Low Achievement

Low achievement is epidemic in America.  I see it every where I look. The very act of watching TV is a low low achievement activity where I watch other engaged in low achievement behavior such as chasing, hitting or throwing a ball.  Then there are those that crash into each other or other self destructive behavior.

I watched a cop show tonight and realized that the cops were obstucting low achievers. What did the cops achieve?  It wasn't a product that could be sold, exchanged or used for some purpose.  They did, however, obstruct behavior that needed to be obstructed.

I personal get satisfaction from achieving.  Writing this is an achievement that hopefully someone will read.
I also get pleasure from repairing my home.  There was a time when I could do whatever I wished to improve my home.  That has ended.  Now I need to buy a permit if I am allowed to buy it.

I needed to fix my roof.  One of the obstructions to that achievement is the law that forbids me from fixing my own roof.  Since, I am a high achiever, I will repair my roof on the weekend when the Code Enforcement Officer is off duty.

It isn't easy to achieve an objective. Sometimes, it isn't worth the effort.

Do you obstruct achievement?  Are you one of those people that get paid to obstruct achievement?

Indifference is Epidemic in America!

I first became aware of indifference when I was a student at Delta College.  It didn't seem important at the time.  Since then, it has spread like a disease.

Do you ever say, "It doen't make a dif to me."  I got this message this morning: "Dude! Believe me, or don't believe me. It makes no difference to me."  The person that sent that message to me works at the Pentagon.  The other was told to me in a face to face encounter.  Dawn is a Clearwater High School math teacher.

What do you say?

Disruptive Behavior Disorder, DBD

It is best for the teacher to quickly identify the student with Disruptive Behavior Disorder. Document their behavior and have them removed from your class as quickly as possible.  It is not just the youth that can be disruptive.  Before going on to adult, I'll mention a few ways that students can be disruptive.

1. Coming to class late.
2. Conspiring with peers to do something disruptive.
3. Asking questions with the intent of confusing the teacher.
4. Discrediting the teacher, just to name a few.

My uncle Jim who was a Chemistry teacher would ask a question and then ask that the answer to the question be explained.  Nested questions create confusion a situation where the answer eventually cannot be understood and the speaker not know what they are talking about.

I had another family member that would constantly ask, "What is the difference."  And, yet another one that would ask, "Cause, why?"

Danny, an adult at the Dog Park prides himself in being able to create a situation where the other person does not know what they are talking about.

I have heard that it takes all kinds to make a world.  However, you cannot be an effective teacher if the person with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder is allowed to act-out in your class. If you cannot stop them.  Then have them removed.

I am not the only writer that thinks that ....

Many science readers think that most humans will not read what they write.  Futhermore, I doubt if many are reading what I publish on this Blog either.

Ron Cowen, Yale University Press wrote, " But it's unclear whether a universal understanding of cosmic origins can ever take hold, since those who disagree may never pick up the book in the first place."  [The New Universe and the Human Future by Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack]

It is much worse than that.

This organization controls teacher evaluations.

Marzano Research is a private corporation that is not affiliated with a University.  They have marketed to schools and have sold their products to many. 

If your professional life has turned into a living hell, then what they are doing may be the cause.  If that is not the case. Then there is one thing I am sure of; money is being transferred from your school system to Marzano Reach if your school administrators signed their contract.

Marzano Research Laboratory

Texas students sent from classroom to courtroom

By Donna St. George, Published: August 21

SPRING, TEX. — In a small courtroom north of Houston, a fourth-grader walked up to the bench with his mother. Too short to see the judge, he stood on a stool. He was dressed in a polo shirt and dark slacks on a sweltering summer morning.

“Guilty,” the boy’s mother heard him say.

He had been part of a scuffle on a school bus.

In another generation, he might have received only a scolding from the principal or a period of detention. But an array of get-tough policies in U.S. schools in the past two decades has brought many students into contact with police and courts — part of a trend some experts call the criminalization of student discipline.

Now, such practices are under scrutiny nationally. Federal officials want to limit punishments that push students from the classroom to courtroom, and a growing number of state and local leaders are raising similar concerns.

In Texas, the specter of harsh discipline has been especially clear.

Here, police issue tickets: Class C misdemeanor citations for offensive language, class disruption, schoolyard fights. Thousands of students land in court, with fines of up to $500. Students with outstanding tickets may be arrested after age 17.

[sic] The new school year is about a week old and this has already begun.

Five Common Myths about the Brain

MYTHS:

1. Humans use only 10 percent of their brain.
2. "Left brain" and "right brain" people differ.
3. You must speak one language before learning another.
4. Brains of males and females differ in ways that dictate learning abilities.
5. Each child has a particular learning style.
   
   
   source"  Mind, Brain, and Education Science, by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa.
   
    

This Is The Best WWII Documentary.

You can get all the details at PBS.org's website. http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/education/

I am watching the series now and getting insight into what was happening behind closed door. Behind Closed Doors happens to be the name of the series.

If you an your students don't watch this, then you and your students do not care about what happened during WWII.  Ignorance is not bliss.  I learned that a long time ago.

If you cannot write in cursive, then you are defective!

Who still writes in cursive?  I do and if you don't, then I think that there is something defective about you.

That age-old writing method you might never have used since fourth grade will no longer be taught in Indiana schools come fall, thanks to a memo from school officials. Instead, students will be expected to become proficient in keyboard use.

Seems like a smart move as being able to type efficiently is a vital skill in today's world, as opposed to knowing how to write cursive, which — like being able to churn butter and knowing how to hitch a horse to a wagon — is no longer needed.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/06/typing-beats-scribbling-indiana-schools-can-stop-teaching-cursive/#ixzz1RNWlstYd

New Florida Laws Went Into Effect on July 1.

Several new laws designed to advance alternatives to traditional public schools also will go into effect July 1.

1. One (HB 7107) directs the Department of Education to expand online learning options and require students who enter high school this fall to take at least one virtual course before they graduate.
2. Another (HB 1329) expands an existing voucher program that lets disabled students attend private schools at taxpayer expense to children with afflictions such as allergies, asthma and diabetes.
3. A third (SB 1546) offers more training and technical assistance to charter schools and longer contracts and other benefits to those with high performance ratings.
4. Another education-related law (SB 228) is designed to prohibit students from wearing "droopy drawers" but requiring school districts to pass dress codes that prohibit the wearing of clothing in a revealing or disruptive way.

One Dead And Two In Critical Condition

I was on the phone talking with Mary when this happened.  I was at the crash site the next day and saw no evidence that their brakes were applied.  I thought at the site that there is a strong possibility that the 16 year-old driver was texting when it happened. I was told that the event is still under investigation.

The street this happened on has a 30 mph speed limit.  Likely going faster than that when he hit the ditch and flipped.

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTMzMzUwNzg%3D

What will be the effect of the accident.  The driver will not need to be educated.  The two passengers many only be able to function at the level of the mentally handicapped.  There will be one funeral and the other two will be society's burden for the rest of their lives.

You really do not care. O' Ya!

166 million dollars was spent to build what would become a failing school soon after completed.

HOLIDAY — Anclote High School principal Monica Ilse has no illusions about her school's grade when the announcement comes in early December.


"It is going to be an F," Ilse said matter-of-factly during a recent campus tour. "We've accepted it. We're going to move on. Honestly, that old news."
Students, faculty and staff got the first inkling that the news would not be good for their year-old school back in the summer, with the release of various state and national test results. Among the signals:
• 7 percent of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams earned passing scores.

• 36 percent of students taking the FCAT reading exam scored at grade level or better.

• 34 percent of students in the lowest quartile made gains on the FCAT reading exam.

Ilse knew the school would have its struggles. Located in a high-poverty, high-crime area, Anclote High has 70 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Many of the children have family or social issues well beyond schooling that affect their performance.

I recall teaching in Saginaw, MI.  It was not uncommon for a high performing student to be threatened with violence if they scored high on an exam.  If they wanted to get home without injury, then they had to respond to test questions by answering many questions incorrectly.  I don't know if that is behind Anclote's 'F'.  It could be that it is known by a large percentage of the students that if they don't study and fail exams that  teachers will be blamed and potentially fired.

I doubt if most people care enough about was posted to have gotten to this point.  You are a lot like the students in a failing school.

A Path to School Ruin

source:  Diane Ravitch @ the Times

Gov. Rick Scott seems determined to ruin public education in Florida.  Not only is he devastating school budgets with multiple-billion-dollar cuts, but he is intent on crushing the morale of the state's teachers. One can't expect to improve the public schools while demeaning the professionals who work in them.

Scott approaches school reform as if public education were a government scam that needs to be privatized and as if teachers are lazy scoundrels who need a swift kick in the pants or the promise of a  bonus to motivate them.  He has a naive belief in the value of test scores that is not shared by the nation's testing experts.  So he is promoting the proliferation of privately managed charter schools to compete with neighborhood public schools, more testing of all subjects and at the same time, tying teachers' compensation and evaluation to there student's test scores.

[It was recently reported on local news that a record number of Florida's teachers are taking early retirement. They are getting out of the profession.  I wonder if those that had thought about the profession are not thinking about taking their professional development in a different direction. I look back on what I have done and think that I should have avoided the education profession.]

Will someone read this other than me.  I doubt it.

The eReader Revolution has no effect on illiterates.

I will be the first to admit, I love the smell of books. Books, bookstores, libraries – anywhere there is ink on paper draws me in. I always said I would never buy an eReader – but I was going on a cruise, and I didn’t want to add 20 pounds of books to my luggage. I caved in and bought one. What can I say – Kindle, I love you. My dramatic shift over to eReading got me thinking. Just how much has technology and social media changed the way we read and share books?

Virtual Schools (This information is not available to illiterates.)

Virtual Schools (passed)

Expands online school offerings and requires incoming high school students to take at least one online course before graduating. (SB 1620/HB 7197)

School Vouchers (This information is not available to illiterates.)

School Vouchers - Opportunity Scholarships (passed)

Allows more students to qualify to move to other public schools by expanding the definition of a "failing" school.   (SB 1822/HB 1331)

Teacher Tenure (This information is not available to illiterates.)

Bills became Florida Law that effect teachers.

Teacher evaluations will be based in part on student test scores and administrators will be able to more easily fire teachers with weak evaluations.  (SB 736/HB 7019)

Little Boys That Want to Become Professional Athletes

I have 4 boys in my family that wanted to become professional athletes then they were in grade school.  Three of them neglected academic.  Two of them were anatomically not correct for football or basketball: too short and small with no history of sport achievement in the family.  Two of the boys were adopted.  Both of them had fathers that were Ohio State football players.  They have the genetics but was something missing. They are now in their twenties and neither one of them became football players.

Both of my nephews squandered their public school opportunity.  Chris wanted to be a Architect. He was expelled from the local community college.  Josh became a mountain climber.  When they were in public school there father was on the school board and their mother was a Math teacher.

I knew when the boys were obsessed with sports that the probability of them being able to be professional and prospering was a low.  Josh, the mountain climber travels with his personals on his back and lives in a tent.  Of the four boys, they is only one that took education seriously.

I saw it unfolding and had no influence in effectively stopping what was about to happen.  When sports have a high priority, then the long term consequences can be devastating. Give sports a low priority.

Did they read the book?

Hopefully you have a teenager that should be reading.  I have wonderful books that contain valuable knowledge that I  reference. You likely know of a book with knowledge that would benefit a teenager you care about. But, if you gave them the book, how would you know if they read it?

Try this.  About two thirds into the book write these words. [Congratulations, you have read enough of this book to have earned the right to receive $50.  Email me or phone and we will have lunch.  At that time, I will give you the $50.  This offer expires on this date. (include an expiration date)  Sign.]

Now, give them the book and wait.  After the expiration date,  if you have not heard from them, you make contact.  I am sure you will know what to say.

Afterwards, let us know what happened by posting your experience on this Blog.

Prerequisite Knowledge

Prerequisite: something required beforehand.  In the case of knowledge, it is knowledge that is required to understand what is being taught.  One part of that would be vocabulary.  If you did not know the definition of prerequisite, then you would not know what I am writing about.  If you were in a classroom where I was talking about the importance of prerequisite knowledge and did now its meaning, you would not know what I was talking about there either.  Hopefully, you understand the importance of prerequisite knowledge.

I watch and listen to experienced professional educators teaching students. Sometimes they are middle school students and the teacher is presenting a lesson that a college student level.  Is there any wonder why their students have a bewildered look on their face?

Knowledge is incremental. Do I have to explain that too?  Figure it out.

I cringe when I see teachers overshooting their students. Is there any wonder why standardized test scores are declining?

This is Flounder.

Flounder and I go to the Home Depot. We go to a lot a places.  His favorite place to go  is to Key Vista nature park where he gets to run on the beach and met other dogs.

He is almost as smart as a 5th grader.

Recently Pasco county spent $4.3 million on Math text books.

I was issued text books beginning when I was in Jr. High and expected to study them, bring them to class, care for them (writing or drawing in them was not acceptable) and return them at the end of the school year in a condition that indicated only normal use.  If something was done to the text that condemned it, then it was destroyed and the student was billed for the cost of the text.  (If someone had written F**** you on a critical page, then the text was destroyed.) 

I witnessed the end of my nephew's 9th grade year when text books were suppose to be returned.  Every text that he had been issued was gone.  I over hear his mother, a math teacher in the same school giving a long explanation that resulted in not having to pay for the missing texts. 

I've been wondering how long the text had been missing.  Whatever that length of time; that was how long it had been since Josh had not been studying his text books and doing assigned home work.  He graduated that year and eventually graduated from High School.  He is now a professional mountain climber.

I Wonder ....

There seems to be nothing positive to write about.  Every education seed has something wrong with it. School will be starting soon.  I sure hope you have used your summer wisely. This school year appears to be more challenging than last. I would not want to be a student, teacher or an administrator. I'm really somewhat of a spectator to a tragedy.

Education Is The Purpose Of Testing.

That statement should be obviously wrong.  Florida school administrators and politicians have had an obsession with testing every since Florida's governor Jeb Bush buddied-up with a Florida college professor in the Department of Education.  Now the purpose of education has been lost.  Hopefully, it will be rediscovered.

Bay area school letter grades released.

School district's FCAT grade slips

Your pay, your career, your economic future is dependent on a test score: a test you did not write and a test you did not take.  Strangers wrote the test, administered the test and scored the test.

The Pluses of Getting It Wrong

I had a college math professor who would pose a question on a topic we hadn't learned yet.  We would then spend the next half-hour trying to collectively come up with the solution as he shot down wrong answer after wrong answer.  If you are so intent on find the answer, when you finally get it, it sticks!

Very Troubling

More than two-thirds of Texas schoolchildren flunked the state's physical fitness test this year, a troubling trend that doctors worry could get worse with the Legislature loosening the requirements for high school gym class.  You can read the full story at this link.  Most Texas Students Failing

Constructionism is very important.

I'll explain later.

Baseline Test Score

The first thing you need to do is take a full-length diagnostic test in the most testlike conditions possible.

Constructionism

Constructionist learning is inspired by the constructivist theory that individual learners construct mental models to understand the world around them. However, constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are also active in making tangible objects in the real world. In this sense, constructionism is connected with experiential learning and builds on some of the ideas of Jean Piaget.

After only 5 hours searching the internet ....

The most remarkable result of the experiment emerged when Small repeatd the tests six days later.  In the interim, the novices had agreed to spend an hour a day online, searching the Internet.  The new scans revealed that their brain activity had changed dramatically; it now resembled that of the veteran surfers. "Five hours on the Internet and the naive subjects had already rewired their brains."  source:  Wired, June, 2010

Florida's 2013 Graduation Requirements

Under new graduation requirement signed into law last month, students by 2013 will be required to take tough science and math courses and pass end-of-course exams to earn their high school diplomas.  I wonder what impact Marcelo Gleiser's book, A Tear at teh Edge of Creation, will have on this since it is about to obsolete science text books and how science is taught. Who said science was static?

Teacher Beating a Student

Some people should not be school teachers.

Teacher Beating a Student

All teachers should read this book!

                                A Tear at the Edge of Creation by Marcelo Gleiser

"Cherish this book.  With powerful clarity Gleiser argues that there is a profound link in Western science between monotheism and scientific search for a Theory of Everything.  He argues persuaively that we must give up this dream. This my auger a profound transformation in our understanding of the world."  source: Stuart Kaufan, a fellow of the Royal Society.

This is also going to have a profound effect on what and how you teach your students science.

Meet that author at this link: Marcelo-Gleiser.

Many home-schoolers are really dropouts!

More than 22,620 Texas secondary students who stopped showing up for class in 2008 were excluded from the state's dropout statistics because administrators said they were being home-schooled, according to Texas Education Agency figures.

But that's where the scrutiny of this growing population seems to end, leaving some experts convinced that schools are disguising thousands of middle and high school dropouts in this hands-off category.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

States have been struggling with huge budget gaps since 2008, but this year could be worse as federal stimulus funds wind down.



Until now, stimulus money spared governors and state lawmakers from making some of the most brutal budget cuts. But with this lifeline running out, officials are looking at making significant cutbacks to public services, particularly schools and health programs.   source:  CNNMoney.com

It is true!

Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a class of graduating university students that education was the key to progress.

School improvement and rating system

Hi Mike,


I found out that the purpose of grading student's has changed since we were students and teachers. The only people that can understand it are professional educators that are not distracted. I don't think it is possible for a K-12 student to understand it. If a student attempted to understand it, they would likely be told that 'it's none of their business'.

There is also a complicated method of grading schools. It's called the School improvement and rating system. I wonder who is behind that.

Stephen

Within education, what is the purpose of grading?

The answer to this question has changed since I was a teacher.  Now, there are many answers to that question in Florida and what the answers are and who is controlling is very important.

The evolution of the car radio.

The evolution of the car radio.

Our car did not have a radio when I was in grade school . We road in silence. No one said much other than something like ‘Turn right at the at the next corner.’ I was kept busy playing an alphabet game involving seeing something that began with a letter of the alphabet: The next letter is 'C'. Find something that begins with the letter 'C'. There is a cow.

Our first car radio was AM. That arrived when I was in High School. There were few stations at the time and most of them broadcasted a weak signal and the programming was worse. The nearest one to me was in Midland, Michigan. That was about 20 miles from Hope. Another one was in Saginaw. That would have been about 50 miles away. The reception was mostly static. When the reception was clear it would only last a few minutes and then drift back into static.

I got my first car after I graduated from high school. It's radio was AM. I seldom turned the radio on because the quality of the signal was so poor that it was best to leave it off.

When I was in college in the 70's the car radios were still mostly AM and the reception still had not improved much. However, at the time home receives had made a giant leap in quality. I recall wondering why they did it for the home and not car. They would about 20 years later.

Now the car radios are top quality. My truck's radio is beyond criticism. What came next were people like Rush, Sean Hannity and other radio talk show talkers. Recently I was drive in heavy traffic on US 19 and thought about all of us listening to a talker that wants to effect our thinking.

There was a time when we drove in silence. If we talked. It was to the passengers. Now we listen to a talker with a political, religious or some other agenda. I think of people like Rush as being political provocateur.

What would George Orwell think about this?

This is a video that you must watch.

The fear of science is killing us.

Editor's note: Michael Specter is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of "Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet and Threatens our Lives." TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading," hosts talks on many subjects and makes them available through its Web site, http://www.ted.com/

Florida education is going though major changes.

Here is a link to a YouTube video that was made by a Pasco teacher.  My first impression of it is that there just isn't something right about this teacher and his message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rljPMN7Y_d8

It does not seem possible ...

It does not seem possible that there would be an interest at the Federal level to make the teaching profession more insecure then it is now.  That appears to be the case.

Florida political leaders appear to have passed SB6 as an attempt to get their Federal share of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund.  That was not enough to get the money.  The money went to Delaware and Tennesee.  They will get another opportunity later this year.

I can not envision how undermining the teaching profession can improve education. I am already at the point where I avoid teaching and advise others to do the same thing.

I doubt if any school administrator will ever do anything that will change my mind regard the teaching profession.  But, I'm open to that possibility.

Study: Home matters more than school reform

Two University of Florida researchers say it's confirmed:  Where you live and what you do with your parents influence school performance.  "The core philosophy of school reform today is that effective schools and quality teaching can correct all learning problems ...and if they fail, it's the educators 'fault,' says Harry Naniels, the study's lead investigator.  But "the most important factor ... may be the children's life style and the early learning opportunities they receive at home."

Under Florida SB 6 (Passed Senate, pending in House)

Teachers would serve a five year probationary period and then get single-year contracts, with pay based on evaluations.  Half of their pay wuld be linked to student test results.

Bonuses now given to teachers with National Board certification would be eliminated in 2014.

All studnets must take geometry, two years of algebra, biology, chemistry or physics and an additional "rigorous" science course.

Phase out the FCAT in hight schools by 2014 and replace it with an end-of-course tests. Students who fail the tests can move to the next grade, but graduation depends on passing.

Florida's Senate is still punishing teachers.

The Senate is poised to vote on SB 6, which envisions a future where any teacher hired after July 1 has no gaurantee of a job year-to-year. That would make it easier to get rid of a teacher without having to endure a laborious discipline proceeding.  It would also make the teachers even more insecure than they are now.

SB 6 will also do away with tenure.

Playing A Musical Instrument Makes You Smarter

Many studies have been conducted on the effects of music to the brain. Scientists say that children who are exposed to music, or those who play an instrument, do better in school than those who don’t. Recent research suggests exposure to music may benefit a child’s reading age, IQ and the development of certain parts of the brain. Adults can benefit from learning to play an instrument too because it helps the mind to be alert and remain active eventually helping to sharpen the memory.

Fixing schools requires all to pitch in .... Bill Maxwell

I have heard since I got involved in education about fixing schools.  This now sounds like a mantra that insinuates that it is broke.  At this point in my life, it lacks sincerity.  It seems to me that it is more of an evolutionary process.  Fixed?  I doubt it.  Schools changing gradually over time and becoming something different?  Yes!

U.S. science literacy has increased to 28%.

Miller concedes that some of the rapid increase in U.S. science literacy may reflect self-education by adults, aided by the Internet.

Over the past two decades, science literacy has nearly tripled in the U.S. to a meager 28%.  Source: Science news, March 13, 2010.

Rowdy protester target funding cuts at US campuses

BERKELEY, Calif. – Students carried out raucous rallies on college campuses nationwide Thursday in protests against deep education cuts that turned violent as demonstrators threw punches and ice chunks in Wisconsin and blocked university gates and smashed car windows in California.

Link To News Story

Brawls disrupt middle school

"We have no control, " says a teacher at John Hopkins in St. Petersburg, FL, with 60 arrested since fall.

Bill Maxwell wrote:

"Becasue people are low income, it doesn't mean they don't care about their children and don't want them to get a good education. These parents care about their kids.  They want them to have the best education.  And, tax credit scholarship affords them the opportunity."

Proof of health insurance as a condition to being a college student

The state of Florida is now at the highest level of government discussing  health insurance as being a condition for being a Florida college student. Apparently, some states already require their students to maintain health insurance at their expense as a condition for being a student.  From what I heard, I am caused to think that it will soon be a Florida student requirement. How to administer it is now their focus of attention.

I would not have a college education if I had to pay the current cost of a college education. I am from a working class family that did not value education beyond high school.  Having it proved to be a social negative. 

So, now they are going to make it even more difficult for the working class to be educated.  If doing everything that the college teachers required wasn't already enough.

What is the pay-off for the working class student that does everything requires by the University.  In my case, it was rejection.

New Brain Cells

Fresh neurons arise in the adult brain every day.  New research suggest that the cells ultimately help with learning complex tasks and the more they are challenged, the more they flourish.  Reported in Scientific American.

Source Tracy J. Shors, professor in the department of psychology and the Center for Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers.

What will become of homo sapiens?

Contrary to popular belief, humans continue to evolve.  Our bodies and brains are not the same as our ancestors' were - or as our decendants'will be.   source:  Beter Ward of Scientific American

Legal limit as to how far school can go.

The 3rd. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a finding that Justin Layshock's First Amendment rights were violated, "It would be an unseemly and dangerous preedent to allow the state in the guise of school authorities to reach into a child's home and control his/her actions" to the extent it can exert control in school.

"It makes pedagogic sense for the First Amendment to allow school officials some say over the tenor of speech in  school.  But by unleashing that power to anywhere a student is, school authorities would essentially get to control the speech of the general population under 18.  That is too much discretion for schools and not enough freedom for young people."  Source:  Robyn Blumner  rblummer@sptimes.com

School spied on students via laptops ....

This happened in Philadelphia and was reported by the Associated Press on February 19, 2010.

Lower Merion School District officials actived the student's webcam when the school laptops were in the privacy of the student's home and  used them to recorded private moments.  This is a scenario from George Orwell's 1984.  Orwell wrote 1984 to warn us about the possibility of this happening.

If you are a teacher or administrator. Do not do this.  If you are a parent. Do not allow a school computer into your home that has a webcam.  If you think the laptop is being used to monitor your home: get a lawyer.

You can get the details with a Google search.

Afraid of a new idea?

There's so much power in a new idea taking shape and changing the way people live and act.  Often the rest of us are in awe or we are even afraid of a new idea and sometimes our fears spur us to learn more about it.

Souce: John Houtz, Scientific American Mind

What should I conclude if ....

What should I conclude, if after 6 months elapes; I discover that only a small percentage of teachers participate in a form or blog and even fewer have their own blog or forum?  It is going to indicate something and I cannot imagine that it will be positive.

Asperger's to be categorized as autism

The details are available at http://www.dsm5.org/

Welcome to The Educator's Forum.

Today I patched most of the broken links and added a link to my Twitter. It is now ready for you.

Forums and blogs are what you make of them.  If you ignore them or worse condemn them with your words, then you will not benefit nor will others.  If you read and publish,  we will all benefit providing what you publish is not malicious.

The Educator's Forum

This morning I upload the first version of the Educator's Forum. The path that lead to this began in December after I upgraded to a new computer system, bought Expression Web 3 and learned how to use it.  You likely were told some time in the past about prerequisite knowledge. I cannot over stress the importance of that.  It became obvious to me that I could not have learned Expression Web without first knowing HTML.

Do we learn when we are sleeping?

The answer is YES!  I noticed when I was a student at Delta College that I would be very sleepy.  I would drink coffee and NoDoze to counteract the sleepiness  Delta did not provide any place to nap nor was there any encouragement to take a nap. Occasionally, I would see Chuck sleeping in the library.  I reasoned at the time that Chuck could not be learning if he was sleeping. 

I discovered when I was a computer programmer at Dow Chemical that I would know the answer to a problem after I took a nap.  Something was obviously happening that I was unaware of.  Now, there is scientific evidence supporting the Scientific hypothesis that during sleep our brain at a cellular level completes the learning process as well as solveing problems needed during our waking state. 

I'm now teaching myself  Expression Web 3.  I noticed that occasionally I would be overcome by drowsiness.  I know now it is just my brain tell me that I need to take nap so it can do what it needs to do. Now, I don't have a boss to tell me that I cannot take a nap. I don't need permission to nap.  There is no one that can punish me for napping.  Consequently, I nap when I am overcome with drowsiness. 
I am 67 and most of you think that what has happened is an impossibility.  (The number of people that read this can likely be counted on one hand.  I could be wrong.  Prove me wrong by sending a message to StefenL@EarthLink.net  )

The details can be found with a Google search from the Educator's Forum.

This is going to have a major effect on the Freedom of the Press

Hi Ronald,

I went to Books A Million to buy a book that would help me learn Expression Web and found nothing to buy. Expression appears to be too new for a writer to have had time to write and publish.

A few night ago I listened to Charlie Rose interview a leader in the publishing industry. He said that books will not be published like they were in the past. There will be on demand publishing for those willing and able to pay the price. The books of the future will mostly be published for the Kindle or something like that. Amazons- Kindle-Wireless-generation   There will not be paper back books. Their time is over. I was looking around in Books A Million wonder if that is going to happen and what will happen to all the books and the book stores.

Stephen

Microsoft's Expression Web 3

I am continuing to learn how to use Expression Web 3.  I found these videos that are very helpful.  link to videos  I gave myself a month to learn Expression.  But, it might be another month before I'm productive. 

There is a lot to learn and if you are not already able to ready html, you are at a disadvantage.  If you are going to learn Expression Web, I suggest that you first learn basic html. Otherwise, the code that Expression Web creates will look like Greek.

It just faded away.

I watched a football game from the Lime-n-Coconut on New Years and realized that it was as phony as professional wrestling.  This morning on WUSF I saw an ad promoting a special about a pandemic: The Anamomy of a Pandemic: It Just Faded Away.  Was it ever really here?  Could H1M1 be a manifestation of the minds of people like those that created professional wrestling and NFL football.?  Hummm ...  What have be become?

H1N1

What happened to all the concern about H1N1?  I  thought that when this began it might be a lot about something that was not that important.  It was superseded by the Tiger Wood's scandle. Something that apparently more important than death from H1N1 and a crazy bomber. What does it tell us about us as individuals and as a group?

I would wager that next fall we will focus on the flu again and then forget it again until the next year.

Do you remember the story about the little boy who yelled wolf?

I am now focused on learn Microsoft's Expression3.  So, I will not be posting very often until that is completed.

I wish everyone a better 2010.  For me personally, 2009 could not have been worse.

What do you want for Christmas? All I want for Christmas is a rodent!

Seems that they are on the top of the list. I was watching the Today Show this morning. It was about Christmas gifts for kids. There were 5 kids evaluating potential gifts. The gifts were guns, monster transformers and a rodent. The kids looked bewildered. There was nothing there they wanted only adults that thought they were something they should want.
When I was their age, I wanted a Chemistry set or an Erector set.  I didn't get either.  I got a Biology set that had a small microscope.  My uncle got the Chemistry and  an Erector set that Christmas. 

I was very interested in what was in the Chemistry set.  The little bottles of power and liquid, what where they and what could I do with them?  What all three of these had in common was the knowledge of the unknown.  Each one was a potential learning experience.  The Chemistry set didn't last long.  Tom and I mixed something and heated it causing a stink that resulted in a panic.  My uncle Jim was a Chemical Engineer.  He likely told Tom what to do. I was just an ignorant bystander.

These toys caused me to be interested in Science.  I later studied Chemistry in High School and Biology at Ferris State University.  What would I have studied and became if I had played with guns, monster transformers and a rodent?

What are you going to get your kids for Christmas?  You decision will effect them and everyone else.

Girl wins college scholarship at foot ball half-time from Pepsi.

The crowed cheered and so did I at first. After I thought about it, I wrote this.

There are several major problem with this event.  One of them was the amount.  It was for $130,000. Why does it take $130,000 to get a college degree?  If the child cannot win a contest at a sporting event and do not have parent that can pay $130,000 or if the child cannot get it some other way, then they don't get to graduate from  college?  If I had had to come up with that much money, I would not have the education I have now and would not have the ability to write this so you could read it.

Then there is the contest.  There are two girls competing for the scholarship. There are two large Pepsi cans. One for each girl.  At the top of each can there is a large hole.  The object of the contest is that the first girl to throw three footballs through their hole gets $130,000.  Within about 60 seconds one girl succeeded, the crowed roared and a very large check was given to the girl.  If you want to go to college. All you have to do is to be the first one to throw 3 footballs through a hole to pay for a college education.  Think about the message they are sending.

They are terrorizing our children.

Who is doing that and why?  They are saying that this is in their future.  I don't know if it is and I'm not predicting it.  I do know that children are the victims of circumstances they did not create.

The movies that are made for kids is frightening, toys are frightening, children's programming is frightening.  They are creating a generation of fearful people.  Who and why?  Is this just about selling products and the profit motive?

Food stamps are a disincentive to work?

This morning I heard on a news program that there are now over 32 millions Americans on food stamps. That was followed by the assertion that food stamps are a disincentive to work and marriage.  Marriage?  I have heard for many years that food stamps are a disincentive to work.  That is based on the assumption that hungry people are motivated by hunger to do what others want them to do in exchange for money that then presumable they will use to exchange for food. Those that don't want to pay or pay as little as possible for having something done follow by saying that they will just spend it on drugs.

I have always known that work begins with a demand for labor.  If the capitalist class does not want to do anything then the demand for labor does not exist. That has not happened.  What has happened is that the capitalist has transferred a high percentage of their demand for labor to other countries.  They are out-sourcing. What about marriage?

Food stamps are a disincentive to marriage. How could that be?  I can think of many reasons not to  marry. Food stamps are not on that list.  They must be thinking that women would be looking for a man to feed them if they were hungry.  Name me one man that wants a hungry woman?  Just one, please!

Good news for the Freedom of the Press!

Any one that thinks this is important should read this.  http://www.breitbart.com/article

"News is a public good," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said. "We should be willing to take action if necessary to preserve the news that is vital to democracy."

"No one uses the phone book any more to look things up."

I just heard that on the Today show.  There were explaining how how to wrap Christmas gifts without spending money.  One of their was was to use only telephone book pages.  Why?  "No one uses the phone book any more to look things up."  Think about the consequences of that!

There will be a time in the near furture when the Freedom of the Press and Speech is lost.

Government leaders continue to move toward more control of the press and speech.

The effect of not sharing dinner on the family?

I've been thinking about what effect this would have on the children.


Diane raised the boys after my brother died. They did not have meals together. Food was put on the table, the boys took what they wanted and then went some where to eat it along. What effect did this have on their personality? The boys are now in their middle 20's and scattered to places unknown to me. They are unwelcome here.

This could be about the destruction of the family unity. Back when I was having supper with the family the parents stayed married. That is also a part of the destruction of the family. Back when the family unit was intact the male was able to support the family. Now it takes two, in most cases, to earn enough to support the family. Parents out of the house for 10 hours, 5-6 days a week turns having supper together an impossibility. It turns into stopping at the deli, bring it home, and putting the bags on the table: 'Come and get it!'

It is a mess.

Pop the pig ...

I happened into a kids program this morning and saw an ad for Pop The Pig.  Their must be a connection between this and obesity. It caused me to wonder about its effect on behavior.

The link to Pop The Pig

Thanksgiving is another opportunity to waste.

I prepared a Thanksgiving dinner and saved the left-overs. It was in the left-over phase that I realized that waste is happening on a grand scale. I senced something might be happening when I heard a flip news woman say that there will be a lot to go into the garbage. So, in the clean-up phase the left-overs are prepared for late night snacks, soap, lunch, student's sandwiches, etc or some percentage of it goes into the garbage. I remember my mom giving me a bag and telling me to put it in the garbage. It would be very heavy. The bag I put in the garbage this Thanksgiving contained turkey bones and it was small and light.

I recall my sister-in-law and the food waste in their house. I thought at the time that they should just put it directly into the garbage can and skip the cooking phase. Cooking was a waste of time. Order, have it delived and eat like wolves. I witnessed the behavior. They didn't even set down at the table togather. The food was in small bags. The boys grabbed what they wanted and went somewhere to eat by themselves.

It was a joy to share Thanksgiving with Brenda.

Ground zero or Flint, Michigan?

YouTube video

My grand mother lived in Owosso, Michigan and my uncle George worked for GM in Flint.  After his divorce he lived with his mother in Owosso.  When I would visit my grand mother I would pass by Flint.  Something really bad has happened in Flint. I now live in Holiday, Florida. Someone shot Dixie [my cat] in the eye.  I will take her to the doctor tomorrow.

What are we as a race of people?

Hunger in Flint.  Do you really care?

Al Gore on Saturday Night Live

There was Al Gore dressed in a suit holding his book: An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It . 

He was not allowed to speak a complete thought.  He was constantly interrupted by a black wearing what appeared to be an equivalent of a clowns suit, dancing and singing 'What's Up Now?".  The situation totally discounted Al Gore.

Does this represent the attitude of most college educated Americans?  If it does, then we are all in jeopardy.

What's up?

I am frequently asked that question and I'm uncertain how to answer it.  When it is dark and the sky is clear, I want to say the moon and stars.  When it's day time, I'm tempted to say the stock market.  Other times I'm tempted to say the price of gas. 

Ask your students this question.  What's up?  Maybe they know. Please post their answers.

Do what you were told and keep your mouth shut.

I witnessed this in the small towns near Midland, Michigan. Dow Chemical is located there. Dow needs highly educated employees in research and management. They got them from the University system. The hourly employees came from the small towns near Midland where most people only had a high school education from an inferior school system. Gradually Dow need for better educated hourly employees increased: they needed more than just someone with a strong back that would do what they were told and that would keep their mouth shut.


I had some of the Gladwin Michigan students in my classroom when I taught at Mid Michigan Community College. They refused to study, they were disinterested in what was being taught, some did not bath and were generally nasty people. They were not the type of people that Dow Chemical wanted. This is another reason why Dow management would out-source. It was not could just that it could be done cheaper else where.

Dow also learned how to do more with less people. That was obvious when I saw Dow's employee parking lots. When I was there, the parking lots would be almost full. When I visited there the parking lots were about one 10th full.

By the time I left Michigan, Gladwin had become a welfare town.

Teaching without purpose ....

That is what you are doing without a goal and lesson plans that will fullfil that goal.  Otherwise, just wing it. I hope you are not doing that.

You made the mess; you clean it up!

Have you ever said that?  What what would you think if you were told  'the Law does not require me to do that'.

Progress Energy employes pruned my oak tree and left behind the limbs.  I thought that someone would be back and remove them.  About 3 weeks have passed and they were still there.  So I thought that someone must have forgotten to finish what they had started.  So, I called Progress Energy to remind them to remove the limbs.  That is when I was told, "The Law does not require us to do that". I was shocked. Their mess had suddenly become my problem.

I knew that a Code Enforcement officer would soon be after me for what they did.  My next step was to use my lawn tractor to pull the limbs into the back yard where I can safely cut them into small pieces.  What does this have to do with education?  It is about students not being taught correct behavior.

When they become adults, they pass laws that allow them to make a mess and not clean it up! They have become good law abiding citizens. Or, have they become something other than that?

A message from Russia!

"If we don't take joint action, the consequences for the planet may be very distressing to the point that the Arctic and Antarctic ice can melt and change ocean levels," he said shortly before leaving Singapore.

"All of this will have catastrophic consequences."

I live about 2 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and at an elevation of 12 feet above sea level as do millions of us do who live in Florida. You may take the 'I don't care, it doesn't effect me attitude' as do many who live on higher ground.  I don't live where I do my choice.  My location was determined by my parents. You might think that I should just move.  I have thought about it.

I try to avoid indifferent people. I have gotten rid of most of them and I avoid the rest.

She took me to the hospital and then she took me home and beat me.

That is what Brenda told me her mother did to her after she touched a hot burner after her mother told her not to do it. Brenda ignored her mothers when she was about 9 and suffered the consquences. Today, Brenda and I installed a cook top in her kitchen and she recalled what had happened many years ago.  It sure was tempting to touch the cook top to see if it was hot.  We didn't do that.

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

Sir Isaac Newton gave credit to the knowledge of scientist that preceded him. He did that because he understood that he could not have understood physics and mathematics without them. They provided the foundation that he built upon as did people like Albert Einstein.

I frequently witness teachers encouraging their students who have not yet learned what they should know if they had first learned the knowledge of the Giants to draw a conclusion and expound upon that conclusion when they have not learned the fundamentals. I cringe when I witness this and think that they are creating the next generation of con men.

Here is the link to Wikipedia that explains  "... standing on the shoulders of Giant." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

Freedom of the Press requires a Press!

I bought a Tampa Tribune today.  It was only 24 pages.  The pages were small and the paper was printed on cheap paper.  The price was .80 cents.  I have not reason to buy another Tampa Tribune.  With the Tampa Tribune gone, there will only be the St. Petersburg Times remaining. I read the Times at Ronald's this morning. There was not much left after Ronald removed the advertising.

The Freedom of the Press may remain for a while after newspapers have become an historical artifact. I sometimes wonder what others value. They do not seem to care about others and sometimes they do not even care about themselves.  I bought the Tampa Tribune at Greenbay.  The clerk ask me if I wanted it in a bag. I said, "No".  Then she put a sticker on it.  I said, "I don't want a sticker on it either."  She than said, "It is the store rule. If it isn't in a bag, then it must have a sticker."

Now you know what is important.

How schools stifle creativity

Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D. presents a very important message to educators in this video. Link to video

I have thought some of the same thoughts but it was not for me to put it togather and present it.  I do have a blog from which I can pass it on to you.  I hope you do something constructive with what you will learn.

Eric Kandel: From Mind to Brain and Back Again

I discoved last night when reading Scientific American Mind, October/November 2009.  His profile begins on page 33.  He was award the Nobel Prize for his work that revealed the basic mechanisms of memory. It is something that all educators should know.  After all, our effort is futile if our students do not remember what they have been taught. 

I would summarize it for you, but then you would most likely not discover Eric Kandel.  Get to know Eric Kandel and then you will know why he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Quote of the Week:

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak & think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.  ~James Ballard

Lessonplans.com will change in a few weeks.

Lessonplans.com will change in a few week and might be unavailable until after errors are corrected.

What is currently available at Lessonplans.com will be available sometime during the first of next year at the Lesson Plan Study.  The address will be http://www.lessonplansstudy.com/

Going, going , gone ....

The Freedom of the Press is being lost.

Here are the statistics.

Obama declares swine flu a national emergency

This thing is going from bad to worse.

Here is the link to the details. Swine flu

This is not Freedom of the Press when ...

... I control who and what gets published. It is as if I am Orwell's 'Big Brother'.  There has to be no one in control, then it is Freedom of the Press.
~
I get an email from Blogger before before a comment is posted. The follow is an example.

Babs has left a new comment on your post "Freedom of the Press has been lost too."

For anybody to deny this is not freedom of the press is too far up Obamas ass to admit any truth.

Publish this comment.

 Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Babs to The Educator's Blog at 7:25 AM

Freedom of the Press has been lost too.

White House boasts: We 'control' the news media.

Communications chief offers shocking confession to foreign government.  You can hear it at this link. 
Our governments shocking admission

Quote of the Week

Housework is a breeze. Cooking is a pleasant diversion. Putting up a retaining wall is a lark. But teaching is like climbing a mountain. ~ Fawn M. Brodie

Delay Undercuts H1N1 Vaccine Campaign: October 17, 2009

I found this in the Wall Street Journal this morning.
   ~
About 40 million doses of vaccine had been expected by the end of October, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials say now they expect between 28 million and 30 million doses instead, because the shots are taking longer to produce than they had hoped. The delay in vaccine production complicates efforts by state and local officials and health-care providers to schedule immunization clinics, because they don't know when shipments of doses will arrive.

Associated Press An employee at the Cleveland Clinic is vaccinated Thursday. The clinic has begun giving vaccine to front-line workers who provide direct patient care.

Officials know they are in a race against time: The delay comes as the new H1N1 flu has become widespread in 41 states. While most people get only mildly ill, the virus has claimed the lives of young people who were perfectly healthy until they were struck, and made others so sick they had to be rescued with special equipment in intensive care.  Source:  Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2009

You can read all of it at this link.  Wall Street Journal
  
Would people unknown to us really be toying with us for some reason; perhaps, for personal gain?

H1N1 continues to be a problem.

Ronald wrote, "I'll follow your advice, I will be vaccinated against flu.  In Canada, the government plans to vaccinate the entire population against H1N1 flu. I will be vaccinated."

Ronald Q. works for the Canadian government and will be returning to Florida in November. I wonder if what I hear on the telescreen about H1N1 is an exaggeration. Ronald is taking this seriously and will be vaccinated.  I'm still in my wait and see mode since I am not in the high risk catagory. However, I did have my yearly flu vaccination.

The November issue of Wired has an article about H1N1 that you should read.  It is not posted on their website yet: wired.com  So, you will have to read it at your local library or wherever it is available. It is titled: An Epidemic of Fear.

It seem impossible that this would happen!

A new study warns that the H1N1 flu may strike as many as 35 percent of Americans. A report by the non-profit group Trust for America's Health found that hospitals in more than a dozen states could run out of beds. Host Liane Hansen speaks to Dr. Robert Galvin, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, about the measures he's taking to ensure there are hospital beds available in his state this winter.

It is funny and has an element of truth.

Source:  Mary Lou Croyton

The Dead Mule Raffle
Monday, October 5, 2009

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily News Newspaper in Starkville, MS. and bought a mule for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night." Curtis & Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back."

The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."

The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?"

Curtis said, "We gonna raffle him off."

The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis & Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked, "What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"

They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do."

Leroy said,"Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898."

The farmer said, "My Lord, didn't anyone complain?"

Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."

Curtis and Leroy now work for the government. They're overseeing the Bailout Program.

Quote of the Week:

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me. ~ Dudley Field Malone