Newsweek’s cover this week proclaimed that “The Key To Saving American Education” was that “we must fire bad teachers.”
Now, that’s what I call a sophisticated analysis of a complex problem….
Yes, there are bad teachers. But, as the saying goes, if the only tool you have is a hammer, than every problem looks like a nail.
Instead of only scapegoating teachers, perhaps a more accurate and non-black/white solution would be to also look at curriculum, school and district leadership, parent engagement, and community pressures like unemployment, safety, and health care. Is it really too much to ask that experienced journalists (and others) recognize that most problems of any kind require a multi-pronged approach?
And then they claim that some private charters are models for us all because they are successful and don’t “cherrypick.” In the same sentence, the writers say “they take anyone who will sign a contract to play by the rules.” Excuse me, how is that not cherrypicking?
The Newsweek writers praise the New Orleans’ success with charters as well, but don’t mention the 70 hour work weeks that are burning their teachers out, as highlighted by the New Orleans Times Picayune yesterday (thanks to The Educated Reporter for the tip). Those kind of expectations are really going to keep teachers in the profession for the long-haul.
These kinds of magazine covers and articles might help sell copies and contribute to feelings that complex problems have simple solutions, but they certainly don’t contribute anything of value to public discourse that could lead to positive change.
In The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners, I agree with Jeffrey Hill at the English Blog in rating Google’s Translate Service as doing the best job out there for computerized translating.
Now, though, there’s an easy way for you to make that determination for yourself.
The New York Times has just published a chart titled “Putting Google to the Test in Translation.” In it, they compare several pieces of text using Google Translate, Yahoo’s Babel Fish, and Microsoft’s Bing translation system.
I think you’ll agree that Google does the best job of the bunch…
I’m adding a link to the chart to the Best Reference list.
“What Is Internet, Anyway?” is a compilation of television clips from the 1990′s explaining the Internet. It’s not to be missed. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About The Internet.
Freedom on the Net 2011 shows the levels of Internet freedom around the world on an interactive map.
60 Seconds on the Web represents everything that happens on the Internet every minute.
Here’s a 1969 video imagining today’s Internet:
State Of The Internet 2011 is a pretty darn impressive interactive infographic telling you everything you would want to know about the Internet in the world today.
There are two good online interactives related to D-Day that I’ll be adding to my website:
One is titled The Battle of Pointe du Hoc. It’s about one particular battle that took place during the invasion of Normandy, and is particularly accessible to English Language Learners because it provides audio support for the text.
The other provides an overview of the entire invasion. It’s really quite impressive, and is accessible to ELL’s. It’s just not quite as accessible as the first one because it doesn’t provide audio support for the text.
We intentionally don’t “teach to the test” at our school, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try to make our students feel comfortable and positive on state test days. I’ve been exploring different ways to do this, and I just learned about another one.
The report says:
Adorning classrooms with symbols of achievement, such as A+ and other success-oriented words and phrases may activate effort, pride, and the intention to perform well in standardized testing situation.
I had heard about this study a week or two ago, but that short report didn’t say there had been a control group. Without one, I figured it was useless. But this lengthier article better explains the experiment’s methodology.
I haven’t really been one for displaying a lot of “gung ho” type stuff around the classroom and, instead, try to plaster the walls with student work and helpful information that students can refer to when doing their classwork. We’re supposed to cover-up a lot of that during state tests, but I suspect “success-oriented words and phrases” are allowable.
But I figure putting a few “A+” signs around certainly can’t hurt, so I’ll give it a try….
I thought readers might be interested in seeing a small sample of the posters our Intermediate English students developed in a very short time. I’m also going to be adding this slideshow to The Best Online Examples Of My Students’ Work.
I learned, and practiced, a an old organizing adage during my nineteen year community organizing career. It went like this:
“A good evaluation can save a lousy action.”
We typically defined an action as any kind of activity that involved more than one person — it could be an individual meeting, a small group negotiating with a public official, a planning meeting, a public negotiation involving thousands. The evaluation that took place immediately afterward was key to “digesting” and learning from the action.
I was reminded of this concept, and how and why I apply it in the classroom, when I was watching a recent TED Talk by Daniel Kahneman, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in behavioral economics (whatever that is).
In his talk (which has some great points, but is also a bit meandering), Kahneman talks about the importance of endings. He begins by telling the story of a friend who listened to twenty minutes of wonderful classical music that ended with a terrible screech on the recording. His friend said that the ending ruined it all for him.
Kahneman uses that story to frame how he says we think — we have an “experiencing self” and a “remembering self.” The experiencing self is when a doctor asks if it hurts when he touches a certain place, while the remembering self responds to a question about how you have been feeling lately.
The remembering self is key because we use those memories, and the stories we turn them into, we make future decisions.
He tells about an experiment done in the 1990′s when two groups of patients were given colonoscopies. One group “finished” when the procedure was completed, while the other stayed a short while believing the procedure was continuing but in fact it had ended — so the pain was gone or reduced dramatically. The second group described the procedure afterward as much less painful than the first one, even though both groups had recorded similar levels of pain during the procedure…except for the extra time for the second group.
I try to orchestrate my lesson plans (though I’m not always successful) so that students have an opportunity near the end to see how much they’ve learned and how much they’ve gotten better at something. And if it’s been a hard day classroom management wise, or if students (or I) are not in the greatest mood, I at least try to figure out a way to end on a positive note — even a short sentence scramble game (see Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?).
I try to apply this when there is tension with a student, too. Another old organizing adage is after you polarize, always depolarize. If a student and I have had tension during class, I try to “depolarize,” if possible, before the end of class.
I want the “experiencing selves” of my students to feel like they’ve had a good experience in my class. And I definitely want their “remembering selves” to have a good story about it, too.
Learn English With Pictures and Audio has a good-sized collection of images, text, and audio to help English Language Learners begin to develop their vocabulary.
After taking our grandkids to the zoo yesterday, I thought it might be useful to pull together some of the best resources out there to learn about animals.
This “The Best…” list is geared more towards Intermediate English Language Learners and above. You can find many activities for Beginning ELL’s under Animals on my webpage.
These sites would be useful for students who are researching for essays or reports.
There are many sites out there with information about animals, but many don’t seem particularly accessible to me. I’ve just included ones that I thought were engaging, had simple language, included some multimedia, and were easily navigable. I’ve also included one or two fun sites and ones where students can create some of their own online content about animals.
ROAR: The Game! is a great game from the BBC. Players have to create their own zoo, including picking habitats, the animals, their food, and their feeding routines. There is audio support for some text, and the English is simple. It’s a fun way to to learn about animals and practice language skills. One feature that I particularly like is that you can email a link of your creation to a teacher or friend for posting on a website or blog. Then, as an extension activity, students could write a little describing their zoo, as well as use it as an opportunity for oral practice. Players do have to register for the game, but it’s free and easy to do so.
The BBC Earth Explorer is an absolutely amazing source of images and videos about Planet Earth. It has a cool interface, too.
Who Pooped? has got to be one of the most original — and somewhat gross — ideas for an interactive to teach about animals. Of course, students will love it! The Minnesota Zoo created this site, which is engaging, informative, and accessible to English Language Learners. Oh, and did I mention it’s a little bit gross?
ARKive is a site filled of photos, videos, and information about endangered species throughout the world. Students can create their own “collection” of endangered animals — by personal interest, speciies, geographical area, or any other category they want to create. Their collection will then be accessible via the Internet.
The National Zoo at the Smithsonian has a great collection of E-Cards. Not only are there a lot to choose from, but finished cards are hosted by zoo’s server and appear to stay there indefinitely.
And, lastly, for fun, you can create a Talking Pet and share it with a friend or teacher.
The Animal Odd Couple is a must-see CBS News video of a friendship between a dog and an elephant. Just because I like it so much (I’m a big fan of elephants and dogs!), I’m adding it to this list.
World Animal Day is October 4th, and you can read all about it at ESL Holiday Lessons, which has an excellent lesson plan on the day that’s designed for English Language Learners.
I just had to add this video to this list. At forty-five seconds into the video it really gets amazing:
Here’s an amazing video of birds that moonwalk. It’s from PBS. I’ve “tube-chopped” the best minute-and-half here, but you can see the entire longer video here.
CBS News has a very good video titled Fast Draw: U.S. Census. In a little more than two minutes, it gives an engaging history of the census and its purpose.
I, like many others, are very disturbed by the recent decision to fire all the teachers at a high school in Rhode Island, and President Obama’s subsequent support of that action.
Instead of writing my own post about it, though, there have been others whom have written about it eloquently and made the same points I would make.
Earth Album is a “mashup” showing the most highly-rated Flickr photos with a world map. Click on the country or state you want and a stream of the best photos from that area will appear. Click on an individual photo and you can see a larger image with a describing caption.
It would be a good way to introduce a country in geography class.
