New Hampshire Lawmakers Pass Law Allowing Parental Objections To Curriculum
huffingtonpost.comSo is the Tea Party perspective to let parents object to any factual content they find to be inconvenient? This type of nonsense is ridiculous.
The Tea Party dominated New Hampshire Legislature on Wednesday overrode the governor’s veto to enact a new law allowing parents to object to any part of the school curriculum.
The state House voted 255-112 and Senate 17-5 to enact H.B. 542, which will allow parents to request an alternative school curriculum for any subject to which they register an objection. Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed the measure in July, saying the bill would harm education quality and give parents control over lesson plans.
“For example, under this bill, parents could object to a teacher’s plan to: teach the history of France or the history of the civil or women’s rights movements,” Lynch wrote in his veto message. “Under this bill, a parent could find ‘objectionable’ how a teacher instructs on the basics of algebra. In each of those cases, the school district would have to develop an alternative educational plan for the student. Even though the law requires the parents to pay the cost of alternative, the school district will still have to bear the burden of helping develop and approve the alternative. Classrooms will be disrupted by students coming and going, and lacking shared knowledge.”
“Storytelling, singing, playing, telling jokes - those are the building blocks of extensive vocabularies. Not direct teaching.”
—Peter L. Mangione; co-director of Center For Child & Family Studies on the shift of preschool curriculum from play-based to direct learning and it’s detrimental effects on our children;article titled “The Death of Preschool”halfway through the year.
Sometimes, I feel like this teaching job is really putting me on a meteoric rocket.
Today, and so far in this second semester, I really feel comfortable.
For the first time, I feel like I own my classroom. I lecture while weaving through the desks—-interspersing jokes, stopping side conversations, and keeping people on task.
It’s a definite art, but I’ve finally got the basics down, and thus have actual command.
My new class (quantitative literacy) has been excellent so far. I expect my second lesson plan to go well too.
I was just particularly warmed by the buy-in of my students. I know that my 11th graders are generally pretty mature. However, they really took to my “quantitative literacy” pitch, in that I didn’t hear whining or complaining or anything. We learned about logical fallacies, they performed great skits, and were competently analyzing propositions by the end of the class.
My assistant principal/mentor/friend was really happy with it. I always excitedly go up to her during nutrition and ramble on about something or other while she smiles and laughs at my animated insanity.
Today at nutrition, she told me, “Eli, we definitely are considering giving you an AP stats class, but you need to realize this. Teaching an AP was really challenging for me…and so you need to know what you’re getting yourself into.”
I just can’t believe how much I’ve invested into the school at this point. I really do feel like I’m part of a city/community and my respect for the institution only grows with time.
My principal announced at PD today that school will start August 8th this year, a full week before this year’s start date of August 15th. However, he claims that this is the final resting place, in that it will not get ANY earlier. LAUSD is moving in this direction too—-so Semester 1 will ENTIRELY be before winter break, and there will be a huge head start to AP classes and even towards the standardized tests. This means 1 week less of summer—-PD beginning in JULY——but also an extra 1-1.5 weeks of pay. (I’m not complaining about that!)
I feel like before I know it, my juniors will be graduating (June 2013), and I will have just invested 2 entire years of my life into this school. That’s a good thing, of course, but it’s just hilarious how fast I know it will feel.
It’s quiet in my house right now. I can’t even explain how much I relish in this feeling after a long, cognitively ridiculous day. I don’t even want to listen to music right now—-just the faint hum of traffic in the distance while I drink some herbal tea. I don’t know how my co-worker/friend Erin does it. She works saturday SAT classes, has about 5 tutoring clients, has teach for America classes, and BTSA classes. How does she do it!? I told her she’s as hardworking as Kobe Bryant today but she didn’t understand because I’m secretly the only NBA nerd at my school.
I swear I could go to bed at 9pm some nights—-and I will come next year, that’s for sure.
Creating Curriculum with Meaning and Purpose
gettingsmart.comBe indispensable. Create meaning. Be purposeful. Do important work. Do work that’s bigger than you.
The most rewarding teaching happens when I create the curriculum myself. Why? Because the process of creating is messy and valuable and teaches me the most.
Another place to watch Teaching Channel vids
youtube.comThe Teaching Channel videos I’ve worked on about the Common Core State Standards have been uploaded to Youtube! Up above is the link to the TC profile page and I’ve posted the YT links to the videos below.
Common Core State Standards: Elementary School
Common Core State Standards: Middle School
Common Core State Standards: High School
Common Core State Standards: Math
Common Core State Standards: ELA and Literacy
So feel free to check out the links here, the vimeo links, the embedded videos on my videos page, or the actual www.teachingchannel.org links located a few blog posts below.
"Food for Thought": Curriculum to Reflect on Consumption, Super Bowl
gotoservicelearning.org“Many of us see leftover food and think, “that’s a lot of garbage!” Students from the Social Responsibilities Class at Westland Middle School in Corvallis, Oregon took their thoughts in a different direction and figured out how that leftover food could be used to help the hungry. These students noticed a problem, came up with an idea and followed through with a great plan!” #TeacherTuesday
Great Teachers Can't Save America's Schools
theatlantic.comEverybody loves a great teacher. When a student crosses paths with one, the influence can reverberate well beyond the last day of school. In last year’s State of the Union address, President Obama informed us that a “good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000,” a claim supported by a widely reported study by economists at Harvard and Columbia universities.
But by focusing too heavily on the teachers themselves, Obama may have missed an opportunity to bring out a far deeper problem. In this year’s address, he should focus on the disconnected and muddled curriculum that does more damage to our schools and colleges than bad teachers do.
» via The Atlantic
Does your province/state have a great art education curriculum?
My art education class has the opportunity to speak to curriculum development executives next week. We are presenting them with our recommendations for the new art education curriculum they are currently developing.
Does your province/state have a great curriculum? What is great about it?
If not, what would be one change you would like to make to it?
