High school rigor? Bring it on, students say
Submitted by eric on 10 August, 2005 - 10:18from CNN
Tuesday, August 9, 2005; Posted: 12:58 p.m. EDT (16:58 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The campaign to make high school more demanding seems to be picking up support from the people who have the biggest stake in the matter: the students themselves.
Almost nine in 10 students say they would work harder if their high school expected more of them, a survey finds. Less than one-third of students say their school sets high academic expectations, and most students favor ideas that might add some hassle to their life, such as more rigorous graduation standards and additional high-stakes testing.
Bush supports teaching alternative ideas!
Submitted by eric on 2 August, 2005 - 09:39This is cool! I always thought Bush was a bit of a dogmatist (and one backing the wrong dog at that), but here he comes right out and says it's good to teach kids various alternative ideas:
EDUCATION -- BUSH HAS DESIGNS FOR AMERICA'S SCHOOLS: At a roundtable interview with five Texas reporters yesterday, President Bush threw his support behind teaching intelligent design, or ID, a controversial theory which maintains that life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and suggests that higher powers must have played a role.
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The Best of the Worst: Breasts like Carburetors?
Submitted by eric on 28 July, 2005 - 19:09I'm teaching creative writing this fall and thought doing a class version of this contest might be fun and edifying (and perhaps a little dangerous). Has anybody else done something similar? --Eric
Best of worst writing is recognized
Prize for comparing breasts to carburetorsThursday, July 28, 2005; Posted: 6:01 p.m. EDT (22:01 GMT)
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A man who compared a woman's anatomy to a carburetor won an annual contest that celebrates the worst writing in the English language.
Hogwarts-Haven
Submitted by eric on 19 July, 2005 - 08:19Hogwarts-Haven is an open discussion list devoted to conversation about the Harry Potter book series. Note that discussion currently is focused on the sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so those who plan to read the book should be aware there will be no spoiler alerts. Join only if you don't mind reading about how the book ends!
Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males
Submitted by ofulmer on 20 June, 2005 - 16:51I finished reading this book today. I read it as a marathon just about--all Saturday evening and Sunday evening, and finishing it this morning. So much of what Tatum says makes some sense to me. There are not a lot of positive reading role models for AFrican-American students, and fewer for males. Therefore, we have to find texts that speak to them in personal ways. Tatum is all about achievement. He does not believe in strategy and skill instruction to raise test scores (although that will undoubtedly be the outcome if we teach meaningful texts and the strategies to comprehend them); he is about achievement as a way to cope with the turmoil of growing up as a black male and as a way to change one's circumstances. He believes in success, not failure. His idea is that failure and lack of participation is not an option for anyone, but in particular for black males.
Summer Thoughts
Submitted by ofulmer on 18 June, 2005 - 14:03I spent this week at the Janet Allen It's Never Too Late literacy institute and the roll-out of the English 2 Curriculum that Janet is preparing for South Carolina. At the same time, I started two books--on about teaching African-American males to read and the other a theory of writing assessment. The Tatum book on literacy has got me thinking.I'm thinking about the idea of literacy as power. There are all kinds of power, good and bad. So many of my students are "gang wannabes." They are adopting the colors, the language, the actions, and the attitudes. Perhaps we are still too small to have the serious gang problems that larger cities are facing, but it's coming. These gang wannabes are just as dangerous as real gang members.
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In Media Res--it was oranges this time
Submitted by GeorgiaHedrick on 17 June, 2005 - 11:43Today I peeled an orange and it hit me: the idea that we always cut the tops off the oranges and scraped out the insides when I was in Community. Everyone did it. No one peeled an orange--god forbid, I guess.The question really is: why? Why cut and dig in, instead of peel? Why was this the 'Community Way'?The bigger question is: why didn't anyone ask why? I just took it for granted that I had to do it this way and no other. In a way, it reminds me of today and life and everything going on around in life today: we go to War and no one says: why? We find nothing of what was said to be there, and no one says: why don't we leave? It's nearly 3 years into this WAr of no reason, with about 1700 soldiers dead and over 100,000 civilians dead, and unnumbered ones being tortured in places we do not know but only two. When are we going to ask why?
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Honor Thy Teacher
Submitted by eric on 28 May, 2005 - 09:06By MATT MILLER
Published: May 28, 2005
"This plan to make teaching poor children the most exciting career in America would cost roughly $30 billion a year... Why can't timid Democrats put up the full $30 billion national plan against the G.O.P.'s plan to eliminate the estate tax, which would shower the same $30 billion a year on heirs in the nation's 3,000 wealthiest families?"
A poll this week showed Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval rating at 40 percent, thanks to months of punishing ads that teachers' unions have run to blast his call for merit pay. In New York, meanwhile, teachers working without a new contract are campaigning to oust Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his "disrespect."
Opening my Eyes...
Submitted by frstbrn24 on 27 May, 2005 - 22:40Just received my copy of LITERACY WITH AN ATTITUDE... started reading it while sipping an Americano at Starbucks... only made it through the Preface & to page 6... it has already wowed me four times!
This last year was more about self-reflection than any other year preceding it... maybe this was due to my work for National Boards... maybe it was just the relationship I have developed with these Literacy classes... but this book... this book is definitely one I am bringing to my principal come Tuesday when we return to school after the holiday weekend. I really believe that EVERY teacher in my building should take the time to read this book...
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When Content Is No Longer King: Social Networking, Community, and Collaboration
Submitted by eric on 27 May, 2005 - 21:46Online Conference
Computers and Writing Online 2005
Posted to TechRhet Fri, 27 May 2005
The 2005 Computers and Writing Online Conference begins on Tuesday, May 31, and runs through Monday, June 13. This is the first-ever online conference in our field to be open-access, Creative Commons-licensed, and hosted on a weblog, and it promises to be innovative and insightful. We set out to perform the concepts and values of the conference theme — networking, community, and collaboration — in our review process, which was open to the public and emphasized group interaction and helpful, supportive feedback. The responders have done an excellent job engaging the authors' ideas, and the authors' responses to the feedback they received have really demonstrated how enriching this public, collaborative model can be for scholarly work.
