I'm a week late to this (The Ed Deformer's Monster Mash) but there's still much to enjoy if you haven't seen it already.
Duncan is a particularly enthusiastic Frankenstein, and Rhee is a deliciously emotionless BOF. Thanks to PURE
"The fad spread first to Missouri, Mississippi and Oklahoma, then across
the U.S."
Hunkerin
“If Li’l
Wayne would rap the times table, that’s what they’d be doing.”
Veteran gang member quoted in this blog post from Freaknomics about preventing youth violence.
Some of you doubted me when I first noted that the interactions between Don Draper and his daughter's pretty teacher would become one of the most interesting parts of this season of Mad Men (Hot For Teacher).
But indeed, the connection between Miss Farrell and Draper has been an intense one, developing and deepening even further in last night's episode.
Has their interaction peaked? Will things ever be the same? "Do I need to worry for my job?"
From the Forum for Education and Democracy:
"It is with
great sadness that we at The Forum share with you the news of the death of our
friend and mentor, Ted Sizer. Ted lost
his battle with cancer on Wednesday while at home with his family."
Click below for the rest of the announcement.
Continue reading "RIP: Ted Sizer (June 23, 1932 - October 21, 2009)" »
In preparation for a possible swine flu outbreak (and to show off its digital offerings), one Chicago high school told 150 sophomores stay home and keep
up with school via the Internet and videoconferencing (Virtual Learning Is an Antidote to School Closure Edutopia).This is the first I've heard of this, but perhaps not the last.
"Johana Villafuerte,6, receives a H1N1 nasal flu spray vaccine from nurse Shajaira Powell-Bailey at the Broadmoor Elementary school October 19, 2009 in Miami, Florida." (Jezebel.)
Little Suri Cruise, daughter of Scientologist actor Tom Cruise, is reportedly going to be enrolled in a Roman Catholic preschool in Boston (National Enquirer). This changes everything. (No, not really.)
“I was in a lot of pain but I didn’t call for help at first because I didn’t want to get into trouble for missing school.” Hot For Education.
A T-shirt with President Barack Obama's picture on it didn't go over
too well with a school teacher on Monday. But it was the wording on the
shirt and not the president's photo that might have broken rules. Those
words were "Hi Haters."
Via LiveLeak. None of the people in the bus were seriously hurt. The folks in the other car (which had veered into oncoming traffic) were not so lucky.
Quick! Before it becomes shapeless and predictable and everyone else is watching it! Start watching ""Community." It's technically even about education, so you can probably even watch it at work. In last night's show (the third episode), one teacher channels Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (complete with the scene where they stand on their desks). The actor who plays the principal on Glee appears as Abed's stern but loving father. There are even some useful lessons about meddling in other peoples' lives (like teachers and reformers all love to do).
Youth violence is -- has been -- a major problem in Chicago for years now. The latest and most horrific example is this one. Warning: The video is graphic and upsetting.
Apparently the fight was brewing all day, and planned for after school. But neither kids, nor teachers, nor school security were able to head off what turned into a tragedy.
Teen beaten to death in Roseland mob fight WLS
"The
people that did this, they need to come forward and tell us why they
did it and turn themselves in," said Jesse, Albert's paternal
grandmother.
Kid Beaten to Death in a Melee Tribune
Witnesses say 16-year-old Derrion Albert was walking home from school
when he got caught in the middle of two gangs fighting.
“Six Degrees of Separation” is based on the math of social networks. Thrillers have a special propensity for edgy twists on game theory. And what is a disease-outbreak movie if not an illustration of mathematical epidemiology, with puffy suits? To see movies through their math, sometimes, is to watch a whole different drama.
The mysterious equilibrium of zombies Boston Globe
"If I had wanted to learn something, I wouldn't have come to community college."
Don Draper is hot for Sally's teacher -- and vice versa (here)
It'll give you a good Wednesday morning jolt, but I'm not entirely sure if there's otherwise anything particularly edifying about this video:here. Please let this not be part of St. Louis' remnant school desegregation efforts.
This writer (Trench Warfare on the Board of Ed) got onto his local school board, found himself constantly blocked, but nonetheless defends the existence of boards that many find unnecessary and ineffective. He describes boards as "a kind of last hope for democracy, where a rogue can actually be elevated to position of authority, bringing a flashlight –- and, sometimes, a pulpit — to the process."
Two stories off the EWA.org site about kids with special needs that challenge schools -- homelessness being on the rise this last year or so in particular:
A Surge in Homeless Children Tests School Aid Programs NYT
The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.
Houston schools offer campus help for teen moms Houston Chronicle
Most teen moms don't graduate high school, and national statistics show that far fewer — only 2 percent — go on to earn a college degree before age 30. The problem is particularly profound in Houston — where more girls under 15 give birth than in any other U.S. city, according to a report last week from the research nonprofit Child Trends.
Want to know where Michael Jackson's kids are going to get educated this year? Of course you do.
At first it appeared that the kids would shift from being homeschooled to attending a snazzy LA prep school, Buckley. More recently, however, it seems that they'll continue being homeschooled. So says TMZ (The Jackson Kids' Education).
Here's another clip of Stephen Colbert, this time playing history teacher Chuck Noblet on the comedy sketch show Strangers With Candy. Warning: Dialogue is graphic:
Rolling Stone says that Colbert's depiction of this fact-fudging, outburst-prone teacher "subtly set the stage for the evolving Colbert character on the Daily Show." (Before the Report)
Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the schoolhouse massacre in Beslan, which took the lives of over 330 people, including 186 children.
As in the past, I recommend CJ Chivers' powerful and deeply disturbing Esquire magazine story about what happened, called The School.
Warning: It makes Columbine look like a walk in the park.
...in baseball, that is. Over the weekend, the Little League team from Chula Vista, CA beat the team from Taiwan in the Little League World Series.
The opening monologue from Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
Courtesy of Gawker.
I'm not actually all that offended or in disagreement, but schools chief Ron Huberman yesterday had to defend his choice of Jeremih, a Chicago singer who's current hit, "Birthday Sex" is about just that, as the school district's choice for getting the word out about the importance of going back to school.
“He had 70 million hits on his MySpace page. For us to be naïve and believe that this is not what our students are listening to would be not living in the world where our students are,” Huberman said.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Nailed 'Em - War on Birth Control | ||||
| ||||
If librarians can can lobby for a library-themed Ben & Jerry's flavor, and Stephen Colbert can get his own, then why not one for education, too?
Come on, we're 50 million kids and $550B in spending a year. We're cute, we're zany, we're All-American (whatever that means these days).
But the competition is tough -- the librarians already have 40,000 people signed up for Facebook, and their flavor name ideas are some of them pretty awesome. They've got the New Yorker helping them (Tasty De-Lit.
Someone's going to have to really step up if we're going to pull this thing off and crush those eye-glass wearing, rule-enforcing ants.
Good news! Sidney Lumet's daughter Jenny (who directed Rachel Getting Married) is working on the movie version of "Strange Prom" -- last year's New York Times story about immigrant high schoolers planning their school's first prom. Check it out, and then read my interview with Brooke Hauser, who wrote the NYT article that was published last summer (On The HotSeat).
You may remember the long saga of Charleston High School's prom, which Morgan Freedman offered to pay for last year -- if only it would finally become racially integrated. Well it was, and now a year later it's finally being broadcast on HBO: Prom Night In Mississippi.
Another HS School Board Has Lost It's Mind (The Daily Tube)
Journalist Bob Schieffer, of CBS's Face the Nation, has taken in Dariya Fadeeva, a former Chechen student who survived the massive September 2004 attack on her school because she was late to school that day (CBS's Bob Schieffer Opens His Home to Russian Student).
Another TV show with a (tangential) connection to education. This one is HBO's NSFW show, "Hung" (An early look): "The new HBO dramedy is set in Detroit against the backdrop of a
financially ruined automotive industry skyline, and as the world
crumbles around him, Ray is forced to re-evaluate his life while
everything he cares about slowly slips away. It's unsettling and sad,
but in some ways, fortuitous ... at least for HBO anyway. Considering
the current economic crisis many Americans are experiencing, a lot of people are going to relate to this show."
Have you seen it? Does it look any good? My guess is no. Sad that in the world of pop culture working in a school is still considered to be such a horrible thing that it might justify an illegal job on the side. Hung is not to be confused with Breaking Bad, the AMC drama about (sort of) a high school chemistry teacher, which just finished its 2nd season (Walter White's Report Card).
A
YouTube video was posted on June 9, 2009, in which an 8th grader named
Aaron Shutway, standing at one end of a basketball court, performs a
front handspring while holding the ball, and in landing the flip shoots
across the court, and makes the shot. (Videogum)
Forget the CREDO report. It's way too late for anything as puny as research. Even the stalwart NY Times' Sunday Styles Section is going all charter-y. This recent "Vows" entry tells the story about how a pair of newlyweds met:
"They immediately offered their services at the James M. Singleton Charter Middle School and gave cameras to a group mostly consisting of eighth graders to record their experiences."
Many of us thought that US schools (and media) were over-reacting to the swine flu, but maybe the concern was more appropriate than it seemed:
Hong Kong authorities on June 11 ordered all primary schools in the city to be closed for two weeks after the first cluster of local swine flu cases was found.(Jezebel)
Congratulations, Or Something, Class Of 2009
The good folks at Videogum point out that today is the 20th anniversary of the release of Dead Poets Society, the prep-school drama that some people love and others...don't (Where Is The Dead Poets Society 20th Anniversary DVD?). Here's the last scene of the movie, which has been viewed over 500,000 times.
Stephen Colbert Cameos In High School Principal's Commencement Speech HuffPo
Goodrich
High School Principal David St. Aubin being deployed to Iraq Flint News
Via Jennifer Mascia on Facebook
It's going to be hard to beat the DC charter high school that got Michelle Obama for their speaker, or Denison High School where Sully Sullenberger, the Hudson River airline pilot hero, is going to be speaking, but I bet there are some great (and not so great) speakers that are (or have been) invited this year.
Here's what I have so far, besides Sullenberger: Current and former White House press secretaries Gibbs and McLellan are speaking at DC area high schools (here). Lots of other Beltway types here.Out in the real world, SecDef Gates spoke at East High in Wichita and apparently compared himself to Austin Powers. Sugar Ray Leonard spoke at his alma mater, Parkdale HS (here).
From Cathy Grimes at the Newport News Daily Press: "Had Mark Gordon (movie and TV producer, Grey’s Anatomy, Saving Private Ryan, etc.) as commencement speaker at Hampton Roads Academy (he’s an alum, Class of 1974) in Newport News, Va. He regaled them with his setback-strewn (and two-decades long) path to success, which included some really awful jobs, some really awful living situations and three nervous breakdowns before he was 30."
Is EdSec Duncan speaking at any events? I speculated about this long ago (Which Commencement Will The EdSec Attend?.) and hear he's done one already but think was a college (St. Michael's in Vermont). Or maybe the Octo-Mom? Who gets Tom Brady? I'd love to know.
Watch Deadspin's highlights from the Spelling Bee -- these kids are funny, not just awkward. Then, go home! It's Friday.
"Schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., wary in a litigious era about sexual harassment or improper touching — or citing hallway clogging and late arrivals to class — have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule." From the Times (Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’). Even better, see the video: Hugging Is Hip
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in This Week In Education are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Scholastic, Inc.
