story on Mashable about how robotic teachers are nearing reality in South Korea and Japan.
Though I highly suspected my seventh grade English teacher of being some form of artificial intelligence (Sorry, Bob), this is actually really strange to me. I’m of the belief that a computer makes a wonderful monkey and a robot, which is basically a computer-machine that looks kinda-sorta like a human, is really just a walking Dell without a keyboard.
Of course, I could be wrong. Just in case these robots do start taking over the world, however, I for one welcome our new robot teaching overlords.
What are your thoughts on robotic teachers in the classroom?
I was flipping through Google News today, looking for something to blog about, and noticed this handy dandy Washington Post article slap-bang at the top.
The quick-and-dirty story is, when President Obama and Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the $787 billion economic stimulus package, they incorporated in $4.35 billion that was set aside for educational grants.
Kentucky is one of 15 states (which includes the District of Columbia) to make the finalists for the first-phase grants, which will be given out in April. If Kentucky doesn’t make it, the state can still apply for second-phase funding by the June 1st deadline.
From the article: “‘These states are an example for the country of what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,’ Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement.”
That statement will certainly be music to the ears of Kentucky educators and education administrators, especially with the state taking the initiative to be the first to embrace new teaching standards that are set to be adopted across the country.
The full list of finalists is: Colorado, Delaware, the District, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.
To read the Department of Education’s press release, click here.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has also released a statement about the news of Kentucky being named a finalist. His state reads as follows:
“We are very excited to see Kentucky in the list of finalists for the first round of Race to the Top (RTTT) funding. The state’s selection is a reflection of the application’s high quality and reinforces the validity of the work in which we are engaging for Kentucky’s public school system.
“With the combined efforts of the Governor’s office, the Department of Education and the General Assembly, Kentucky has become a strong contender for these federal funds.
“The next step is preparing to defend our application to a panel of reviewers in Washington, who will make the final decisions on winners. Regardless of the outcome, we will continue to move forward with our vision for public education as laid out in 2009’s Senate Bill 1.”
02
Mar
10
Long distance education
Owensboro may already have a few choices in higher education of its own, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of the younger generation from venturing elsewhere to seek their higher education and fortunes.
At the same time, many institutions of higher education recognize that there are plenty of potential students who would love to get their education but simply have neither the time, the resources or the desire to leave wherever they live.
A huge chunk of people who fall into this category are people who’ve already started families, careers or are just otherwise tied down to wherever it is they live.
So, enter technology to help make situations a little easier, and educational institutions willing to shell out the dollars to incorporate them into their methodology. For example, at WKU-Owensboro, a full six classrooms are equipped with video cameras and large flat-panel TVs, set up for video-conferencing, that allow students and teachers separated by geography to still collaborate in a classroom environment.
Likewise, the University of Louisville has plenty of courses available online and even now has a program in Owensboro allowing people with their bachelor’s degrees to go back to school long-distance and get a nursing degree.
When I was in college, classes had plenty of online assistance (although I would hesitate to use that word if you talked about some of the antiquated, archaic and downright abysmal systems we had to use). I even finished my last two classes by way of distance learning and took my final exams at Owensboro Community and Technical College, though I had walked across the stage and gotten by diplomas the semester before.
But now, distance learning and online classes are heading into an area that I wasn’t sure would happen this soon… middle and high schools.
Read more about it here in this story from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
What are your thoughts about this? Do you think distance learning should be introduced so soon in the educational experience? Do you see any advantages or disadvantages to students of these levels making use of these online resources?
