by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.
I just discovered this wonderful online resource called
I found it when googling an article I want to read from the March 2003 issue of Learning Disability Quarterly.
It has a huge library of publications that are available for free, 31 in the education category.
I’m loving it!
ps – the article I found is:
Decoding and fluency: Foundation skills for struggling older readers by Vicky L. Vachon (March 2003)
[cross posted at LeaderTalk]
Over the past few years I’ve been hearing people talk about the idea of abolishing school boards in Quebec.
This past week it was in the news again:
Dumont ready to bring down Quebec gov’t over school boards
ADQ Leader Mario Dumont said Tuesday he’s willing to force a confidence vote over the future of Quebec school boards.
The Action Démocratique du Québec is tabling a motion for a confidence vote in the national assembly over the Liberal government’s refusal to abolish school boards.
If the Parti Québécois supports the motion it would be enough to topple Premier Jean Charest’s Liberal minority government, which would force elections in December. ..
…Dumont said the continued existence of school boards is a fundamental issue in Quebec.
School board elections held last weekend failed to draw more than 20 per cent of registered voters — proof it’s time to review their mandate, the ADQ leader said.
The Parti Quebecois did not end up supporting the motion (no one wanted early elections) but I am sure this is not the last we hear of this.
I’m wondering what you think about the idea of getting rid of school boards. The idea behind it is so that money can go directly to schools instead of being spent on the boards’ bureaucratic machines. (Uh oh…did I just give away my bias? ;) )
Some things I imagine…
Imagine if money that was used on school board consultant salaries, for example, was used to support teachers as they consult with each other within their own school communities and across different school communities?
Imagine if some of that money could be used to hire external consultants that a school community could choose based on the specific needs of each school.
Imagine if external consultants had to compete for the privilege of working in a school community – imagine the quality of consulting that would result.
Imagine if teachers were forced to create things like policy about their own practice.
Oh…the places we could go!
Just discovered Wetpaint Wikis.
Really liking them so far!
I started a classroom wiki – to be introduced to my group next week. It is really easy to use and navigate. AND the day after I discovered them they removed ads on k-12 education wikis…though you do need to ask them to do it. It took about 1/2 day, if that long, for them to respond to my request and remove the ads.
Come take a look!
Powered by ScribeFire.
Dennis Harter writes:
We concern ourselves with the big goals and forget the small goals. We don’t have, often enough, the conversations that allow students to connect with us and us with them. The conversations that show how much we value them and their thoughts.
I commented on this in the original post, but I feel the need to repeat myself here. It is something I want to remember as often as possible. It reminds me of a quote I like to cite…I have no clue who first said or wrote it :)
They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
I’ve been thinking about that quite a bit these past few weeks.
A little while ago I was teaching my students some nifty new trick for their blog writing – like embedding media or something like that. One of my students was really not into it and I had to hover and nag for him to get even a fraction of his assignment done. As the bell rang, he hung around until the others left and asked if I would walk him to a new class he was starting the following morning. When I responded that I would he surprised me by spontaneously hugging me! This is a boy in grade 7! At that moment I knew that it was the human connection and not the nifty blogging tricks that was important for that child (and for me, as it touched me deeply.)
Since then, I’m thinking about how to merge those feelings of security and caring with learning. I think that is the key.
Thanks for a great post, Dennis. :)
