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SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
I have a bridge for sale…....
I was struck by this article in the local paper about a presentation by the local taxi companies against Uber and other ride-hailing apps.
I would hope it would be completely apparent to everyone in the room that the reason the taxi companies want to outlaw Uber is because it is eating into their market share. Yet the taxi companies say they're opposed to Uber because they are concerned about the public's well-being. Give me a break.
It reminds me of the teachers' unions who say it's their concern for the students' well-being that leads them to ask for higher salaries.
Is anyone naive enough to believe this eyewash?
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Net Zero?
That the Ontario government are poor managers has been demonstrated over and over again - eHealth, ORNGE, green energy, power plant cancellations, Ontario Power Generation, and more.
And, no surprise, this pattern of ineffectual management has been demonstrated in the education sector as well. Last year, the Ontario government signed "net zero" contracts with teachers which in fact cost an extra $400 milllion - but the government said it expected to offset the extra salary costs "through changes to previously banked sick day payouts, cancelling some deferred spending, delaying salary grid bumps and other measures". more
So let's take a look at how one of these measures played out - the cancellation of bankable sick days. It turns out that this measure alone is already costing taxpayers an extra one billion dollars a year - more - as teachers have started taking an average of 1½ more sick days a year. The good news is that this sudden wave of illness can't increase taxpayer costs to much more than a billion every year, as teachers are already getting close to taking their maximum sick day allowance of 11 days a year. H/T TB
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
Marty ate 4/6 of his pizza and Luis ate 5/6 of his pizza. Marty ate more pizza than Luis. How is that possible?
Learn all about this important controversy here. My question is - if the question had included the information that the pizzas were the same size, what was the right answer? H/T LDA
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Monday at the Movies (School-Wide Systematic Phonics)
TR-F left a comment to Saturday's Nip It In the Bud post saying that it's possible to support struggling readers without holding them back and providing a link to a school that is succeeding with virtually all of its students. The linked-to video clip deals with how that school is teaching its students and it is clear that it is using a wonderful program. But while it is true, as TR-F asserts, that the school is helping struggling students without holding them back, it is also clear that the school makes huge efforts to avoid having students struggle in the first place and then have to play catch up. I got the impression that catch-up help was needed only for students who transferred into the school. So the bottom line is that while it's possible to help older students without holding them back, it's much harder on everyone concerned and to be avoided if at all possible.
Bbb left a comment asking about kids with dyslexia who will never be able to leave grade 3 because their brain problems are so severe that they can't be overcome. As I have written before (here), I hate that term "dyslexia". The trouble with the term "dyslexia" is that it implies a life-long condition, a handicap that must be accommodated and worked around, but the truth is that all children who are taught to read properly, no matter how difficult the process, end up in exactly the same place as children who were easy to teach - and the same high standards and bright future should be held out to them.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Sunday at the Movies (Teaching Content)
This Dan Willingham clip demonstrates the importance of knowledge in reading comprehension.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Nip it in the bud, don’t you know?
Click here for a blog about Florida's proposal to hold back grade 3 kids who are struggling with reading.
In my opinion, the concept is sound but as usual the devil is in the details. If I were the czar of teaching reading, I would set the bar at the end of grade 1, not grade 3.
It is in grade 1 that the fundamental building blocks of reading are laid - the ability to hear the sounds in words, learn the letter-sound correspondences, blend the sounds together, and become fluent in word recognition. One year of good instruction is plenty of time to accomplish this for most kids, and so their grade 2 teachers for the most part focus on the next steps, as they should, but it means that the children who enter grade 2 without these skills are highly unlikely to get the necessary foundation there either.
The longer kids struggle in school, the more bad habits they develop, the worse they feel about themselves, and the harder it becomes to salvage them.
So if the reason behind social promotion is concern for the kids' self-esteem, it makes much more sense to hold them back when they're so young they'll barely notice and probably not remember any stigma.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Brother, Can You Spare Me a Dime?
Click here for the 2015 educator sunshine list - the 15,346 Ontario school board employees whose salary (excluding benefits) was more than $100,000. The average Ontario salary last year was just over $49,000.
These figures help one understand exactly how much money is up for grabs in public education and why additional cash injections quickly melt away. They also serve to put the coming contract negotiations in context.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Children, Be Quiet and Watch Your Lesson
Click here for a thought-provoking piece about teaching content to students via streamed videos. Although most people instinctively dislike the notion, there is no doubt that well-done videos teach in engaging and memorable ways. And there is certainly no shortage of wonderful educational videos - click here for one compilation.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Don’t Tell Father
By law, Alberta schools may no longer tell parents if their child "identifies as transgender at school or seeks counselling in relation to sexual identity". more
This is obviously very sensible, as parents are the last people who should be told this kind of thing.
But I think the law should go further. There are all kinds of situations where parents can't be trusted to do the right thing.
For example, I don't think parents should be told if their child is being bullied at school. After all, the child's parents might get mad at the bullier and do something inappropriate.
Also, parents shouldn't find out if their child is being sexually abused. The parents might make a big fuss and embarrass everyone.
And it's probably a bad idea if schools divulge that a child is struggling with math, since his parents might decide to send him to Kumon or even pull him from the school.
All in all, in my opinion, it would be better if schools didn't tell parents anything. School officials are much more trustworthy than parents and more likely to handle every situation in the child's best interests.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
DIY
When kids are struggling in school, the need to do something is urgent - as learning is sequential and problems only snowball. The appendices in my book starting on page 104 give general information on how to go about helping your child - with general pedagogical information, followed by tips on reading, number facts, printing, spelling, mapwork, vocabulary, care and precision, and homework help. Plus you can always email me for customized hep.