I am a Broker of Expertise (who knew?)

I was selected to be a member of this pilot project, which actually begins tomorrow. I am all about closing the achievement gap and raising overall student achievement. Let's get started!

School reform efforts have mostly been conducted on an individual school or district basis. However, in these times of scarce resources, it is imperative that a state as large and complex as California learns to share sound educational solutions to common issues. The on-line nature of the resources and the community of practice are key to leveraging available resources, answering the questions posed in the pilot work, and developing a system to assist California’s teachers for the long-term challenges ahead.

In the past two years, foundations interested in helping teachers by providing them the resources they need to do their work more effectively have been developing the vision. Working through the California Department of Education (CDE), these efforts have taken the form of an initiative known as Brokers of Expertise. Those at the heart of the initiative understand that teachers and administrators around the state – in addition to others charged with supporting K-12 education, have developed expertise in diverse areas. Making the exchange of this expertise easier, along with providing easily searchable, high-quality resources, are the goals of the Brokers of Expertise initiative.

The platform for providing these resources and access to each other are being tested in a pilot. This community pilot will examine how teachers use the resources, how they interact with each other, and how useful teachers find the resources and these connections to be. Closing the achievement gap and raising overall student achievement across our large and diverse state is the overarching goal.

Pink Friday

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Pink Friday

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Dear Congress,

Please support President Elect Obama's stated intention to provide substantial funding for education technology as part of the forthcoming economic recovery package. In a recent speech, he declared: "To give our children the chance to live out their dreams in a world that's never been more competitive, we will equip tens of thousands of schools, community colleges, and public universities with 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. We'll provide new computers, new technology, and new training for teachers so that students in Chicago and Boston can compete with kids in Beijing for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future." I urge you to work with President Elect Obama to implement these goals.

We have an opportunity to modernize classrooms, create jobs, foster a more college and workforce ready student population, and provide economic growth in a technology sector that will be better able to serve the growing global education market. We need to transform classrooms into technology-rich environments, provide appropriate professional development and IT support to educators, and prepare our students for the 21st Century job market.

Let's have both an economic stimulus as well as a true investment in the education of our students.

Teaching Without Paper

Budget Crisis 2008, The Sequel

Now, thanks to the California Legislature's inability to work together to solve the budget crisis, there is a spending freeze in education. The before-school and after-school intervention classes at my school have been canceled. Staff articulation has been canceled. Field trips, too. And, just to make it even more ridiculous, we are not going to be given any paper. So if I print a progress report on my computer to keep the parents informed of their child's progress, I have to supply my own paper. Or I guess I could ask the parents to please send in some paper.

I am so glad I do not have children or grandchildren in the public education system of this once-great state. It is very sad...

Unbiased and Very Sensitive

Reviewing hundreds of test items for the next CELDT revision was very interesting. At the end I was given a 2009 Sierra Club calendar, and thanked for my ability to be unbiased and sensitive. I was sworn to secrecy, it being a standardized test and all, so I can't tell you any more!

Update on the School Board Meeting

Maybe they actually listened to my impassioned speech, who knows? In any event, they decided to go for deficit spending and save small class sizes in first and second grades. It's not a done deal, but it's looking like a lot of teachers will get their jobs back. This is good.

My Comment to the School Board

Click here if you would like to read what I said to the school board, the district superintendent, and about 250 other people at the school board meeting. It was nerve-wracking, to say the least. I didn't know a hot flash could last for 45 minutes.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting...

All the transcripts have been received, my applications to both the University and the Department are in, and now I just await the GRE on June 7.

Schwarzenegger revised his budget and the legislature will squabble over it for months. Staffing for the next school year has yet to be set, as the school board hasn't decided officially about the budget cuts, but the final layoff notices went out. I may or may not be in the same grade, same classroom (I hope not) and most likely still will lose many of my friends and colleagues at school. California public education is going down the tubes, let me tell you...

On a happier note, I am going to Texas at the end of the week! I will be studying for the GRE on the airplane. Besides spending time with my granddaughters, daughter and son-in-law, I get to get my hair done, eat grits, and go to CVS.

Political Lies

How can Schwarzenegger say that his revised budget "fully funds education" when in fact it cuts education by $4 billion?

The Worst Thing About Teaching

Today is the first of four days I will be subjecting my students to the modern day torture device known as the STAR Test. My three Special Ed students will take the test. My student who just arrived in the country back in December not speaking a word of English - he will also take the test. According to the California Department of Education, this test "is aligned to the state’s rigorous academic content standards." Now "rigorous academic content standards" does not sound like a bad thing, but if you have heard me comment on them at all, you know I think they are ridiculous. Algebra in fourth grade? Come on! Check out the fourth grade mathematics standards and tell me you could do all this at the age of ten! Or imagine that your parents don't speak any English, you started learning English in school four years ago, and you are asked to show proficiency in the English Language Arts standards. According to the "No Child Left Behind" law, by the year 2014, all students (make that 100% of them) need to be Proficient in these standards. Someone needs to tell the clowns who made the law about something known as the bell curve. In the meantime, I will pass out the tests, the special gold pencils, and tell my students to try their best. Come Friday we will celebrate, and teaching will become fun again.

School Budget Cuts Update

Well, we had a rally and the laid off teachers went to an Administrative hearing. We now await the Governor's revised budget. All indications are that Class Size Reduction will not be preserved, and over 130 elementary teachers in my school district will be laid off. Here's a compilation of media coverage from all over the state:

California Teachers Association

Click here for an article about why this state budget crisis is different from previous years.

Take action! Contact the Terminator (aka Gov. Schwarzenegger) and your state legislators. See the links on the right side of my blog. Thanks...

California Budget Woes

I love my job and feel fortunate to be able to say that after all these years. But this is a tough time to be a teacher. Tomorrow everyone at my school will be wearing either pink or black. Pink for the teachers who don't have jobs next year, and black for those showing support for the pink-attired teachers. (Get the pink-slip connection?) Among my colleagues in the regular English program upper grade, I am the only survivor. Morale is very low, stress is high. Please contact Governor Schwarzenegger and your state legislators to tell them their so-called solution to the budget crisis is unacceptable. California is already 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending! Do we really need to slide all the way to the bottom?

California Teachers Association