Poetry In Ads: Can We Live With It?

As several readers noted, it turns out it was an actor who voiced O Pioneers! in the ad I told you about last week (Levi's Uses Rare Walt Whitman Recording To Sell Jeans ).The real Walt Whitman's voice is here, reading his poem America:  

I'm still on the fence about this.  But not everyone's upset about the use of a famous poet to sell jeans. Seth Stevenson says he's always wondered what ads set to poems would look like (Slate Magazine).  "That scratchy Whitman recording also sets a mood of vague disquiet. Paired with the music behind it and the startling crack of sudden fireworks, that raspy, distant voice sounds rather ominous." At least it's not all about sex. 

Colleges: Backlash Against Male Affirmative Action

"Colleges don’t favor men to help struggling boys. They do it to keep their gender ratios from pushing past the dreaded 60% threshold..." (Seminal moment arrives in the ‘boy troubles’ debate Richard Whitmire)

Advertising: Levi's Uses Rare Walt Whitman Recording To Sell Jeans

It's horrifying. It's sort of cool. Or both.  This Levi's ad, currently running around the country, wants you to buy $238 jeans and features a recording of Walt Whitman reciting his own poem, Pioneers! O Pioneers!

You remember the one:  "Pioneers! O Pioneers!  COME, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers! For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, 5 We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!"

Quotes: A TFA Teacher's Lament

"What have I gotten myself into? I suck at this."

(I don’t know how much I can handle… Joanne Jacobs)

Video: Teacher Acquitted Despite 800 Texts With Student

Today on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulous interviewed Nicole Howell, the Kentucky teacher who was accused -- and acquitted -- of having had sex with a high school student.  She admitted having ignored sexual tests from the student, which she said were commonplace.  She explained 800 texts between herself and the student as nothing out of the ordinary.  The contents of the texts were purged by the phone company before they could be reviewed by the court. (Video clip:  Teacher Says Her Life Was "Ruined" By Student's Sex Accusation).  What do you think?  The situation sounds sort of shady to me, frankly, though at times US consent laws seem ridiculous.

Teacher Training: The Anti TFA

The Urban Teacher Education Program is small, generally shuns publicity, and features a lengthy, classroom-based preparation program.  It makes the current handful of "residency-based" teacher prep programs (Boston Residency, AUSL) look like drive-by affairs. In an age of quickie teacher prep programs, UTEP is the anti-TFA. 

Of course, it probably costs a ton of money, and may be completely unscalable.  And there's no ed school involved, so ... well... don't even get me started about that.  Worst of all, it's run out of the University of Chicago.  But in six years it's got a 98 percent retention rate.  Something to think about. 

Reform-Land: Boston Teachers Fight TFA Deal - TFA Fights Back

Still think that things are all hunky dory in reform-land?  Check out this recent Slate post from Chad Matlin (Teach for America Gets a Timeout) about the Boston Teachers Union's fight against a sweetheart deal for TFA members that apparently included "a fast-track toward being rehired if they get laid off."  Matlin writes for Slate's "Big Money" spinoff and he says he's going to focus on the business of education (one of my favorite under-used categories).  The union didn't like the disparate treatment and fought for equal treatment. Usually reluctant to comment in the press, TFA fired off a testy response on Friday that, it should be noted, doesn't argue Matlin's main points. 

Teachers: Not Your Average Career-Switcher

To keep things interesting in a class that consists largely of reading drills, Mr. Dunn hands out award tickets that can be redeemed for prizes at the end of the week. He still wears his BlackBerry -- a tool of the legal tribe, but unusual in the school. Old habits die hard, he said. "In my old job, not answering an e-mail immediately could have implications"

From Death Row To Study Hall

New York Times

Executive Function: I Just Can't Resist.

Executive function is everywhere.  First there was the article about the Marshmallow Test in The New Yorker.  Then the video.  Then there was Paul Tough's recent article about Tools of the Mind in the NYT Magazine. 

But they may not have been the first.  There is a whole chapter on executive function in Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman's newest book, NurtureShock, which was recently reviewed (somewhat critically) in the New York Times.

The differences in the research behind emotional intelligence and executive function are discussed by the authors in this recent blog post (NurtureShock Blog):  "The fact that executive function and emotional intelligence can both be referred to with a pithy abbreviation beginning with "E," does not mean that they are on equally shaky scientific ground."

Dangerous Minds: Great Scenes From Not So Great Movies

This is the scene from the 1995 masterpiece "Dangerous Minds" where hero teacher Michele Pfeiffer goes to see what's happening with the kids who aren't coming to school anymore and gets told off in no uncertain terms:

Best line: "I saw what they were bringing home – poetry and shit. A waste of time. They got more important things to worry about."

Portable Technology: The Kindle Comes To K-12

Desktop?  Cell phone?  Laptop?  Netbook?  PDA?  What form of technology (if any) will make the most difference in student achievement?  No one seems to know.

Despite the uncertainties involved and the bad economy, a few schools and districts around the country are experimenting with an even newer form of technology:  e-readers like the Kindle.  It's not just colleges and universities who are giving them a try. 

Andrew Trotter has the story in the latest Scholastic Administrator:  Will the Kindle Change Education?.

Teaching: The Green Classroom

Questions and answers on how to make your classroom more environmentally friendly:

Are mechanical pencils better for the environment?
Green Lantern

In an ideal world where kids could be counted on to bring their school supplies home safely at the end of each day, a mechanical pencil would be the greener choice.

Are blackboards greener than whiteboards? Slate

With apologies to both camps, let's assume that blackboards and whiteboards are completely interchangeable with respect to teaching, so we can figure out which is better for the planet.

Gingrich & Sharpton: Just The Latest Drive-By Education Experts

Via Slate.

Teacher: "I Don't Want An Apple, Danny. Do You Have Any Money?"

From the latest New Yorker.

Technology: More Of What To Do, Less Of What's Prohibited

Will Richardson came up with a great technology "do" list to replace the long lists of prohibitions that make up most schools' acceptable use policies.  Some of my favorites:

“Do use our network to connect to other students and adults who share your passions with whom you can learn.”

“Do use our network to help your teachers find experts and other teachers from around the world.”

“Do use our network to collaborate with others to change the world in meaningful, positive ways.”

Don’t, Don’t, Don’t vs. Do, Do, Do (via Faqcebook)

Audio: Rafe Esquith's New Book

I know, I know. Schools (and teachers) can't make all the difference. We all need to get it.  But still, treat yourself to this interview from last week with Rafe Esquith on WNYC. It's worth a listen, whatever side you're on:

WNYC Lighting Their Fires

Schools: Geekifying Kids' Education Experience

"A big high school has a youth-owned culture. You've got to break that."

 Tom Vander Ark quoted in Wired (Making Geeks Cool Could Reform Education).

Video: The Marshmallow Test -- How Long Can You Last?

You already know about the Marshamllow Test from that New Yorker article over the summer.  Kids who can wait longer will do better in school.  Now here's the video.  It's just over three minutes long.  How long can YOU last?

PS: I tried waiting until the end of the day to post the video, but didn't make it. Impulse control is clearly a problem.

Video: A Classroom Lesson From The US Open

This video clip from over the weekend isn't just about the bizarre and unfortunate way Serena Williams lost out on becoming a repeat US Open champion.
 

It's also a vivid example of the "slippery slope" you hear some educators talk about. The costly breach of a minor rule exercised too rigidly, a thoughtless and self-destructive outburst, a fearful response -- and then a cascading set of consequences that end up feeling disproportionate to the original offense.

Learning: Multi-Taskers Not Nearly As Effective As They Think

"Last week, researchers at Stanford University published a study showing that the most persistent multitaskers perform badly in a variety of tasks. They don’t focus as well as non-multitaskers. They’re more distractible. They’re weaker at shifting from one task to another and at organizing information. They are, as a matter of fact, worse at multitasking than people who don’t ordinarily multitask." (The Mediocre Multitasker NYT)

GRAPHIC: 20 States Still Allow School Beatings -- Still Eligible For RttT

Twenty states still allow corporal punishment, according to a study from Human Rights Watch that was covered in the NYT earlier this week. 

And kids with disabilities -- no surprise -- receive a disproportionate share of the physical punishment.

Getting rid of these policies is not, however, a condition of receiving RttT funding.

You can read the article here.

PHOTO: What Kind Of Teacher Is He?

I came across this image randomly via Kottke.org -- it's from a photo series in the Morning News about masculinity -- and realized that I wasn't entirely sure what kind of teacher this guy was.  High school? College?  Public?  Private?  Take a look and let us know what you think.  Maybe it's obvious and I'm just not paying close enough attention.  

 

 

CARTOON: "Lucky For You Your Teacher's A Teabagger."

Via Slate

BOOKS: Was Atticus Finch Really A Radical?

Lots of people love To Kill A Mockingbird, and I'm guessing it's still taught in a lot of classes. 

Here, the book gets the Malcolm Gladwell treatment in the New Yorker (Atticus Finch and Southern liberalism), including some questioning of just how much of a radical Atticus Finch (and the real-life person the character was based on) really were:

“Big Jim did not seek a fundamental shift of political power or a revolution in social mores,” Sims says. Folsom operated out of a sense of noblesse oblige: privileged whites, he believed, ought to “adopt a more humanitarian attitude” toward blacks"

QUOTES: "Miracle Cures And Pantomime"

"Debates on school reform seem to suffer from two related problems: The assumption that a simple change of governance or incentives will set you free; The tendency to pantomime--rather than truly implement--good reform ideas and then abandon them as ineffective when they don't work". (Miracle Cures and Pantomime LFA)

TEACHING: Shakespeare In Text-Speak

Rapping Shakespeare is so 1990s.  Now some teachers are trying to bring Shakespeare to the world of kids' Sidekicks.  Can you tell what famous scene this is?

Bt w8, wuz dat lyt n d wndw ovr der?
Itz d east, n Juliet S d sun.
Rise ^, btifl sun, n kil d jLs m%n . d m%n
S alrdy sick n pale W grief coz u,
Juliet, her maid, r mor btifl thN she.

TEACHING: Widespread Class Size Increases Anticipated

"Forty-four percent of school districts[are] expected to increase class size. Classes in Los Angeles are expected to grow by two kids in fourth through 12th grades. Middle school classes will have 35 kids on average; juniors and seniors will have about 43 kids in each class. Kindergarten through third-grade classes will rise by four kids to 24." (AP: School budgets dip, class sizes grow). Average class size in America is about 20 students. 

EDSCHOOLS: Stanford Makes Itself Look Bad

As if ed schools weren't already thought of as bastions of abstract theory and political correctness, Uncle Jay tears apart the folks at the Stanford School of Education for over-reacting to a rebellious (and bloggy) teaching candidate: They Messed With the Wrong Blogger). Yikes. Please tell me that Linda Darling-Hammond was not involved in any way.  

TEACHERS: Charter Teachers Who Regret Unionization

I couldn't help but notice that the kicker of Sam Dillon's cover story today reveals that Joyce Pae, one of the Chicago teachers who pushed to get her school unionized -- ended up regretting her decision, just like Kashi Nelson.

As you may recall, Nelson joined the unionization effort at KIPP AMP but then came to regret having helped initiate the process (A Teacher Changes Her Mind).

It's just two people, and I'm sure there are many others who are glad that they decided to go for unionization, but seemed worth noting.

Maybe the trick for charter teachers will be to make noises like they're going to talk to the union, but not really do anything.  

LEARNING: Print Still Motivates Kids, Says "Staggering" Dave Eggers

"Our students at 826 Valencia still have a newspaper class, where we print an actual newspaper, and we do magazine classes and anthologies where they're all printed on paper. That's the main way we get them motivated, that they know it's going to be in print. It's much harder for us to motivate the students when they think it's only going to be on the Web.  The vast majority of students we work with read newspapers and books, more so than I did at their age. And I don't see that dropping off. If anything the lack of faith comes from people our age, where we just assume that it's dead or dying." Interview in Salon.com

HOTSEAT: Teacher - Turned Blogger - Turned Author

Eight years into her teaching career and two years into blogging, Jennifer Scoggin (aka Mrs. Mimi) this week announced that Kaplan was turning her blog, It's Not All Flowers and Sausages, into a book. 

Scheduled to come out this fall, the book expands on Scoggin's classroom blog, which features colorful stories about children and the people who work in schools.

On the HotSeat, Scoggin talks about how she's different from her blog character, how her blog got turned into a book, and what she'll do when people start figuring out what school she's been teaching at. 

Check it all out below, and then go check out the blog, which is generally delightful and bracingly candid about teachers' lives. 

AFT EVENT: Duncan Goes "Unscreened"

If I weren't stuck in New York I would probably make it down to the AFT confab going on in DC this week, which will reportedly include charter school teachers who are unionizing (Civitas in Chicago, KIPP AMP in NYC, Accelerated in LA), as well as the usual suspects (Randi Weingarten, Arne Duncan, Hilda Solis, Steve Barr). 

Apparently Duncan is going to answer unscreened questions from attendees (as opposed to screened or scripted ones, I assume). How about asking Duncan why he touted Chicago's ever-increasing state test scores if he knew they were inflated? [There's a new USA Today story about this.] 

See the advance below.  I'm sure there's a Twitter hashtag, but I don't know what it is yet. 

REFORM: Cabinet Might Work Better With Performance Pay, Says WSJ

"Maybe Mr. Obama will turn next to measuring the performance of Washington officials so they, too, can be paid for quality."

White House Rethinks How to Pay Pros Wall Street Journal

SIC: "Similar To The Of A Lawyer Or Doctor."

"I told him that the best way to raise standards was to pay teachers more but require them to get a graduate degree similar to the of a lawyer or doctor." (Arne Duncan Really Does Listen PK12)

FB: Online Quiz Useful For Teacher Recruitment, Evaluation, & Pay

There are lots of goofy quizzes on Facebook these days, and this one is probably no better or worse.  Except it's about schools:  What kind of teacher are you?. I know!  I haven't taken it but 57,000 others have.  Give it a try and tell us what you find out.  Maybe this is something districts could use instead of all that pricey Haberman stuff.  Or, even better, maybe we can work it into someone's teacher evaluation or performance pay program. 

CHARTERS: Chicago Teachers Vote Union Again

It's happened -- again.  Teachers at three Chicago charter schools voted to unionize and will have a press conference Friday morning.  Or at least that's what the Thursday evening press release tells me. 

You may recall that the teachers' first efforts were invalidated when their employer, Civitas Charter Schools, got someone at the NLRB region 13 office to agree that they weren't a public employer.  Hence the re-vote. 

Rest of this post:  Superficial analysis.  Necessary exaggeration.  Barely hidden self-importance.  General hand-waving.

ARTS: Different Takes On The New NAEP Results

Here's what the MSM has to say about yesterday's arts NAEP results:

Study Finds Instruction in Art Lags in 8th Grade NYT
Music and art instruction in American eighth-grade classrooms has remained flat over the past decade, according to a survey by the Department of Education.

Picture is unclear on arts instruction in schools - USA Today USA Today
Gather up a group of eighth-graders, pop in a CD of George Gershwin's seminal Rhapsody in Blue and turn up the volume. Then ask: In those first few seconds, what keening, soaring, note-bending instrument do you hear?

NAEP Finds Schools' Offerings in Arts Hold Steady EdWeek
The report shows about half of 8th graders attended schools that offered classes—the same as in 1997 when the assessment was last given.

Student scores on music, arts released MSNBC
Results were issued Monday for music and art assessments last given to 8th graders in 1997. Yet the report raises more questions than it answers.

What does 'p' in music mean? Twenty percent of US students know. CSM
A report card on arts education released Monday shows room for improvement.

CARTOON: "Nice Job! Now Go Smell Mr. Stubbs."

From the May 18 edition of the New Yorker

CHARTERS: So Much For Charters Being Public Schools

 In what seems like a really strange turn of events, the NLRB has apparently declared that the teachers who want to be unionized in Chicago are private employees, not public ones as the teachers union (and the teachers) had assumed.  All I have so far is the IFT press release, but it seems to me that, legally and politically, this is a poison pill move for charters, who have been claiming to be public schools, accountable, etc. for the last five hundred years.  Now, all of sudden, thanks to the folks at CICS and Civitas, they're not public schools any more?

UPDATE:  Click here to see the filings pro and con that were submitted to the NLRB by Civitas and by the IFT.  This may have little practical effect, assuming the unionization vote proceeds, but has tremendous (negative) political implications.  Still trying to find out if there's any precedent.

UPDATE 2:  The folks at the AFT tell me that this issue has come up a dozen or so times in other regions and the decision is, while new to Chicago, not entirely unprecedented. It sounds like the NLRB decisions have gone both ways and aren’t numerous enough to declare a trend. And it seems like the IFT and AFT both want to keep the focus on moving forward, not on the public/private issue. (That’s apparently why the somewhat muted language is in the IFT press release, and why AFT president Randi Weingarten isn’t putting out a release.) 

It’s worth pointing out that the new charter law just passed by the state legislature clears this issue up going forward, declaring that charter school employers are public. Yes, Illinois raised the cap on charters and declared them to be public employers. But the legislation is not yet enacted and won’t be retroactive.

JOBS: "Tenured Teachers Have Little To Worry About"

"Tenured teachers have little to worry about in that regard [budget cuts], and there is a continued high demand for educators in high-growth communities, and just about everywhere for teachers in the fields of math and science, reports Salary.com." (10 Jobs for the Recession TIME)

FUTURE: Our Soon-To-Be Outdated Beliefs (About Education)

Jason Kottke links to a provocative discussion about how widespread beliefs (about race, sexuality, etc.) change over time, no matter how prevalent they may be during a certain period:  Our soon-to-be outdated beliefs. 

What current beliefs about schools and education do you think will no longer dominate, say a generation from now?  Education mandatory for 12 years. Student learning organized by chronological age. Government grants only for higher education. Schools organized and funded by obscure geographic entities (districts).

MARSHMALLOWS: Delayed Gratification = 210 SAT Points

"The children who rang the bell quickly seemed more likely to have behavioral problems, both in school and at home," according to this New Yorker article (Don’t!). 

"They got lower S.A.T. scores. They struggled in stressful situations, often had trouble paying attention, and found it difficult to maintain friendships.

"The child who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds."

Via Whitney Tilson, who it turns out has a personal connection to this whole thing. (see the rest of his latest fascinating and rambling email below).

REFORM: Union Overkill In Charter Schools?

"Calling in the union [at KIPP AMP] is like calling in the National Guard...when children throw sand in the sand box."

Unpublished letter to the editor by Harvard education professor Kay Merseth
Full text below.

UNIONS: Reading The Weingarten Tea Leaves

"Is it so crazy to think that, eventually, Weingarten will join Rhee in giving D.C. teachers a new and innovative contract...?"

Jay Mathews in the Washington Post: AFT Announces Innovation Fund 

ADMINS: Performance Pay Falling Out Of Favor - For District Supes

"Bonus pay for performance is also on its way out, at least for now," according to Scholastic Administrator's Salary Report 2009, which quotes AASA's Dan Domenech on the topic:   “It’s almost become counterproductive,” says Domenech. “It’s become increasingly difficult to evaluate performance. School boards are forced to question the intention of superintendents, asking them if the financial incentive had affected their decision-making.”

HOTSEAT: It's New Unionism Day!

On the HotSeat, Mark Simon of the reform-minded Mooney Institute talks about union-foundation collaboration (he's for it), progressive union leadership (there's more of it than you think), and debunks the myth that progressive union local presidents are usually defeated. Then he slams the Obama administration for not hiring enough progressive union types (yet). 

Simon tells us how the Mooney Institute grew out of TURN, and what unions (and reformers) can do to improve academic achievement. Then he predicts that KIPP will be unionized within a year and that "thin" contracts aren't all they're hyped up to be.  He's all over the place, this guy. 

Along the way I make him explain or apologize for everything union-related I can think of.

Thanks to TFA Michele for suggesting this interview.  If you've got ideas about who would be good -- innovative, counterintuitive, candid people who might not otherwise get the attention but have interesting things to say -- let me know.]

UNIONS: General Motors Vs. The United Teachers of LA

"At least with General Motors...there is the possibility of bankruptcy..."

Mickey Kaus last week, writing about the current budget impasse between LAUSD and the UTLA (here)

JOBS: More Aisle-Crossers

Turns out there is at least one more person who's braved a change from one side of the school reform divide to the other: 

Michele McLaughlin was the NCLB person at the AFT (and a key figure on the AFT's much-missed education blog).  Now she's doing state and federal policy for....TFA (AFT Blogger Gets Big TFA Job). 

My bad for not putting two and two together.  If that ain't crossing the aisle, I don't know what is. 

VIDEO: "I Love Charts," Says Sid The Science Kid

You'll either love or hate this sweet video from PBS Kids called "I Love Charts."


I loved it. Then I hated it. Then I sort of liked it again.  It's Wednesday afternoon -- come on. (Via FlowingData.)

UNIONS: Weingarten Supports Charter Unionization In Chicago Visit

 Earlier this month, Catalyst Magazine reported that teachers at three Chicago charters were seeking union recognition (Union organizes teachers at 3 charter schools). 

Distracted perhaps by the very similar and much more conveniently located KIPP AMP story in Brooklyn, no one seemed to care. 

Now we learn from Linda Lutton at WBEZ in Chicago that the unionization effort continues, and even includes a visit from Randi Weingarten (Chicago Charter School Teachers Fight for Union). 

The Weingarten visit could mean that the unionization effort is being rebuffed and is in some sort of trouble, or -- more likely -- that the issue is becoming important nationally to the AFT.