The Teaching Now blog explored the latest news on the teaching profession, from practical classroom tips to raging policy debates. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: teaching, teaching profession, and curriculum.
Teaching Profession
The Onion Takes on TFA
The satirical newspaper The Onion went after Teach for America today, with predictably comic results.
Education Funding
ACLU Case Implicates Reliance on Classroom Tech
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed what it calls a "groundbreaking" class-action lawsuit against the state of Michigan for failing to educate students in a Detroit-area school district. The suit hinges on a "right to read" provision in Michigan's constitution, which says students who do not pass the 4th and 7th grade state reading tests should receive "special assistance" to bring them up to grade level. In the Highland Park School District, 65 percent of 4th graders and 75 percent of 7th graders are not proficient in reading, the ACLU documents.
Reading & Literacy
Lesson Idea: Teaching Writing With Email Spam
Here's a teaching idea from an English teacher in Scotland that may come as a surprise: using spam emails to teach persuasive writing and other lessons to your students.
Teaching Profession
Next Up in Teacher Evaluations: Student Surveys
The search for reliable methods of gauging teacher effectiveness, a dominant education policy issue over the last several years, has centered on classroom observation tools and value-added measures. But another potential indicator has emerged and is starting to pick up momentum: student surveys.
Classroom Technology
Students Learn Cyber Skills At a No-Tech School
At the Journey Schoolin Aliso Viejo, Calif., technology does not play a role in the classroom until students enter the 6th grade, and even then the emphasis is not on gadgets but on civics.
Professional Development
What's New in Teacher PD: Read a Book, Get Graduate Credit
Here's a new take on continuing education for busy teachers: Corwin, together with California Lutheran University, has just launched a professional development initiative in which teachers can acquire one unit of graduate course credit for reading a Corwin book—yes, any Corwin book—and completing a written assignment within three months.
Curriculum
Overheard at NEA: Professional Respect, School-Funding, and Politics Are Top Priorities
While at the NEA convention today, I flagged down a few delegates from a sampling of states and asked the following: What should be NEA's main priority right now? The major theme at the convention so far has been the union's push to re-elect President Barack Obama. Do you agree this is where the organization's focus should be?
Teaching Profession
For Teachers, Why Does 'Moving Up' Mean 'Moving Out'?
Ariel Sacks recalls an interesting exchange from the day she went down to the district office to submit her materials for her very first teaching job:
School Climate & Safety
Teachers at Risk for PTSD?
A Chicago Tribune piece tells the story of one teacher's battle with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from abuse she endured from a group of students at a Chicago public school.
Teaching Profession
NEA 2012: It's All About Obama
Campaign rally or Representative Assembly? At some points yesterday it was hard to tell. The 8,000 or so delegates of the nation's largest teachers' union gathered in Washington for their annual convention heard one message above all others: Vote for Obama in November.
Teaching Profession
How Following Sports Can Improve Teacher Evaluation
Hunter Gehlbach, an assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, says that, to truly improve teacher-evaluation systems, schools should take a lesson from professional sports teams.
Teaching
Texas GOP: No More Critical Thinking in Schools
Teachers, you may want to be sitting down for this one.
School Climate & Safety
Report: Make Improving Teacher Working Conditions a Priority
To boost teacher retention and student achievement at high-poverty schools, states and districts must first look to improve working conditions for teachers, concludes a new report by The Education Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit group. The report profiles five school districts that have focused efforts on bettering teacher support and development—specifically by strengthening leadership and encouraging professional collaboration—and have shown promising or positive gains as a result.
Professional Development
Novel Teacher-Retention Idea: Let Them Leave (for a While, Anyway)
In a Huffington Post column, Boston teacher Lillie Marshall says that taking a year-long leave of absence after her fifth year in teaching gave her the "renewed vigor and resources" she needed to continue in the profession and, not coincidentally, made her a much better educator. She extrapolates: