Fireside Learning:  Conversations about Education

A network created for collegial conversation, for sharing thoughts about education. Reflective practitioners, philosophers, psychologists, teachers of all kinds, doctors, scientists, administrators, students, learners of all ages: post and ponder.

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Education News

Peter Schmidt: Intergroup Dialogue: Promoted as Using Racial Tension to Teach

By PETER SCHMIDT
Colleges struggle to get students of different races and genders to learn from one another. Now several major colleges are promoting a teaching method that deliberately stirs up conflict in the classroom to expose students to different perspectives.

People in leadership roles are ubiquitous, but leaders are in short supply.

Hayes Mizell
Guest Columnist EducationNews.org
Introductory remarks of Hayes Mizell on July 14, 2008 before moderating Session B01 at the National Staff Development Council’s Summer Conference, held at the Marriott World Center Resort in Orlando, FL. The session was “Leadership Empowerment from Classroom to Boardroom” and included panel members Carolyn Crowder, National Education Association; Steve Helgeson, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; Rosalind LaRocque, American Federation of Teachers; and Stephanie Hirsh, National Staff Development Council. Approximately 20 people attended the session. Mizell is the Distinguished Senior Fellow of the National Staff Development Council.

Kindergartners may have longer days

LANSING -- Longer school days may be on the horizon for Michigan kindergartners. The Legislature has approved a school funding plan that includes a provision to phase in full-day, everyday kindergarten by reducing funding for kindergartners on half-day and alternate-day schedules.

Diane Ravitch: In which I differ with a friend

My longtime friend Checker Finn wrote a critique of Randi Weingarten's inaugural speech as President of the American Federation of Teachers. Checker chastised her for endorsing the idea that schools should help the neediest kids by offering health services and social services in addition to their customary academic fare. Checker notes, rightly, that Randi's vision echoes the manifesto of the "Broader, Bolder Approach."

Schools eye four-day week to cut fuel costs...

By Rebekah Kebede
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facing a crippling increase in fuel costs, some rural U.S. schools are mulling a solution born of the '70s oil crisis: a four-day week.

More Bad News on the Reading Achievement Gap in New York City (Plus, Free Cape Inside!)

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/upload/2008/07/met yellow cape.jpg
On Tuesday I described the math achievement disparities separating black and Hispanic New York City students from their white and Asian counterparts on NAEP. Turning our attention now to reading, you'll see that the achievement gap has not narrowed in reading either.

How to Defend Your School from a Bullying Lawsuit

Parents throughout the country, taking advantage of anti-bullying laws, are suing schools and winning. Judgments against schools are routinely in the hundreds of thousands-or even millions!- of dollars. A school in Tampa, Florida was recently ordered to pay $4,000,000 to parents for having failed to stop their child from being bullied.

Riley presents award for support of pre-K expansion

Gov. Bob Riley will recognize groups that helped Alabama's efforts to expand its First Class Pre-K Program during an event at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Cleveland Avenue YMCA.

School board OKs $2.1 billion bond measure for ballot

After weeks of often-confusing deliberations over what its massive fix-it list should include, the San Diego school board voted unanimously Wednesday to put a $2.1 billion bond measure on the November ballot.

Educators look to boost minority graduation

American Indian and other minority students sometimes drop out of school partly because they don't feel connected enough to their cultures from an early age, an expert on identifying dropout behaviors told educators Wednesday.
 

Forum

Blog Posts

Changing Lives Through Music

This is a video of an updated 60 Minutes broadcast done by Bob Simon on Venezuela's groundbreaking musical education program. (A four-page transcript of the show segment can be found here.)… Continue

Posted by Skip Zilla on July 20th, 2008 at 8:54pm — 1 Comment (Add)

Who wants to peek in a neighborhood community in Israel?

I am inviting you to read my latest blog post "Kindergarten and the molding of a community" on http://or-tal.com/?p=58.

Posted by Or-Tal Kiriati on July 20th, 2008 at 3:00pm — 2 Comments (Add)

Who knew we've been living in such a dangerous neighborhood?

June, 2008's The Atlantic published yet another historical perspective changing article titled "The Sky Is Falling". Here's a short video by the article's author, Greg Easterbrook, speaking about what he's written:… Continue

Posted by Skip Zilla on July 19th, 2008 at 2:30pm — 1 Comment (Add)

Critical Analysis’ of Testing Data- An Experiment!?!

Below is an article released by our state concerning State Test Scores. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/186/story/208408.html I thought it would be interesting to play with an analysis of this kind of information. Some questions come to mind:… Continue

Posted by Mike on July 18th, 2008 at 10:34am — 1 Comment (Add)

Library of Congress Virtual Programs & Services

In a previous post I inserted a link to a Library of Congress "Web Guide" for the new U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan. Today's post is aimed at highlighting the LoC's Virtual Programs & Services, which is a great place to begin an online search for information on a variety of subjects of interest to both teachers and students. I have just begun to search this valuable LoC reference stash in any initial gathering of source materials for fur… Continue

Posted by Skip Zilla on July 18th, 2008 at 9:16am — 8 Comments (Add)

becoming yet more technified...

Ok, this is the week of techno. Just bought a new Mac, and along with it got a free iPod touch. (Educators get this bennie along with the discount until September 7th, I believe.) Oh yeah, a new scanner/printer... Big deal changes. Beyond that (and quite necessary) new glasses. Bifocals! Graduated bifocals. I can't get used to anything. Just taking baby steps before the big immersion. Today, fire-wiring the two computers together, getting all the old stuff onto the new computer (music, documen… Continue

Posted by Connie Weber on July 17th, 2008 at 7:52am — 4 Comments (Add)

The end of summer break...

It's been a while. Honestly, after school let out I just needed a break from anything and everything to do with education. I've had a great month of vacationing, visiting and being visited, et cetera, and now I'm hopefully refreshed enough for the next round. When I was still a student, mid-July would still be early summer break. I would still feel like I had all the time in the world until I had to think about school again. Instead, my summer break is about to come to an end. On Monday, I star… Continue

Posted by Penelope Millar on July 16th, 2008 at 10:01pm — 3 Comments (Add)

Strategic involvement of university resources in fighting poverty

This map shows areas of high poverty in Chicago along with locations of poorly performing schools. It also shows locations of universities. I encourage you to read the blogs… Continue

Posted by Daniel Bassill on July 16th, 2008 at 5:59pm — 3 Comments (Add)

A conversation with Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools

I'm currently watching on PBS tonight Charlie Rose's conversation with Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. This video of the broadcast conversation, like others of Rose's I've posted, seems to me to be very informative and encouraging, in this instance about the turnaround of a previously failing, urban school system… Continue

Posted by Skip Zilla on July 15th, 2008 at 8:54am — 2 Comments (Add)

I know you have a Teaching "style" but do you have "STYLE"?

Continue

Posted by ddeubel on July 14th, 2008 at 7:14pm — No Comments (Add)

where in the world...?

 
 

About Fireside Learning: Conversations about Education

Connie Weber Connie Weber created this social network on Ning.

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Afraid to ask for how-to help?

Click the tab labeled "Groups" in the main menu and, when the page opens which provides a directory of Fireside Learning groups, look for the group labeled "Helpful How-tos." Various members of the community will post how-tos in advance as well as answer the how-to questions you may pose there.

can't miss links

After Ed
TEDblog
PBS

blogs of community members:
(alphabetically by surname)
Gerald Ardito's
Daniel Bassill's
Angeles Berman's
Asher Bey's
Rick Biche's
Nancy Bosch's (1)
Nancy Bosch's (2)
Ian Carmichael's
Kelly Christopherson's
Barbara Cohen's
Lorna Costantini's
Daniel Craig's
Elizabeth Davis'
Mechelle De Craene's
Fred Deutsch's
Ed Dykstra's
eduwonkette's
Frank's
Andrew Garcia's
Laura Gibbs'
Britt Gow's
Lucy Gray's
Sharon Greenberg's
Kevin H.'s
Jennifer Haines'
Steve Hargadon's
Debbie Harris'
Elona Hartjes'
Tim Holt's
Bud Hunt's
Or-Tal Kiriati's
Nathan Lowell's
Jennifer Lubke's
Sylvia Martinez's
Brian McKee's
Penelope Millar's
Mary's
Mathew Needleman's
Nadine Norris'
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's
Julia Osteen's
Mike Parent's
Shelley Q's
Sue R.'s
samccoy's
Stephanie Sandifer's
Christine Southard's
Michael Stout's
David Truss'
Scott Walker's
Ms. Whatsit's

other blogs of note:
(alphabetically by surname)
Earl Fisch's
Wesley Fryer's
Jim Lerman's
Dan Meyer's
Doug Noon's
Will Richardson's
Christopher D. Sessums'
Gary Stager's
David Warlick's

student blogs:
A Really Different Place
Students 2.0

members' student project websites:
WmChamberlain's
Jame Dykstra's

members' websites:
Anna Barsan's
Susan Bivona's
Amelia Bookstein Kyazze's
Ed Hitchcock's
Ed Jones'
Suzanne Northcott's
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's
Dennis O'Connor's
Sue Palmer's
Nick Pernisco's
Matthew Perry's
Wade Welch's

other websites of note:
ALA's Great Web Sites for Kids
Bartleby.com
Connexions
Free Online Education
Internet4Classrooms
Internet Archive
Miranda Net Fellowship
PlanetFesto
Teachers Leaders Network
We Feel Fine

members' wikis:
Laura Gibbs'
My Fables
Steve Hargadon's
Classroom 2.0 Wiki
EdTechLive
EduBloggerCon
Social Networks in Education
Web 2.0 in Education

other wikis of note:
Computer Kiddos Wiki
Educational Software

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(created by Mechelle De Craene)

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(created by Or-Tal Kiriati)

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Visit School 2.0 (created by Steve Hargadon)

(other Nings)
Visit Coming of Age
 

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