I got an interesting piece of literature in the mail the other day from my daughter's school. Apparently, they didn't make AYP last year in the area of Language Arts. Consequently, they were kind enough to explain the situation for me.

Of the forty assessments measured by NCLB, [your friendly neighborhood] Junior High made AYP in 39 of the areas. As you can see, one sub-group at [your friendly neighborhood] Junior did not make AYP in the area of Language Arts. Our plan to deal with this issue is two-fold: 1) We will conduct a thorough review of the state core curriculum in Language Arts to insure that major core objectives are being adequately addressed in the classroom, and 2) we will begin implementing practice tests to allow students the opportunity to see the testing format and to gauge their performance throughout the year.

As one familiar with this kind of edu-speak, I thought I'd provide a translation for those of you keeping score at home.

Translation:

Because of NCLB, the federal government makes us test your kid to the max. Unfortunately, we screwed up and didn't get enough kids to take the Language Arts sub-test. Don't worry, we plan on doing better next year so that 1) you can feel confident that your kid is going to a good school and 2) we can still get that money from the federal government. Experience has shown that the best way to deal with this kind of problem is 1) to admit that we really don't know what is going to be on the test and 2) inform you that one of the critical skills we will be teaching your kid is to fill in the bubble.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Image Source: Flickr user COCOEN daily photos

Technorati Tags: nclb ayp bubble ilovetakingtests

For the record, Dean Shareski's Interesting Quotes set is fantastic. Here are three of my favorites, each from the set.




Image Sources: Dean Shareski

Technorati Tags: creativity photoessay education technology

As one of the converted, I like this. Really, I do.


Nonetheless, in viewing this video at this stage in my career, I'm left with a number of questions that likely only indicate that I'm getting tired. For example:

• In spending so much time to create (shallow?) connections with such a wide range of educators on a global level, isn't it possible that one might also neglect local relationships that are equally (if not more) important?
• What can we do to consistently maintain a healthy perspective?
  

Shifting gears to a higher plane:

• Do we really think that all teachers need to be this connected?
• Can every teacher (human being) handle all of the information? Are they "bad teachers" if they can't?
• And what about those teachers that take 25 minutes just to create a Gmail account (PEBKAC)? Will it really be worth my time - and theirs - to help them enter the 21st Century? Or are the benefits of such efforts simply not worth the costs?
  

I guess what I'm really wondering is this:

• Is it ever OK to simply leave some teachers behind?

I told you I was getting tired.

Technorati Tags: nclb teachers learning 21stCenturySkills

So today I was asked by a middle school principal to teach her faculty members how to use Google Sites. To aid in the process, I decided to create a web site using Google Sites to teach about Google Sites.

If you teach a man about fish are you gonna hand 'em a rock?


While I don't think Google Sites creates the best looking web sites, nor is it the easiest to use (Weebly probably takes the cake there), it's very hard to argue with all the tools Google gives you with one little login.

I mean, global domination aside.

Technorati Tags: google weebly education technology web2.0

Yikes!


Yeah, I don't really understand this stuff, either, but I'm keeping my head down, gritting my teeth, and trudging forward. I mean really, does it get any better than this?