What Happens When Teachers, Delivery People And Fast Food Workers Don’t Care Anymore…

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What Happens When Teachers, Delivery People And Fast Food Workers Don’t Care Anymore…

New: Class Action – Activist Teacher’s Handbook

At A Political Statement, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by A Political Statement and how it is used.

Log Files

Like many other Web sites, A Political Statement makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user"s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons

A Political Statement does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

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New: Class Action – Activist Teacher’s Handbook

This week in the War on Workers: Teachers protest "data walls" that shame students

Over the past year, grade school students in the low-income city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, have faced having their names and standardized test scores posted in classrooms on “data walls,” for all their classmates to see. Horrible, right? But it shouldn’t be unexpected, as educational policy pushes standardized tests to the center of what goes on in schools, and as test scores are used for ever more punitive purposes. The story of how the data walls came to light is  particularly revealing, though.

Teachers and parents, outraged about the data walls, went to a school committee meeting to complain; at the meeting, the schools superintendent insisted that students’ names should never be used, and suggested that he’d be cracking down on individual teachers who were doing this bad thing. That contradicted testimony from a parent, Paula Burke, who said she’d directly requested that the superintendent “send a clear directive to ALL principals and teachers regarding the sharing of private student information,” but “This has not been done.” But it raised the very real possibility that teachers would be scapegoated for a practice to which they had first drawn attention. But then, Sarah Jaffe reports:

In response to his comments, the teachers released copies of a PowerPoint presentation given to teachers and paraprofessionals for kindergarten (yes, kindergarten) through third grade at Kelly Elementary School in Holyoke on October 11, 2013—at which Superintendent Paez delivered the welcoming remarks. The slides, provided to In These Times by teacher activists, clearly show sample data walls with students’ first names and in some cases, last initials.

Yes, the practice that the superintendent was all disapproving of in front of reporters and the school committee was drawn directly from a training he introduced. Whoopsies! But if teachers weren’t organized to fight back against practices that hurt their students and retaliation against themselves, this would be a different story. Already, the decks are stacked against teachers fighting back:

“The data walls really speak to a bigger problem,” Kaeppel says. The battle against data walls is just one fight in a broader war—everywhere, testing is replacing teaching time, and test scores are used to pressure students, to determine whether teachers can keep their jobs, and to rate schools as successes or as “failures,” with dire consequences. [Teacher Agustin] Morales points out that his students in Holyoke spend 27 days out of the 180-day school year taking standardized tests rather than learning. [...]

The constant exhaustion means that the union must prove to its members that a fight is worth the effort. That’s why [Educators for a Democratic Union, a progressive caucus within the Massachusetts Teachers Association] is trying to build solidarity through concrete victories—like the effort to fight the data walls in Holyoke. Kaeppel, who was one of [Barbara] Madeloni’s students at UMass, says that it seemed like a winnable fight to the Holyoke EDU members and their supporters from outside of the district, and has served to catalyze some parent support. Administrators, she says, assume that the lower-income parents in Holyoke are not involved with their kids’ schooling and won’t challenge school practices, but they got a surprise when parents and teachers spoke together at the school committee meeting.

But however outgunned by test-crazy politicians and billionaires, teachers and parents are there, in kids’ lives. The need to fight back is so obvious.

(Disclosure: My father is a member of EDU and has been involved in the campaign against Holyoke data walls. And background: I’ve written about Barbara Madeloni in the past.)

Continue reading below the fold for more of the week’s labor and education news.

Daily Kos

This week in the War on Workers: Teachers protest "data walls" that shame students

[256] Robots Replacing Worlds" Teachers, FEMA Should Learn From India Cyclone, Gitmo on the Ground

At A Political Statement, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by A Political Statement and how it is used.

Log Files

Like many other Web sites, A Political Statement makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user"s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons

A Political Statement does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

• Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on A Political Statement.
• Google"s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to A Political Statement and other sites on the Internet.
• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on A Political Statement send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

A Political Statement has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. A Political Statement"s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browser"s respective websites.

[256] Robots Replacing Worlds" Teachers, FEMA Should Learn From India Cyclone, Gitmo on the Ground

Montana appeals former teacher’s one-month sentence for rape of teen

Karen Smith
CNN
November 30, 2013

Stacey Dean Rambold pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl and served a month in prison.

Montana is fighting to get a former teacher back behind bars after he served only a month for raping a 14-year-old girl.

Prosecutors filed an appeal Friday questioning the controversial 31-day sentence imposed on Stacey Dean Rambold, whose victim took her own life.

Rambold, a former high school teacher, pleaded guilty to the rape. He was sentenced in August and released from a Montana prison on probation the next month.

Read more

This article was posted: Saturday, November 30, 2013 at 12:07 pm

Tags: domestic news

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Infowars

Montana appeals former teacher’s one-month sentence for rape of teen

Substitute Teachers to See Cuts in Benefits Under Obamacare

Hit by years of budget cuts, some U.S. public school boards are looking to avoid providing health benefits to substitute teachers and supporting staff under President Barack Obama’s reform law, education officials say.

According to the law, employers will have to offer health coverage to all full-time employees, defined as those who work an average of 30 or more hours per week each month, or else pay a fine starting in 2015.

School boards, already struggling to manage after years of state budget cuts, are trying to get ahead of the potential costs of Obamacare for the current academic year, education and labor officials say. The need to find creative solutions, or risk cutting back staff hours further, will increase as they finalize their budgets, they say.

In Pennsylvania’s Penn Manor School District, Superintendent Mike Leichliter said there is no room in its constrained budget to provide additional employee insurance. Instead of cutting hours, the district used a substitute-teacher contracting service to pay part of the salaries for 95 employees. Money for such a service does not count against the school’s budget.

“When we looked at our costs, (healthcare) was one area that really had the potential to skyrocket,” Leichliter said. “This is absolutely the worst time for school districts to be faced with mandated increases.”

The National School Board Association said many states and school districts have at least explored reducing hours, according to Linda Embrey, a communications officer. Several school officials contacted by Reuters said they could not find a way around cuts.

In Indiana’s Fort Wayne Community Schools district, one of the state’s largest, administrators reduced hours for 610 of its 4,050 employees, including substitute teachers and support staff, who were working 30 or more hours a week. Providing them with health insurance would have cost $ 10 million annually, said Krista Stockman, public information officer for Fort Wayne.

“You get to a point where there’s a danger that you’re cutting too much and that the quality of education you’re providing isn’t as great,” Stockman said. “We’re just going to have to do the same amount or more with less.”

Most of the employees affected are substitute teachers, classroom aides, cafeteria workers, bus drivers or similar support staff, according to school officials and labor representatives. They had not been receiving healthcare coverage from their employers in the past. Now, instead of getting such employer-sponsored benefits under the reform law, they may be eligible for government-subsidized coverage that will be offered by new state insurance exchanges starting on Oct. 1.

SEQUESTER TAKES A SECOND TOLL

During the 2012-2013 school year, 26 states provided less money to local school districts than the prior year, and 35 states provided less funding than in 2008 (a better year), according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

This year they are also grappling with across-the-board “sequester” spending cuts introduced after Congress deadlocked over how to fix the deficit. An Obama administration official said those cuts plus the states’, and not healthcare reform, are the main reasons for staff losing work-time at schools.

“We are seeing no systematic evidence that the Affordable Care Act is leading to a shift to part-time work,” the official said. “There are a variety of factors impacting schools, including sequestration, which is cutting budgets and is a completely separate issue.”

The National Education Association is working with union leaders across the country to figure out how to encourage employers to avoid cutting hours as a result of healthcare reform, said Joel Solomon, NEA senior policy analyst. The effort has included a training session for dozens of labor representatives in June, and more sessions are planned for this year.

Solomon said one popular solution offered by the NEA is to help schools get a more precise accounting of employee hours to see whether staff are truly working an average of 30 hours a week each month when holidays and other time off are included. That has helped some schools make less drastic cuts in employee hours, he said.

Many school employees are expected to qualify for Obamacare’s tax subsidies, which are available starting in January to people who make within 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($ 45,960 for an individual and $ 94,200 for a family of four in 2013).

Even if they don’t, the new plans are preferable to what they currently have to buy on the individual market because insurers cannot deny coverage based on prior illness.

In Nebraska, the Plattsmouth Community School District is limiting the hours of permanent substitute teachers, who typically work every day, said Marlene Wehrbein, a labor union official who advocates for employees in the state’s public school districts.

“It creates a lot of inconsistency in staffing, and I can’t see how that would be good for students,” Wehrbein said. “How could you have a teacher teaching English four days a week and then on the fifth day you have someone else?”

© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

Substitute Teachers to See Cuts in Benefits Under Obamacare

Greek govt threatens to arrest teachers over strike — RT News

Greek govt threatens to arrest teachers over strike — RT News

Different Classroom Organization Ideas For Teachers

For students, classrooms are like second homes. Feeling comfort in staying here is needed to make learning more fun and rewarding. One job of a teacher is to make sure that his or her students feel really at ease when coming here. For this reason, they look for several classroom organization ideas to make their rooms more lively.

There are many creative ways by which you can make your classrooms a pleasant place to be in. Some teachers, especially those working for elementary schools, are adept in such techniques. There are those that tend to be environmental and use recycled materials. There are also those that are more personal and let their students decide on the design.

For those in elementary schools, rooms need to be interactive at the same time fun. It also has to be designed in a way to maximize the learning capacity of children. You should at least post different learning aides like posters of animals, shapes, numbers, and maps either on walls or on the floor. You only have to make sure that these are covered during exams to avoid cheating.

You should also place decorations that are made by the kids themselves such as art crafts and some of their drawings. When you are teaching art, you can make projects which they will both enjoy and use as decor for their rooms as well. If you are not an art teacher, you can actually ask those who do to plan some creative methods by which the children will be able to make their own decorations for the room.

In order to make your rooms livelier, it is best to go with the current trend. You can ask from your own students on the popular trends and plan on creating something out of it. One example would be creating your own class social networking page where the students can post things about themselves in. This is something that they will definitely enjoy doing which can also help them anticipate classes everyday.

Things should be organized properly and labeled as well. Color-coding is best for elementary students since most rely on their visual capacities to remember certain items. Do not keep things that can harm children in your room. If not, you can lock them in drawers or keep them in high places out of their reach.

You can also use different organizing items like pencil holders, shelves, book stands and many others to make things look neat and tidy. Plotting the room\’s design is also best. It can help you decide where things should be placed and how to locate them.

When you are looking for some classroom organization ideas, you should ask your students for their own opinions. This is because they will be the ones who will be using the room most of the time. It will be more comfortable for them if they designed and made the decorations for themselves.

There is a lot more helpful information about Several Classroom Organization Ideas You Can Use at our website.

Different Classroom Organization Ideas For Teachers

Get To Know About Boarding School Life

Boarding schools refer to those centers for learning where students live in. They are provided with accommodation and food. This means that they are not allowed to go home before the schools close. Therefore, boarding school life is good for the development of the learners.

There are fairly a considerable number of experiences which you can face during your stay in these schools. These are either beneficial or inconvenient to you. It is therefore essential to comprehend this truth prior to your admission in these institutions.

It is during your living in these types of learning centers that you able to live independently. This is because it makes you stay away from your parents or guardians. Therefore, you learn to live away from home.

You also acquire understanding of how to use your finances well and with discipline. Your guardians often offer you some concise cash for your requirements in the academy. This then means that you are expected to utilize it independently with no stringent instruction from them. This creates in you a sense of responsibility.

Living in the dorms offers you an opportunity to learn various cultural practices. This dormitory life differs from that of home because here you live with students from diverse societies and regions. Associating and interacting with them therefore allows you to know persons from varied backgrounds.

Habitual inspections are more often than not done in the dormitories. This occurs weekly. It is quite useful because it incessantly reminds you to care for hygiene. In addition to that, it assures you security in the academy.

Living in academic centers during your studies strengthens you and enables you to mature. This helps you grow socially and be able to make your own decisions. This is because you have the choice to join your friends for parties and drinking or to remain in school and study.

Time is also very essential for success in your studies. Therefore, there exists well structured program and lessons in boarding colleges that offer you an ample time to study as much as you can. This gives you an opportunity to revise properly and finish the assignments that you have been given in time.

Teachers also have enough time with you. This helps them to know you better than they would do if you were in day school. You also make good friends during your stay in these institutions. This improves your social being.

There are quite a number of challenges in boarding academic centers. First, the cost of education is high in them. Consequently, it might turn out to be disappointing to you particularly if you come from a poor set up. Moreover, some of the acquaintances you meet can misguide you. This challenges your personal values.

Boarding school life is therefore remarkably fundamental for your academic development. It develops your personal identity and helps you grow up. Additionally, it translates you into somebody who can make sound decisions.

Read more about Get To Know About Boarding School Life visiting our website.

Get To Know About Boarding School Life

How To Choose A Really Good Montessori

If your kid is already in that age where he should be attending school, it is about time that you will search around for the best possible institutions. A number of these missouri city montessori are currently found around. However, since not all of them can be a good enough choice, you must find the right one.

Remember that it is likely that you\’ll have many options which you can select from. Do not get intimidated by such a number of choices. What you can do instead is to take advantage of these options and ensure that you take them into account before you will make a final decision.

Consider the reputation which these schools have earned all these times. Naturally, you would want to watch out for those institutions which have since been having a somewhat tainted image as they might not be a very good training ground for your kid. Instead, focus your attention on the more reputable schools there are.

Get the feedback which are coming from people who have suggested these institutions to you. You want to hear the actual experiences of these individuals. They can tell you whether these schools will be an excellent choice since they themselves have had personal accounts on what ti was like to study there.

Personally visit the missouri city montessori which has been recommended to you. Sure, you maybe impressed with the details that you hear about these institutions from parents who have sent their kids to these schools. However, nothing still beats it when you get to see these schools yourself and see how things are.

Take note of the kind of programs that they have to offer to the kids that they admit. You want to take consideration of how well balanced their learning system is. For instance, there must be proper academic training and at the same time, proper social exposure for the kids.

Know the kinds of credentials that the educators inside these schools possess. Since they will be expected to teach and guide your kids along the way they need to have the right professional profile. Hence, take time to assess of these are indeed people who can be regarded as qualified enough.

Determine how close or accessible the missouri city montessori is to your place. You may need to drive your kid to and from the institution every time. You just want to ensure that doing so would not cause such inconvenience on your part come the near future.

Read more about Tips In Choosing The Right Montessori by visiting our website.

How To Choose A Really Good Montessori

Find Out Where To Attain Your Graduate Degree Program

Higher learning centers are important in advancing careers. The colleges and universities are created to equip the young generation with useful skills that add value to their life. The growth occurring in most parts of the world requires education. Knowledge forms the basis of success. You need to find out the graduate degree program Nashville colleges offer to students.

The schools are managed by professionally trained personnel who are dynamic and committed to produce wise citizens. There are a number of resources which are set to facilitate learning. The centers offer several programs for undergraduates. They discover more about sciences and arts. The supervisors and lecturers are ready to assist the students get the necessary guidance and better grades.

Another advantage of these schools is that they offer flexible formats for attending classes. You may decide to enroll for part time classes. This is mainly to enable those who have tight working schedules to learn. The adults who have interest of advancing their education can still register and achieve their goals.

Apart from the usual classes students are offered other services which assist in supporting their careers and academic needs. The schools are authorized by the higher education commission. You may carry out research on what type of job you would want after your studies. This helps in focusing on the useful options.

The society plays an important role in life of learners. The centers for higher learning ensure that students focus more on societal issues. Most undergraduate courses take three to four years in school, but this depends on the field of study. They are supposed to take their electives within this period of time. The scholars get motivated to improve on the fields of interest.

The technology has changed the world of education. There online programs for those who can access them. They have been made in such a way that they are similar with other classes attended manually. The curriculum remains basically the same. The academic consultants are readily available to guide those who have problems.

The graduate degree program Nashville students are entitled to make them catalysts of development. They access knowledge which is the basis for creativity. The training that they get from their studies has been approved for innovation. They at the same time acquire some interpersonal skills that assist them to live with their neighbors peacefully. They learn to associate.

There is a lot more helpful information about Discover The Place For Your Graduate Degree Program at our website.

Find Out Where To Attain Your Graduate Degree Program