The Carnival Of Education: Week 111

Welcome to the midway of the 111th Carnival of Education!

We proudly present this week's roundup of entries from around the EduSphere. All entries this week were submitted by the writers themselves.

If you publish a website and are interested in hosting an edition of The Carnival Of Education, please let us know via this email address: edwonk [at] educationwonks [dot] org.

Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about last week's midway. As always, links to the roundup are much appreciated while trackbacks are adored. Visit the C.O.E.'s archives here and see our latest EduPosts there.

Next Week's Carnival midway will be hosted by us here at The Education Wonks. Contributors are invited to send submissions to: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net , or use this swell submission form. Entries should be received them no later than Midnight (Eastern) 9:00 PM (Pacific) Tuesday, March 27, 2007. Please include the title of your post, and its URL, if possible. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the midway should open next Wednesday morning.

Let the free exchange of thoughts and ideas begin!

EduPolicy:

Who would have thought that drug fiend recovering addict Rush Limbaugh would have something to say about the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act? Well... he does, and Alexander Russo's This Week in Education has the scoop.

And who would have ever guessed that certain courts are foisting inner-city gang-bangers on innocent and unsuspecting rural schools and their communities?

Teacher Bill Ferriter of The Tempered Radical answers those who are quick to criticize public education but are less than eager to offer workable solutions.

High school principal Kimberly Moritz gives us a reminder that classroom teachers aren't the only ones being held "accountable" in this New Age Of Standardized Testing and Accountability.

When it comes to EduReform, Friends of Dave says, "Enough already. We know what works. Why aren't we doing it?"

Scott Elliott demonstrates that when it comes to the allocation of EduFunding, one hand giveth while the other hand taketh away...

The Rightwing Prof over at Right Wing Nation takes a hard look at several Reading First schools in the Madison, Wisconsin area and draws some interesting conclusions based upon.... data.

The Voice for School Choice makes its case that school choice saves money for taxpayers, parents, and even public schools.

Over at Edspresso, Barry Garelick lays the smackdown on T.C. O’Brien and others of the "contstructivist camp" who're critical of traditional mathematics curricula in k-12 programs.

EduBlogging veteran Dave Shearon advocates the application of Positive Psychology to public education.

Leadertalk is a group-blog that is written from the perspective of several (mostly) school administrators. In this week's entry, Leader ponders the possibility that secret messages are being sent to our children each and every school day and that the school system itself is the messenger.

Inside This Teaching Life:

A colleague of California math teacher Darren of Right on the Left Coast recently exhibited Al Gore's Academy Award-winning movie "An Inconvenient Truth" in class. See the colleague's surprising response when Darren showed him a New York Time's article about the picture's alleged "exaggerations."

Mamacita lets us in on some of the more er.. ah .... unconventional aspects of her service as a substitute teacher in a very large Special Education class. (Disc. this isn't for the squeamish or faint-of-heart.)

The mother of one of Ms. Cornelius' students has been giving her just a little too much health-related information about one of mom's children. Here's a sample:

In the past few months, you have assured me that your child has had diarrhea, fevers, hives, anaphylactic shock, and three bouts of the stomach flu, all in amazingly gory technicolor detail. It has gotten to the point where I am afraid to open any emails from you for fear of losing my (non-existent) breakfast-- no doubt in a dull and pedestrian manner compared to the projectile vomiting fit you described to me last month.

When I was a young StudentWonk, the folks from the Junior Achievement organization (website here) paid our Central Florida classroom a little visit. Now Two Knives wonders if Junior Achievement isn't all that they seem to be.

Arizona high school teacher Aquiram of Teaching in the Twenty-First Century pointedly asks What Does It Mean?

Even though it's a few months old, we think that this entry by Miss Profe about the importance of Home Training is spot-on.

If one were to slice a great teacher into a hundred parts, what would one find? Math teacher Dan M. has performed the operation.

At the Schoolhouse Gate takes a look at the excessive levels of "C.Y.A." thinking that pervades public education nowadays. (Don't miss that mind-numbing quote that was uttered by a brain-addled an overly-cautious school administrator.)

From The Classroom:

One college professor is getting an education about the high cost of running her mouth allegedly making remarks such as these in an open classroom:

"George Bush was elected president because people in this country can't read" and said Feb. 12 that "I believe in the death penalty … . First we line up everyone who can't think and right behind them, anyone who's ever voted Republican."

Just when we think that we teachers know all the tricks and that the kids can't B.S. get anything by us, NYC Educator snaps us back into reality.

Middle school science teacher Kelly has taken a year off from her assignment in New York City's Bronx and is now teaching in Turkey. Check out this recent post for yourself and see how different things are for our colleagues over there.... and yet how many things are the same.

IB a Math Teacher has the latest installment in the ongoing ordeal that IB is having to endure at the hands of an incompetent boob a school psychologist who thinks that teachers have nothing to do with their time other then completing paperwork of dubious usefulness.

Teacher Terrell of Alone on a Limb takes us down Memory Lane (one upon a time I taught 2nd grade) with an entry about that elementary school staple: story time.

School Governance:

'Tis the time of year when school boards around the country begin making some hard choices about who to let go and what programs must be reduced or eliminated entirely. But the district where the Exhausted Intern works is facing some difficult choices that even more difficult than most.

International Perspectives:

I think that just about every teacher has had to cancel a video presentation due to "technical difficulties." But mail difficulties? That's a new one. In spite of adversity, Israeli high school teacher Muse managed to execute an outstanding back-up lesson.

Those who would think that British students are better behaved than those here in the United States have only to read this post in order to understand that delinquency infests schools on both sides of the Atlantic.

Teaching And Learning:

See how one teacher engagingly used "Star Wars" lingo in order to imprint upon the memory of her students the differences between various types of liquid measures. (We've been trying to work "death star" into our own disciplinary guidelines for some time.)

New York City math teacher jd2718 has some ideas on the best way for students to effectively review their homework in class.

Reading Recovery is an instructional method whose effectiveness has been hotly debated in EduCircles for some time. Over at D-Ed Reckoning, Ken DeRosa links to, and offers a reality-check on, The What Works Clearing House's take on R.R.

Trivium Pursuit offers us an introductory primer on the teaching of mathematics through the ages.

And don't forget to check for student understanding!

EduResources:

BooksForKidsBlog (How's that for an EduBlog's name?) has a handy-dandy "how to" guide for reviewing non-fiction books with an eye toward their appropriateness for children.

EduScandals:

Going to the Mat is sounding the alarm about the disgusting disturbing state of disrepair in Baltimore's public schools. (It would be interesting to discover the state of repair over at the Superintendent Joe A. Hairston's office suite.)

The Parental Perspective:

Here's a parent that has learned a fundamental lesson about the Whole Language approach to spelling and vocabulary.

What happens when a child doesn't want a parent to read to him or her? Check out how this mom handled what would be (for many) a most frustrating situation.

The Secret Lives Of Teachers:

At What It's Like on the Inside, the Science Goddess sentimentally reminds us that we were teenagers once... and young. (With apologies to Messrs. Moore and Galloway.)

Peter Stinson of A School to Call Home once taught in a boarding school. He is looking to return that type of close-knit environment. Meanwhile, he gives us something to chew on with this post aptly titled, Miscellany and leftover thoughts.

Higher Education:

It's college admissions time. ChemJerk effectively convinces us that random chance must play some part in that all-too-mysterious process.

Campus Grotto presents its list of the Top 10 Law Schools. (We can't help but wonder what the yearly tuition of all 10 of them would be if one took the time to add them all up!)

It's hard to argue with the idea that an excellent post-high school education is often found right in your hometown. Have you visited your local community college lately?

Inside The EduBlogs:

Teacher Chris Wondra would like to remind everybody that what one says and how one says it does indeed matter.

Henry Cate let's everyone know that after a looong hiatus, Jim Peacock is once again keeping an eye on "Zero Tolerance insanity" over at Zero Intelligence. (B-T-W: Peacock's Place has a new look; worth checking out.)

For most teachers, getting that first teaching post is rarely easy. For those about to go forth in search of that first teaching job, here are some tips for how to act at the job interview.

And finally: We've had quite a bit of fun with this week's Carnival and hope to see you here on the midway next week as we continue our efforts to foster The Free Exchange of Thoughts and Ideas.

Thanks for dropping by!
----------------------------This midway is registered at TTLB's carnival roundup. See our latest EduPosts here, and the complete Carnival archives (soon to be updated) over there.