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Text of the page (random words):
ised five mile drive down a gravel road cutting through private farmland we saw a lot of corn plots labeled experimental i m not sure what those experiments are but they may have produced large aggressive bugs that flew at 15 mph next to my car for almost three miles if mississippi is in need of a state bird i nominate the dragonfly dragonflies are cool and the delta is the dragonfly capitol of the world apparent y the delta state university bookstore never thought of placing their school s mascot on a cook s apron even though that would seem to be the perfect place to show off the fighting okra the south apparently does not believe in vegetables the most common side dish with bbq seems to be white bread with french fries running a close second grits get tiring after a while but biscuits are a great excuse for having peppery sausage gravy i am sure that over time these superficial learnings and impressions will be augmented or replaced by deeper understandings this will happen because i will have the time to process and reflect upon my experiences but as i sit here in my hotel with my stomach growling for dinner i feel like what i am sure many of my students feel overwhelmed tired hungry and thirsty it is good to be reminded that our students need to be fed to have their thirsts slaked to have their own pln to show them love and support and to have time to process all that their sponge like brains soak up 5 comments beverages contemporary issues education food food bev history learning social studies teaching uncategorized tagged educators learning united states permalink posted by deven black i ve been nominated for a bammy award 04 07 2013 teachers have been under attack lately and reports say teacher morale is at an all time low bam education radio created the bammy awards for education excellence last year to help spread the word about the good talented hard working child centered people who work in education including janitors superintendents teachers principals school nurses education professors education commentators education reporters and more the bammy award the bammy awards are presented at a black tie event in washington d c i was privileged to attend last year s ceremony as one of a group of 25 bloggers representing the 100 selected for educator voice recognition it was fun to see friends and colleagues all dressed up even if i never felt fully comfortable with the idea of the ceremony educators are generally very hesitant even loathe to toot our own horns we even tend to shy away from recognition by others this has to change we have to tell our own stories because no one else is going to do it for us i am nominated for a bammy award in the school librarian category i m honored and humbled especially when i see the others nominated in the category i hope you will take some time to read the nominations and cast votes in some of the categories please help spread the word that there are some great educators out there who need some recognition and support thank you 3 comments contemporary issues education library philosophy policy teachers teaching uncategorized tagged bammy award black tie education educators empathy k through 12 recognition school librarian school nursing teacher permalink posted by deven black i m a librarian use me 02 14 2013 narsarsuaq airport greenland terminal nanoq duty free shop photo credit wikipedia today sent my principal an email telling him i am underutilized i have seven assigned teaching periods a week slightly more than 1 per school day our day is eight periods long i have open access two lunch periods every day the rest of the time i am allegedly doing library administration as far as i can tell after two years of doing the job library administration takes about 10 20 minutes a day which i spend re shelving books when i still have money to spend i might take another 30 minutes a day reading book reviews to select my purchases that still leaves me four more periods a day plus my contract mandated duty free lunch period which i hardly ever take i read trade magazines and answer work emails while i eat i reminded him that i did a lot of different things before becoming a teacher and i carry a diverse set of skills he could take advantage of and gave him suggestions on how i might be more useful to him and the school i could write grants i write and win a couple or three for the library each year my record is seven applied for six won when an assistant principal needed an essay for a grant proposal she was submitting that day i wrote what she called a great one in twenty minutes i could write more i could plan and do pd we used to get a lot of pd on differentiating lessons but none of it was differentiated when i pointed that out to my principal he said there wasn t enough time to plan differentiating it i managed to hold my tongue and not point out that teachers too are under time pressure what with all the paperwork they have to do i could plan differentiated pd more differentiated than he might imagine unconference model educon conversation model edcamp model etc i could create pd on project based learning on interdisciplinary unit design on becoming a connected educator and more i could create or facilitate students creating a webpage for the school right now we have the dull cookie cutter nycdoe school webpage and it doesn t give a clue about who we are what we do how we do it or any of the great things happening in our school i m currently working with three sixth grade classes to develop a website for our library right now they re deciding what will be on the site and the more artistic students are investigating other school and library sites to get design ideas and a list of things not to do i could produce an online school magazine i could i could i could i ll let you know how he responds 22 comments education leadership learning library students teachers teaching technology uncategorized tagged communication differentiation education labor librarian libraries library project based learning permalink posted by deven black the question is asked the conversation begins 02 10 2013 it started with this question why aren t our students making more progress one day late last week a third of the staff stayed more than two hours after school to discuss the possibility of our becoming a magnet school of sorts the sort isn t important but the conversations about it are no one had asked that question before we d been told that we had to have our students make progress and we ve been given a host of different programs to cause that to happen but none of it was working in small groups we had serious conversations to answer that question among other ideas each group mentioned a lack of student motivation as a major part of the problem in response my principal said words that i never expected to come from his mouth words i d been saying and writing for a number of years the reason our students are not motivated is because school is not working for them it s not the students fault he said and not the teachers either students are not motivated because the way we do school the structure of the day the changing of classes at 42 minute intervals isolation of subject areas from each other none of it is working for a moment it was silent then the conversations started we talked about our own positive and negative experiences in school and why they occurred we talked about how we d change the structure of the day the physical plant of the school the curriculum some were defensive feeling that what they do and how they do it was under attack we agreed that some kids thrive in the current mode of operation others were for change there were even a couple who like me were ready to trash the system and start over we won t get the opportunity to do that and we may not win the 3 000 000 grant that would allow us to make a lot of changes and train ourselves on how to make them work it s not that the grant doesn t matter but one of the most important parts of the change has already occurred it happened when our principal asked that question and created an anything goes safe zone in which we could explore answers now that the conversation has started it is up to us to keep it going we are the change that needs to happen 9 comments assessment behavior classroom management curriculum education equity history leadership learning policy students teachers teaching technology uncategorized tagged conversation curriculum differentiation education education reform inquiry learning magnet school policy public school questions student teacher permalink posted by deven black a few thoughts on gun appreciation day 01 20 2013 winding road ahead photo credit nathangibbs i m writing about guns more than education these days i wish i could feel i don t have to the second amendment grants american citizens the right to bear arms there might be some discussion about whether it s a requirement that they be in a well regulated militia but i ll concede for now that it isn t the position many gun advocates and the national rifle association have taken is that there is no limit on the right of american citizens to bear arms but there are limits and ones the nra probably supports taken at its word the 2nd amendment grants the right to own any kind of arms even nuclear arms despite that we have agreed as a society with no dissent that i m aware of that private citizens should not own nuclear arms and have made it illegal to do so unless i am mistaken it has been known to happen frequently according to my wife it is also illegal for american citizens to own fully automatic weapons we have also decided that mentally ill people and convicted felons should not own arms our efforts to prevent those people from getting arms might not be particularly effective for any number of reasons but that doesn t change the intent since there is some limit on the 2nd amendment it is reasonable to ask if there might a need for other limits the discussion we should be having as a nation is whether there are other limits we want to impose there may not be but not because the second amendment precludes it there may be very good reasons why additional gun restrictions are not a good idea or there might be reasons for enacting some limits i don t know for sure what i know is that a lot of children are getting killed by bullets fired from guns i m not talking about the mass murder in connecticut or any other mass shooting i am talking about the large number of children killed by bullets fired from guns every month all across the nation universal mental health and criminal record checks before anyone can buy a gun should be a given any legitimate sane non criminal gun purchaser should have nothing to fear from this they will get their guns eventually guns should be secured when left at home and that security should be robust in a neighboring town two guns were stolen when the safe containing them was taken during a break in that safe either was not heavy enough or should have been bolted to the floor or some other strong anchor failure to secure weapons left at home should be a crime that idea has nothing at all to do with the second amendment but might keep guns out of the hands of some criminals some gun owning friends say that laws allowing people to carry guns concealed or openly reduce crime it is something that is very hard to prove not because it may not be true but because it is very difficult to prove a negative effect carry laws whether concealed or open might protect the individual carrying but will not prevent those scores of murdered children i don t know what will prevent those murders but my instinct tells me that making it more difficult for everyone to get a gun might have some effect in all honesty i am skeptical about the general safety of carry laws today on gun appreciation day five people were shot accidentally at gun appreciation events two of them at a safety checkpoint at a gun appreciation event that sort of thing does not inspire confidence that gun owners can be trusted to carry their guns safely 3 comments contemporary issues ethics family philosophy politics tagged gun national rifle association policy second amendment united states us constitution violence permalink posted by deven black assessing teachers almost impossible 01 08 2013 new york city mayor michael bloomberg opening the 2008 tribeca film festival photo credit wikipedia the mayor of new york city an incredibly wealthy man named michael bloomberg compared my union the united federation of teachers to the national rifle association because we will not agree to a deeply flawed poorly thought out system of rating teachers the mayor thinks what he wants and expresses himself in whatever way he chooses no one need comment on his incredible statement because it speaks very loudly on its own about what kind of man is running new york city and the new york city schools but the mayor is right about one thing my union is refusing to cave into his and the state s demand that we accept a teacher rating system that is largely based on student performance on standardized tests the ny post reports that teachers who rate poorly on the current system are offered satisfactory final ratings if they resign teacher evaluations have always been political one intent of all this testing is to eliminate subjective rating but it just moves it into sleazier territory what the city is saying in essence is we think you re a bad teacher but we ll tell some other district that you apply to that you re an okay teacher and let them take their chances doubly dishonest and this is what we model for our students the problem is there is absolutely no way to rate the effectiveness teachers because the result of what we do or don t do in the classroom is not readily apparent in any meaningful way for several years at best and by then it is impossible to tell what influence any one or collection of teachers had as if it were ever possible in my life all the really influential teachers retired or died before the fruits of their influence developed enough to become apparent to me much less anyone else the problem is we re educating for the long run and the powers that be keep trying to assess us on the short run it is like judging the health of a business based on its performance in one or two quarters by that standard enron looked fantastic just like all the slick no credit check mega mortgages and the derivatives based on them we all know how that turned out if they really want us to teach for short term student gains we all can do it we know how but that is not what our students need and most definitely is not what our society needs just like in business taking the long view might not work out as well for the current investors but is often advantageous for the society as a whole 4 comments contemporary issues education leadership learning policy students teachers teaching uncategorized tagge...