Media Leader Tapped to Head N.Y.C. Schools

          This article talks about the transition of school superintendents in New York City. Joe Klein has been the superintendent of schools in New York for the last eight years. Mr. Klein had no previous experience in school administration prior to taking this post. He was an assistant U.S. attorney. His replacement is Cathleen Black, who was working as a publishing executive. She also has no experience as a school administrator. Why is Mayor Michael Bloomberg looking for people outside of education to be the head of schools in New York? Klein over all has not been a failure and some believe he has had many successes.
           What interested me about the article was something that I have noticed in public education. It is a big business. The school superintendent does not need to know a great deal about education to run the schools. I am not saying this is good or bad for education just that these cases, and many others prove it is a fact.
            Right next to this article in the Ed. Weekly is another article about schools incorporating dance into their lessons. It is a good article with a great cover photo of students dancing and integrating other disciplines. I keep thinking about how far removed these two articles are from each other. I do not believe Mr. Klein or Ms. Black know the details of teaching photosynthesis through movement but they do need to. There are many examples of people outside education taking over as superintendents. In New Orleans an army general was appointed. Schools are big business. When 55% of the state budget in Oregon, at least as of three years age, is filtered into education then everyone is involved and not because it is their child's education. Schools have people in administrative positions just to deal with teachers unions. Maybe Ms. Black has had prior experiences in education that will guide her decisions in a truly equitable and creative way. Maybe education under Ms. Black will fulfill its promise of better citizens in a better society. Mr. Klein made no real drastic changes, improvements or not. All of these decisions have me asking, what are we looking for in schools today? Obviously it is a business model.

Why I will not teach to the test

The article argues for more in depth teaching than the shallow teaching that, they accuse, the state states engender.  I find this to be true in my limited experience. As a music teacher I have some experience with standardized tests but not nearly to the degree of class room teachers. The article, I believe accurately criticizes multi choice tests declaring that essay questions or writing require more critical thinking from the students and are a better evaluator. It is an odd contradiction that she points to in California where the exit exam for high school requires an "on demand essay" yet has the essay count for so little of the over all grade that it can be ignored entirely. However, it is good that California at least requires this. I hope that the education system moves to a more imaginative evaluative process in the future and that voices like this writer are included in the dialogue.

The same thing over and over

In this article Frederick Hess critiques what he calls "self-impressed "reformers"" or "self described innovators" and the "defenders of traditional schooling." He brings in some good historical perspectives to help illustrate his point that all the reform happening is more a reactionary frenzy than a practical and well thought out plan for improving our education. He describes the different initiatives as a "mismatch of ends and means." Handing over mayoral control of the schools and charter schools as well as many other measures or potential measures will not be the answer to the problem. And the problem as he points out is not that out of place with history. For instance, over the last 75 years our expectations have skyrocketed, insinuating that our presents ideals are probably not very grounded. His solutions are as he puts it frustrating and simple. We need to rethink the way schools need to operate in the 21st century. We need to be inventive in our approach to education and in our understanding of evaluations. Beyond this however he is not very specific.

New Orleans Sees School Building Boom

With the real and deep need for rebuilding/ reconstructing schools in New Orleans right now, there is a huge amount of money being funneled into the project.  We are talking lots of money, FEMA pledged  1.8 billion and that is just from FEMA!  Is there really adequate over sight with all the money that is being used for rebuilding and reconstruction in New Orleans schools and are the real community needs and local school leaders voices being heard?  For instance since charters are short term contracts there is the thought that they shouldn't build the school around the charter environment and the charter school feels that there particular needs are not being met or considered. They do not want the larger buildings that are more expensive to operate.   This is just one example of the conflict of interest in rebuilding.

U.S. found to recruit fewer teachers from top ranks

This seems pretty obvious, if we would pay teachers more like in some of the TOP performing schools in other countries then we would have better teachers who would be able to produce better results with the kids. I think we have good teachers but for many pay could be a factor as to why they leave or over time become, possibly, less imaginative in the classroom. It is amazing and just simply inspiring that in Finland "Teaching is the most admired profession among top students, outpolling law and medicine." It also is interesting  that they have more time to collaborate in other countries. It says here that we spend more time on instruction, yet with less results. Interesting. The counter argument by Dr. Zhoa was interesting too but claiming our system is just more complicated I hope does not negate some of the other observations.

multimedia project

I chose Ricci adam's musictheory.net. It is a very good web cite for music students and it can be customized for the younger grades.

Raising expectations is aim of new effort

The idea to pair students and teachers into teacher workshops is one of the main points of the article. I was very happy to see some of the initial results that were described. It seems like an idea that is long over due but I am skeptical of how well it would work with elementary schools. I know that some of the students were in 5th grade and that, I would think, would need to be the cut-off grade. The open dialogue between teachers and students here I think would be difficult for the younger grades. Although, I do have all of my students teach each other in class because it is proven to help them learn.  For that matter we all learn best when having to evaluate what we are doing on such a level where we have to turn around and teach it.

Reflection of Ed Tech Standards

How might you explain the big picture of what these standards are trying to accomplish?
They are trying to have students become responsible users of technology as well as
capable users. We are needless to say become more and more dependent upon technology. We need to be able to navigate its many possible uses.


Describe some strategies you could implement at your grade levels in order to accomplish this huge task?
As an elementary general music teacher I use youtube and other available video podcasts in the class as a way to connect students to musical cultures and styles. I could possibly can share concerts this way in the future. I like musictheory.net as a sight to challenge students individually and there are other sights out there like this one.

Why should students learn music?

Why should students learn music?  Students do not need to become musical geniuses to participate in a rewarding way in music. We have never had any society since recorded history where music was not an integral part. How can we learn language without music? When we speak we sing and use rhythm. Pitch is married to phonetics and its expression. It is linked to language and language learning and is itself a language. It is physical, yet it can be seen as abstract and mathematical, represented by symbols. Pitches or tones are real and measurable and when heard make pictures in the brain as tangible as geometric shapes or colors. We have over the last 5000 years found numerous ways of dividing the octave. In the western world we have settled on 12 notes but other cultures see many variations and possibilities. Mandarin Chinese could not be spoken without pitch, hence the term tonal language. Music is used in propaganda, religion, marketing and story telling. From the time of ancient Greece modes and songs have been outlawed because of their power. Music is everywhere. When a child learns how to sing and play music their language expands.

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yodio

This is my yodio for ed. tech. I went to a conference on using technology to help children with disabilities. It was very educational as far as recognizing what the kids and the instructors have to face on a daily bases. I work with some kids who have disabilities but it is in the context of music which is very different from what they are experiencing in the classroom and in their daily lives. Most of the tools demonstrated were intended for children with "extreme" communication disabilities. It was remarkable to see the level of patients and thoughtfulness that was put into this tools. Technology I believe has given children with these disadvantages a huge assistance. Children who have no ability to communicate with their voices, or even the majority of their body can form complete sentences and ideas with these tools. It is remarkable and hopeful. One web sight worth checking out is intellitools this is for primary children and children with disabilities. Just google intellitools and it takes you straight to their web sight. Intellitools is mostly used for teaching and assessment. It is not used for communication only.

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Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

I had a lot of trouble getting the cells to highlight in the same way that you demonstrated on the tutorial. I do not understand why but it did not work the same way on my computer. I did two separate sheets and a chart. One with all the students and all the tests and the other with just tests 6-10 and the students who fill below the average.
Analyze (discuss) your final data and chart in terms of student growth, exceptions, and what you might do as a classroom instructor as a result of these scores?


The average score for all the students tests 6-10 was 191.92. There were 12 students who fell below this average. When graphing their testing trends it became clear that all the students showed some level of growth. 8 out the 12 had risen above the class average by test 10. The one exception to this was Katherine who, although by test 10 had improved, did not follow the over all class trend. There was an extreme drop for Katherine on test 8.

My Favorite Web2.0 tools.

web 2.0 is a large umbrella for many different interactive user generated content sites like blogs and social networking sites. This includes video and audio files that can be shared in a variety of creative ways.

screenr

This is an amazing tool. It recorders your computer screen in real time along with your voice or any audio over the materials you choose to present. You can stop and start as you go along. This would allow a teacher to put together an entire presentation in a much more convenient way. Since all the materials from power points, youtube videos, web images etc.. could be easily accessed and recorded as you went along.

4shared

4shared allows members to search the web for any video, audio, picture or book that they might want to download. If the member chooses then they can either download the file or stream it directly from the source without actually having to store it. I was given an account simply by using my email and a password and I have 10 gigs of storage space to download materials. It would be an excellent source for storing materials to reinforce lesson plans.

ED Tech 520: Google presentations

• Google presentations is an application built into gmail accounts that could be used to do presentations in a similar fashion as power point.
• How it might improve productivity in the classroom is similar to power point with the added feature of students being able to work in the editing of a project together from one or more computers at the same time.  
• I knew nothing about google presentations before working on this project.  It seemed very user friendly.
• I contributed with both the reflections and with the 3rd slide "How this tool could be used to improve productivity."

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Acw2IXF5LRPAZGNkOWQzeDlfNWY4azdkZnZj&hl=en

ED. Weekly Reflection: Rhee Reflective In Aftershock of D.C. Primary

Michelle Rhee, as chancellor of the D.C. school district, is credited with some of the improvements that have happened over the last 3 years in the D.C. area schools. However, even though there are clear improvements she is still considered a polarizing figure. In her reflection she noted that the way in which these improvements were communicated was poorly done. This was partly her own fault in spending to much energy talking about ineffective teachers and test scores, but also the media focus tended to exacerbate the conflicts. She said that "we weren't proactive enough about communication and thinking about how do we get out there and talk about the great things that are happening."
Rhee is unsure as to whether or not she will stay on as chancellor in the light of the results from the new mayoral elections.

Thoughts on blogging in education

In the future there is a lot of potential for blogging in the classroom. It allows for an open ended discussion, where the students could join the conversations at their own convenience and pace. This gives kids time to reflect on their answers yet still be in a "real time" discussion. It is an excellent filing system for all the class work. Papers will not get lost as easily, not to mention how good it is for conserving resources. Teachers and students both have a way of keeping track of the activities and ideas of each other in a way that is unique from the classroom. However, I do hope it never becomes the only way that teachers and students as well as students and students interact. If blogging does take hold I hope the classroom setting remains one of the places where classroom discussions happen. There is just simply an advantage and necessity to that type of interaction and still a lot of potential for improvement (smaller classrooms etc..). The computer is a major part of our society and will probably be more so in the future.  The only major downside is that this would give the kids who own computers a greater convenience and advantage in the class.

Articles for class/New Orleans schools post Katrina

New Orleans has shifted to a charter school system that now comprises over seventy percent of the cities schools. It is still to early to conclude whether or not the new system of charters is going to succeed but the initial numbers look good. On top of this the state has taken over control of 46 schools under the title of the Recovery School District. Charter schools and the new Recovery School District create a very complicated situation were the data is not easy to analyze. Charter schools are able to act with a certain level of autonomy and the state schools are new with half being charters themselves.  The article discussed several problems with managing the over site of this new New Orleans school district.

Bio

I am a student in the MAT program at Willamette University and a music teacher in the Salem school district. Outside of this I like to spend time with my wife, bike ride, write music, drink good beer, and stare up at trees when I walk under them.  My wife and I are expecting our 1st child in February, which I am over the top excited about. Life is amazing and I feel very lucky.