kitchen table math, the sequel: awful

Friday, March 16, 2012

awful

Celebration of Teaching and Learning

5 comments:

SteveH said...

You don't make a name for yourself by explaining why schools need to ensure that all kids leave 3rd grade knowing the times table. You don't make a name for yourself by explaining how to correctly deal with minus signs in algebra. You won't get selected to present at this conference.


"...it truly has become the “Davos” of education, gathering every quarter of the education workforce and shining the brightest possible spotlight on solutions rather than confrontation."

Just forget that "trust the spiral" ruins so many kids. That would be confrontational.


"Second, this Celebration will be a showcase for creativity. As every successful educator knows, creativity is not a topic or something that belongs to the arts: it is a habit of mind. "

Creativity is cheap. I come up with all sorts of ideas all of the time. He then goes on to talk about innovation, but that is so much more than creativity. Innovation takes knowledge and skills and the willingness to take risks. Those are driven by fame and fortune.


"... in March 2012 we are focusing on one of the most important issues facing schools and teachers today: the education of Black and Latino males."

How about letting parents have choice? Why do schools and unions fight against charter schools that these parents are desparate to get their kids into?

SteveH said...

One of the panelists is (self?) described as a "distinguished thought leader".

Catherine Johnson said...

There's not going to be any choice.

There's going to be value-added assessment for parents before there's choice.

Anonymous said...

Be careful asking for choice. They call it choice in my city (we call it roulette). One of the corollaries of "choice" is that they don't have to fix anything about your school because you can just "choose" to go somewhere else.

SteveH said...

It's the opposite. Schools feel less pressure to change anything if kids can't go elsewhere. Our schools really don't like to see kids go to charter and private schools. My son directly benefited from this pressure. I talked with the principal about it. They really don't want to see the more willing or able kids leave.

This doesn't mean that choice gives you anything but Everyday Math, but change will take time. Years ago, when we were looking at one private school, the assistant head talked about how EM was supplemented. I told her that I was looking for Singapore Math. Years later, they switched. They must have received many more requests. A local newspaper just had an article about their change. Competing private schools will pay attention. If public schools don't care about kids leaving, then I can't imagine that they would care about any changes that don't come from their own educational thought world. They obviously don't care what parents think.