Web Watch

Honorable Mention

2008-05-20T17:19:45Z

At many competitive high schools, traditional honors courses are all but disappearing from the curriculum, as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs grow more influential, according to an article in The Washington Post.

Honors courses, according to the article, generally give students a chance to learn at a faster pace than in regular classes, but without necessarily going into the college-level material required in AP and IB classes. Their decline has left a gap for some students. “There are some students who are just honor students,” said a high school junior at Rockville High in Maryland. “They don’t have the ability to push themselves into AP. They’re too smart to be in regular classes.”

Some students and parents believe their schools are strategically cutting back on honors offerings as a way push more students into AP and IB classes, which can boost a school’s reputation. For example, Newsweek’s annual ranking of the top high schools in America, just published for 2008, is based in part on student participation in college-level courses.

School administrators argue, however, that they are merely trying to simplify their academic tracks and avoid overlapping courses. “We thought it was very health to have simply two choices,” said Gail Hubbard, supervisor of advanced programs for Prince William County Schools in Virginia.

Now You See it, Now You Don’t

2008-05-13T21:59:18Z

First Jim Piculas had a job, then he didn’t. The Florida substitute teacher claimed the Pasco County School District rubbed him off the substitute list because of complaints that he had practiced “wizardry” in the classroom, The Tampa Tribune reports.

Piculas, who was working toward teacher certification, said he thinks his disappearing toothpick trick—involving a toothpick, transparent tape, and sleight-of-hand—may have been interpreted by one of his middle school students as “wizardry.” The student was so rattled by the trick, according to Piculas, that the student’s father complained.

District officials said complaints from the classroom teacher that substitute Piculas didn’t follow lesson plans and lacked classroom control were the actual causes of his removal. “The toothpick demonstration was minor compared to the other problems,” said Renalia DuBose, assistant superintendent. The principal asked that he not return to the school.

Although Piculas says accusations of “wizardry” were his classroom ouster, the word never appears in the district letter he received, according to the Tribune. Piculas said the additional complaints were “window dressing” to mask the real reason for his removal. “I think she [district official] was trying to downplay it because it [classroom magic] sounded so goofy,” he said.

Virtual Morality

2008-05-09T22:16:33Z

Teacher-in-training Stacy Snyder brought suit against Millersville University, alleging that she was denied her teaching credential because of a picture of herself as a “drunken pirate” on her MySpace page. Snyder is claiming her First Amendment rights were violated, according to ABC News.

Citing unsatisfactory performance and unprofessional behavior, university officials said they would have denied Snyder a degree regardless of the photo. The photo, which officials say promoted underage drinking, was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Snyder’s suit, which is scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday, raises questions about teachers’ accountability to students—inside and outside the classroom. Some school districts have begun crafting policies to regulate the virtual lives of their employees, ABC News reports. “Teachers are also considered role models,” said Nora Carr, a spokeswoman for a North Carolina school district that is at work on such a policy.

The risk of having online profiles has prompted teachers associations and school district lawyers to caution teachers about what they put online. The Washington Post recently reported on a wave of teacher profiles featuring content that could be deemed inappropriate by administrators and parents, including strong sexual content, profanity, and discriminatory language.

Appreciating Teachers

2008-05-06T22:31:09Z

According to the National Education Association, the details around the origins of National Teacher Appreciation Day are “murky.” It appears to date back to 1944 when Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge began a letter writing campaign to petition political and education leaders for a national day to honor educators. Eleanor Roosevelt received one of those letters and the rest, as they say, is history.

This year, with their theme “Great Teachers Make Great Public Schools,” the National Education Association draws attention to the role teachers play in ensuring that every child receives a quality public education, according to its Web site. Meanwhile, the Parent Teacher Association and the NEA have co- sponsored the Nation's Largest Teacher Thank-You Card Project. The 8-foot-tall, 50-foot-long mural, to be signed by thousands, will be unveiled next year, location to be determined.

What is the one gift that teachers polled by the NEA last year said would make them feel most appreciated? Close to one-half said a “thank you” would suffice.

Texting & Term Papers

2008-05-01T22:08:38Z

Many students seem to forget that terms like “LOL” (Laugh out loud) and “ROTFL” (Rolling on the floor laughing) don’t belong in academic assignments. In fact, nearly two-thirds of 700 students surveyed in a recent study said their e-communication style sometimes finds its way into their schoolwork, according to the New York Times.

Students said they sometimes omit proper punctuation and capitalization, use text shortcuts, and emoticons, according to the study. But while schools seek to assimilate new modes of writing, some experts see it as a non-issue.

“I think this is not a worrying issue at all,” said Richard Sterling, emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project, who views students’ e-communication as an opportunity to discuss proper usages of English.

Most of the students in the survey didn’t view their e-language as “real writing,” but Sterling makes this prediction: “As the English language evolves, some e-mail conventions … may well become accepted practice.”

Spy Games?

2008-04-28T21:06:43Z

Where's George Orwell when you need him? Teachers at Cascade High School in Everett, Wash., are raising suspicions that their district may have used a surveillance camera to spy on a colleague who was fired last year.

English and journalism teacher Kay Powers was terminated in June 2008 for allegedly helping students publish an underground newspaper using school equipment, in opposition to school orders, according to Everett's Daily Herald. Powers' attorneys believe that, in actuality, the district was retaliating against her for siding with students in a legal dispute concerning administrators’ oversight of the official student paper.

Around the time she was fired—and was under investigation by the district—several of Powers’ colleagues noticed a mechanical object with a glass rectangle at the bottom affixed between the light fixtures in her classroom, according to the Herald. The device then mysteriously disappeared.

Some teachers were reportedly planning to testify on the suspicious device at a public hearing on Powers’ case that was to be held earlier this month. However, the district rehired Powers under a settlement agreed to a few days before the scheduled hearing—a development her attorneys suggest was no coincidence.

The district’s attorney, however, has categorically denied that any surveillance equipment was placed in Powers’ classroom, and the investigator who was hired by the district in Powers’ case claimed in a deposition that she had no knowledge of any recording devices being used.

Even so, for teachers, a number of unanswered questions remain. “There are some puzzling pieces to this mystery,” said English teacher Steve Garmanian. “Why was this [object] installed? What was it? And why was it removed?”

And it gets even more disturbing: In a development that may or may not be related, the Everett district’s superintendent, Carole Whitehead, received what police called a credible death threat late last week.

Baldness as a Disability

2008-04-25T18:41:05Z

James Campbell, a retired teacher from Stirlingshire, Scotland, lost his claim in court that he was a victim of disability discrimination. According to BBC NEWS, Campbell, 61, said that his baldness was a disability that had a "substantial and long term adverse effect" on his teaching ability.

He told the Glasgow court that the students equated his baldness with weakness, and that he shunned school hallways to avoid hearing students shout “baldy.” Since the students were able to taunt him to his face, he believed they were capable of assault. “How can I stand in front of a class with confidence to get on with my job when I am getting teased and bullied about baldness, when I think they are laughing at me all the time,” said Campbell who has also charged that he was dismissed unfairly, a claim that will be heard at a later date. In their defense, the local government said baldness was not covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

Tribunal judge Robert Gall said, “If baldness was to be regarded as an impairment then perhaps a physical feature such as a big nose, big ears or being smaller than average height might of themselves be regarded as an impairment under the DDA.”

Spec. Ed. 2.0

2008-04-21T17:58:27Z

Among the wide range of skills needed by today’s special education teachers, proficiency with technology may fast be rising to the top.

According to an article in the Boston Globe, a growing movement known as “universal design” is spurring special educators to use advances in technology—whether in specialized devices or widely available Web programs—to give students with disabilities better access to mainstream curriculum units.

Examples cited include remote-control switches that help wheelchair-bound students operate machinery; oral readers to help students with reading disabilities keep up with texts; and an online program called Voice Threads that lets users create presentations with a variety of media, including voice and video.

There is a definite art to the way educators select and implement the technology, experts say, insofar as it must be tailored to the needs of the individual student for inclusion.

"We haven't left anyone out," said Madalaine Pugliese, director of the assistive technology graduate program at Simmons College in Massachusetts. "I think that's the real spirit of the work we're trying to do."

History in the Making

2008-04-17T17:25:10Z

The U.S. Department of Education, often criticized for focusing too narrowly on math and reading test scores, has awarded grants to 121 school districts to create professional development programs for history teachers on the use of primary sources, according to The Washington Post. The grants, given for three-year periods, range from $500,000 and $1 million.

In past years, schools have used the money to give teachers opportunities to study documents with university professors, visit museums and historical sites, and—a nice touch—read books by important historians.

According to the Post the grants are part of trend to expand teachers’—particularly elementary teachers’—historical knowledge and encourage them to move beyond textbooks in their lessons.

“Elementary teachers are generalists. And, as a result, they tend to stick with books,” said Alice Reilly, social studies coordinator for Fairfax County schools in Virginia. “We want kids to look at history like historians and ask, 'Why would a historian consider one document versus another?'"

A Student-Violence Epidemic

2008-04-15T16:19:50Z

The cell phone video of a student's violent attack on Baltimore art teacher Jolita Berry has stunned viewers nationwide. But teachers in Baltimore say the incident was by no means unusual. “Believe me, this is not news to those of us who have worked in the schools,” said Ronda Cooperstein, a former teacher at Reginald F. Lewis High, the school where Berry was assaulted. “It’s a day-to-day problem, and if it doesn’t happen to me today, it might happen to you tomorrow.”

That’s apparently no exaggeration. In Baltimore this year, according to the Baltimore Sun, 50 students have been arrested and 112 have been expelled for assaulting staff members. State records, meanwhile, show that there have been 515 suspensions in Baltimore this year for student attacks on school staff.

The media coverage of the attack on Berry has at least heightened attention on addressing the problem. Among other things, the district plans to expand mental health and mentoring services for students and to make available additional funds for schools to implement anti-violence initiatives, such as mediation programs.

Some experts also say that teachers and school leaders need more intensive training in dealing with confrontations and defusing potentially violent situations. "Teachers need to sharpen their observation skills to notice when trouble is brewing," said Rick Phillips, executive director of Community Matters, a California organization. "They need to know how to intervene effectively."

Yet some emphasize that schools can’t fix the problem alone: "These issues are well beyond the school per se,” noted Anne-Marie Bond, a social work and community-outreach specialist at the University of Maryland Baltimore. “They reflect other layers in the community and experiences students have. It is hard for the school to address this without a more community-wide or city-wide approach."

Hold the Presses

2008-04-10T21:23:57Z

In 2004, Teri Hu, a California teacher was removed as the advisor for the student newspaper after it questioned the judgment of the school and a teacher, according to the San Francisco Gate. Last spring, it was widely reported that Amy Sorrell, an Indiana journalism teacher was placed on paid leave for insubordination and then transferred after the student newspaper ran an article advocating gay rights. The 1988 Supreme Court ruling, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, allows principals and teachers to censor objectionable articles in public school newspapers, but what protects the many teachers who are demoted or lose their jobs in the fray?

The San Francisco Gate reports that a California state Senate committee has approved a bill that would shield high school and college journalism teachers from retaliation in incidents of censorship. (California law already covers students’ rights to publish articles provided they are not libelous, obscene, or inciting disorder or lawlessness.) Katherine Swan, who retired in 2006 after 35 years in San Francisco schools and encountered several instances of attempted censorship herself, had the following to say on the proposed bill, “Anything that supports journalism teachers gives you a feeling that you can give the kids the power to write honestly and truthfully.”

Papal Picketing

2008-04-09T15:25:26Z

The Lay Faculty Association, a teacher’s union representing over 450 lay educators in New York City Catholic schools, is threatening to strike when Pope Benedict XVI visits the city for the first time next week as pope, according to the Daily News. Union leaders have been negotiating for new contracts and have protested their comparatively low pay, which, coupled with rising costs of living, falls well below the average for public school teachers in the city. They’re hoping that the threat of a strike at a time when the Catholic Church is in the national spotlight can bring the Archdiocese of New York back to the bargaining table.

So far, however, the archdiocese has had a different response. "I believe that if the union does take the visit of Pope Benedict as a time for protest, as a time for division, then that would be an insult to the Holy Father and all of the people of God of this archdiocese,” said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese quoted by the Daily News.

The Federation of Catholic Teachers, a larger union representing 3,300 teachers in the region, has suspended their own strike Monday following “good faith” negotiations over the weekend, according to a report by The New York Times.

The archdiocese has requested a meeting with the LFA on April 10, just days before the Pope is schedule to visit on April 15.

Too Much Freedom of Speech or Too Much Money?

2008-04-07T22:51:53Z

A Facebook/MySpace war being waged at Horace Mann, an elite private school in New York City populated by children of the rich and powerful, is raising questions that even lesser mortals have been grappling with. For example: Who has the right to control online teacher taunting? In lurid detail, New York magazine describes the disturbing Internet hijinks played on Web sites, including Mann’s own Facebook group page, by the school’s students and their powerful parents who protect them. The imbroglio erupted at the high school after students posted lewd and exploitive comments about their teachers (one referring to a faculty member as an “acid casualty” is about the only expletive suitable for printing here).

A confluence of factors—trustee children, their trustee parents, and administrators bending to trustee parents—have proven an unfortunate recipe for beset and powerless teachers who have been reading about themselves online. In turn, parents not happy with teachers reading their children’s Facebook pages have pushed back and hard—wielding board power and pushing teachers out, instead of having their children face consequences. At one faculty meeting, the head of the school allegedly told his staff that students would be punished, but then took teachers to task for engaging in “similar behavior.” “Your contracts are under review and you’re being watched by the kids," he reportedly said. Something they probably already knew.

Remembering Dr. King

2008-04-04T22:04:31Z

Across the country people are sharing memories on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Some are from the classroom.

Betty Anderson, now the copy editor for the Seattle Times, recalls the less than positive response from her teachers in Alamaogordo, New Mexico when she and a group of junior high students wore black to mourn King’s assassination. “They made little remarks like, ‘We don’t have that kind of problem here, so why are you doing this?” Anderson also remembers when her music teacher canceled her choir’s performances after white parents complained about her kissing a white boy in the school play.

Kathy Callum recalls how things changed at her high school following the assassination. “…We looked at each other not by the content of character, but the color of skin,” Callum tells the Denver Post. Today she is the interim principal at the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Early College. Early in her tenure, Callum decided to travel to each classroom to read from Dr. King’s writings after some behavioral problems. “I wanted to share some of his wisdom, so they could understand the importance of being at a school named for this very important man.” Says Callum, “…Hopefully, the seed was planted.”

The American Federation of Teachers provides a short history on the labor strike that brought Dr. King to Memphis and the support he received from the AFT and the United Federation of Teachers.

The Truth and Beauty of Science

2008-04-01T16:51:59Z

A seminar at Boston’s Museum of Science combines a passion of many young girls with an industry in which many of them are missing: makeup and science. Cosmetic Chemistry is designed to pique their interest in the subject by teaching the science of beauty products, according to the New York Times.

Donned in rubber goggles and aprons, 5th through 7th graders reinforce the scientific process of purpose, method, results, and conclusion by dissecting lipstick. The experiment, led by instructor and course designer Dr. Chi-Ting Huang, is not only useful in demythologizing and confirming ingredients (lipsticks contain crushed beetles, not pig fat; perfume is made from synthetic whale vomit because the real thing is expensive), but has practical applications as well. A lipstick-melting experiment revealed which brands would not wear well.

Students also had the opportunity to make their own products (no beetles were harmed in this trial). Said one 11-year- old, “Now that I know how makeup is made, I might not wear makeup. But I’ll wear mine, of course, because I know what’s in it.”