Recommendation

I am nearly finished with Catching Up or Leading the Way and recommend this book as essential reading in the fight against NCLB and testing as the way to determine student progress. Zhao traces the failure of centralized education in China, Japan, Singapore, and everywhere else it has been tried. His most powerful comments come in the form of comparing our history of scoring very low in tests that rank nations (we always have) and yet we continue to lead the world in innovation and places many people want to live. To reconcile this discrepancy one must always remember that the U.S. has valued creativity which leads to innovation and invention which keeps us on top. The high performing nations on standardized tests are all abandoning the centralized education system and moving toward decentralizing while the U.S. is moving in the opposite direction. Can someone explain???

The Joy of Cats

Our home never lacks excitement. Boomer, the black and white cat, is taking liquid medicine for his bad breath while Rocky is on antibiotics for a bladder infection that returns about every six months. The vet told us the best cure was to give him a sex change operation, I had to wonder if humans have the same reason for doing that procedure?? We used to just do shots, easier to hit a cat with a needle than give one a pill but then we noticed he reacted to the shots and lost fur at the site of each shot. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that in a few years we would have a bald cat plus he didn't really enjoy that process either. So with cost and disfigurement we decided to return to pills. What an adventure.

Failed

Video from August trip to Door County, just found time to upload. I guess getting sick has benefits.
The island shown in the video is wonderful, no motorized traffic of any kind. Various trails allow you to walk the entire outside loop of the island in less than three hours. There are nice beaches, picnic areas and tent camping. A very short boat trip takes you to the island where you can spend a few hours, the day or several days. The walk from the lighthouse down to the beach is exciting and well worth the few nervous points along the way. This is, by far, the better part of Door County. The northern side of the peninsula is for tourists, stay away if you want any kind of an outdoor experience. If you like dozens of expensive shops selling trinkets at inflated prices to rich city folks who think they are experiencing Walden then spend your time there but I would head for Washington Island and Rock Island.

Reading

I am currently reading, "Why Don't Students Like School," by Daniel Willingham and since very few people ever find this blog I can write about what he says about tracking without fear of being discovered.

"I don't accept that some students are "just not very bright" and ought to be tracked into less demanding classes. But it's naive to pretend that all students come to your class equally prepared to excel; they have had different preparations as well as different levels of support at home, and they will therefore differ in their abilities. If that's true, and if what I've said in this chapter is true, it is self-defeating to give all of your students the same work. The less capable students will find it too difficult and will struggle against their brain's bias to mentally walk away from schoolwork. To the extent that you can, it's smart, I think, to assign work to individuals or groups of students that is appropriate to their current level of competence." (Willingham, p. 16-17)

Differentiation of instruction. If this became common practice, excellent practice, thoughtful practice, might some tracking be done away with? What if teachers were given the time to actually reflect on current practices with other teachers? Might this be accomplished?

While adding wild random thoughts. . .I have heard it said that there is no more important work in schools than what teachers do in their classrooms every day. As I sit here typing, the thought leaps to mind, then why are teachers paid far less than administrators. Even if we are of equal value then our pay should be closer to equal??? What if teams of teachers ran the schools and taught? Developed budgets, disciplined, counseled, and taught according to skills acquired through graduate classes? Time for reflection.