On Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:19:45 -0400, I_am_Tosk
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:27:15 -0400, I_am_Tosk
wrote:

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:23:32 -0400, wrote:


He is right about merit pay for teachers too so that is 2 things in a
couple months. If a politician gets one big thing right a month I will
be happy with them.

What does he say about merit pay? Seems like a good idea to me.


http://www2.jcfloridan.com/news/2011...ion-merit-pay-
bill-mixed-ar-1594330/

"Fifty percent of a teacher's evaluation will depend on how much
progress their students have made on the Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test or other exams over a three-year period."

What this means is good teachers at low-income student schools
will get screwed on pay.
So the low-income student schools will end up with the poorest teachers.
Real smart.


I just saw a tivo of 60 minutes...$125K for charter school teachers.
Apparently, it hasn't made a difference in kids' performance, at least
not so far.

Success of students to achieve their potential depends mostly on their
parents.
Initially charter schools get good performance because guess what?
Involved parents are required to get kids in charter schools.
Most have a waiting list for admission.
Who is most responsible for getting the kids on the list?
Involved parents. That's what gets successful education for kids.
This whole deal about charter schools is pretty much misguided except
it can allow some kids to get into a better environment for learning.
That's good.
Doesn't help those whose parents don't get them into a charter school.
And way too many won't make that effort.
It mostly comes down to parents, not teachers or schools.





So much bull****... A good teacher can teach your kids in that 6 hours a
day, not count on the parents to do the work for the other 18... I am
sick and tired of folks trying to blame the Parents while they are at
work all day and the teachers have the kids right there a captive
audience.

That is not really true. Good parents will help kids with homework and
create a better learning experience at home.
If a kid lives in a crack house with a bunch of drop outs and
criminals, he is far more likely to be a crackhead, criminal, drop
out.

More likely I give you that, but a good teacher could reach out and let
that kid get the most out of that 6 hours a day they have him or her...
I just don't think this should be on the parents. If the schools spent
more time teaching the basics instead of some of the crap they do, the
kids could come out and learn.

Now you're not talking 'teacher', you're talking 'school board' - the folks that
develop the curriculum.

Make the kids write, with pencil and
paper, make them read, right there in class, out loud, like we did when
we were kids, we learned. Or at least a lot of us did... I saw a news
story on the text of one chapter taught in the NYC school system. It was
a whole chapter on police brutality and corruption. Yeah, have a lesson
on it, but a whole chapter, a whole month of the short school year?

Again, you're talking curriculum, not what the teacher does.

That
is a waste and does nothing but create a divide between these kids and
law and order. It certainly doesn't do anything to prepare them to come
out to "normal" society outside of the ghetto or in collage that's for
sure... Teach the kids, don't indoctrinate them and we will be just
fine...

You just need to figure out who you're putting down. Obviously, you should be
writing to your local school board and attending some of their meetings.