AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2006 > April
April 2006
Coweta May Offer Chinese
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coweta County school board chairman wants Coweta to offer Chinese language instruction, according to this story by Bridget Gutierrez.
The chairman says Coweta would be the first in Georgia to do so, though he concedes the course might be too expensive.
Around the metro area, schools are wading into less traditional foreign languages such as Arabic and Japanese. Foreign languages tend to gain popularity based on what countries are in the news. That’s not so good for French teachers, but bodes well for Chinese. Here’s a Newsweek story on Chinese language instruction in high school, this one in Texas.
Parents, what languages do you want your child to study? How do kids choose? What languages should be offered? Is there still a need/demand for French?
Atlanta Wants More of Your Money
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta school officials want to raise taxes.Here’s an excerpt of the story:
“The city school system followed the Fulton County school district in breaking the news to taxpayers that they need more money to run schools next year. But unlike Fulton, which expects 6,000 more students next year, Atlanta’s enrollment is declining. This year, Atlanta has just under 50,000 students, down from 57,000 in 2001. The city system also benefits from a wealthy tax base and rising property values. Atlanta spends far more per student - $11,215 a year - than neighboring districts. (Cobb, for example, spends about $7,200, according to the state.
Atlanta is facing a $37.3 million shortfall, officials said. Teacher raises, state cuts and ongoing shortfalls in a pension fund are the big problems, they say.
It looks like they’re going to seek from the board a millage of 22.72, up 2.3 mills from last year. Based on my Charlie Brown calculations, which don’t take into account homestead and other exemptions, that would mean about $180 more a year on a $200,000 house (fair market value.)
Does it seem crazy for a school system with declining enrollment and rising property values to need a tax increase? Or are you sympathetic to the myriad of issues districts including Atlanta are facing this year: rising utilities, gas prices etc.?
Girlfight at Morrow
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A wise principal once said to me: “The most dangerous part of my job is when I have to step in and break up a girlfight.” It appears Morrow High School had a doozy. Here’s the story.
Police arrested 13 girls for fighting (before 8 a.m.!) and while that was going on they arrested five more students for fighting and mouthing off in incidents that appear unrelated. I guess the good news is this line: “There were no weapons involved, and it was not believed to be gang related.” Also, it appears no one required hospitalization, so there’s another piece of good news. (Who says the media is all negative? (-:)
School folk: How do you handle girlfights? Do you break them up or do you wait for the cops? Do you see girls fighting physically very often?
Let the Music Play…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My colleague Mary MacDonald - exhausted by the Fulton budget cut story as I’m sure many Fulton parents are as well - reports that the district won’t lay off as many teachers as originally planned, a move that would have eliminated elementary orchestra and band. Foreign language teacher in elementary schools, however, are still likely to lose their positions.
The board didn’t decide whether to raise property taxes 2.5 percent.
Fulton parents… are you happy or sad? Excited or mad?
Do You Unschool?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A reader on the homeschooling post mentions unschooling, the less formal version of teaching your child at home. I confess, I have never written about unschooling or met anyone who does it.
I’m fascinated. Unschoolers, tell us your stories…
Thanks, Search Firm!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
School boards rely heavily on search firms to bring them candidates for school superintendent, a tradition that gives such firms tremendous power in public education.
When DeKalb went fishing for a new HR director - the HR department in the DeKalb school system has been in some state of transition for years, maybe decades - the district hired a search firm, which delivered them a dynamic candidate named Darren Ware. He blew DeKalb officials away with his personality and his resume. They hired him at a salary of $155,000 a year.
His resume, however, was padded, according to Kristina Torres’ story. Oh yeah, he didn’t exactly pass the background check with flying colors. In New Jersey, he faced charges ranging from burglary, theft and violating parole.
Lanta Group, a search firm, was paid almost $40,000 to bring DeKalb this gem. (Neither the search firm nor the school district verified that Ware graduated from the colleges where he said he earned degrees. Kristina called UCLA and Rutgers and was told they had no record of Ware. )
Ware didn’t want to comment for Kristina’s story.
Anybody out there care to comment?
The CRCTs are over…Now what?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many Georgia districts gave the CRCTs last week. Before long, all schools will have The Test behind them.
What goes on for the rest of the school year? Teachers, do you keep teaching the curriculum? Remediate? Work on projects? Catch up on aspects of the curriculum you didn’t have time for earlier in the school year?
Homeschool Networking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From time to time I get calls from parents or questions from friends interested in homeschooling. They want to talk to parents in their area who do it. I don’t have a whole lot of contacts in this arena, and as an education reporter I think I should.
If you are a homeschooling parent willing to share some info, or if you are affiliated with a network of homeschooling parents, please e-mail me at pghezzi@ajc.com. Be sure to let me know the general area where you live. I won’t publish anything without your permission. Right now, I’m just looking to gather up the contacts.
Thanks very much!
While we’re on the subject, parents who homeschool, please tell us a bit about your experience. What’s a typical day? Where do you get your curriculum? What social activities do you and your child participate in?
The Tests Before The Tests
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bridget Gutierrez visited a Henry County middle school for her story on eighth-graders facing retention if they don’t pass the reading and math portions of the CRCT. She was struck by how often the kids take pre-tests leading up to the biggie.
At Austin Road Middle School, “teachers gave them CRCT-like quizzes every three weeks since the beginning of the school year and met with them one-on-one every six weeks to discuss their progress,” Bridget writes. The school’s students have a history of doing very well on the CRCT. Another colleague visited a school where kids take a CRCT pre-test every Friday.
Is testing regularly before the test a good use of class time? (Teachers say it gives them a good idea of their students’ strengths and weaknesses.) Or do such pre-tests take away from time when the teacher could be teaching?
Harry Potter Too Witchy for Gwinnett Mom
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UPDATE: Read the latest on this issue here. Sorry I had to shut down the comments. A few folks who can’t say on topic or resist the temptation to commit identity theft ruin the fun for everybody…
Here’s Laura Diamond’s story about the mother who wants Harry Potter books removed from Gwinnett school libraries.
I covered a few book hearings back in the 1990s in Gwinnett, and from my experience the board is likely to uphold the local school’s decision to keep the books on the shelf.
Does Harry belong at school? (True confession: I haven’t read Harry Potter or seen the movies. Someday…)
Do What Works
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I thought I would mine my notes a little more from David Banks, the New York principal of a public boys school, who spoke of the cheese-sandwich discipline method.
His overall point was that he does what works in his school. Some other examples:
His students are freshman and sophomore boys. They stay up late. So the first academic class doesn’t start until 9:15 a.m. (The boys have to be at school by 8:30 a.m. for breakfast and a schoolwide assembly.)
Teachers don’t like all those announcements butting in on their classes, so Banks instituted a policy against them. Everything that needs to be said must be covered at the morning assembly.
Getting parents to the school in the evening was hard. So parent meetings are held every other month on a Saturday morning. He gives parents a calendar at the beginning of the year with the dates marked. He said a parent or other family member from about 140 of 180 families attends each meeting.
He reiterated over and over the importance of doing what works at your school. His is a choice school, so he has more leverage. (He can screen students based on their interest in attending an all boys school, but he cannot look at their academic record prior to admission.)
Parents, teachers, students: Any other examples of how a school made a change that works? Thoughts on any of the above points?
Who’s Winking and Nodding?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cheating on the CRCT. I’m not saying it happens often, but given the stakes it seems foolish to assume it doesn’t happen at all. That said, a teacher writes:
“Here is a scenario that plays out with regularity in Georgia schools (maybe it’s not common, but it sure isn’t uncommon): The teacher gets threatened with possible job loss if ‘test scores aren’t up.’ The one doing the threatening? The principal, who gets threatened with possible job loss if ‘test scores aren’t up.’
So, testing time comes and the teacher’s career depends on the mental state of an eight-year-old child, an eight year old subjected to ten HOURS of testing. The child may very well be a discipline problem, and the teacher feels she gets no support from home or the administration. You think it might be just a little tempting to ‘offer a little help?’
Add to that, guess who is monitoring the testing? Yep, the very same principal who’s acutely aware that both their butts are on the line if we don’t get Junior’s test score up to par. So the principal walks in and drops hints as subtle as atomic bombs (‘Have him look over #23 again’).
But wait, aren’t there other monitors? Yes, but they are all from WITHIN the school system. Talk about ‘wink wink, nod nod’. And where is the state Dept. of Education? Nowhere to be found, for in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they have admitted that they don’t “red flag” test scores, unless a teacher or administrator complains (like that is going to happen).
If you don’t think this is routinely going on, and you prefer to think that facade (excuse me, reform) is really working, ask yourself this: Why are the scores improving on the CRCT, but we are still dead last in SAT scores? When you compare the safety measures to prevent cheating on the SAT, to how the CRCT is conducted, then you have your answer.
I hate to sound like Fox Mulder, but ‘the truth is out there’.”
Any experiences with or thoughts on cheating on the CRCT to share?
Cheese Sandwiches as Discipline
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Monday I attended a presentation by The Eagle Academy for Young Men, an all-male high school in the Bronx. The event was held at Atlanta Public Schools’ headquarters as they are turning a middle school into two single-gender schools. (I’m working on a story about this, so please save your single-gender schools comments for later…)
David Banks, Eagle Academy’s principal, made many interesting points. Among them, he said he uses cheese sandwiches as discipline. When a student gets a detention, the detention is served at lunchtime not after school, because parents will often try to get a child excused from an afternoon detention because of a legitimate or bogus scheduling problem.
So the student reports to detention at lunch time. He gets a cheese sandwich, not a hot lunch. “We used to give peanut butter & jelly, but they liked it. It wasn’t a deterrent,” the principal said.
How about it folks? Would cheese-sandwich discipline work with your child or at your school?
Life at an Unpopular School
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I ran into a neighbor the other day whose daughter goes to an elementary school that does not have a spectacular reputation. In fact, the school is frequently described as sucking. Low test scores. High mobility. Low socio-economics. You know the euphemisms.
So when I asked where her daughter went to school, my neighbor couched it in an almost apologetic way. “It works great for her…She’s really happy there. I’m not saying it’s right for everybody, but it was a good choice for our family.”
It struck me how loaded the question is for parents whose children attend a school with a sucky reputation. Another neighbor, when asked where her kids go to school, proudly proclaimed: “INSERT ANY HIGHLY REGARDED SCHOOL HERE!!!”
So I want to hear from you who attend, teach or send children to a school with a less than stellar reputation. Do you defend your school when people ask? Do you respond with pride? Do you answer the question without elaboration? (Or do you roll your eyes and say that all the rumors are true and you’re negotiating a transfer?)
Teachers are People, Too
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My teacher friend likes to unwind with a beer and watch a ballgame at a neighborhood bar. Though he says this bar has the worst food imaginable, the pub has inexplicably become a dinner destination for a couple of his middle school students and their parents. So he’s off to find another bar. “No way can I have a beer with my with my students just a few yards away,” he said. “Bad message. Not good.”
My sixth-grade teacher was also a friend of the family. My mother told me years later Mrs. Dale was a secret smoker. I was dismayed by this news. But, really, why should it matter?
Are teachers held to an unrealistic expectation for off-campus behavior? Is it okay to have a beer or a glass of wine in a public venue? To tell your students about a trip to Vegas? What if you get divorced or have been divorced? Or - gasp - mow the lawn on Easter Sunday instead of going to church? Must teachers give the illusion of sainthood?
A few programming notes: Lots of education stories in the paper. At a Coweta County school, even the cafeteria manager is helping kids prep for the CRCT. Gwinnett Supe Alvin Wilbanks is ticked off about Perdue’s education legislation. And the state adopted new cut scores on the language arts CRCT that require third graders to get 55 percent correct instead of 47.5 to advance fourth grade. Oh, and it looks like Gwinnett bought a couple of land parcels for schools…
Have a safe and happy weekend, everyone!
Can’t Teachers Ignore “fools”?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A comment on an earlier post asks: “Maybe I’m naive, but can’t you teachers just ignore or move on with class if some of the students want to act a fool. All of the kids can’t behave that bad, can they? Sorry if I sound so ignorant but, I would think that you could just try to move on. Those that want to get it will and those that don’t won’t. That’s probably too simple - huh?”
Teachers, can you respond?
Oprah Speaks, Again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Part two of Oprah’s public education wake-up call focused on solutions and success stories.
First up is Kevin “KJ” Johnson, former NBA player. He ran an after-school program on the off-season while playing ball. After retiring, he wanted to do more. He convinced somebody to let him take over his alma mater and now, if I heard correctly, runs six public schools in Sacramento. He said his schools are successful because he makes face-to-face contact with parents. “If a parent does not want their son or daughter go to college, this is not the choice you should make,” he said.
Next up, the oft-discussed at Get Schooled and written about in papers everywhere KIPP program. I won’t go on and on about it. The idea is that kids put in long hours and are from the time they walk through the door told that they will go to college.
Lisa Ling goes into a prison and interviews adult prisoners who are learning algebra and regretting their life choices.
Then, an overcrowded school in L.A. Teachers cry, saying only a school serving minorities would be this crowded with no new school in sight.
Bill Gates takes Oprah to one of his small schools and she talks to the students and they tell her they enjoy school and she says in disbelief, “You’re telling me you go to school every day and you are not bored?!?” She then goes to a Gates-funded school in California with all the techno bells and whistles. All students go onto college, some are the first in their families to do so.
That’s it! She covered a lot of ground, but interestingly I don’t think she uttered the words No Child Left Behind. In fact, she went out of her way to promote the idea that it’s people on the outside of the institution who can best fix it.
Thoughts?
(Not to sound like a schoolmarm, but don’t pick on each other, please… just state your views and discuss thee issues. Thanks!)
Oprah Speaks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She turned a nation onto reading. She encouraged women to get out of bad relationships and walk off the weight. She is teaching families how to climb out of consumer debt. Can she save public education? Well, of course not, but the first of her mostly effective two-part series was heavy on hyperbole, so why shouldn’t I be too?
What follows is a synopsis of Tuesday’s slickly produced, well-paced show. Part two airs Wednesday at 4 p.m. on WSB/Channel 2.
The show opens with an interview with Bill and Melinda Gates, strategically placed in a school library. They get the theme rolling. Crisis. Crisis. Crisis. “You ask the students what they are learning, and they are literally learning nothing,” Melinda says. “It’s not just inner city schools. It’s all schools.” Statistics: Half of all minorities drop out. A third of all students drop out. More than 40 percent of kids who make it to college have to do remedial work. Crisis. Crisis. Crisis. Oprah wonders: Why aren’t people in the streets, fighting for the kids? Says Melinda: The kids are falling through the cracks and nobody knows it.
(Oprah has a wide-eyed bewildered look throughout the show, like she in absolute awe of what her producers have uncovered, even though everything in her program has been widely reported…)
She tells the audience the U.S. used to be ranked first in academics and now ranks 24th in math. A math teacher sitting nearby says: “It’s getting lower and lower every year.” Crisis. Crisis. Crisis.
The next segment is compelling. Some kids from a Chicago public school visit a suburban school and see what they are missing out on. An olympic-size pool. A lavish gym. “Do you guys not have a cardio room?” a suburban student asks her urban peer. Uh, no. Their school looks as though it should be condemned by the health department. In a class called “instrumental music,” kids have no instruments, so they tap out the beat on their desks. A Chicago student sits in on a suburban math class and says it’s like it’s a foreign language. She can’t follow any of it. She observes that she’ll probably be toast when she gets to college. Back at Harpo, a mother of a student at the Chicago school weeps, and who can blame her?
Next, thank God for South Carolina. A graphic shows Georgia is next-to-last in graduation rates, with S.C. coming in last. A journalist (Lisa Ling?) goes to a high school of white students in Anywhere, U.S.A. (I think she said Indiana.) One in three students drops out, even though the community is middle class. The school offers high level courses and has excellent facilities, but kids don’t take advantage, the principal laments. Crisis. Crisis. Crisis. One kid says his classmates drop out because there are lots of factory jobs and a dropout can make $500 a week. But the dropouts featured in the segment are trapped in low-wage jobs. By the time the segment airs one of the dropouts has earned a GED and joined the Marines.
The next segment: Anderson Cooper finds irony in the fact that schools near the White House are run-down.
A woman from a think take notes that children in urban schools are victims of low expectations. Oprah couldn’t agree more. Oprah notes that schools were made for the 1950s, but kids need to be prepared for life in 2006, for a global economy. Crisis. Crisis. Crisis.
Some American students are asked to name the first five American presidents, and they cannot do it. A teenager from China rattles them off no problem. Crisis. Crisis. Crisis. Oprah notes that she LOVES teachers. She knows there are good ones out there. But she says there are enormous problems. She talks about how lucky she was to have gotten a good education. She was born in Mississippi in 1954. “I never had to go to a segregated school,” she said. “I think how different my life would have been if I had been in a segregated school in Mississippi.” (Personal note: I was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1969. The schools were segregated then. I am shocked that Oprah went to an integrated school and got a good education in my home state, where white parents flocked to private schools after Brown.)
P.S. A post reminds me of a segment I neglected to mention. The valedictorian of a rural high school goes to college and is stunned by how far behind she is. She can’t operate lab equipment. She can’t keep up in class. She is getting remedial help, but she is a year behind and her spirit is obviously broken. She cries, saying she feels stupid.
In conclusion, Oprah says she wanted this show to be a wake-up call. Was it?
Are You TiVoing Oprah Today?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the newsroom, we’re already getting responses to Oprah’s two-day series on public education…and the first installment hasn’t even aired yet!
Are you Tivoing? If not, fear not. I’ll post a full report after I view it. (It airs on Channel 2 at 4 p.m.)
Love her or hate her, Oprah wields tremendous influence. Her report will be heavy on Bill Gates’ ideas for improving high schools - the man has spent millions on this pet cause. Anderson Cooper is also involved, though I’m not sure why. The project is also in conjunction with Time Magazine, which has a cover story on everyone’s fave topic, dropouts.
My Dayton Daily News counterpart Scott Elliot says he’s “always wary when anyone starts arguing that American education is a complete disaster.” I’m inclined to agree. Public education is much too complicated and nuanced to be all good or all bad - and to be covered in two hours of television - isn’t it?
Commenting is open late tonight, so please let me know what you think if you get a chance to catch the episode…
Some questions to get things started: Will Oprah do for education what she did for books? What good points did the program make? What bad ones? Overall on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate it?
The CRCT: It’s Crunk Time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A press release that came to the newsroom sent us Googling for the definition of “crunk.” Seems a crunk party lock-in was in order for a school prepping for the CRCT, which many schools will administer next week. The definition of crunk? According to urbandictionary.com, it’s shorthand for the words crazy and drunk. It can also refer to a specific type of hip-hop and has some other connotations, such as slang for “cranked up.”
So we got a little laugh. Obviously, this school is trying to make CRCT prep fun for its students. Who has time to split hairs over urban slang when there are state tests to be passed?
A colleague told me about a school where everyone, including the janitors, is tutoring this week. Signs and banners hang from walls in schools all over. I have a pencil a teacher gave me a while back. It reads: “I promise to do my best, on the CRCT test.”
Teachers, are you ready? Parents, are you worried? Are your kids stressed out? Any other creative approaches to prepping for the Big Test?
Extending Spring Break…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The kids are due back in school today, but … some may be flying back from their trips or resting if they got in late last night. Others were out the Friday before spring break, having left a day early to beat the rush.
There are various reasons parents let their kids miss school for leisure purposes. Scheduling. Spring breaks at different times for different schools. Custody issues.
My niece and nephew flew in from New Jersey to Atlanta on Friday to spend the week with Nana and their aunties. Family waited too long to make their reservations, and seats were not available Saturday. So they missed school on Friday.
A lame excuse? Teachers, does it make you crazy when kids miss school because they are vacationing or are you sympathetic to extended families? Parents, do your kids miss a day or two on the front or back end of spring break? Do you feel guilty about it?
Teachers Blast Off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I got a press release today from a group called the Space Frontier Foundation. It says this group is raising money to blast teachers into space on private ventures. According to the Web site, the purpose of the Teachers in Space program is two-fold: to honor and inspire teachers and to “stimulate the growth of commercial suborbital flight.”
Anybody interested?
On a programming note, several Get Schooled readers complained when the link was dropped from the main ajc.com page. It has been restored. You may find it under the Metro/Georgia heading, next to “Legislature.”
One more note: “Take the Lead,” a highly fictionalized movie version of the beloved (by me) documentary, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” is only so-so, says Eleanor Ringel Gillespie. The ajc movie critic notes that actors often turn to inspirational teacher movies to heat up their lukewarm careers. (Think Richard Dreyfuss in “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”) In this case, Antonio Banderas plays the teacher who brings ballroom dancing to NYC public schools.
What Would You Cut?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mary MacDonald, who covers the Fulton school system, has been getting a lot of response to her story about budget cuts.
Many are from those wanting to point out that music teachers are not the only ones losing their jobs. Social workers, ESOL teachers, counselors … many positions are at risk. School officials say they have to make the cuts because of growing enrollment. It’s budget season, and the numbers have to add up.
No parent wants their child to lose a foreign language program or music lessons. I don’t think anyone disputes the reality that some schools really need English to Speakers of Other Languages teachers and others really need that police officer. School officials have said some administrators will be cut loose, too.
If you were a Fulton school board member, what would you cut?
The Get Schooled Summer Reading List (Movies, Too!)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A random list of books and movies with school settings. They are in no particular order and, while I have read or watched most of them, I’m not endorsing them as worth spending your valuable time and money on. If you’re into education, you might like them.
Please note this list does not include tomes on what’s wrong with or how to improve public education. Nor did I include academic works on teaching methods. There are thousands of such titles out there - a large number of which are collecting dust under my desk. Feel free to mention your favorites in the comments.
This list is by no means The Last Word on what’s available. If you have a recommendation to add, especially in the fiction category, shoot me an e-mail at pghezzi@ajc.com.
Thanks to the Get Schooled readers who contributed to this project.
BOOKS
Nonfiction Narratives
“Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference,” Mark Edmundson
“The Water is Wide,” Pat Conroy
“Up the Down Staircase ,” Bel Kaufman
“Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year,” Esme Raji Codell
“Among Schoolchildren,” Tracy Kidder
“Shut Up and Let the Lady Teach,” Emily Sachar
“Teacher Man: A Memoir,” Frank McCourt
“One Day All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach for America and What I Learned Along the Way,” Wendy Kopp
“Front of the Class: How Tourette’s Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had,” Brad Cohen with Lisa Wysocky *
“Another Planet: A Year in the Life of a Suburban High School,” Elinor Burkett
“Not Much, Just Chillin’: The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers,” Linda Perlstein
“School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School,” Edward Humes
“Wonderland: A Year in the Life of an American High School,” Michael Bamberger
“Dangerous Minds,” LouAnne Johnson (Originally written under the title, “My Posse Don’t Do Homework.”)
“Inside Mrs. B.’s Classroom: Courage, Hope and Learning on Chicago’s South Side,” Leslie Baldacci
“A Hope in the Unseen,” Ron Suskind
Fiction:
“A Separate Peace,” John Knowles
“Good-bye, Mr. Chips,” James Hilton
The “Harry Potter” books, J.K. Rowling
- Full disclosure: I worked on this project in the very early stages. The teacher works in Cobb County.
MOVIES:
“Akeela and the Bee,” Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett
“Stand and Deliver,” Lou Diamond Phillips, Edward James Olmos
“Dead Poet’s Society,” Robin Williams
“Lean on Me,” Morgan Freeman
“Coach Carter,” Samuel L. Jackson
“Dangerous Minds,” Michelle Pfeiffer
“Rushmore,” Bill Murray
“October Sky,” Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern
“School of Rock,” Jack Black
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Sean Penn
“Cheaters,” Jeff Daniels
“To Sir, With Love,” Sidney Poitier
“Mr. Holland’s Opus,” Richard Dreyfuss
“Finding Forrester,” Sean Connery
“Ferris Beuler’s Day Off,” Matthew Broderick
“Conrack,” Jon Voight (This is the movie version of Pat Conroy’s memoir, “The Water is Wide.” )
“The Breakfast Club,” Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
“Pay It Forward,” Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt
“Election,” Reece Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick
“Kindergarten Cop,” Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Mona Lisa Smiles,” Julia Roberts
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” Maggie Smith
“The Browning Version,” Michael Redgrave
“Educating Rita,” Michael Caine
“The Blackboard Jungle,” Sidney Poitier
“Music of the Heart,” Meryl Streep
“Summer School,” Mark Harmon
“Teachers,” Nick Nolte
Documentaries:
“Spellbound,” Kids and their parents freak out at the National Spelling Bee.
“Mad Hot Ballroom,” Kids compete in ballroom dancing.
“Paper Clips,” Students learn about the Holocaust.
“Hoop Dreams,” Southside Chicago kids get to go to a private school because they can shoot hoops.
“Country Boys,” Kentucky teenagers swimming against poverty and unstable families go to a small alternative school.
“Born Into Brothels,” Filmmaker teaches Indian children of prostitutes about photography, but realizes what they really need is an education.
“Rock School,” Ex-rocker teaches kids to play rock music in Philadelphia.
Your Name in Print
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some Get Schooled contributers have notice their wise words in the newspaper on Mondays. The real paper. The one made out of trees that I wish more people would take the time to pick up and read even if you get some ink smudges on your hands.
My editor came up with the idea to pull together some of the best Get Schooled comments for the Monday paper. I compile the list just before I leave on Friday.
How do you get your “name” in print? I’d say stick to the topic, have a fresh perspective and pay attention to spelling and grammar. (Words in print really need to be spelled correctly.) Brevity is a plus.
How do you make sure your comments are not included? Well, you can’t. I pick them somewhat randomly.
Thanks to everyone who posts on Get Schooled. You do my job for me, and I appreciate it.
Almost Gifted
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This story is about Clayton’s attempt to identify bright children who don’t quite qualify as gifted and provide them with gifted-like courses. Heather Vogell reports that “high potential classes” … are “small with a global flair. They combine multiple subjects, involve hands-on projects and place the teacher in the role of guide instead of lecturer.”
For more information about gifted education and a chart showing what percentage of students each metro district considers gifted, go here.
Should the almost-gifted be in their own classes? And how does it make sense that in the Decatur school district, 23 percent of students are gifted but in Clayton that figure is just 3.5?
From Kentucky to Gwinnett: “I Got Stupider”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A student moves from Kentucky to Georgia and blasts her middle school experience here as babyish and lacking in challenge. Read her op-ed here.
Krist McNight says she found an easier grading scale, monotonous homework assignments and a coddled environment.
She writes: “To address a poor work ethic and bad attitude toward learning, look at the past.
Upon entering middle school here, students are not challenged, they are babied. They are eased into the workload and are eased in mentally also. What is supposed to be preparation for high school is turning into, or already has become, a place where kids go to learn just the basics. Then they are left to fend for themselves in high school.
Middle school kids need a greater push if they are to succeed in high school. While grades are not as detrimental to their future, let them find out what they must do. While they are still in middle school, let them learn those valuable lessons of what happens when they slack off.
I compare my middle school in Kentucky to the Georgia middle school I attended because that is my personal experience. Not all people make such a dramatic shift, but I’m grateful I did so I can see the differences.”
All right people, let’s talk!
Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A highly educated homeschooling mom took a tour of a highly regarded public school recently, as she is thinking of enrolling her child there. She generally liked what she saw, but she was perplexed by the constant talk of “critical thinking skills.” Everyone at the school assured her this is what they teach. But, she wonders, what exactly do they mean?
Teachers, those of you who want to talk about education during your spring break, can you help?
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