Tag: edchat

Freedom!!! Nope, not for you, Mr. Spencer.

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

Ah, Jeremy…JEREMY!  What were you thinking, dude?  Well, we all know what you were thinking, but did you really have to say it?  Did you have to post it?  Did you have to keep the photos up on your Facebook page? Jer…e…my.  Jeremy, you, my friend, are what we would call an idjut here in my part of Georgia.

So, Mr. Spencer, a DOE Official (political favor by Mr. Woods for helping him with his campaign), put some pretty vitriolic posts about anyone who is not a straight white Protestant male on his Facebook Page.  I will give him credit for being an equal opportunity hater, but a hater all the same.  But here’s what I think (and since my salary from this blog seems to continually get lost in the mail, I can say what I think):  I think Mr. Spencer has the right to believe what he wants to believe, however distasteful those thoughts may be.  I believe he shouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place (so he passed around a lot of campaign ads for Woods, and he’s brothers with a Georgia Representative.  Those are not resume pieces that will get you hired where I live; just sayin). I also believe that we have become waaaayyyyy too politically correct here, there, and everywhere.

Where do we draw the line, though? At what point do we say, enough is enough, and let folks think what they want to think and say what they want to say? At what point does a company or an entity dismiss a person’s thoughts as just that:  thoughts?  I am of the philosophy that you can swing your arms around in a circle until you are blue in the face.  I may find it annoying, but you shouldn’t be arrested for swinging your arms around, even though you look stupid.  But the minute, the second, you hit me, we have a problem.  At that point, your arm swinging interfered with my right to go about my business.  At that point your annoying little arm swinging game turned into a hitting game, and I am the victim.

There are so many stories out there where some yahoo with too much angst spouts off about inappropriate (read: NOT ILLEGAL) stuff.  Recently, a teacher from Johns Creek High School was fired resigned from Fulton County because she posted about a student with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) taking too long on a final exam (to which he had extra time by law).  She was pissy because she wanted to go home at noon with all her other teacher friends, but the student took his time on his exams entitled to him through his IEP.   A teacher in Winder, Georgia went to Germany and took a photo of herself with a beer in her hand at pretty much every stop she took (She sued and won, by the way).  Are these things illegal?  No.  Neither of them is illegal, and, although I am not a lawyer, the way I read the Professional Code of Ethics, not a one of them defies those ethics either.  Neither does Jeremy Spencer’s gross misperception of humanity.

So Jeremy Spencer is an idjut, and he should not have been hired…but should he have been fired resigned for having thoughts with which others disagree?  He was swinging his arms on his personal Facebook Page, and he did not take down a post that I would consider seriously offensive (I’m not easily offended by much), but his arms didn’t do any physical damage to anyone or to anyone’s property while swinging.  At what point does the old saying about words not hurting anyone begin to take hold in grown folks?

At what point do we simply say to those people and about those people, “Bless your heart” and keep it moving?

Georgia: Trailblazer or Perennially Lost?

Posted on by Scarlet Hawk

appalachian-trail-approachI have had the pleasure of travelling around the Southland a bit lately.  Although I reside in the city of Atlanta, my favorite spot to get away is ALWAYS in the mountains-Georgia or North Carolina; does NOT matter.  Wherever the pine trees are in abundance and the paved roads are not is where I wish to be.  Cooler temperatures and rolling landscapes abound and the elevation of certain points allows me to indulge and get lost metaphorically in my own thoughts.  However, I recently became actually lost-as in could not find my path back to the beginning of the trail.  It’s a very different feeling when one is truly lost- the disorientation, the heat of the midday sun beating down, and my body already tired from the hike I had originally set out on, never expecting to cover this many miles or take THAT much time.

 

Clearly I made it back, but as I was climbing over hills and dodging the brambles in my unorthodox path, I thought much of how this could have been prevented.  Where were the colored blazes marking the path?  Why have the trails not been tended so that the vegetation did not cover my previous steps?  I walked back over the same path many times in hopes of finding the switchback I missed, or the small bridge I had crossed.  The path was there, I had simply forgotten its image and location.  And in my foolhardy arrogance, I had not adequately prepared for if something went wrong.

 

Amateur.

 

One would never have believed I hiked 40 miles on the Appalachian Trail a few years ago and am a regular hiker who enjoys backcountry camping.  Bless MY heart.

 

In more than a decade of Georgia politics, I’ve had the pleasure of sitting at tables of power that others may not have with both the House and the Senate.  I have watched the paths of policy and party emerge from a grassroots level to the fall of some mighty grasstops under Lt. Governor Taylor and Speaker Richardson.  I have been impressed with the larger vision of the present Governor and the efforts of the sitting legislative members to initiate justice reform, a transportation plan and now educational reform.  I’ve watched the rabbit holes of RFRA and the Guns Everywhere bill send the legislature in strange meandering paths so that I’m left wondering where are our markers?  What will be the footprints we leave for others to follow?  More importantly, if Georgia wishes to move forward, what tools will we employ to blaze new paths? Continue reading “Georgia: Trailblazer or Perennially Lost?” →

Mom? Dad? Let Go of your Kid – You Are Doing More Harm Than Good.

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

Because I am an EduGeek through and through, I still read about my biz even when I should be with a buzz…or at least at the pool with my kids. But I read this article which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt  sheds more light on everything we educators already knew about education: Parents really need to back off their kids’ lives and let them do something crazy, like, oh, I don’t know, fail every now and again. This is not a new concept that I discovered just recently; in fact, I see more and more articles about the increase of suicide in our best and brightest kids because of the pressures put upon them by their parents.

As a parent, I totally get not wanting to see your child, the little person you literally grew from seed, be hurt in any way. I get it. I get why we want our children to be successful (I totally want my own old person Au Pair and live off of my stinking rich kid). But what I don’t get is why parents would be so selfish that they allow their children to be placed in a situation where not only will they fail, but they will also fail epically. The data is coming in that not only are we producing these “excellent sheep”,  but businesses are having to train these excellent sheep to actually think because, well, they can’t! We haven’t allowed them to make decisions, good or bad. Students are now entering college and taking classes like the “Success Academy” at Georgia State University because they have never had to take the initiative or to make a decision.

And parents aren’t the only ones who are to blame. Educators began the testing mills in the early 2000s, and now we are pushing this out to businesses. Students are great multiple choice test takers, but they are not good at making their own decisions.

Because we want our offspring and our students to be successful and live a life that is pain free, we over-parent and over-protect them into a corner, and these wonderful, creative, problem solving, vibrant little people grow into anxious, scared, depressed, and often suicidal young adults.

So, for the rest of the summer, I say let your kids fall and scrape their knees. Let them bow out of that mission trip to Zimbabwe. Let them ride bikes, eat Popsicle, walk to the neighborhood pool, and sleep in late. They’re kids, and they should be able to be kids with all the rights and privileges of kiddom. Don’t worry…you wont be like my mom or other moms of the 70s. But if you might lean that way, I don’t think I suffered too much from the lead poisoning by drinking out of the hose.

Is Standardized Testing Ruining Us?

Posted on by Linds

As school gets ready to break for the summer, I cannot help but revisit the debate surrounding standardized testing. Arguments for testing are looking for “fair” ways to test which teachers are really performing well and what schools deserve a reward for their performance. Arguments against are centered around the idea that our kids are learning a test and not actual general knowledge. From someone who does NOT work in the school system: it all seems like a big mess.

But after loosely following the APS cheating trial last month I started to look a little deeper into this whole standardized testing stuff. I have a few questions:

What is it like to teach?

“About half of all teachers leave the profession within five years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.”Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2009)
It seems as though it’s very difficult for teachers to really enjoy their job when their entire career is riding on their student’s performance on one test. While I understand that measurements have to be taken in some way and that evaluations are necessary, it seems like these tests are the source of much anxiety; which leads to what people often refer to as “teaching to the test”. I don’t think most teachers started out in education for that. Is this one of the reasons teachers are transitioning out of education? Are we holding teachers accountable for things they cannot control?

What’s it like to learn?

I’ve listened to the gossip amongst third graders and the talk of the playground in April is TESTING. They all just want to pass this test.. So now we have teachers AND students stressing over these exams. I wonder how much information these kids are retaining from year to year? We have all studied for an exam and a week later knew nothing about that subject. Is that happening to our youngest minds? Are they learning or memorizing? Are they placing their self esteem in these tests rather than their overall performance as a person and a student? This story from 11Alive about a student impacted by the APS cheating scandal was heartbreaking: Here. Max Blau  wrote about a study  conducted by Georgia State University about the impact of the scandal. The study found that 97 percent of the APS students affected by cheating were black. What message is that sending to our most vulnerable students?

What’s it like to lead?

When you walk into some schools around Atlanta – their previous school wide test scores are posted on huge signs. New comers to the area ask about the scores to decide where to send their kids. Funding depends on the scores. Your staff needs these scores. You as a principal NEED high scores. How as a leader do you create a healthy work environment that centers around honesty and a genuine love for education when it all comes down to a test at the end of the year? It seems really challenging especially for our inner city schools who have other sets of issues (safety, quality books, decent facilities). How does a principal keep staff happy and students educated when the threat of losing funding is ever present?

The education system is a business set out to empower, educate and inspire youth. Our job as teachers, parents and community members is to work to create environments where all children and school staff can thrive and prosper at school, grow as people and discover a love of learning. Is standardized testing killing that?

Tweet me your thoughts @Lbriana12