BrainPOP and H1N1 Video Clip

BrainPOP, an educational resource providing animated content, lesson plans, and much more to help educators engage students (and whose motto of "The more you know, the more you know!" always cracks me up for some reason), is offering schools two weeks of complimentary remote access to all BrainPOP resources during school hours (7 am-5:30 pm local time). Sign up here to get in on this cool BrainPOP offer. The purpose of such good will is explained in a recent newsletter:

Last spring, more than 700 schools in 25 states temporarily closed due to outbreaks of the H1N1 virus. We're all hoping for the best this flu season. But as schools prepare for the possibilities of illness-related absences and disruptions to studies, we'd like to help.

Here's the updated H1N1 video they've made to help address misunderstandings students (and some adults..) might have:

Irony

All that effort to plan and implement my past lessons with a minimum of talking, and now I'm listening to people speak for hours at a time.

At least the labs are more fun!

I want clarification on "time off"

Me: I graduated in 2007 and then taught high school biology and integrated science up until now, what about you?

Hypothetical Other Persons: Oh you too?  Yeah I took some time off as well before graduate school, and (insert: traveled/relaxed/did drugs/stared into nothingness for days at a time).

Me: ...

Why We are Walking Out

The below message is circulating around the UC mailing lists, and it explains why UC staff and students are walking out today (except me, because I can't fail out of graduate school just yet):

***

On Thursday, September 24, an unprecedented coalition of UC faculty, undergraduates, grad students, postdocs, lecturers, and staff will engage in a system-wide walkout. As UC Davis graduate students and lecturers concerned with the quality of all UC students' education, we write to clarify the reasons for this walkout as we understand them.

This summer, UC administration began implementing tuition hikes, enrollment cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and increased class sizes that jeopardize our education, endanger the livelihood of the most vulnerable employees, and compromise the fundamental mission of the University. This is not simply another budget cut; although the UC Regents repeatedly state their commitment to "quality, access, and affordability," their recent actions undermine all three principles. These decisions affect all sectors of our campuses and communities, and threaten the fundamental character of the university.

On Thursday, we walk out to support our faculty, who are concerned about the undermining of shared governance. Their traditional involvement in decision-making processes was subverted this summer when President Yudof assumed emergency powers, ignored the recommendations of the Academic Council, and created the Gould Commission on the future of the UC, originally with no faculty from any UC College of Letters and Science present.

We walk out because faculty furloughs threaten to lower the quality of UC education. Whether taken on instructional days or not, furloughs suggest faculty should spend less time either on research or instruction, both of which are key components of UC's prestige. (Nonetheless, the faculty walkout statement requests an end to furloughs only for salaries below $40,000.)

We walk out to support our university staff members. The UC Office of the President demanded unlimited rights to furloughs and layoffs from University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE), who are striking on 9/24 in response to unfair labor practices. They will be joined by the Coalition of University Employees (CUE). Our education depends on the vital role of UC staff, who make possible the day-to-day functioning of this university.

We walk out to support our undergraduates and their families, who now find themselves carrying a majority of the burden of funding this university. President Yudof’s proposal to raise student fees will bring tuition to over $10,000, forcing undergraduates to take larger loans, work full-time jobs, or drop out. While student fees continue to rise, course offerings are cut, extending the time needed to graduate. Lecturers and postdocs represented by the American Federation of Teachers Unit 18 have been laid off after UCOP refused to consider furloughs or answer questions, canceling required courses just weeks before classes begin. UC prides itself on making the world's best research faculty available to California's best students, regardless of income. Recent administrative actions threaten to strip students of that promise.

We walk out to support our fellow graduate students, who face proposed fee increases alongside heavier workloads, reduced lab assistantships and teaching appointments, and greater debt. Administrative responses to the budget cuts undermine our educational and professional goals, hinder our ability to offer quality teaching, and diminish the perceived and actual quality of a UC graduate degree.

The crisis facing UC, while certainly related to the state budget , is primarily about California's priorities for funding education. After the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, California's K-12 public schools dropped from 4th to 45th in the nation. Current budget decisions by UC administration place our university system on that same path. There are alternatives to fees and furloughs, including pay cuts -- rather than pay raises -- for the highest-paid UC executives, and the tapping of surplus funds from medical and extension units.

The UC Regents' actions accelerate a long-standing process of privatization and have led us, today, to a crisis we cannot and will not stand for. On September 24, we will not conduct official university business. Instead, we will gather at our university for education of a broader sort. We walk out to educate students and all Californians about what the University of California has been, what it promises to be, and what it might be in the future. We walk out to force the administration to seek alternatives to fee hikes and furloughs, and to demand that legislators prioritize state funding for education. We walk out to demonstrate that this university belongs to its students, its community, and its workers. We walk out on 9/24 so that come 2010, we still have a public university in California: a university solidly committed to quality, access, and affordability.

Sincerely,

Toby Beauchamp, Graduate Student, UC Davis
Kristin Koster, PhD, Lecturer, UC Davis
Vanessa Rapatz, Graduate Student, UC Davis
Kaitlin Walker, Graduate Student, UC Davis

Grad students and email

In response to an email invitation for all grad students to attend "the biggest, baddest, most expensive party the [Graduate Student Association] has ever thrown," flyers were electronically exchanged chronicling the downward spiral and certain demise of the UC system, along with a picture of the UCOP pouring salt on a melting banana slug.

That is all.

SC Orientation

I'm in a new place called UC Santa Cruz, and after a long day of listening to and reading up on and thinking about everyone-there's research project, I see that there's a long road to travel before I can get all of my mind here, too.

The Speech that Ended Democracy

Short snippet of Obama's address to students planned for this morning:

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

It's likely going to bore some, but it could also be a worthwhile springboard into a class of activities planned around reflecting on personal goals, sharing them with others, tying them to academic success, etc.

Obama's School Speech

President Obama's planned Sept. 8 speech addressed to our nation's students is getting its unfair share of backlash:

The White House found itself on the defensive Friday over what would ordinarily be considered the most uncontroversial of events: a back-to-school speech for children.

The White House said the address, set for Tuesday, and accompanying suggested lesson plans are simply meant to encourage students to study hard and stay in school.

Many conservative parents aren't buying it. They're convinced the president is going to use the opportunity to press a partisan political agenda on impressionable young minds.

I must've missed the part about a "partisan political agenda", as I conveniently read that the purpose of the speech was "to challenge students to set goals, work hard and stay in school." That one would assume the president is lying about this and will actually turn this into a policy speech is somewhat mind-boggling, given the attention this speech has garnered.

Conservative gripes about included lesson plans that initially asked students to write letters to themselves about what they could do to help the president (this language was removed) are similarly perplexing.  As eduwonk notes, this activity is within the context of students doing well in school, not about policies or politics.  How's a kid going to help him pass health care, anyway?

Some argue that this language of helping a president implicates the role of government in our affairs as necessary, which is philosophically at odds with conservatives.  Why is doing well in school connected to helping the President, as opposed to helping ourselves and each other?

Well, because students will feel that their president is setting an ambitious goal and is personally asking each of them to contribute by reaching high for their own personal academic goals. In the context of the speech, this makes a whole lot of sense. Conservatives can pout about how this accepts the mommy role of government, but they can’t argue with the influence and symbolism a president realistically wields as the leader of the free world, no matter how ineffective one deems him/her or government as a whole to be.  Asking students to do something for the president gives it that much more importance, even if what they're being asked to do is strictly related to their own personal and academic achievement.

What I Learned while Teaching Secondary Science (Final)

This is the final installment of a series of essays I've written on the top ten things I learned while teaching high school biology and integrated science. It's taken a good amount of research and reflection to get all of these ideas out there into a coherent format, but I'm pretty happy with the way they've turned out. It is also good timing, as I need to catch up on studying for my next adventure into science and higher education.

I've recapped the first 9 items of my top ten list below. Click on their links to bring you to that specific essay for more detail, and if you liked any of these essays please click the Digg badge to the right:


#10) “Weekends were made for teachers” 

#9)“If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail” 

#8) "What it means when someone doesn't follow directions" 

#7) “A student's unique needs can be defined by his English fluency, reasoning ability, and intrinsic motivation” 

#6)“The history and importance of state standards and standardized testing” 

#5)“Science is a method of begetting knowledge / What is Scientific Literacy” 

#4)“Teach For America is making progress toward ending educational inequity” 

#3)“The history and causes of the achievement gap” 

#2)“There are 3 main obstacles to closing the achievement gap”

...and the #1 thing I learned while teaching secondary science:

#1)“The achievement gap can be closed”

There is evidence of instructional strategies in place that are producing real results in real schools. For example, research study upon study detail the successes of many charter schools with a reliance on heightened student/teacher/parent expectations and accountability in bolstering student achievement levels. Improved school choice with the addition of effectively run charter schools may also have a positive effect on eliminating segregation in schools, a long-lived artifact from a recent era of race relations.

The recent NAEP report referenced in an earlier post gave some examples of national successes in closing the Black-White achievement gap.

Other research highlights the power of effective instruction in making gains in closing achievement gaps (Cite and Cite). Good teachers matter and do have a measurable impact on increasing student achievement.

The real question, then, is not if these disparities can be fixed, but when we will see ultimate success toward this aim. Pinpointing a date is difficult, but it seems we are continually moving in the right direction, with increasing national focus and federal funding being channeled toward the bottom percentile of schools and a spreading movement of standards and accountability.

Finally, I learned from my classroom experience that all students do enjoy and can attain academic success, but it is a matter of presentation and advocacy for getting those select kids, who have grown comfortable to detention and see failure as inevitable, invested in their education. This is decidedly a difficult endeavor (and I saw my own share of successes and failures in investing kids) but rests entirely in the hands of the teacher, with unyielding patience and unending love, in making this success a realized possibility for all students.

Testing Comments...

The last essay will be up shortly, but before then I wanted to test out the new Blogger comments....