The folks at Grammarlogues have a guest post up in the NY Times’ Learning Blog: 5 Easy Ways to Learn Grammar With The New York Times. I totally do this! I’ve done this for years, actually. My own version involves not so much practicing, as it does utilizing the NY Times when I’m in a must-know-now situation.

While I seem to be able to teach myself any subject an institution of higher learning can throw at me (including calculus, which I’m sure will come in handy when the apocalypse comes), I have never found a grammar how-to manual that explains the concept and then shows you several examples so you can understand how it works in actual situations. I need to see the example if the concept is hazy or has too many variables.

What I really require is a university English department to have a 24-hour help desk so I can hand over my sentence and have a professional help me to understand why the correct form is right, and why my version is the equivalent of a six-year-old making “soup” by dumping every spice in the kitchen cabinet into the bathtub.

When the manuals and the online grammar help sites fail me, I turn to the NY Times. I Google “NY Times” and the pertinent portion of the sentence that’s stumping me. The NY Times is the well-edited-newspaper version of an infinite number of monkeys whanging away at typewriters: eventually one of those monkeys is going to hammer out Shakespeare, word for word. Somewhere in the NY Times’ archives there’s a sentence chunk exactly like mine (only with correct grammar and punctuation).

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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I’ve told you people this over and over: kids need to run around during the school day. It’s good for their bodies, it’s good for their brains. Exercise gets their energy out so they can sit still long enough to learn. They learn better when their bodies are less amped. Do you all overstand yet? Stop decreasing recess and budget-cutting PE and athletic programs.

More scientific research to back me up on that comes from the British Medical Journal. A recent study shows that kids are miraculously more fit and trim when they are allowed to exercise during the school day. So. Dang. Weird.

An excerpt from the article:

One in three to five children in the Western world is overweight or obese. This epidemic is rapidly and constantly growing and affects all socioeconomic levels and ethnicities. Excessive weight is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, orthopaedic problems, and psychosocial constraints even before adulthood is reached. Life expectancy may be reduced by several years, as is work productivity, while costs are increasing enormously. A focus on early prevention is thus urgently needed.

The increase in physical inactivity over the past decades is one of the main causes of the increase in obesity. In adults, physical inactivity and low aerobic fitness are associated with higher mortality and a higher prevalence of chronic disease. In children, physical inactivity and lack of fitness are associated with increasing prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, even independent of body weight.

Further Reading:

Educational Psychology Can Save Recess (I Hope)
The Salubriousness of Recess

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Below is an excerpt from President Obama’s State of the Union Address 2010. I’m not on board with his primary and secondary education reform plans, which may be smarter than Bush’s NCLB Act, but are also more evil.

However, so far his plans for higher education look to be an improvement. I’m especially liking the Pell Grant increases, the lessening of student loan malevolence, and the attempt to have colleges and universities knock it the hell off already with the insane tuition increases.

Still, in this economy, a high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job. That’s why I urge the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill that will revitalize our community colleges, which are a career pathway to the children of so many working families. (Applause.)

To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that go to banks for student loans. (Applause.) Instead, let’s take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants. (Applause.) And let’s tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10 percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years — and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college. (Applause.)

And by the way, it’s time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs — (applause) — because they, too, have a responsibility to help solve this problem.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

I think we all know how I feel about standardized testing and the No Child Left Behind profanation. If there remains any confusion as to my opinion regarding those particular atrocities (and if my hints haven’t been overt enough), there will be an opportunity to catch up on your reading below.

Standardized testing, while possibly necessary in that there currently exists no practical way to collect student-achievement data from every public school in America, is still evil and has crushed an already handicapped education system into a non-functioning machine that has time and money only for teaching to the test. It has failed utterly and I work at maintaining some level of optimism that my kiddos will somehow manage to escape its evil clutches.

Bad news for me and my innocent progeny: New and exciting standards in science and math for public school kids are being implemented now, with the new assessments to begin in 2011 for math, and 2012 for science. The fabulous-er dog and pony show requires that students pass the exams in order to graduate. Were educators not teaching to the test enough already?

On the bright side, State Superintendent Randy Dorn is trying to convince the powers that be that the time between implementation and assessment is too speedy for the first wave of kids to be tested. People should pay attention when a politician uses the word “fair.”

Dorn said students and schools will need more time with new math and science learning standards that are now being implemented around the state. The new standards won’t be assessed until 2011 for math and 2012 for science. That doesn’t provide ample opportunity for the class of 2013, current ninth graders and the first class required to pass four state exams, to learn the standards, or teachers and schools to align curriculum and materials to them, he added.

“It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that we have a big problem in our state. Less than 50 percent of our 10th graders are passing the math and science exams,” said Dorn, who noted 10th graders’ passing rate on the reading and writing exams is more than 80 percent. “We need to be fair to our students and give them time to learn the new standards. It’s simply a matter of doing what’s right.”

This fiasco is happening in several other states as well. The only choices eye-rolling, head-shaking, utterances-of-disgust-making parents have are (a) suck it up and hope for the best, (b) private school, (c) home school, or (d) give the offspring a handbasket each and wish them well on their subterranean journey.

Further Reading:

Supt. Dorn Calls for Changes to Math, Science Graduation Requirements
Be Realistic About Standards
A Washington State Fight, a Nationwide Debate
Strong Words in Washington: Don’t Punt on Math Requirements

Previous Posts:

Accountability
Obama’s Race to the Top
It’s Not on the Test
Looking Good Only on Paper
No Child Left Behind Is Ruining Our Education System

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Tim Stahmer at AssortedStuff wrote an excellent take on a recent post by Seth Godin. Mr. Godin’s post looks at the way we humans tend to attack problems with the same tools every time, regardless of the situation, the economy, etc.

The tools an individual or a business will habitually grab are the tools already available in their toolbox. Which means that if chainsaws are the only tool in a given toolbox, the solution to that toolbox owner’s problem will always be to cut the crap out of it and proclaim it solved. If there are only hammers in the box, then every problem looks like a nail, and hammering that sucker home will always be the solution.

Mr. Stahmer looked at Godin’s post from the standpoint of someone in the education trenches, and wonders eloquently how technology in the classroom could be improved upon if the folks in charge began noticing how the world is changing and started using something besides a hammer.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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While writing the previous post, I went searching in the archives for relevant previous posts. I found entirely too many to tack onto the end of an already-lengthy post. Here they are, including some Education Reform posts proving I’m not always in disagreement with President Obama.

Teaching and Teachers:

The Teachers You Remember
Which Road Do the Quality Teachers Walk In On?
“Don’t Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?”
The Knowledge of Educators
Teaching the Truth

Education Reform:

Obama’s Wacky Ideas: Teamwork, Responsibility, Working Hard, and Learning Stuff
Obama’s Race to the Top
“What’s Wrong With Merit Pay”
Teacher Compensation Reform
President Obama’s Plan for Education
First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks to the Dept. of Education
Obama Girls to Attend Private School
Nicely Put
Education Advice for the Next President
Sen. Obama’s Education Reform Speech
Obama Chooses Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education
It’s Not On the Test
Accountability

Education:

The Future of Education
Moxie
Kindergarten Readiness
11th-Grade Activities
21st Century Learners
“Bursting the AP Bubble”
The Salubriousness of Recess
Play-Doh Smeared Credentials

Schools:

Detroit Public Schools: Photoessay
More Upheaval For Detroit Public Schools
Find Your Happy Place
Virtual Schools
How Charter Schools Affect Student Outcomes
Home-Schooling Grows
‘H’ Is For ‘Half-Measure Haggis’

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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I’m running out of productive things to say about the education system in the U.S. Mostly I just want to slap everyone involved and ask them what the f**k is going on. Is the answer to why our public schools are struggling so hard to put out decently educated students so obvious that no one can see it? It’s funding, people.

The other countries we’re “competing” against manage to educate their kids just fine. The documentary Two Million Minutes did a stunning job of freaking competitive Americans out. Really? That’s our main concern? That China and India make us look like a country of opportunity-having losers who cannot figure out how to teach our kids and so we will be losing our current status of World-Leading Awesomeness soon?

I agree with us, we are losers. In addition, I think any country with its priorities so far out of whack (us again) that its schools have been shafted for decades while it remains at the top of the war game, deserves to fall off the We’re #1! pedestal for a while. My phones will be tapped 70 seconds after this post is published, but whatever. I love America, I do—it’s my home. But pathologically honest me has to admit that we suck at teaching K-12.

There have been several American moments that have made me wince, shake my head, and avoid traveling outside the American gates. The longest-running example has been our blatantly obvious choice to always put war before education. We spend a lot of damn money on being the country with the biggest guns (if you know what I mean…). We are a country of dumb kids with shiny weaponry. I’m real proud.

Americans are like the family whose children have inadequate clothing, insufficient food, and don’t get what they need from the adults in their lives, but their living room wall is host to the biggest flat-screen t.v. within a fifty-mile radius. (We win!)

Chalking the suck-fest that is the American Education System up to a wicked cash-flow problem is realistic. I’m sure there are a few crappy educators out there, and by all means do away with those ones. But knock it off with the competition thing; making kids take tests in order to prove their teachers’ worth, or making teachers (who already do more than should be reasonably expected with scant fundage) compete with one another for federal grant money is unforgivable and also kind of evil.

Man. Up. Care for your young.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

What path makes for a better teacher? Does having a degree in education or child psychology or early childhood development make someone more adept at getting through to the kids? Is raw enthusiasm enough? Is it a natural talent thing, and you either have it or you don’t? Should the inexperienced but gung-ho Teach for America and The New Teacher Project people be thrown into the public school lion’s den? Clearly, those folks have made their choice to sink or swim, but are the parents, the students and the other degreed-up teachers going to be pleased with the inexperienced newbies?

I have no idea. The exact thing that makes a bright, shining star of an educator is probably some elusive logarithm of innate skill, empathy, and ass kickery combined with smarts, traditional and non-traditional learning, personality, the ability to look ahead while being fully in the moment with a kid you’re about to have a breakthrough with on long division, training, lack of training, real life experience, and the awesome talent of being able to withstand the trial by fire that absolutely is the first year of teaching (regardless of one’s level of training or higher education).

Fully educated teachers are capable of have crappy teaching careers, and the same can be said for wet-behind-the-ears whippersnappers who’ve had little or no learning about the teaching. And the untrained twenty-somethings can be in possession of that confounding logarithm which enables them to bring inspired brilliance to the classroom, as can the teachers who’ve collected several pertinent degrees in educating the children.

My own personal theory is similar to the Spaghetti Test. It’s highly scientific, of course (do I ever do anything not well-tested and science-y?). Much like the Spaghetti Test, it involves pulling a few strands/prospective teachers out of the pot and flinging them against the wall/into a public school. Whatever sticks is good to go.

Further Reading:

More Teachers Take Nontraditional Path to Class
The Knowledge of Educators
Local Heroes
“The Curse of the Class of 2009”
Teach For America Attracts More College Grads
If You’re Pondering a Teaching Career
The Manly Art of Teaching
“Altruism Meets a Weak Job Market”

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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I can’t make a single intelligent point of commentary about Obama’s speech to the school kids without the risk of writing reams of unprofessional lines regarding the hysterical fishwife portion of the GOP. Until the Republicans went off their nut, I had not been aware that Socialist bastards are in the habit of telling kids that the adults in their lives can only take them so far and much of the responsibility for getting stuff done in life falls on a person’s own shoulders. I tell my kids that stuff all the time! Son of a—does that make me a Socialist Bastard Mommy?! Crap.

Please read for yourself the Socialist Evil that’s apparently afoot in the White House:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide. More…

I’m so relieved that the Seattle Public Schools didn’t start the school year until today (Wednesday), and my daughter therefore missed hearing the President tell her that she is ultimately the person responsible for her life. Dodged that bullet. I’ll be certain to immediately cease and desist with all speeches directed toward my offspring in which I give them the same message.

Starting today, I will take full responsibility for my kids’ education and every other aspect of their lives. I will do their homework, I will take their SATs, I will get them into a top tier college, I will choose their classes, I will interview all potential mates, and I will do all interning, interviewing, and career-goaling.

They are certain to be happier and much more well-adjusted and content if all responsibilities are lifted from their shoulders. And as an added bonus, I get to be the one in charge of the progeny in our house, which is probably what the GOP had in mind all along…

Further Reading:

Obama Speech To Students Draws Conservative Ire
Many Conservatives Enraged Over Obama Speech
Some Parents Oppose Obama School Speech
Obama’s Back-To-School Speech Is Made Public
Obama’s School Speech: Will Overkill Hurt GOP?
Schools Boycott Obama Speech As Critics Abruptly Change Tone
Obama Schoolchildren Speech Drives Right-Wingers Batty
Prepared Remarks of Pres. Barack Obama

Posted by Alexa Harrington

I prefer old-school paper and ink for myself, but I’m in complete agreement with his statement. And I envy the generation that came into the world right after my Gen-X cohort; they were born already marinated in tech-savvy. They knew it because the collective consciousness had just finished learning it. Anything beyond word processing I had to figure out as a twenty-year-old in 1993.

Technology doesn’t evolve backwards; computers aren’t going to go away, and the kids who are comfortable swimming through the digital landscape will have an easier time now and a decade on. Teach them how to be safe and smart on the Net the same way you taught them to ride a bike, cross the street, and deal with strangers. Keep in mind that newness is usually met with fear and anger. Suck it up and let your kids learn something.

Scott McLeod from Dangerously Irrelevant wrote this:

dear parent
teacher
administrator
board member

don’t teach your kids to read
for the Web
to scan
RSS
aggregate
synthesize

don’t teach your kids to write
online

pen and paper aren’t going anywhere
since when do kids need an audience?

no need to hyperlink
make videos
audio
Flash

no connecting, now

no social networking
or online chat
or comments
or PLNs
blogs and twitter?
how self-absorbed
what a bunch of crap

and definitely, absolutely, resolutely, no cell phones

block it all
lock it down
keep it out

it’s evil, you know
there’s bad stuff out there
gotta keep your children safe

don’t you know collaboration is just another word for cheating?
don’t you know how much junk is out there?
haven’t you ever heard of sexting?
of cyberbullying?

a computer 24-7? no thanks
I don’t want them
creating
sharing
thinking
learning
you know they’re just going to look at porn
and hook up with predators
we can’t trust them

don’t do any of it, please

really

’cause I’m doing all of it with my kids

can’t wait to see who has a leg up in a decade or two
can you?

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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