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Friday, March 22, 2013

The Happy Good Time Emotion Response Place and School Part VIII: This Shit Can't Be Made Up! southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:


The Happy Good Time Emotion Response Place and School Part VIII: This Shit Can't Be Made Up!

It is getting goofier by the day at The Happy Good Time Emotion Response Place and School. No one, not even the good Lord himself can make this shit up.

Now remember before the tale is told, The Happy Good Time Emotion Response Place and School uses the most awesome as well and most excellent PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)system. The key to this system is the card. A student starts at neutral (white), they do well and the student gets a green then a blue card, and when you are a bad child you go from yellow to red. Got it?

The problem is twofold. One, the students who get to red on a consistent basis, and there are plenty don't give a shit, that no matter how often their card lands on red it ain't gonna change a thing. Two, what are the consequences of getting on red? The students who are from the above group supposedly get a phone call home but these are the students of the parents who do jack as parents anyway so what is the purpose of the 

Thoughts on a disaster… Save Our Schools

Thoughts on a disaster…:


Thoughts on a disaster…

Thoughts on a disaster…

Bob George – Save Our Schools National Director
Have you ever witnessed a disaster?
Where you troubled, shaken to your core, reminded of the need to live every day as if it is your last? Would you do anything you could to have found a way to keep what you encountered from happening or happening again?
My guess is your answer to all of the above is yes!
We are in the midst of a gathering super-storm more powerful than Katrina or Sandy. More lives will be lost; more children harmed irreparably, and more families devastated than were in the two-mega storms combined.
There are those who believe Sandy and Katrina were wrought at man’s hand. While this can and will be argued, what cannot escape recognition is in this current situation, The tempest is entirely one of our doing. Human beings created the crisis that came and comes.
I am speaking of the plan to close, co-locate and turnaround 70 schools in the City of Chicago. More than


Good News In Georgia; Victory! We Did It!

Good News In Georgia; Victory! We Did It!

Because of our efforts, Parent Trigger legislation was tabled for this session —http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/lindsey-pulls-parent-trigger-legislation-amid-conc/nWzj2/. Today’s result proves what we have been saying all along — that the actions of Georgia parents and educators can beat back the influence out-of-state special interest groups.
Thanks for your support.
Let’s Keep the Momentum Going!
The Georgia General Assembly is considering legislation (SB 243) to expand a private school tax credit program from $50 million to $65 million per year. This equates to a 30% increase for the program, while the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to fund our public schools. Over $1 billion dollars has been cut to public 

Torlakson, Kirst write letter supporting nine-district NCLB waiver | EdSource Today

Torlakson, Kirst write letter supporting nine-district NCLB waiver | EdSource Today:


Torlakson, Kirst write letter supporting nine-district NCLB waiver - by John Fensterwald

S.475: Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

S.475: Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:


Bill Introduced: S.475 Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act

A bill to reauthorize the Special Olympics Sport and Empowerment Act of 2004, to provide assistance to Best Buddies to support the expansion and development of mentoring programs, and for other purposes.





S.475 - Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act

A bill to reauthorize the Special Olympics Sport and Empowerment Act of 2004, to provide assistance to Best Buddies to support the expansion and development of mentoring programs, and for other purposes. view all titles (2)

Bill's Views

  • Today:3
  • Past Seven Days:26
  • All-Time:54
 
Introduced
 
Senate
Passes
 
House
Passes
 
President
Signs
 

 
03/05/13
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Related Bills

Ed Notes Online: Fighting School Closings, Chicago Style

Ed Notes Online: Fighting School Closings, Chicago Style:


Fighting School Closings, Chicago Style

Do you know what Unity Caucus people are going to say? "You see, if only the CTU had not been so militant and struck. This is retaliation. We know how to deal. We know we have to be good boys and girls and they will let us live a little longer.

Karen Lewis would say they want to kill us sooner or later. Our only chance is to fight them on all fronts sooner and with all guns blazing.

In reality, if CORE had not won the election, the Chicago Teachers Union would be a bare bones shell by now. And what irony that the very people who led the CTU down the road to extinction are not saying that CORE did not do enough. The proverbial guy who kills his parents and pleads mercy on the grounds he's an orphan.




Chicago Teachers UnionClosings Update
Dear CTU member,
You probably heard yesterday that the school district plans to close, co-locate and turnaround 70 schools this year. Your sisters and brothers in the CTU will stand tall with you during these difficult times. You have newly won rights in this situation, and our field staff will help you assert them, should the need arise.
The CTU will continue to fight any and all school closings or other actions that displace our members and harm the education of our students. We are planning a mass rally on March 27th, we are developing legal challenges to these closings, we will continue to pursue legislative action, and we will continue working with our members and community to build a mass movement to stop this massive privatization drive. Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked Board of Education are attempting the largest mass school closing in the history of the nation—but the mayor is more vulnerable now than ever, thanks to the strength we have all built together with parents, students and community.
We have the momentum, for the first time:
  • Thousands of people came out to public hearings to reject school closings over the last month.
  • The public knows CPS is lying about the budget and underutilization because they are:
    1. expanding charters
    2. inflating the deficit
    3. creating $1 billion more in liability, by CTU estimates, if they actually do what they promise (hardly likely) and install air conditioning, provide sufficient security, and adequate social supports to the receiving schools, and
    4. they will increase class size, not decrease it.
  • Rahm hopes to project strength with these closings because he is actually weaker now than ever.
  • Black aldermen and legislators are finally waking up to the realization that this will have a devastating impact on their communities.
  • The newspapers are actually covering the educationally damaging and discriminatory impact these closings will have on Black studentsspecial needs students, and low-income communities.
  • Our members are united like never before. We held a packed House of Delegates meeting on school closings just last week. 250 people have agreed to be arrested on March 27th and schools are ready to take the next steps.
Everyone knows the closings will increase the violence and harm the academic opportunities for our children. CPS has even adopted military planning strategies for these closings. They mean to make war on our neighborhood schools. It seems that Rahm is more committed to a high “body count” of school closings than helping our communities survive and thrive.
What can we do?
  • Know your rights – in the event that the school does close you should be aware of what your rights are.
  • The March 27th Rally is essential. It is one of best chances to show how strong and powerful we are. If we flood the streets with thousands, surround City Hall, take hundreds of arrests and express a booming rejection of these harmful, undemocratic policies, we have a fighting chance.
  • Take home all your parent phone numbers over the break and get them to come out on the 27th and to a future meeting to fight the school closing.
  • Come to the Bank of America action tomorrow, Saturday 3/22/13, to make them give $36 million back to CPS for rip off loans since 2008 -- this money, if returned, could keep all our schools open and then some. The training and action is from 10am to 12:30pm tomorrow at 2229 S. Halsted.
We must prepare for a big confrontation. Power concedes nothing without a fight; it never did and it never will. The future of our public schools and the well-being of our students are in jeopardy. This is a critical battle and your union is with you 100%.
Please contact Lupe Coyle if you would like to schedule a meeting with members from your school during Spring break to meet with an organizer or field representative. We will get back in touch with you as soon as possible to schedule a day and time.

Here is the Ravitch post with Karen Lewis' response 

Karen Lewis on Chicago School Closings

by dianerav
The mass closing of public schools in Chicago should be the lead story on every news channel tonight. It is not. The fact is that a dozen years of No Child Left Behind and three-plus years of Race to the Top has persuaded the American public that closing schools is "reform."
It is not.
It is a dereliction of responsibility. It is an abdication of any oath of office that a public official in this country takes. It is a betrayal of any commitment to equality of educational opportunity. It is a capitulation to corporate interests. I wish I could be in Chicago on March 27 to stand with the teachers, parents, and students who have been abandoned by Rahm Emanuel and all those who carry out his shameful orders to close neighborhood public schools.
Here is the statement of Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union:
CHICAGO –The Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the following at a news conference regarding proposed school closings:
“We are standing here today in the beautiful Mahaila Jackson elementary school in our city’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. This school was named for one of the greatest gospel singers in our nation’s history, a woman who sang at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral, a woman who was instrumental in our Civil Rights struggle. Unfortunately, we are gathered here today not to talk about this pioneer or even about how this school does an outstanding job of providing a great learning community for some of our special needs students. We are standing here because this school, along with scores of others, has been targeted for closure by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Public School district....
“Closing 50 of our neighborhood schools is outrageous and no society that claims to care anything about its children can sit back and allow this to happen to them. There is no way people of conscious will stand by and allow these people to shut down nearly a third of our school district without putting up a fight. Most of these campuses are in the Black community. Since 2001 88% of students impacted by CPS School Actions are African-American. And this is by design.
“Closing 50 schools is not grand or glorious. This is nothing to celebrate or marvel.
“These actions unnecessarily expose our students to gang violence, turf wars and peer-to-peer conflict. Some of our students have been seriously injured as a result of school closings. One died. Putting thousands of small children in harm’s way is not laudatory.
“There is no safety plan. There is no transportation plan. The city has already raised CTA fares and now they expect parents to put their five-year-old on a crowded city bus in order for them to get to school, when they used to be able to walk to a school in their neighborhood. The way this is being done is an insult and it is disrespectful.
“The CTU is the bargaining unit for 30,000 of the district’s employees SEIU and Unite HERE represent thousands more. Yet CPS did not feel obligated to brief any of us in advance of today’s announcements. Instead, they called a few aldermen last night and then summoned principals this morning at 6:00 a.m. to spring the news on them. They had no consideration for their employees or our students—at all. They have no regard for our parents. They do not care about the children of their employees, many of whom also attend our public schools.
“I also find it extremely cowardly for the Mayor’s administration to announce these actions while he is vacationing out of town. They are also making this announcement days before people are headed into spring break. CPS has spun our entire district into utter chaos, a management model perfected on Clark Street where they are headquartered.
“This city cannot destroy that many schools at one time; and, we contend that no school should be closed in the city of Chicago. These actions will not only put our students’ safety and academics careers at risk but also further destabilize our neighborhoods.
“This is why we intend to rally, united and strong, on Wednesday, March 27 to send a signal that we are sick and tired of being bullied and betrayed. Some of us are going to put our bodies on the line—because a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And when we declare the victory, some of us will sit back and sing the lines of one of Mahaila Jackson’s songs—How I Got Over.
“Rahm Emanuel has become the ‘murder mayor.’ He is murdering public services. Murdering our ability to maintain public sector jobs and now he has set his sights on our public schools. But we have news for him: We don’t intend to die. This is not Detroit. We are the city of big shoulders and so we intend to put up a fight. We don’t know if we can win, but if you don’t fight, you will never win at all.
“The people of this city can no longer sit back and allow this mayor, his school board and his corporate cronies to run rough-shod over democracy. They’ve turned their backs on affordable housing; turned their backs on job creation; and, now they’re turning their backs on our students, their families and our schools. We are tired of playing their school reform games. But who are the winners and losers? Who made the rules? And what do they keep telling the losers to keep them playing their games?
“We do not have a utilization crisis. What we have is a credibility crisis. CPS continues to peddle half-truths, lies and misinformation in order to justify its campaign to wipe out our schools and carry out this corporate-driven school reform nonsense. CPS continues to peddle an ‘underutilization myth’ and ‘billion dollar deficit lie’ as justification for their actions. When research and the facts prove them wrong they simply reconfigure their talking points in order to further perpetrate their sham and to keep us playing their school reform games.
“For the past several weeks there has been a resounding cry against school actions from parents, students, educators and community stakeholders. The Mayor and the CEO have ignored these petitions for justice at these hearings and apparently have not listened to single word that was said. Parents have been direct, loud and clear. Students have been loud and clear. Principals have been loud and clear. Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians have been loud and clear: DO NOT CLOSE OUR SCHOOLS! GIVE US THE RESOURCES WE NEED, RIGHT NOW, TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS AND GIVE THEM THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE.
“Enough with the lies and public deception: School closings will not save money and taxpayers will not see costs benefits in two years. Why? Because vibrant school communities will be quickly transformed into abandon buildings, neighborhood eyesores and public safety hazards.
“This is the mayor’s 25% solution. Yet, who will be held accountable when one of our students is harmed as a result of these policy decisions? And, who will be the ones to ensure justice is served?”
###
The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information please visit CTU’s website at http://www.ctunet.com.

Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal

I did a short piece accompanied by a 12 minute video. Maybe this is the model for print journalism.

The Wave, March 22, 2013: http://www.rockawave.com/news/2013-03-22/Columnists/School_Scope.html

School Scope

Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal 
 
By Norm Scott

At a sometimes raucous March 11th meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, the Mayor Bloomberg-controlled Panel rejected the efforts of Queens PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj and Manhattan PEP rep Patrick Sullivan both of whom called for a moratorium on school closures, phase-outs, and co-location proposals. Fedkowsky, appointed by Borough President Helen Marshall, has increasingly become an opponent of many of the Mayor’s policies as they have ravaged more and more neighborhood schools. He joined Sullivan in presenting the resolution 

UFT on School Governance: The first of two ‘Debates’ | JD2718

UFT on School Governance: The first of two ‘Debates’ | JD2718:


UFT on School Governance: Two ‘Debates’

Last Monday, at the UFT Exec Board, I rose to speak against the recommendations on school governance. They were approved by that body, seventy or so to 3.  I posted about the meeting (click here for account), and promised to write up my notes (immediately below).
On Wednesday the recommendations, now approved by the Exec Board, were introduced to the Delegate Assembly. There any chance of debate was obscured by a tertiary question:  did the MORE reps on the committee vote, and if so, did they vote against. (I discuss, in my next post.)
Monday, March 18, UFT Exec Board. After the report, I spoke. What follows is from my notes – I actually diverged considerably, both because Mulgrew interrupted me, and I responded, and because I thought I was 

Georgia kids can’t touch their toes. Can schools fix that? | Get Schooled

Georgia kids can’t touch their toes. Can schools fix that? | Get Schooled:

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Georgia kids can’t touch their toes. Can schools fix that?

Schools are being asked to get students moving more. (Vino Wong/AJC)Schools are being asked to get students moving more. (Vino Wong/AJC)
Before I began writing about education, I never thought much about all that we ask of schools, from teaching kids calculus to civics to character to cardiovascular health. As an editorial writer, I would attend meetings where one group after another would tout some critical new skill that kids ought to have or some societal problem that schools ought to fix.
But I began to realize schools can’t be ground zero for every societal change; they simply don’t have the time or 

Missouri Education Watchdog: US Department of Education Offers Encouraging Quote from Communist Leader Mao Zedong...

Missouri Education Watchdog: US Department of Education Offers Encouraging Quote from Communist Leader Mao Zedong...:


US Department of Education Offers Encouraging Quote from Communist Leader Mao Zedong...

...then deletes it.

From BuzzFeed.com and Department Of Education Website Quotes Mao Zedong:


The “Kids' Zone” of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) website, part of the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, quotes communist leader Mao Zedong. The NCES is the“primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.” Update: The quote has been removed. 

Find the screenshots here


Below is a biography of Mao from pitara.com for kids which favorably portrays his policies of anti-capitalism and communistic political philosophy:


Mao's uniqueness as a leader is evident from his commitment to continued class struggle under socialism - a view confirmed in his theoretical treatise "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People" (1957). Dissatisfaction with the slowness of development, the loss of revolutionary momentum in the countryside, and the tendency for CCP members 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Boys and Girls (Part One)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Boys and Girls (Part One):


Boys and Girls (Part One)

A number of news stories have crossed my path this month about boys and girls.  This thread is about issues that happen to kids outside of school.

One heads up I wanted to give parents of girls is the movie, Spring Breakers.  Now, you don't have to get too worried because it's rated R so I would hope most of your students could not just go to see it.

Spring Breakers is about a group of college girls who want a spring break, have no money, rob a restaurant and they're off and running.  

However, you should be warned for a couple of reasons.

One, this is NOT a comedy.  It's pretty serious stuff.  Trailer.

Two, it stars some very familiar (to young tweens and teens) actors like Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), Selena Gomez (Disney Channel) and Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars).    I read an article in the NY Times and for most of these young actresses, this is a breaking-away-from-type movie for them and their careers.   (This is fine but you as parents need to know this is tough stuff.) Ms. Hudgens newest song? $$$ex.  Here's what the director of Spring Breakers said in Slate:

This film is hyper-reality,” director Harmony Korine told Salon when discussing his depictions of gun violence. “It’s an aggressive reinterpretation of that culture. It’s a pop poem or a fever dream—like the real world but hyper-