MetaFilter posts tagged with teachers

“Randi Weingarten would protect a dead body in the classroom. That’s her job.”

Oxydude — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:52:08 -0800

The Rubber Room: The Battle Over New York City’s Worst Teachers.

The Payout of Education Reform.

grapefruitmoon — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:19:18 -0800

In what has been described as "the American Idol of education" and "a biosphere of educational reform," The Equity Project Charter School will open in NYC this fall, offering $125,000 salaries to a "dream team" of teachers to test the theory that better teacher quality is the key to a better education for students.

Study Guides, Teacher Resources

netbros — Sun, 24 May 2009 04:02:58 -0800

Shmoop is study guides and teacher resources that help us understand how literature and history and poetry are relevant today. Take for example Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. Get a technical analysis of it's literary devices, explanations of the themes, and audio/video readings of the sonnet.

An American Art Form

netbros — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:06:00 -0800

NEA Jazz in the Schools takes a step-by-step journey through the history of jazz, integrating that story with the sweep of American social, economic, and political developments. This multi-media curriculum is designed to be as useful to high school history and social studies teachers as it is to music teachers. Start with the introductory video to get a feel for the place. The education outline contains five lessons. If you just want to listen, all the music samples are on one page. Perhaps you're more interested in individual artist biographies, or a jazz history timeline. These lessons are designed as units; five units serve as a week-long curriculum. NEW ORLEANS: MELTING POT OF SOUND — Jazz grew out of the African-American community at the turn of the 20th century, a time when blacks were being denied their most basic rights. The music has since become a part of every American’s birthright, a timeless symbol of American individualism and ingenuity, American democracy and inclusiveness. The birthplace of jazz is New Orleans, the most cosmopolitan city in the South. THE JAZZ AGE AND CHICAGO — In the 1920s, jazz spread rapidly all across America. The rise of jazz was part of a new, post–World War I optimism, a prevailing sense that something new was happening, that America was finally breaking from European culture and coming into its own. Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald called the new era the Jazz Age. FROM SWING TO BOP — With the decline in popularity of swing bands and the rise of singers as pop stars, many jazz musicians in the mid-1940s retreated to smaller groups of five or six instruments that were easier to organize, were cheaper to book in clubs, and provided more freedom for individual musicians to express themselves. NEW FRONTIER — The 1960s are virtually synonymous with social and political upheaval in America, and with a popular culture nourished by intrepid experimentation and a rejection of traditional symbols of authority. Of course, in the world of jazz, musicians had already been responding to—and carrying out—upheavals in American society for some time. AN AMERICAN STORY — Jazz is the purest expression of the American spirit—innovative, independent, and, ultimately, revolutionary. The history of jazz is inextricably linked with the political, geographic, and cultural history of America, and to understand the evolution of this music is to grasp the passion and genuine humanity at the heart of American democracy.

Is it time to move beyond grades?

you just lost the game — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:15:25 -0800

There's a growing sense that the current system of college grading is broken beyond repair. With grade inflation and student entitlement running rampant, is it time to explore some creative alternatives? Or is grade inflation just a myth?

John Thurlow's Web Sites for Kids & Teachers

cybercoitus interruptus — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:24:15 -0800

John Thurlow's Web Sites for Kids & Teachers. The Thinking page of this treasure trove of kid-safe sites includes links that are also appropriate for adults who just like to play around, such as Funderstanding's Roller Coast Simulation, and Lightness Perception and Lightness Illusions. (The "Thinking" page also links to Planarity, Thinking Machine 4, which makes visible the computer chess player's thought process, and Michael Bach's optical illusions, all of which have been previously posted at Mefi).

Where Search Meets Research

netbros — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:07:31 -0800

middlespot.com is a search interface for teachers, librarians, researchers and anyone who wants to interpret information faster from their search results, collect and annotate relevant results into groups, and share those collections with people relying on their expertise. * see your results as screen shots that you can pan and zoom like a map * save and annotate relevant individual results to collections in work pads * share work pads with others who are looking to you for your expertise * try the tutorial to catch on quick

Why Learn Algebra? I'm Never Likely to Go There.

jabberjaw — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:27:39 -0800

EducationFilter: California becomes the first state to mandate all 8th graders take Algebra; in part because U.S. students constantly trail their peers from other nations in mathematics. At least one person thinks it's a bad idea ("If only 25 percent of this nation ever earns a college degree, why insist that all children take algebra in eighth grade?"). Here's the algebra curriculum 8th graders will have to learn. Here's a more in-depth story on it from the L.A. Times. This post's title is a paraphrased quote from comedian Billy Connolly: "I don't know why I should have to learn Algebra. I'm never likely to go there."

Because learning is sexy

jonson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:32:10 -0800

Librarian Chick is a blogger who has put together a wiki of literally hundreds of online learning sources with over twenty categories for "students, educators & anyone else who's hip to learning." Also by the same author, a similarly vast collection of open source software resources. All found via.

Send Me In Coach!

CameraObscura — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:28:43 -0800

High School Coaches outearning High School Teachers Texas high school football coaches in Class 5A and 4A schools (that's 950 students or more) earn an average salary of $73,804, while the average salary for teachers in those same schools is about $42,400. But hey, those Texas football teams are pretty darn good!

Definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful

Mr.Encyclopedia — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:00:54 -0800

Taylor Mali speaks on what teachers make - Taylor Mali speaks on Education: The importance of proofreading, Like, You know. Taylor Mali's Website.

Teaching tool or a site run by tools?

Effigy2000 — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:29:06 -0800

Students are now using the internet to criticise their teachers behind their backs by using a popular new site called Rate My Teachers. While some 'feedback' left at the site is relatively tame, many teachers are not spared from a flood of insults (which isn't surprising when a group of venting teenagers are involved). The owners of the site are calling it a useful teaching critique tool, but teachers groups are labelling it "a vengeful smear campaign." The site is available in a host of international flavours, such as the UK and Australia, to name but two. Hmmph. Back in my day, we used to just write our 'critiques' on the blackboard while the teacher wasn't in the room...

Is jail a fair punishment for malware?

Sixtieslibber — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:06:56 -0800

Should a Connecticut substitute teacher go to jail for 40 years because a classroom computer was infected with malware that allowed students to see porn?

Oh No!, They lost their fake DVDs!!

afu — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 19:45:43 -0800

English tutors complain of Chinese abuse. As the Chinese economy keeps expanding, so does the number of foreigners in China. Like the people in the article some of them have had horrible experiences, others have had funny experiences and many have had sleazy experiences (NSFW text). And they all blog about it!

Physics is "phun"! (And "krazy")

RockBandit — Thu, 25 May 2006 00:04:12 -0800

Is this guy an awesome teacher or just crazy? Or maybe it goes hand in hand. Think back to the days of high school and college science classes. For most people, it probably wasn't chalkboards full of endless physics equations that got them interested in the sciences, but rather the crazy, cooky and awe-inspiring professors who do dramatic and unique demonstrations to get students interested. What makes a good teacher or professor? Is this teacher really reckless or is it a legit demonstration that benefits students?

Chicago teacher runs his mouth on blog, angers students

bubblesonx — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 09:32:20 -0800

A Chicago teacher vents about the situation at his school on his blog and ends up angering the student body, fellow teachers, and parents.

I Am a High School English Teacher in Japan

John of Michigan — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 15:12:07 -0800

Beware the Kancho! The ongoing adventures and cultural insights of an American English teacher in Japan.

Student Attacks Against Teachers: The Revolution of 1966

Kwantsar — Mon, 02 May 2005 06:52:15 -0800

Student Attacks Against Teachers: The Revolution of 1966 At the Middle School attached to Beijing Teacher's College, Yu Ruifen, a female biology teacher, was knocked to the ground and beaten in her office. In broad daylight, she was dragged by her legs through the front door and down the steps, her head bumping against the cement; a barrel of boiling water was poured on her. Though she died after approximately two hours of torture, it did not satisfy the students. All other teachers in the "ox-ghost and snake-demon team" were forced to stand around Yu's corpse and take turns beating her.

Travel,edification,breakfast-cheap!.

troutfishing — Wed, 14 Jul 2004 08:50:37 -0800

The Educator's Bed and Breakfast Network Lodging for US $34 per couple per night, and breakfast too! Required - a house of your own (or maybe a large apartment, I suppose) to host fellow members. Membership costs $35 per year with a one-time $10 initial registration fee. "Educators" is a broad category which includes teachers of all sorts, writers, journalists, researchers, librarians, probably DJ's....many bloggers...

teacher freakout!

mathowie — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:09:25 -0800

There are goofy news items every day, but once in a while you have some story that transcends them all. Teacher accused of ordering student thrown from window is quite possibly the silliest story I've seen this year. It's beyond the Onion. Teacher enters class and takes photo of students, one student objects, teacher makes a disparaging remark about the way the student looks and student hits an emergency button, then the teacher orders two boys to throw her out the window (where she suffered injuries). Best line about the boys "they threw the girl out the window because they did not want to be written up for disobeying a teacher."

Pro-active pro-evolution resources

KirkJobSluder — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 10:43:09 -0800

Just found this one. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a Berkeley website for supporting science teachers teaching evolution. The project was built with a grant from the National Science Foundation and has received an additional grant to expand the site to develop content for students and adults. More coverage from The Daily Bruin at UCLA and a brief clip from Science News.

baby birds looking for worms

FunkyHelix — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 07:57:33 -0800

Donors Choose "Public school teachers use Donors Choose to propose resources for their students. Concerned individuals like you can then select a proposal to fund."

Rod Paige Criticizes Teachers Union

Postroad — Mon, 23 Feb 2004 13:54:52 -0800

Rod Paige Criticizes Teachers Union Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" during a private White House meeting with governors on Monday. Democratic and Republican governors confirmed Paige's remarks about the National Education Association.

P.S. 666

kozad — Wed, 03 Sep 2003 07:21:59 -0800

Ms. Gonick is a dooshe bag. Unfortunate experiences with a gaggle of teenagers in an enclosed space.

The

ed — Mon, 05 May 2003 16:59:17 -0800

22 year old schizophrenic Farrah Russell was rebuilding her life. But when the plug was pulled on the state program that allowed her to subsist, she took her life. Her heartbreaking story is a cautionary tale of the dark consequences of state budget cuts. While politicians argue over tax stimulus proposals that benefit the wealthy, while wild numbers are applied to war budgets, the States have been forced to cut social programs in order to survive. Whether it's California teachers, Connecticut and New York residents dreading tax hikes, Pennsylvania public transportation, or Texas prescription drug coverage for the poor, the States, supposedly United, have been left out to dry. While the States have been forced to cut their programs, groping for survival, Washington remains silent in its mission. It does not remember history. Why do we turn a blind eye to the hidden costs? What can be done about this? And how do we make it stop?