This shouldn't be a surprise, but I'm absolutely floored

http://www.wbez.org/news/education/chicago-add-new-barack-obama-college-prep-high-school-110073

You would think that someone would have the power to say no to this, that it's just too much. But it's been proven over and over again, that Rahm finds a way to do just what he wants. Just a year after he closes 53 schools in Chicago, schools that served mostly students of color, he gets away with opening a brand new selective enrollment school not only on the north side (just three selective enrollment schools are not on the north side), not only in Lincoln Park (a wealthy neighborhood), but less than a mile away from a selective enrollment school that already exists. I can't say it better than the article does, but this made my jaw drop.

Last week the Supreme Court upheld a ban on the use of affirmative action in Michigan. I felt so overwhelmed with anger and shock when I heard this. The implications of this decision are so big that it was difficult for me to pick a part all of the ways that it's going to manifest, it's just so much bigger than thinking about race and access at the post secondary level. When I heard this story on Democracy Now, I was so relieved to hear some reporting that was connecting the decision to Jim Crow and Brown vs. Board of Education, a bigger picture perspective of education and race in this country that thinks about why affirmative action was established to begin with.

Student Stories

http://www.wbez.org/news/wbezs-student-stories-110014

WBEZ's attempt to air student voices talking about their experiences in schools in the Chicago area! I think this is a cool idea and like the fact that they are leaving it so open. They're basically asking for ANY kind of response from current students (anyone under the age of 21), from an audio diary, an essay, a video, to artwork reflecting on education and what they think education should be. Encourage students you know to submit and have their feelings about education heard!

I wish I had read this last week!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/common-core-new-york-times_b_5182703.html

 

This is a great response from Diane Ravitch about the New York Time's coverage of the Common Core Standards. Last week when we were talking about Common Core in class, I realized that I didn't really have a good argument against them besides my very broad discomfort with standards in general because of the tendency that they rely on standardized testing to measure learning. Anyway, this piece lays out very well the arguments against the Common Core and critiques the way in which the NYT has been writing about them. An important read for all future teachers and anyone who gets riled up measurement and assessment through standardized tests.

Teaching Channel

I found the Teaching Channel to be a really helpful resource for coming up with lesson plan ideas. Just spending a half hour or so watching videos, exposes you to many different kinds of mediums, classrooms, teachers, and themes. One video that I found interesting was "School as Living Museum". This video profiles a school in San Diego that puts an emphasis on filling the entire school with artwork, not just artwork but work that is meaningful to the students who made it. In general, the great diversity of work that is shown on the walls of the school is pretty interesting and is definitely high quality in terms of materials, concept, and just visually. While I know the point of the video isn't necessarily to show a critical perspective or to provide a large lens of art classrooms in general, but the only thing that bothered me about it was that it kind of had a "look what we can do" sort of attitude without acknowledging the extreme amount of resources that the school seems to have access to. Not that this is necessarily a problem, I think this video serves as an excellent example of what can be done in a context where resources are plentiful and art is valued and a priority, seeing examples of that can be helpful to any art classroom. But some kind of acknowledgement of the different amount of access to resources might have been nice in this example and could have helped to alleviate the sense that they were giving themselves a giant pat on the back, which honestly isn't completely undeserved in my opinion.

Let's Medicate Some More!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/health/idea-of-new-attention-disorder-spurs-research-and-debate.html?ref=education

Whoa. This article is nuts. It talks about a new disorder that can be applied to children with attention problems, "sluggish cognitive tempo" which is described by feelings of lethargy, daydreaming and slow mental processing. Okay, not so surprising that there is another attempt to diagnose and medicalize perhaps "normal" child behavior, but here's the craziest part:

"Dr. Barkley, who has said that “S.C.T. is a newly recognized disorder,” also has financial ties to Eli Lilly; he received $118,000 from 2009 to 2012 for consulting and speaking engagements, according to propublica.org. While detailing sluggish cognitive tempo in The Journal of Psychiatric Practice, Dr. Barkley stated that Strattera’s performance on sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms was “an exciting finding.” Dr. Barkley has also published a symptom checklist for mental health professionals to identify adults with the condition; the forms are available for $131.75 apiece from Guilford Press, which funds some of his research.

Dr. Barkley, who edits sluggish cognitive tempo’s Wikipedia page, declined a request to discuss his financial interests in the condition’s acceptance.

“I have no doubt there are kids who meet the criteria for this thing, but nothing is more irrelevant,” Dr. Frances said. “The enthusiasts here are thinking of missed patients. What about the mislabeled kids who are called patients when there’s nothing wrong with them? They are not considering what is happening in the real world.”

This is about making money for pharmaceutical companies of course! This is so insane, definitely check out the whole piece. 

Who am I- Self Portraits

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2014/04/13/education/edlife/13SELFIES_ss.html

Check out these creative selfies made by students from college age to 1st graders. They show an interesting range of medium and perspectives from across the country. Some good student artwork inspiration!