Blogs!

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__First marking period blogs__

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/

Teachers who are part of Teachers of America or TFA are shown to have students with higher test scores then teachers who are not part of TFA. Although this is not a fact, there is certainly a link. Studies of TFA have shown that there's a particularly strong correlation with improved math achievment. Teachers of America have shown they are more effective in the classroom even compared with teachers who have more experience but are not a part of TFA.

[|Influence of Economists in Education?]
All over the education world we have seen the economy create policies trying to create better schools for students. Economists have made contributions including class size, finance, and teacher training. The cost of reducing class size is great, there are modest benifits.Although school finance does not solve schools problems we still treat schools as if we could solve everything with money. Lastly students have been found to achieve the same as their teachers depending on whether or not the teacher had a New York state certificate or had passed through the alternative New York City Teaching Fellows program.

[|Complaining About Testing -- Can You Guess in What Year This Complaint Was Made?]
Todays schools are using testing to a degree that is suprising. No longer is it used to assist in the intelectual development of a student, but rather to be tests in themselves or public accountability. Teachers, administrators and students are constantly preoccupied with with scores and grades. Teachers often asses their students using format similar to state standardized tests, review for a test means coaching students about the pieces of information, along with the appropriate answer.

[|Explaining in terms of External Causes? Thomas Sowell on the Blame Game]
Thomas Sowell says that education is usually talked about in means of money spent, teaching methods class size or structure of school district. Sowell points out that students spend 12-13 years in school only to come out as semi-literate people and with little understanding of society.He believes people should assume responsibility for themselves. External problems can be solved with external solutions.

__Second Marking Period__ =Why Boys Fail:=

In co-ed classes it is said that boys are wasting time trying to impress girls. Fewer men are attending college. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Education also demonstrated that educating children in a same-gender environment could have beneficial effects on learning. The material boys learn in single-sex schools is not necessarily different from that in coed, but the teaching methods might be more energetic and competitive. A study done by the International Boys School Coalition, which gathered data from 1,500 boys in six countries and showed that the way boys learn can be different from how girls learn. “The classroom dynamic changes when you have all boys. They take more intellectual risks when they are not afraid of how they’ll be perceived by the opposite sex. There is a freedom from posturing, and a freedom to be geeky, or wrong, or just themselves.” states William Burke, headmaster of St. Sebastian’s.

=Fishing Blindly for Quality Teaching= by STEPHEN FINK As the article states, it is hard to find quality teachers when those who are observing teachers don't know what quality is.To improve teaching, educators must employ specific strategies. It means building a culture in school where the focus on teaching practice is afforded the same kind of public scrutiny and precision one would find in a medical or law school. We have to figure out what good teaching looks like. Teachers should be seen as individual learners.


 * Million dollar Babies:** This article discusses how the most vital years of a child which is between the ages of 0-3 are not the most important in deciding ones future. I however believe that humans are constantly learning and building skills. I think it is important to supplement and promote any kind of development. No matter what age the child is their brains are like sponges and they are always absorbing new information and things. Therefore kids shouldn't be deprived despite of their age because they are always learning.


 * Democrats for education reform:** President Obama indisputably has affected more change in the nation's education policies in his first year in office than any President in modern history. not a single Republican Congressman and only 3 Republican Senators voted for the economic and education reform stimulus package last February. These accomplishments reflect campaign promises kept - in recognition of the relationship between education reform, jobs, and economic growth - to make education one of three key components of a long-term U.S. economic recovery strategy

 A Small Price for a Large Benefit Forecasts involving climate change are uncertain. Organizers of the most recent climate conference sought, to limit global warming 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Even an increase that small will cause deadly harm. However greater damage is going to happen if we do nothing. Scientists claim that the 3.6 degree increase will cause widespread loss of life. The money spent to curb greenhouse gasses would have been used to save the planet. A tax of 80$ on a metric ton of carbon dioxide would stabilize temperatures by mid century, however more pessimistic views claims it will be 300$ on a metric ton. The price of goods would rise. A sudden price increase of that magnitude could indeed be painful. But if phased in, it would cause much less harm. In short, the cost of preventing catastrophic climate change is astonishingly small, and it involves just a few simple changes in behavior. People tend to have strong emotions about topics like food and sex, and to create their own moral rules around these emotions, he says. “Moral emotions are the brain’s call to action,” says the Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert wrote. “If climate change were caused by gay sex, or by the practice of eating kittens, millions of protesters would be massing in the streets.” WE don’t know how much hotter the planet will become by 2100. But the fact that we face “only” a 10 percent chance of a catastrophic 12-degree climb surely does not argue for inaction. It calls for immediate, decisive steps.

__Leaving the Trash Behind__ The aviation industry is often criticized for contributing to global warming through airplane exast. However Even before they board, air travelers throw away trash of all sorts — including paper, plastic and food waste — and airports and airlines recycle only a small portion of it. An estimated 7.5 million pounds of trash is generated every day. Advocates say 75% is recyclable. It does not make sense to aquire oil from the Middle east, turn it into a plastic bottle, use it once and then throw it away. Oakland International Airport in California began separating paper, cardboard and bottles from airport trash in 2003. There are things we can do such as using a cloth napkin and a glass straw.

__An Apology With Echoes of 12 Steps__

In the long self-lacerating statement made nation-wide by Tiger Woods publicly apologized for his infidelity. He claims he is returning to his religious faith and admits he has work to do. He appeared to be carrying out the several steps of the common 12 step treatment. In Steps 8 and 9 of the program, for instance, patients are admonished to list everyone they have harmed and make amends Woods dwelled on his mistakes and apologized to his family, his wife’s family, his business partners and sponsors, and parents who used to appoint him as a role model Woods waded into a longstanding debate over sexual disorders and how to treat them. The very idea that someone can be addicted to sex is controversial. Although therapy does not require an apology, it would have been nearly impossible for someone like Woods not too.

__**Countless Lost Limbs Alter Life in Haiti’s Ruins**__ After four days on the hospital’s grounds, lying among what she described as the “dead and living all mixed up,” Ms. Jean was wheeled into an operating tent where her crushed, infected right leg was amputated below the knee. Ms. Jean danced for the Haitian National Theater. More than a month after the earthquake, thousands of new amputees are facing the stark reality of living with disabilities in a shattered country All need continuing care in a nation with no rehabilitation hospital, few physical therapists, no central prosthesis factory since the quake and a skeletal supply of crutches, canes and wheelchairs gradually being reinforced by donations. About 6,000-8,000 people have lost limbs or digits and 2,000- 4,000 Haitians have undergone amputations.

=When It Comes to Salt, No Rights or Wrongs. Yet.=

As some experts advise, that the new national dietary guidelines due this spring will lower the recommended level of salt. For all the talk about the growing menace of sodium in packaged foods, experts aren’t even sure that Americans today are eating more salt than they used to.The harder the experts try to save Americans, the fatter we get. Pointing to evidence that a salt-restricted diet causes some people’s blood pressure to drop, the reformers say that tens of thousands of lives would be saved if there were less salt in everybody’s food.The salt reformers say change is possible if the food industry cuts back on all the hidden salt in its products.