Archive for October 22nd, 2008

Essential Reading for Teachers

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 22, 2008 in Opinion. 1 Comment

Dan Brown’s memoir of his first year as a New York City teacher, The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle, is out in paperback.  I will freely admit my bias: Dan’s book resonated with me because his experience as a New York City Teaching Fellow assigned to a school in the Bronx mirrored my own experience so closely.  Still, Dan is a fine writer and Great Expectations is a great read. 

Top 5 Teacher Books, anyone?  Off the top of my head, here’s my list:

1. Among Schoolchildren, Tracy Kidder
I’d pay to read Tracy Kidder’s grocery list. 

2. Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire, Rafe Esquith
Esquith’s essential optimism re-energized me on many occasions.  Try to find even a sentence of “woe-is-me-this-is-too-hard” in his book.  The man’s a saint. 

3. The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator’s Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child, by Ron Clark 
The original New Paternalism.  Go ahead and mock Clark’s highly prescriptive measures, but this book made me a better teacher.  What higher praise can there be?

4.  There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America, by Alex Kotlowitz
Not a teacher book per se, but a first-rate account of childhood in urban poverty. Kotlowitz avoids the tendency to sentimentalize the lives of the urban poor, and his book is all the more powerful for it. 

5.  Ms. Moffett’s First Year, Abby Goodnough
My favorite book about the alternative certification experience before Dan’s came along.

While not a teacher memoir, or even an education book, the one I’d make required reading for any new urban teacher would be Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.  I wish before I’d become a teacher, someone had merely handed the book to me and said, “Just read this. Everything you need to know is in here.”

Banking on Test Scores

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 22, 2008 in Education Practice. 0 Comments

With both presidential candidates supporting merit pay for teachers, it’s likely that the issue will affect teachers nationwide, USA Today’s Greg Toppo observes this morning in a piece that offers a round-up of pay-for-performance plans nationwide. 

“At least eight states are moving away from a traditional pay model, which increases salaries based on seniority and advanced degrees,” Toppo writes. ”Many of the pay packages are funded by private foundations. In dozens of districts, test scores already have earned teachers more money.”

The most controversial plan is Washington, DC’s which could see high-performing teachers with limited experience earn over $100,000 if they give up tenure.  George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers Union tells USA Today, “A lot of our younger teachers say, ‘Bring it on.’ ” Older teachers, he says, are more concerned with due process. 

Blah, Blah, Blah

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 22, 2008 in Higher Education. 1 Comment

Officials at a Massachusetts college are apologizing to their alumni for a fund-raising letter that attempted to sound irreverent by featuring long sections of “blah, blah, blah.”

“With the recent economic downturn and loan crisis, it has become even more important for Framingham State College to receive your support. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

“Our decision to send you a letter containing the words “blah blah” was a misguided and embarrassing attempt to connect with alumni in a different way,” Christopher P. Hendry, vice president of college advancement, said in an apology letter.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.