May 1990
Teacher Magazine, Vol. 01, Issue 08
Education
Rediscovering A Lost Continent
The Atlanta students are being taught these things because the content of their school curriculum has undergone what educators call an "Afrocentric infusion,'' a systematic effort to rectify past textbook distortions and omissions about black contributions to history, and to situate Africans "irrevocably on the stage of humanity.''
Education
Awards
Clemontene Rountree of Alice Deal Junior High School in the District of Columbia; Theresa Noonan of Gulf Breeze High School in Gulf Breeze, Fla.; Molly Howard of Wrens High School in Wrens, Ga.; Alice Yukiko Kotake of Mililani High School in Mililani, Hawaii; J. Michael Hovey of American Falls High School in American Falls, Idaho; Joyce Carey of Benjamin Franklin School in Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Mary Baker of RISE Learning Center in Indianapolis; Pamela Johnson of Carpenter Elementary School in Monticello, Iowa; Barbara Firestone of McCollom Elementary School in Wichita, Kan.; Barbara Hester of Ballard High School in Louisville, Ky.; Debbie Pace of Keithville Elementary/ Middle School in Keithville, La.; and Bill Nave of River Valley Alternative School in Turner, Me.
Clemontene Rountree of Alice Deal Junior High School in the District of Columbia; Theresa Noonan of Gulf Breeze High School in Gulf Breeze, Fla.; Molly Howard of Wrens High School in Wrens, Ga.; Alice Yukiko Kotake of Mililani High School in Mililani, Hawaii; J. Michael Hovey of American Falls High School in American Falls, Idaho; Joyce Carey of Benjamin Franklin School in Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Mary Baker of RISE Learning Center in Indianapolis; Pamela Johnson of Carpenter Elementary School in Monticello, Iowa; Barbara Firestone of McCollom Elementary School in Wichita, Kan.; Barbara Hester of Ballard High School in Louisville, Ky.; Debbie Pace of Keithville Elementary/ Middle School in Keithville, La.; and Bill Nave of River Valley Alternative School in Turner, Me.
Education
Limiting Horizons
During the next two decades, "intelligence tests'' were developed and used to sort students by ability--tests that today would be laughable. Imagine an immigrant child in Boston or an impoverished black child from the rural South being asked questions like these: Clothing is made by: a) Smith & Wesson; b) Kuppenheimer; c) B.T. Babbitt; d) Swift & Co. Or: Cambric is a: a) dance; b) fabric; c) food; d) color. Simultaneously, distinguished university scholars carried out studies to determine how racial, ethnic, and gender factors affected student achievement. Several such studies correlated rates of "retardation''--then defined as failure to be promoted on schedule--by nationality. And in 1922, George S. Counts, professor of education at Yale University, concluded in a major study that parental occupation was a prime predictor of high school graduation. "Apparently,'' wrote Counts, "the children of the laboring classes are destined to follow in the footsteps of their fathers.''
Education
Know Your Copy Rights
And who do you think would win if a teacher who coordinated a school's computer literacy program were sued for loading one copy of a purchased software package into 12 computers for use by her class-- despite a warning in the instructions specifying "one package per work- station''?
Education
Extra Credit
Deadlines Vary. Overseas Study.
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars seeks applications for 1991-92 Fulbright grants for university lecturing and research abroad. There are openings in more than 100 countries, and some opportunities for multicountry research. Eligible are U.S. scholars of all academic ranks, as well as retired faculty and independent researchers. Approximately 1,000 grants ranging from three months to an academic year are available. Grants vary by country of study, but generally cover round-trip travel, a stipend, tuition allowance for children, and a book and baggage allowance. Travel expenses for one dependent are available with most full-year grants. Deadlines are as follows:
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars seeks applications for 1991-92 Fulbright grants for university lecturing and research abroad. There are openings in more than 100 countries, and some opportunities for multicountry research. Eligible are U.S. scholars of all academic ranks, as well as retired faculty and independent researchers. Approximately 1,000 grants ranging from three months to an academic year are available. Grants vary by country of study, but generally cover round-trip travel, a stipend, tuition allowance for children, and a book and baggage allowance. Travel expenses for one dependent are available with most full-year grants. Deadlines are as follows:
Education
Group Therapy
What began in 1984 in one teacher's living room as an informal coffee klatch of 11 teachers now has blossomed into the Genesee Valley Developmental Learning Group, with more than 850 members scattered across the northwestern part of New York State. The group has helped these teachers gain a voice in school policy, overcome the isolation that so often crushes the spirit, and tap into a limitless source of energy--themselves.
Education
The Long And Costly Road
Janet Geiger is one teacher who knows all too well how much moving from Michigan to Fairfax County, Va., cost her: for starters, about $15,000 a year.
Education
Sweet Forgiveness
Western Carolina University is one of 13 public and private institutions in the state that participate in the fellows program. Now in its third year, the program was created to attract brighter students into teaching, a goal the Public School Forum of North Carolina believes is being met.
Education
A Vote For Peer Review
"David slew Goliath,'' proclaimed the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers after the state legislature in February approved a measure that altered state labor-relations laws to sanction teacher peer-review programs. The issue was raised in the legislature after school officials in Toledo warned that their district's model program could be forced out of existence by labor complaints.
Education
A Philadelphia Story
Although held in members' homes, the discussions are quite a bit more formal than those of other teacher groups. A chairperson begins the discussion by raising a question. Teachers sit in a circle, and each person participates. The chairperson summarizes, develops themes, and tries to keep the discussion focused.
Education
People Want To Talk
Now, 10 to 15 of the 30 high school teachers and college faculty members attend any given meeting. Although they officially meet from 7 to 9 P.M., participants usually stay until after 11, says Metzger, an English teacher at Brookline High School.
Education
One Teacher Finds An Alternative
"None of the students feel like they're at the bottom of the class,'' says Rethwisch, now in her 19th year as a teacher. "I think it's a positive situation for all of them.''
Education
Replacing Tracking With Team Teaching
The "old way'' was Cammack with her own classroom, teaching students who had been grouped by ability. The new way is Cammack and another English teacher working together with about 60 students of varying abilities.
Education
Mixed-Ability Groups Win Teacher Converts
"Teachers find that they are really unable to teach to the middle, which is what we've all tended to do for so long,'' says Jane Denton, an English teacher at Saginaw's Arthur Hill High School and K-12 language arts coordinator for the city's schools. "Now, we have to remember to challenge that higher-skilled student and to bring along the lower-skilled student.''
Education
a One-Man Antiterrorism Unit
He is uniquely qualified for the job: The feisty, colorful 57-year-old says that in his 27 years in the classroom, he has broken up more than 1,000 fights and disarmed more than 400 students--only twice by force, and once by taking off his clothes, a trick to make the student think he was crazy. He teaches 299 other tactics, which include looking at the bridge of an angry student's nose rather than directly into the eyes to keep the student from feeling "dared''; reading hostile body language (a subtle roll of the shoulders signals the student is about to swing, so step to the side); and using nonprovoking language to tell kids to do something (a student who tosses a milk carton and misses the garbage can is more likely to bridle at "Pick up that milk carton'' than at "You just missed a three-pointer--try again for two'').
Education
Protest In Selma: Tracking Ignites A Powder Keg
"And of course,'' he adds, "as you might imagine, the majority of students in levels two and three, the bottom levels, were black.''
Education
In The Faces Of Fear
He escaped with little more than sweaty palms and heart palpitations and was able to finish the climb. Although Wanvig has never been seriously injured in his 26 years of rock climbing, he says climbers "always leave a little skin on the rocks.''
Education
On The Wrong Track
WHEN GEORGE FREY SET OUT TO REFORM THE STUDENT TRACKING system in the San Diego schools, he started something he didn't expect--a heated, often nasty, controversy.
Education
Danger: School Zone
But the 3rd graders at the Glen Park Elementary School in Fort Worth, Tex., never got to meet their new teacher, who was only in her second year of teaching.
Education
Class Dismissed
Silly Putty, that pink stuff in the plastic egg, first appeared in toy stores in 1950, entered classrooms uninvited that same year, and has been bugging teachers ever since. This year, to commemorate Silly Putty's 40th anniversary, its manufacturer, Binney & Smith Inc., is introducing new colors. Teachers will soon be able to confiscate blue, green, yellow, and magenta blobs, as well as the original pink concoction. Binney & Smith guarantees that, like the original, the more colorful Putty will have no useful functions other than bouncing, stretching, and peeling the ink from comics.
Education
Feeling The Pinch
Some economists and fiscal analysts use the term "rolling recession'' to describe a slowing regional economy.
Education
Gambling At an Early Age
For experts on compulsive gambling, he is also an illustration of a problem they say has escaped the attention of educators and policymakers: the widespread participation by young people in America's growing and heavily advertised legal gambling industry.
Education
Reach Them And Teach Them
It wasn't an isolated incident, she discovered. The same student had to leave his former school under similar circumstances.
Education
Student Aid, With A Twist
Whitman's far-sighted SGA also persuaded Brown University's Theodore Sizer, renowned teacher educator and author of Horace's Compromise, to address teachers and students at an assembly in late March. Earle and his compatriots, on the advice of Principal Jerome Marco, also suggested to school administrators that they permit Whitman teachers to occasionally switch jobs with teachers in other schools in order to exchange ideas. The administration has agreed.
Education
A Living Contract
The teachers and district leaders in Hammond, Ind., are among a growing number of educators who are trying to put this strategy to the test. Earlier this year, the local teachers' union and the city school district agreed to a 12-year "living contract,'' which they hope will foster cooperation and give educators more flexibility in responding to schools' needs.
Education
It's he Thought That Counts
Later, the researchers--Mary Ann Foley and Maria Barnett of Skidmore and Nancy Robinson of the University of Denver--asked the students to remember as many words as they could. Surprisingly, students remembered two of their own words for every one of the words they merely repeated.