Thursday, December 10, 2009
WEST Test- give it a shot
I am currently studying for the Washington Educators Skills Test (WEST) test for washington, for history. If you have some free time, take a gander to see how you do:
Monday, November 30, 2009
Natural Learning
Often, school teachers are telling kids to be quite, sit down, learn. In this school, and others around the country and the globe, are doing quite the opposite: they are telling the kids to get outside.
Read more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/nyregion/30forest.html?_r=1&hpwFrom a personal perspective, my 3 1/2 year old son goes to a Waldorf School here in Seattle, at the Fremont Community School. He plays outside every day, rain or shine (and it is usually rain), and loves it. He stays dry, gets some activity, and eats well.
In today's hectic and urban world, it is nice to know that there are places he, and other kids, can go to be... well, a kid.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Alaska: take a lesson from the Italians
What happens when culture and traditions clash with current events and global economies? In Alaska, families are moving from their traditional homelands to pursue better jobs and more options for their children. The result is budget cuts and schools closing because the families who stay behind don't have enough kids to support the school. When the schools close, those families must decide if they support looking to the future by moving to a town that has a school so their children can have opportunities in today's economy, or hold onto the past by staying behind and preserving their cultural way of life. Either way, something is lost.
The Italians struggled with this same question, but in a different context. As the older population dwindles and the young begin to move into places of economic power, dialects are being lost. To help keep their culture intact, while still allowing the children opportunities within the global arena, Italians now offer at least two types of required language: the regional dialect, and a foreign language - most likely English.
Alaska- take example. If you leave the families to make the choice, you will lose either way, as your future citizens must decide between academic illiteracy, or cultural ignorance. By making traditional culture a part of required education at all Alaskan state schools, you win both ways, and pull the past into the future.
more information, check out the NYT article on Alaska schools here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/us/26alaska.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
The (mis)education of america, part 2
Last we spoke on this subject, I had discussed the Teacher Salary Project, part of the 'GOOD 1oo' a collection of exciting innovative ideas. Today I'd like to delve into another Green Abalone on their list, KIPP charter schools.
Before we start, pop quiz:
Q: What if we lived in a country where we prided ourselves at being the biggest and the best, of living under one notion that there should be liberty and justice for all, but yet still less than 20% of the low-income students will attend college? How would you fix that problem?
A: Kipp Charter Schools.
KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) was founded by two Teach for America alumni, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin. The schools serve over 20,000 under represented minority students from around the country.
They don't have a secret sauce, they don't use fancy programs, expensive state of the art equipment, they use something simple and powerful: Teaching. Mike Feinberg says it all: "The only reason we get better results is great teaching and more of it. There's really nothing going on that is magical or special. We make a commitment to excellence and a promise to our children, and a promise to children is a sacred thing."
So in the light of the Race to the Top, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that involves more money than the U.S. Department of Education has spent on education reform in the past 29 years combined, let's put the money to where it counts. Get good teachers, pay them an appropriate salary, and make promises to the kids.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Some great NYT links on Education
States Mold School Policies to Win Federal Money
Schools Are Where Stimulus Saved Jobs, New Data Show
School Colors: Green and Greener
Monday, November 2, 2009
USGBC and Green Education
Great article featuring some Green Abalones in the sustainability education field from the My Green website:
Special thanks to Beth Breisnes for finding this!
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Weakest Link
from the NY Times:
A new federal study has shown that nearly 1/3 of all U.S. states have lowered their academic proficiency standards to help the schools comply with the No Child Left Behind law, which threatens schools with penalties if they do not have 100% of all students proficient in reading and math by 2014. Schools, struggling under low teacher pay, long educator hours, and cut budgets, did the only thing they could do. If the kids can't get to the mountain, bring the mountain to them.
We may want to blame the schools for such a low move, but really, lets look at the policies that set the standards with no means (budgets) to create them. Spin straw into gold? We're not Rumpelstiltskin here.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The (mis)education of america
Welcome to the first post of a three part series on the conversation around the educational heroes from "The GOOD 100" ( http://awesome.good.is/good100/good100.html ), a collection of exciting, innovative ideas that are changing our world for the better from GOOD Magazine. There are three projects that relate to education I'd like to discuss- The Teacher Salary Project is the first.
According to GOOD magazine, 46% of public-school teachers leave the school system within their first five years. They are lead astray by jobs in the marketplace that pay them higher than the average new teacher salary of $35,000 USD a year. Based on the ideas of Daniel Moulthrop, Ninive Calegari and Dave Eggers, the Teacher Salary Project uses media and advocacy to show how teachers change the world one student at a time, and how they should be paid a salary that is deserving for such a feat.
Lets think about this- every one reading this now does so because they were taught to read.
How much is that worth to you?
(If you answered less than your current salary, think again... could you do your job if you were illiterate?)
Your ability to do your job, and do it well, is due to the tireless efforts of teachers in your life. It is important to remember that schooling is not John Donne's island- it is a community effort and a community reward. Giving our children a premier education is not enough- we must strive to give everyone our children may interact with an equal education, as they will be our children's future doctors, our children's future neighbors, our children's future co-habitants of the world. The easiest way to protect our kids is to surround them by people who have equal opportunities and ample choices for a good life.
According to the Teacher Salary Project website ( http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/about.html#aboutProj ) 30% of American high school students drop out of school by the time they are 18. That means 3 out of 10 of your children's classmates will drop out of school. Those people will have a harder time getting a living wage job, supporting a family, or having opportunities in the future. And we need to stop thinking that it is just a number, and it doesn't affect us. It does- it affects the entire community. Lets send our children into a world where there is low crime, high standards of living, where everyone can climb to the top of Maslow's pyramid of self-actualization.
We get good citizens by giving a good education. We get a good education by retaining good teachers. We retain good teachers by paying them a salary worthy of their commitment and their results. We make this happen by missions like the Teacher Salary Project.
For more information check out these websites:
The Teacher Salary Project website: http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/index.html
Op-Ed, Teacher Salary Reform: http://www.nj.com/opinion/times/oped/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1256363156150360.xml&coll=5
Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality: http://www.upjohninst.org/publications/ch1/tptq.pdf
Are Teachers paid too Little... or too Much? : http://www.aei.org/EMStaticPage/302?page=Summary
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Chicken or the Egg?
This seems to be a classic issue with new ventures. What comes first? The chicken or the egg? In the case of environmental and sustainable education, there seems to be the challenge of programs and students, the chickens and the eggs. Often, schools want to offer a course or class in a sustainability topic but they may find they do not have teachers who are well versed in the full subject matter. From the alternative perspective, teachers may want to continue their education in the sustainability field to offer such classes, but cannot find institutions to offer them a degree, or an endorsement.
From a personal perspective, I have found two situations in which this has come up in the environmental and sustainability front.
One is Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) and the other is the new Washington State specialty endorsement for Environmental and Sustainability Education that was announced last spring. BGI took the proactive approach to sustainability education, a “If you build it, they will come” sort of philosophy. They made a MBA program focusing on sustainable business and social justice, at that time, seven years ago, with only a handful of students, most of those invited and asked to come. Now, the school is a nationally accredited program with huge wait lists and an active student body.
The second example is the Washington State special endorsement for Environmental and Sustainability Education. After attending BGI, I will be fully qualified to teach this subject. However, after talking to a few institutions, I am unable to get that endorsement because no one offers it (yet). The main question has been is if we offer teachers this endorsement, will they find a position? No school has a Sustainability class- how can they get placement? But so often is forgotten is the opposite- how can a school offer a subject without a qualified teacher?
So let us take an example from BGI and say, Let us build it. They will come.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Welcome to GreenAbalone
GreenAbalone is a blog dedicated to education. More specifically, Social Justice and Sustainability within the K-12 Schools within the United States. I hope to find those fellow green abalones in the educational system- those schools and programs that are standing out in the crowd to deliver sustainable and environmental education to public and private schools, people who are passionate within the field and making a difference, and the problems we have as a society to give the next generations the toolbox needed to thrive. I want to see what is going on out there, start the conversation.
Join me.
Join me.
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