The overview:
As the town crier strode down the cobble stones he yelled: "Hear ye! Hear ye! Let it be known that the first Carnival of Homeschooling will be gathering at Why Homeschool on January 3rd for your entertainment, enlightenment, and education. Submit your best post on homeschooling by January 2nd. Hear ye! Hear ye! ...."
There was some buzz as the villagers wanted to know details. What was the Carnival of Homeschooling? Who was invited? Where would it be? Why should they come? Behind the town crier were a couple pages who were handing out pamphlets with details and information.
The request:
Please submit a post about homeschooling, either one of your own, or a really good one you have seen recently. The first Carnival of Homeschooling will be published on January 3rd, submissions are due to Henry Cate on January 2nd, at 6:00 PM. For information on submitting a post, click here. To learn more about carnivals, click here.
If you are crafting a post for the carnival, think about first time viewers, people who don't know much about homeschooling. Try to be engaging to catch their interest. Spell check and proof read your submitted post several times.
If you are hesitant about submitting one of your posts, read here for some reasons on why it is a good idea to be part of the Carnival of Homeschooling.
Some additional thoughts and details:
If you haven't paid much attention to blog carnivals, you are in for a treat. They are a great way to sample a variety of blogs all from one post. If you have followed some carnivals, like the Carnival of Education, then you know just how useful carnivals can be for finding new interesting blogs to read.
The Carnival of Homeschooling will expose you to what other homeschoolers are blogging about, and it will also give you a chance to show off one of your best blog posts.
If you are ready to submit a post, click here.
Over the last year I've been a bit surprised that no one ever put together a carnival of homeschooling. I sort of figured that there weren't that many blogs out there on homeschooling. (After working on trying to start the Carnival of Homeschooling, I now think at least part of the reason is putting together a carnival is a lot of work.)
I have followed the Carnival of Education pretty much since it got started. Typically there are 20 to 50 posts in a weekly carnival, and a few of them will be homeschool related. Since about three percent of the children in America are homeschooled this made some sense, that there weren't that many homeschool blogs. But Spunky's homeschool blog contest blew that thought out of the water, as there were over 200 different blogs in the various categories.
After some reflection I realized that while there may be a couple million public school teachers, with the several million children being homeschooled, we had at least a million parents who were involved in homeschooling. So it made sense that there were lots of homeschooling blogs.
If you would like to help make the Carnival of Homeschooling a success, click here.
To find out how to submit a post to the Carnival of Homeschooling, click here.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Ways to help the Carnival of Homeschooling
1) One of the most important things to make a blog carnival a success is for it to have interesting posts. So submit your best post from the last week.
2) The other really important thing is to spread the word. Please tell people about the Carnival of Homeschooling, especially after it comes out. Mention the carnival on your blog, email to your friends about it, mention it to your local homeschool groups, beg your family to read it, and tell any related mailing lists you are on about it.
3) If you would like host a Carnival of Homeschooling, first check out a few carnivals to get a sense of what they are like, for example the Carnival of Education and the Carnival of Unschooling. Next read this post and this post about the work involved in putting together a blog carnival. If you are still interested in hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling, send Henry Cate an email to tell of your interest, and when you are available.
It will greatly improve the time you host the Carnival of Homeschooling if you have a theme to structure the postings. Most of the readers of a carnival will be people who haven't spent much time thinking about homeschooling, and so we want to try to entice them to read the various postings the carnival links to, and to encourage them to come back next week for the next carnival. So start thinking now about a way to make your carnival post very entertaining and interesting. The structure might be around old movies, cities, a tabloid, and so on.
Update I (23 Jan 06)
These are some additional posts about hosting a carnival:
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2005/03/thought_on_host.html
http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2005/08/best_practices_.html
---------------
If you have any additional ideas on how people can help make the carnival of homeschooling successful, please add a comment.
2) The other really important thing is to spread the word. Please tell people about the Carnival of Homeschooling, especially after it comes out. Mention the carnival on your blog, email to your friends about it, mention it to your local homeschool groups, beg your family to read it, and tell any related mailing lists you are on about it.
3) If you would like host a Carnival of Homeschooling, first check out a few carnivals to get a sense of what they are like, for example the Carnival of Education and the Carnival of Unschooling. Next read this post and this post about the work involved in putting together a blog carnival. If you are still interested in hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling, send Henry Cate an email to tell of your interest, and when you are available.
It will greatly improve the time you host the Carnival of Homeschooling if you have a theme to structure the postings. Most of the readers of a carnival will be people who haven't spent much time thinking about homeschooling, and so we want to try to entice them to read the various postings the carnival links to, and to encourage them to come back next week for the next carnival. So start thinking now about a way to make your carnival post very entertaining and interesting. The structure might be around old movies, cities, a tabloid, and so on.
Update I (23 Jan 06)
These are some additional posts about hosting a carnival:
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2005/03/thought_on_host.html
http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2005/08/best_practices_.html
---------------
If you have any additional ideas on how people can help make the carnival of homeschooling successful, please add a comment.
Reasons to submit a post to the Carnival of Homeschooling
The basic reason for having a post on any carnival is it will lead to a temporary increase in traffic. If the visitors enjoy your spotlighted post, you will get some return visitors. (If you don't know how many visitors your blog gets, check out help.blogger.com. We use Site Meter.)
Let’s be honest. It isn't fun to stand in an empty room talking to yourself for hours and hours. Most of us are blogging because we want other people to read what we have to say.
Sometimes we just want to share with family and friends pieces of our lives. We want our loved ones to know about a cute thing one of our daughters did. Or we may want to share some thoughts and feelings with those we care about.
Many bloggers, myself included, want a larger audience. We're trying to enter into a dialog, and to influence or educate people about topics we are interested in. For those in the second group the only way to do this is to get people to read our blogs.
Sometimes random people may happen across our blog, and sometimes close friends and family will check it out, once in awhile. But to really have an effect, you need to work at increasing the traffic to your blog.
A carnival is one great way to do this. People will often read a blog carnival because they are interesting and they can be entertaining. A good blog carnival will bring a large crowd to the carnival post, and the viewers look at each booth to check out what is being offered. If you have an interesting post, some viewers will come back, again and again.
About 70,000 new blogs are created every day. True many of them are targeted for a limited audience, for family and friends, but there are still thousands of new blogs every day trying to catch the attention of blog readers. As Gilbert and Sullivan say in Ruddigore: "If you wish in the world to advance . . . you must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, Or trust me, you haven'ta chance!" "
So submit one of your best posts about homeschooling from this week to the Carnival of Homeschooling!
Let’s be honest. It isn't fun to stand in an empty room talking to yourself for hours and hours. Most of us are blogging because we want other people to read what we have to say.
Sometimes we just want to share with family and friends pieces of our lives. We want our loved ones to know about a cute thing one of our daughters did. Or we may want to share some thoughts and feelings with those we care about.
Many bloggers, myself included, want a larger audience. We're trying to enter into a dialog, and to influence or educate people about topics we are interested in. For those in the second group the only way to do this is to get people to read our blogs.
Sometimes random people may happen across our blog, and sometimes close friends and family will check it out, once in awhile. But to really have an effect, you need to work at increasing the traffic to your blog.
A carnival is one great way to do this. People will often read a blog carnival because they are interesting and they can be entertaining. A good blog carnival will bring a large crowd to the carnival post, and the viewers look at each booth to check out what is being offered. If you have an interesting post, some viewers will come back, again and again.
About 70,000 new blogs are created every day. True many of them are targeted for a limited audience, for family and friends, but there are still thousands of new blogs every day trying to catch the attention of blog readers. As Gilbert and Sullivan say in Ruddigore: "If you wish in the world to advance . . . you must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, Or trust me, you haven'ta chance!" "
So submit one of your best posts about homeschooling from this week to the Carnival of Homeschooling!
What is a blog Carnival?
The idea of a blog carnival is to put a variety of related blogs on display for a casual viewer, like if they were walking through a traditional carnival. An instance of a blog carnival is a post with links to a variety of posts on other blogs all on the same topic or theme. (For example there are blog carnivals about education, birds, capitalism, and so on.) Many blog carnivals come out once a week; some are less frequent. A blog carnival post will highlight some of the more interesting posts on the carnival's topic or theme.
Part of the reason blog carnivals are called carnivals is because they sometimes move around. Like a carnival which travels from town to town, blog carnivals often go from one blogger to another, to share the work load, and to get additional exposure for the carnival.
Many viewers will check out a carnival because it is a quick way to learn about other blogs, without having to go to each of the 20 to 50 blogs in the carnival. A carnival provides an opportunity to give more exposure to a set of blogs. This is a win-win for the bloggers and for the readers. Some of the top blogs, like Instapundit, will mention every carnival they learn about. Carnivals also give bloggers a chance to see what other bloggers are saying about a given topic.
This post has some additional information about carnivals. If you know of some other good posts about blog carnivals, please add a comment.
Some examples of carnivals which are related to the Carnival of Homsechooling are the Carnival of Education and the Carnival of Unschooling.
If you want to see some of the variety of carnivals, check out this list and this list.
Part of the reason blog carnivals are called carnivals is because they sometimes move around. Like a carnival which travels from town to town, blog carnivals often go from one blogger to another, to share the work load, and to get additional exposure for the carnival.
Many viewers will check out a carnival because it is a quick way to learn about other blogs, without having to go to each of the 20 to 50 blogs in the carnival. A carnival provides an opportunity to give more exposure to a set of blogs. This is a win-win for the bloggers and for the readers. Some of the top blogs, like Instapundit, will mention every carnival they learn about. Carnivals also give bloggers a chance to see what other bloggers are saying about a given topic.
This post has some additional information about carnivals. If you know of some other good posts about blog carnivals, please add a comment.
Some examples of carnivals which are related to the Carnival of Homsechooling are the Carnival of Education and the Carnival of Unschooling.
If you want to see some of the variety of carnivals, check out this list and this list.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Selections from Carnival of Education - week 46
The Carnival of Education is hosted this week by Bora Zivkovic's blog Circadiana. There are a whole bunch of blogs mentioned. Below are some of the ones I especially found interesting.
An Educational Voyage has a discussion of the Socratic Method.
Matt Johnson explores how did reading get limited to just reading literature.
There was a good discussion on Scheiss Weekly about how a minority voice is often dictating what happens in public schools.
Friends of Dave has an excellent post about the problems of just giving public schools in California more money. The post has this great line "There are some funding issues in public education, but raising taxes to give schools more money without making needed structural reforms isn't going to be money well spent."
An Educational Voyage has a discussion of the Socratic Method.
Matt Johnson explores how did reading get limited to just reading literature.
There was a good discussion on Scheiss Weekly about how a minority voice is often dictating what happens in public schools.
Friends of Dave has an excellent post about the problems of just giving public schools in California more money. The post has this great line "There are some funding issues in public education, but raising taxes to give schools more money without making needed structural reforms isn't going to be money well spent."
Only a couple more days to vote for the Homeschool Blog Awards
Forthose who haven't heard, Spunky has organized the Homeschool Blog awards. If you haven't voted yet, best to do vote now, before you get distracted.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Links to interesting postings - 21 Dec 05
Today is the shortest day of the year. If you are trying to explain to your children how the days get longer and shorter, the Astronomy Picture of the Day for today might be helpful. It shows the sun rising in a Greek today at Summer Solstice, Equinox, and Winter Solstice.
We always have to be careful when a chicken little starts yelling the sky is falling. Joane Jacobs has a post discussing a Christian Science Monitor article examinding the data for just how many engineers the United States, India and China are really graduating each year. Part of the problem is India and China appears to call a lot more people engineers than we do in the US. When comparing like to like "the Duke study finds the US handed out 137,437 bachelor's degrees last year, more than India's 112,000."
Daryl Cobranchi has a post and links to an article about to some bullying in Massachusetts. This is about the same victim we talked about just over a week ago. Billy George has been beaten up several times at school. The parents pulled him from school. The issue is working its way through the court. Daryl rightly found this statement about victims by a family court judge very offensive. "I have seen kids wind up in front of a judge because they are sick to their stomach at the idea of going to school, and they are afraid," Perachi said. "It's not unusual for me to order a child to go to school." (Italics added.) The judge is speaking about children who are so afraid they are truant, but I sure hope the quotation is out of context, I can't image thinking the best thing for a young child is to send him back to school to be beaten up again. (We've mention bullying before, here and here.)
The Common Room has a nice list of Books for Boys, posted by the Headmistress.
HomeSchoolBuzz has a post and mentions a column about homeschooling. Someone asked about homeschooling, and Leanna Landsmann provides a nice answer.
We always have to be careful when a chicken little starts yelling the sky is falling. Joane Jacobs has a post discussing a Christian Science Monitor article examinding the data for just how many engineers the United States, India and China are really graduating each year. Part of the problem is India and China appears to call a lot more people engineers than we do in the US. When comparing like to like "the Duke study finds the US handed out 137,437 bachelor's degrees last year, more than India's 112,000."
Daryl Cobranchi has a post and links to an article about to some bullying in Massachusetts. This is about the same victim we talked about just over a week ago. Billy George has been beaten up several times at school. The parents pulled him from school. The issue is working its way through the court. Daryl rightly found this statement about victims by a family court judge very offensive. "I have seen kids wind up in front of a judge because they are sick to their stomach at the idea of going to school, and they are afraid," Perachi said. "It's not unusual for me to order a child to go to school." (Italics added.) The judge is speaking about children who are so afraid they are truant, but I sure hope the quotation is out of context, I can't image thinking the best thing for a young child is to send him back to school to be beaten up again. (We've mention bullying before, here and here.)
The Common Room has a nice list of Books for Boys, posted by the Headmistress.
HomeSchoolBuzz has a post and mentions a column about homeschooling. Someone asked about homeschooling, and Leanna Landsmann provides a nice answer.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Carnival of the Capitalists
The Carnival of the Capitalists came out yesterday. It was hosted by Coyote Blog. We were lucky enough to have my wife's posting about teaching children some basics about saving money.
Carnival of Education entries are due
EdWonk is hosting the Carnival of Education this week. Entries are due today, and the Carnival will be out tomorrow. Go to here for more information. This is a good way to get some exposure for your blog.
Links to interesting postings - 20 Dec 05
Chris O'Donnell has a post titled School is the AntiFun. He links to a blog dedicated to fun by Bernie DeKoven. Bernie explains how school destroys children's playful nature. Bernie links to an essay by Brooke Lowder. Both Bernie and Brooke talk about the importance of play. One of the things we greatly enjoy about homeschooling is how much our daughters play together.
At The Common Room, Headmistress mentions Sudoku which I've recently been enjoying. She links to an article on Sudoku which includes some history. If you like logic puzzles and haven't played Sudoku yet, check out this web site for the rules and suggestions on how to play.
Kimberly Swygert at Number 2 Pencil starts a discussion on public schooling vs. unschooling. I've left a comment that one of the problems we have is not that school is tough and regimented, but that it is mindlessly tough and mindlessly regimented.
HomeSchoolBuzz has a post which points to an article about a child actor who is homeschooled. My youngest daughter recently informed me that she would like to be in a movie. We may have to make a family movie this next year. I'll see if she asks about it again.
On Townhall Phyllis Schlafly has a column about how the courts have ruled many times recently that parents have little authority in deciding what schools can do with children. I had heard about the recent 9th Circuit ruling in California. She lists a number of other similar rullings. With rulings like these I expect more and more parents will realize the benefits of homeschooling.
At The Common Room, Headmistress mentions Sudoku which I've recently been enjoying. She links to an article on Sudoku which includes some history. If you like logic puzzles and haven't played Sudoku yet, check out this web site for the rules and suggestions on how to play.
Kimberly Swygert at Number 2 Pencil starts a discussion on public schooling vs. unschooling. I've left a comment that one of the problems we have is not that school is tough and regimented, but that it is mindlessly tough and mindlessly regimented.
HomeSchoolBuzz has a post which points to an article about a child actor who is homeschooled. My youngest daughter recently informed me that she would like to be in a movie. We may have to make a family movie this next year. I'll see if she asks about it again.
On Townhall Phyllis Schlafly has a column about how the courts have ruled many times recently that parents have little authority in deciding what schools can do with children. I had heard about the recent 9th Circuit ruling in California. She lists a number of other similar rullings. With rulings like these I expect more and more parents will realize the benefits of homeschooling.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Selections from EducationNews.org - 19 Dec 2005
EducationNews.org mentioned several interesting articles today.
Michael Shaughnessy has a list of influential educators. All of them were people who seem to be trying to correct the existing system. There weren't any homeschoolers.
Michael Shaughnessy also had an interview with Edward R. Amend about the emotional needs of gifted children. It is an interesting interview. If you have gifted children with issues, it is worth checking this out. Dr. Amend had this line: "The research has been fairly clear in suggesting that the degree to which a gifted child's educational needs are being met is an important factor in their overall adjustment."
Scott Jaschik has an article about the effects of 9/11 on education. Since the terrorist attacks the government has been slow to let in students from other countries. Many people seem to be concerned that the United States might be losing the dominance in education it has held for so long. There are some signs that the government might be allowing more foreign students to come study here.
Dallas News has an article on how Mr. Murdock, the state's official demographer, has been trying to improve education in Texas. One of the lines in the article worried me a bit: "For years, Mr. Murdock has been telling us that if Texas wants to be a competitive force, it needs to get more kids to graduate from high school and college." It almost sounds like how the Wizard fixed the Tin Woodman by giving him a diploma. The real focus should be improving education, not in gradulating more people from highschool. They are related, but if you focus on higher graduation levels then you can miss what is really important.
Michael Shaughnessy has a list of influential educators. All of them were people who seem to be trying to correct the existing system. There weren't any homeschoolers.
Michael Shaughnessy also had an interview with Edward R. Amend about the emotional needs of gifted children. It is an interesting interview. If you have gifted children with issues, it is worth checking this out. Dr. Amend had this line: "The research has been fairly clear in suggesting that the degree to which a gifted child's educational needs are being met is an important factor in their overall adjustment."
Scott Jaschik has an article about the effects of 9/11 on education. Since the terrorist attacks the government has been slow to let in students from other countries. Many people seem to be concerned that the United States might be losing the dominance in education it has held for so long. There are some signs that the government might be allowing more foreign students to come study here.
Dallas News has an article on how Mr. Murdock, the state's official demographer, has been trying to improve education in Texas. One of the lines in the article worried me a bit: "For years, Mr. Murdock has been telling us that if Texas wants to be a competitive force, it needs to get more kids to graduate from high school and college." It almost sounds like how the Wizard fixed the Tin Woodman by giving him a diploma. The real focus should be improving education, not in gradulating more people from highschool. They are related, but if you focus on higher graduation levels then you can miss what is really important.
Links to interesting postings - 19 Dec 05
The Headmistress at The Common Room has a post about the basics of getting rich. This wisdom from 1870 is still valid today.
Joanne Jacobs has a post about vouchers and she links to an interview of Milton Friedman, by Nick Gillespie the chief-in-editor of Reason. It has been fifty years since Milton Friedman proposed the idea of vouchers. He explores the difference between charity vouchers, which may help poor families, and universal vouchers, which would prompt education reform. In 1995 he and his wife created Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. At that time Milton Friedman wrote "Change is now occurring so fast that it is hard to keep up with it." But as of today only about 20,000 students have vouchers. He is still optimistic that vouchers will happen, but I am afraid they won't happen anytime soon.
I enjoyed two of HomeSchoolBuzz recent postings. One links to an article on the Duggars, and homeschool family with 16 children. The second links to an article by Barbara Blake-Hannah, of Jamiaica, on unschooling and Mary Griffith's book "The Un-schooling Handbook: How To Use The Whole World As Your Child's Classroom.
Armstrong Williams in a column on TownHall wrote about a recent visit to a public high school. At the school he spoke about his childhood, how growing up his father would wake him up at 4:30 AM to work for a couple of hours on the farm before Armstrong headed off to school. Armstrong was trying to encourage the students to work hard so they could succeed. Many of the students were black and he was told time and again that they didn't have a chance, because whites were holding them down. He said it was sad that so many had given up. I'm sure that most blacks who homeschool their children will teach their children that with hard work they can succeed.
Joanne Jacobs has a post about vouchers and she links to an interview of Milton Friedman, by Nick Gillespie the chief-in-editor of Reason. It has been fifty years since Milton Friedman proposed the idea of vouchers. He explores the difference between charity vouchers, which may help poor families, and universal vouchers, which would prompt education reform. In 1995 he and his wife created Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. At that time Milton Friedman wrote "Change is now occurring so fast that it is hard to keep up with it." But as of today only about 20,000 students have vouchers. He is still optimistic that vouchers will happen, but I am afraid they won't happen anytime soon.
I enjoyed two of HomeSchoolBuzz recent postings. One links to an article on the Duggars, and homeschool family with 16 children. The second links to an article by Barbara Blake-Hannah, of Jamiaica, on unschooling and Mary Griffith's book "The Un-schooling Handbook: How To Use The Whole World As Your Child's Classroom.
Armstrong Williams in a column on TownHall wrote about a recent visit to a public high school. At the school he spoke about his childhood, how growing up his father would wake him up at 4:30 AM to work for a couple of hours on the farm before Armstrong headed off to school. Armstrong was trying to encourage the students to work hard so they could succeed. Many of the students were black and he was told time and again that they didn't have a chance, because whites were holding them down. He said it was sad that so many had given up. I'm sure that most blacks who homeschool their children will teach their children that with hard work they can succeed.
Any need for another homeschool political organization?
Daryl Cobranchi is conducting a survey to find out if there is enough financial interest to support another political organization. As homeschoolers we do need to be informed so we can get involved if the government tries to regulate homeschooling. The Home School Legal Defense Association speaks very loudly for many homeschoolers, but not all homeschoolers. If you would be interested in financially supporting a political organization designed to protect the interests of homeschoolers, and only focusing on homeschooling, click over to here.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Links to interesting postings - 17 Dec 05
The District Administration Daily has a post about a New York Times article. The article talks about trying to measure the return on America's investment in education. Overall I wasn't that impressed with the article, but one statement jumped out at me. In this academic year close to one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) dollars will be spent on education. It is a mind numbing amount of money.
At EducationWonk today there is a post on school food in Los Angeles and a link to an article about some of the problems with public school food. A lot the food is basically typical fast food, and not all of it is well prepared. As part of our homeschool our daughters make about a fifth of the meals. It is rarely fast food and they are learning a number of useful skills.
HomeSchoolBuzz has a post and links to an good article about homeschool and the dedication it takes to homeschool. This was a great line: "No matter how good a teacher is in any school, they don't love my child like I do." Seven mothers talk about some of the lessons they have learned in homeschooling. This is part of a series on homeschooling.
Townhall's section on education links to a Heritage Foundation article which frames a vote coming up in Congress as being between students and special interest groups. Congress has promised to help students affected by Katrina, but nothing has happened yet. The teacher unions are fighting any effort to allow vouchers or school choice.
Mike Antonucci of Education Intelligence Agency Online has a post on his blog Intercepts that links to an article about the contrast of teachers asking parents to train their children to respect teachers, but the teachers don't have respect for each other.
Mike Antonucci has another interesting post about what public education is in a financial mess. Money for education is largely tied to the number of students in a school. It appears one of the main causes is that the growth rate of teachers is higher than the growth rate of students. So the pie goes up by the number of students, but there are more teachers which need to be paid. A good point from Mike's post: "In 2004-05, America enrolled 297,101 more students than in 2003-04. But it employed 49,732 more teachers. That's 1 teacher for every additional 6 students."
At EducationWonk today there is a post on school food in Los Angeles and a link to an article about some of the problems with public school food. A lot the food is basically typical fast food, and not all of it is well prepared. As part of our homeschool our daughters make about a fifth of the meals. It is rarely fast food and they are learning a number of useful skills.
HomeSchoolBuzz has a post and links to an good article about homeschool and the dedication it takes to homeschool. This was a great line: "No matter how good a teacher is in any school, they don't love my child like I do." Seven mothers talk about some of the lessons they have learned in homeschooling. This is part of a series on homeschooling.
Townhall's section on education links to a Heritage Foundation article which frames a vote coming up in Congress as being between students and special interest groups. Congress has promised to help students affected by Katrina, but nothing has happened yet. The teacher unions are fighting any effort to allow vouchers or school choice.
Mike Antonucci of Education Intelligence Agency Online has a post on his blog Intercepts that links to an article about the contrast of teachers asking parents to train their children to respect teachers, but the teachers don't have respect for each other.
Mike Antonucci has another interesting post about what public education is in a financial mess. Money for education is largely tied to the number of students in a school. It appears one of the main causes is that the growth rate of teachers is higher than the growth rate of students. So the pie goes up by the number of students, but there are more teachers which need to be paid. A good point from Mike's post: "In 2004-05, America enrolled 297,101 more students than in 2003-04. But it employed 49,732 more teachers. That's 1 teacher for every additional 6 students."
Friday, December 16, 2005
Links to interesting postings - 16 Dec 05
This one isn't related to homeschooling or education, but I found it fun. On Slashdot someone mentioned that scientists have figured out the emotions of the girl posing for the Mona Lisa. A study at a University of Amsterdam compared her face to a library of neutral faces images of young women. The software determined that Mona Lisa was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry. (No rounding errors?)
Slashdot also had a post on what many blogs have had problems recently, the rapid growth have caught some hosting companies unprepared. Bloglines and TypePad were specifically mentioned. Both are working hard to handle the growth. Some interesting numbers on TypePad, they are pushing about three terabytes a day of network traffice, and it is growing by 10-20% a month. Last month they got seven million hits. Coyote Blog mentions TypePad was recently down for 20 hours.
EduWonk has a post which links to an interivew of Joe Williams who wrote Cheating Our Kids : How Politics and Greed Ruin Education. The book came out in October of this year and is already being reprinted. It appears the book documents many of the problems with public education. The closing line of the interview is "I'm not suggesting that parents be out there running schools, but if they were a little more demanding, we wouldn't be in this mess." There are a lot of parents who are demanding more, we have laws demanding more. It doesn't seem to be helping.
EduWonk has this great quote about some of the problems with getting charter schools started: "Deborah Driver, one of the organizers, said the obstacles to opening a charter school in the county are immense because the school system wields power of approval over a would-be competitor. 'It's like you make an application to McDonald's to see if you can open up a Burger King,' Driver said." This was taken from a Washington Post article.
On Enter Stage Right Nancy Salvato talks about some issues on school choice. She clears up some of the myths about vouchers. She argues that vouchers would improve education. I still don't think they will happen, but I would love to be wrong on this issue.
Slashdot also had a post on what many blogs have had problems recently, the rapid growth have caught some hosting companies unprepared. Bloglines and TypePad were specifically mentioned. Both are working hard to handle the growth. Some interesting numbers on TypePad, they are pushing about three terabytes a day of network traffice, and it is growing by 10-20% a month. Last month they got seven million hits. Coyote Blog mentions TypePad was recently down for 20 hours.
EduWonk has a post which links to an interivew of Joe Williams who wrote Cheating Our Kids : How Politics and Greed Ruin Education. The book came out in October of this year and is already being reprinted. It appears the book documents many of the problems with public education. The closing line of the interview is "I'm not suggesting that parents be out there running schools, but if they were a little more demanding, we wouldn't be in this mess." There are a lot of parents who are demanding more, we have laws demanding more. It doesn't seem to be helping.
EduWonk has this great quote about some of the problems with getting charter schools started: "Deborah Driver, one of the organizers, said the obstacles to opening a charter school in the county are immense because the school system wields power of approval over a would-be competitor. 'It's like you make an application to McDonald's to see if you can open up a Burger King,' Driver said." This was taken from a Washington Post article.
On Enter Stage Right Nancy Salvato talks about some issues on school choice. She clears up some of the myths about vouchers. She argues that vouchers would improve education. I still don't think they will happen, but I would love to be wrong on this issue.
Selections from Google alerts
The following are selectsion from some Google alerts.
A group of homeschoolers got together and gave their children an opportunity to make Christmas gifts. We've found it worth while to have our children make some of the Christmas gifts they give to family and friends. It provides a deeper mean for them.
PR Web has a Press Release on So - Why Do You Homeschool? by Mimi Davis. Amazon didn't have a picture of the book, but I was able to find a picture of the cover here. Has anyone read the book?
A group of homeschoolers got together and gave their children an opportunity to make Christmas gifts. We've found it worth while to have our children make some of the Christmas gifts they give to family and friends. It provides a deeper mean for them.
PR Web has a Press Release on So - Why Do You Homeschool? by Mimi Davis. Amazon didn't have a picture of the book, but I was able to find a picture of the cover here. Has anyone read the book?
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Links to interesting postings - 15 Dec 05
District Administration Daily in their daily list mentions an article in the Denver Post about how a third of all Colorado public school students entering Colorado colleges needed to take remedial classes. This is better than California, which has numbers closer to half of the students.
Education News has links to an interview of Bob Clecker by Michael Shaughnessy. Michael has done dozens, maybe hundreds, of education related interviews. I've enjoyed them. Bob C. Clecker is the author of Lets End Our Literacy Crisis: The Desperately Needed Idea Whose Time Has Come which was published earlier this year. The interview focused on the issue of illiteracy in America.
Education News has links to an interview of Bob Clecker by Michael Shaughnessy. Michael has done dozens, maybe hundreds, of education related interviews. I've enjoyed them. Bob C. Clecker is the author of Lets End Our Literacy Crisis: The Desperately Needed Idea Whose Time Has Come which was published earlier this year. The interview focused on the issue of illiteracy in America.
The importance of work
Joanne Jacobs has a post about the achievement gap in education. This relates to something which has been on my mind the last week. Joanne links to an article by Dan Seligman in Forbes which says:
"... the prime objective of educational policy is to eliminate the "achievement gap"--the gap between what's learned in school by disadvantaged kids and what's learned by middle- and upper-class kids."
Dan says this can not be done:
"It is not possible to close the achievement gap. The mission statement is a summons to a fool's errand. The reason that the gap will never be eliminated is that intelligence rises with socioeconomic status."
Dan says that the gap is due to the socioeconomic status of poor families which determines their cognitive ability, and thus the achievement gap. And he closes with:
"Absolutely nothing has happened to suggest that the federal government will succeed in this effort ..."
Joanne responds with:
"I suspect intelligence accounts for a small percentage of the difference in achievement. After all, Asian-Americans of all socioeconomic groups have closed the gap and become high achievers. It's not IQ. It's culture."
Several of the comments on Joanne's blog make the point that in general, Asian students work much harder than American students.
A couple years after my wife and I got married we spent did some research into investing, trying to improve our financial education. One point has stuck with me over the years. When trying to build a nest egg there are two very important factors. The first is related to the size of how much is invested. Someone who puts aside 10% of their income will, all other things being equal, have a better end result than someone who only saves 5%. But the second important factor is the growth rate of the investments. If the person saving the 10% puts all of his money in the bank and gets a low rate of return, after 40 years he won't have that much more money. In contrast if the person who saves 5% is wise and looks for investments with growth potential, like stocks, then over time he will get several times the return on his money, and by 40 years later will have a much bigger nest eggs, several times bigger.
Education and parenting are similar to this. We all start with a certain basic investment, our gifts and talents. Unfortunately we can't change this. But what happens with them over time is a direct result of the effort and work we put in to develop our initial abilities. If we can help our children learn the principal of work, and help them to get on a higher growth rate, then as adults they'll be able to achieve much more than if they merely coasted through school. Many Asian families understand this principal and have their children work hard.
"... the prime objective of educational policy is to eliminate the "achievement gap"--the gap between what's learned in school by disadvantaged kids and what's learned by middle- and upper-class kids."
Dan says this can not be done:
"It is not possible to close the achievement gap. The mission statement is a summons to a fool's errand. The reason that the gap will never be eliminated is that intelligence rises with socioeconomic status."
Dan says that the gap is due to the socioeconomic status of poor families which determines their cognitive ability, and thus the achievement gap. And he closes with:
"Absolutely nothing has happened to suggest that the federal government will succeed in this effort ..."
Joanne responds with:
"I suspect intelligence accounts for a small percentage of the difference in achievement. After all, Asian-Americans of all socioeconomic groups have closed the gap and become high achievers. It's not IQ. It's culture."
Several of the comments on Joanne's blog make the point that in general, Asian students work much harder than American students.
A couple years after my wife and I got married we spent did some research into investing, trying to improve our financial education. One point has stuck with me over the years. When trying to build a nest egg there are two very important factors. The first is related to the size of how much is invested. Someone who puts aside 10% of their income will, all other things being equal, have a better end result than someone who only saves 5%. But the second important factor is the growth rate of the investments. If the person saving the 10% puts all of his money in the bank and gets a low rate of return, after 40 years he won't have that much more money. In contrast if the person who saves 5% is wise and looks for investments with growth potential, like stocks, then over time he will get several times the return on his money, and by 40 years later will have a much bigger nest eggs, several times bigger.
Education and parenting are similar to this. We all start with a certain basic investment, our gifts and talents. Unfortunately we can't change this. But what happens with them over time is a direct result of the effort and work we put in to develop our initial abilities. If we can help our children learn the principal of work, and help them to get on a higher growth rate, then as adults they'll be able to achieve much more than if they merely coasted through school. Many Asian families understand this principal and have their children work hard.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Report of Joanne Jacobs' kickoff meeting for her new book
I was able to attend Joanne Jacobs' kickoff meeting for her new book Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea, and the School that Beat the Odds. It was held tonight at 1460 The Alameda in San Jose, at the charter school she wrote about, Downtown College Prep, often called DCP. The meeting started a little after 7:00 PM. The crowd continued to grow and grow. By 8:00 PM there were around 200 people.
Jennifer Andaluz, one of the two founders of DCP, started off the meeting by introducing herself, and then introducing Joanne. Jennifer told of one of the young girls that Joanne had tutored. When the young girl had started at DCP she hadn't been able to do multiplication; now she was going off to medical school to be a nurse. Jennifer thanked Joanne for her presence at DCP. Jennifer then turned the time over to Joanne.
Joanne first put in a plug asking the audience to help DCP improve their library. When DCP first got started that it didn't have much of a library, and Joanne used to donate books. She asked the audience to buy books from Books Inc., which had a table there, and donate the books to library. This was classy. I overheard at the end of the meeting something about how all the books had been bought!
Joanne mentioned one of the patterns she had noticed at DCP. The students were given time to read, and in the early fall the 9th graders would act like they didn't know what to do. They would sit in weird contortions, but by spring they would be much more comfortable with sitting and reading.
She then sat and read chapter twelve from her book. The title of chapter twelve is “the shortest basketball team in america.” Two of the teachers beg every girl in the school with a C average to join the basketball team. They felt DCP needed to field a team, real schools had teams. It was a very moving story of the girls struggling with game after game of losing with scores like 36 to 6. When they played another small charter school they lost by only 23 to 21. The girls were excited, they recognized they were improving. DCP came back the next week and beat the other team by 27 to 23. In the second semester with grades improving more students could be on teams, and DCP was able to field a girls softball team and a boys baseball team. Later one of the students was out in middle field quoting Macbeth: “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” The teachers realized that something magical was happening, “Our kids are quoting Shakespeare. That means we won.” In the book Joanne Jacobs makes the point that:
“DCP students enter the school as academic losers. They don't know how to play the game. By the standards of middle-class high schools, DCP students aren't really in the game. But if they keep working, they get better. If they stick with it, they'll win a college education.”
The students were learning this lesson. It was a moving chapter.
After finishing chapter 12 Joanne went on to say that it was important to be honest with students. The students at DCP needed to learn that they are lousy, but that they could get better. It would have been wrong to lie to them and say they were doing well. And it would have been just as bad to tell them they are lousy, and wouldn't get better. DCP told them, you are not doing OK now, but you can get better. Most of the students learned that lesson.
About here Jennifer Andaluz asked all the DCP teachers in the audience to raise their hands. The crowd gave them a round of applause.
Joanne thanked the teachers, and said she had great respect for the job they did, that it was a hard job. (There were about fifteen teachers in the audience.) She said that as a tutor she often found it hard to help one student learn, and recognized that teaching a class of twenty or more students was a challenging job.
She said that she liked the cheerful spirit at DCP.
Next she opened up the meeting to some Q and A.
1) The first question was about how she had learned about DCP. Before working on her book Joanne had been working at the San Jose Mercury as editorial writer and columnist specializing in education. She first met Jennifer when she came to talk to the editorial board about how she and Greg Lippman were mobilizing support for the charter school. Initially Joanne's plan had been to focus on another charter school up in East Palo Alto. It was in the early stages of seeking a charter. As they started hiring teachers she found she wasn't going to get the access she wanted. The new teachers said they would be stressed by her presence in their classes. She then tried another charter school, but got a similar message. She had been tutoring at DCP, with the thought of trying to get exposure to a number of different charter schools. In desperation she asked Greg Lippman and Jennifer Andaluz if she could do her book on their school. They said fine. She was surprised that they so quickly agreed. They said DCP was not a consensus school. They were in charge, so it didn't matter what the new teachers felt. And more importantly DCP was about openness, they wanted an atmosphere of openness. So Joanne got to become an integrated part of the school; she attended everything, and got to know the students.
Joanne was very entertaining. For example she mentioned that she found she was a good tutor in math. She relearned algebra as she helped the students with their problems. But that with English and History she tended to just blurt out the answer. She was horrible with biology, which surprised her since she had gotten an A in high school biology. She wondered if they had rewritten biology since then.
2) The next question as something about how hard had it been to get a publisher. She admitted it had been a great struggle. For her it had been hard to get an agent. Many agents had sent very polite rejection message. “We like your book idea. It is a great idea. Good luck.” From the start she hadn't planned to write this book to make money, but she hadn't realized just how poor writing this book would make her. She originally thought she would take about a year to write it. It ended up taking five years. She left a good paying job to write the book. But it didn't sound like there were any real regrets.
3) The third question was about what had she hopped to achieve with this book. She explained that about five years ago she made a list of things she wanted to do. One of them was write a book. She was interested in charter schools, charter schools were taking off and it seemed like good timing. She said it is good to understand what goes on in education, that still many children get left behind.
4) One of the members of the audience asked what was unique about charter schools. Joanne explained that charter schools were often very different from each other. But most charter schools have more buy in from the students and parents, and that the students are there by choice. Many charter schools fail because of not working hard enough to get the needed money. Charter schools often do very well because they are able to focus, they are small, and they have a mission. Many schools in America try to do everything for everybody. She did admit that there are bad charter schools, some of which are badly run, some have bad education ideas, or other issues. One of the benefits of charter schools is that they could adapt quickly. Greg & Jennifer at one point commented that they had made a ton of mistakes in the beginning, but they changed. Charter schools don't have a captive audience, if they don't attract the students, they don't get the money, so they are highly motivated.
5) Someone asked about her out look on society and young people after working with DCP, and what she felt the key was to helping students. She said she was surprised to find that she liked hyper active boys. On the whole the students at DCP were very likeable, and she had gotten to see them in different modes. DCP is a tough love school. For many students, especially students who had had some troubles, they needed the structure that DCP provided. She said the students got it. She said there is a lot of humor in the book, because there is a lot of humor at the school.
6) I asked what she felt were the bright areas in American education. She said she felt the NCLB which focused on the children who had been ignored was a good first step, but there is still a lot to do. She feels there has been some progress in the elementary schools, but it is harder to improve the middle and high schools. She feels that there are some great advantages to smaller schools. There are many people focused on the right issues. The next generation needs to be educated. She very much feels we need to be honest with the students. She is in favor of high school exit exams. The students need to know what they know or don't know.
7) Someone said it would be good after we read Joanne's book to give it to politicians. Joanne said no it would be better to buy two books, keep one, and give the second to a politician.
8) Someone asked if there would be a movie. Joanne admitted that she was surprised for there was some small chance. After a review in the Wall Street Journal she had been contacted by three different outfits expressing an interest in making a movie based on her book.
She spent most of the second hour signing books. She didn't get out of there until about 9:00 PM.
It was a very pleasant evening. Joanne Jacobs is a very personable lady. She was entertaining. If you have a chance to attend one of her book events, consider going, I think you would enjoy it.
Jennifer Andaluz, one of the two founders of DCP, started off the meeting by introducing herself, and then introducing Joanne. Jennifer told of one of the young girls that Joanne had tutored. When the young girl had started at DCP she hadn't been able to do multiplication; now she was going off to medical school to be a nurse. Jennifer thanked Joanne for her presence at DCP. Jennifer then turned the time over to Joanne.
Joanne first put in a plug asking the audience to help DCP improve their library. When DCP first got started that it didn't have much of a library, and Joanne used to donate books. She asked the audience to buy books from Books Inc., which had a table there, and donate the books to library. This was classy. I overheard at the end of the meeting something about how all the books had been bought!
Joanne mentioned one of the patterns she had noticed at DCP. The students were given time to read, and in the early fall the 9th graders would act like they didn't know what to do. They would sit in weird contortions, but by spring they would be much more comfortable with sitting and reading.
She then sat and read chapter twelve from her book. The title of chapter twelve is “the shortest basketball team in america.” Two of the teachers beg every girl in the school with a C average to join the basketball team. They felt DCP needed to field a team, real schools had teams. It was a very moving story of the girls struggling with game after game of losing with scores like 36 to 6. When they played another small charter school they lost by only 23 to 21. The girls were excited, they recognized they were improving. DCP came back the next week and beat the other team by 27 to 23. In the second semester with grades improving more students could be on teams, and DCP was able to field a girls softball team and a boys baseball team. Later one of the students was out in middle field quoting Macbeth: “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” The teachers realized that something magical was happening, “Our kids are quoting Shakespeare. That means we won.” In the book Joanne Jacobs makes the point that:
“DCP students enter the school as academic losers. They don't know how to play the game. By the standards of middle-class high schools, DCP students aren't really in the game. But if they keep working, they get better. If they stick with it, they'll win a college education.”
The students were learning this lesson. It was a moving chapter.
After finishing chapter 12 Joanne went on to say that it was important to be honest with students. The students at DCP needed to learn that they are lousy, but that they could get better. It would have been wrong to lie to them and say they were doing well. And it would have been just as bad to tell them they are lousy, and wouldn't get better. DCP told them, you are not doing OK now, but you can get better. Most of the students learned that lesson.
About here Jennifer Andaluz asked all the DCP teachers in the audience to raise their hands. The crowd gave them a round of applause.
Joanne thanked the teachers, and said she had great respect for the job they did, that it was a hard job. (There were about fifteen teachers in the audience.) She said that as a tutor she often found it hard to help one student learn, and recognized that teaching a class of twenty or more students was a challenging job.
She said that she liked the cheerful spirit at DCP.
Next she opened up the meeting to some Q and A.
1) The first question was about how she had learned about DCP. Before working on her book Joanne had been working at the San Jose Mercury as editorial writer and columnist specializing in education. She first met Jennifer when she came to talk to the editorial board about how she and Greg Lippman were mobilizing support for the charter school. Initially Joanne's plan had been to focus on another charter school up in East Palo Alto. It was in the early stages of seeking a charter. As they started hiring teachers she found she wasn't going to get the access she wanted. The new teachers said they would be stressed by her presence in their classes. She then tried another charter school, but got a similar message. She had been tutoring at DCP, with the thought of trying to get exposure to a number of different charter schools. In desperation she asked Greg Lippman and Jennifer Andaluz if she could do her book on their school. They said fine. She was surprised that they so quickly agreed. They said DCP was not a consensus school. They were in charge, so it didn't matter what the new teachers felt. And more importantly DCP was about openness, they wanted an atmosphere of openness. So Joanne got to become an integrated part of the school; she attended everything, and got to know the students.
Joanne was very entertaining. For example she mentioned that she found she was a good tutor in math. She relearned algebra as she helped the students with their problems. But that with English and History she tended to just blurt out the answer. She was horrible with biology, which surprised her since she had gotten an A in high school biology. She wondered if they had rewritten biology since then.
2) The next question as something about how hard had it been to get a publisher. She admitted it had been a great struggle. For her it had been hard to get an agent. Many agents had sent very polite rejection message. “We like your book idea. It is a great idea. Good luck.” From the start she hadn't planned to write this book to make money, but she hadn't realized just how poor writing this book would make her. She originally thought she would take about a year to write it. It ended up taking five years. She left a good paying job to write the book. But it didn't sound like there were any real regrets.
3) The third question was about what had she hopped to achieve with this book. She explained that about five years ago she made a list of things she wanted to do. One of them was write a book. She was interested in charter schools, charter schools were taking off and it seemed like good timing. She said it is good to understand what goes on in education, that still many children get left behind.
4) One of the members of the audience asked what was unique about charter schools. Joanne explained that charter schools were often very different from each other. But most charter schools have more buy in from the students and parents, and that the students are there by choice. Many charter schools fail because of not working hard enough to get the needed money. Charter schools often do very well because they are able to focus, they are small, and they have a mission. Many schools in America try to do everything for everybody. She did admit that there are bad charter schools, some of which are badly run, some have bad education ideas, or other issues. One of the benefits of charter schools is that they could adapt quickly. Greg & Jennifer at one point commented that they had made a ton of mistakes in the beginning, but they changed. Charter schools don't have a captive audience, if they don't attract the students, they don't get the money, so they are highly motivated.
5) Someone asked about her out look on society and young people after working with DCP, and what she felt the key was to helping students. She said she was surprised to find that she liked hyper active boys. On the whole the students at DCP were very likeable, and she had gotten to see them in different modes. DCP is a tough love school. For many students, especially students who had had some troubles, they needed the structure that DCP provided. She said the students got it. She said there is a lot of humor in the book, because there is a lot of humor at the school.
6) I asked what she felt were the bright areas in American education. She said she felt the NCLB which focused on the children who had been ignored was a good first step, but there is still a lot to do. She feels there has been some progress in the elementary schools, but it is harder to improve the middle and high schools. She feels that there are some great advantages to smaller schools. There are many people focused on the right issues. The next generation needs to be educated. She very much feels we need to be honest with the students. She is in favor of high school exit exams. The students need to know what they know or don't know.
7) Someone said it would be good after we read Joanne's book to give it to politicians. Joanne said no it would be better to buy two books, keep one, and give the second to a politician.
8) Someone asked if there would be a movie. Joanne admitted that she was surprised for there was some small chance. After a review in the Wall Street Journal she had been contacted by three different outfits expressing an interest in making a movie based on her book.
She spent most of the second hour signing books. She didn't get out of there until about 9:00 PM.
It was a very pleasant evening. Joanne Jacobs is a very personable lady. She was entertaining. If you have a chance to attend one of her book events, consider going, I think you would enjoy it.
Selections from Carnival of Education #45
As usually EdWonks does a wonderful job of pulling together a number of posts on education from a variety of blogs for this week's Carnival of Education. Like he says it is nice to see the diversity of subjects.
Some how I missed a post on HeartKeeperCommonRoom about how you need to know the question of what does education look like before you can figure out the answer of should you homeschool. It had this great line: "Many people make those choices based on what they think education should look like without first asking the real questions- 'what is the goal of education? 'What does true education look like?'" As they say, read the whole thing.
Tim Fredrick points out that for children to love to read it helps to give them books they want to read, and then don't quiz them on what they read. I remember how a big part of the Robinson Curriculum was having the children read, read anything they wanted, as long as they were reading. I think Dr. Robinson had his own children reading over six hours every day.
Chris Lehmann asks how do the ideas and thoughts in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell apply to Education. Then in his next post he provides some answers. I did enjoy Malcolm' s book. Maybe when I get some time I'll try to toss around some ideas about how The Tipping Point works for homeschooling.
Jim Horn was in the Carnival for a post about how voters in Colorado decided to pay extra taxes so they could withdraw from NCLB. In poking around on Jim's blog I noticed a post about how Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to find people who can teach, and avoid the whole mess of people interested in teaching being forced through education classes.
One teacher was upset that half the students in her class were getting an F. She said most of them just don't care. It would be interesting to do a study to see how many children in public schools just don't care, versus those who are being homeschooled.
Some how I missed a post on HeartKeeperCommonRoom about how you need to know the question of what does education look like before you can figure out the answer of should you homeschool. It had this great line: "Many people make those choices based on what they think education should look like without first asking the real questions- 'what is the goal of education? 'What does true education look like?'" As they say, read the whole thing.
Tim Fredrick points out that for children to love to read it helps to give them books they want to read, and then don't quiz them on what they read. I remember how a big part of the Robinson Curriculum was having the children read, read anything they wanted, as long as they were reading. I think Dr. Robinson had his own children reading over six hours every day.
Chris Lehmann asks how do the ideas and thoughts in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell apply to Education. Then in his next post he provides some answers. I did enjoy Malcolm' s book. Maybe when I get some time I'll try to toss around some ideas about how The Tipping Point works for homeschooling.
Jim Horn was in the Carnival for a post about how voters in Colorado decided to pay extra taxes so they could withdraw from NCLB. In poking around on Jim's blog I noticed a post about how Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to find people who can teach, and avoid the whole mess of people interested in teaching being forced through education classes.
One teacher was upset that half the students in her class were getting an F. She said most of them just don't care. It would be interesting to do a study to see how many children in public schools just don't care, versus those who are being homeschooled.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
An educational map of the world
This came across on one of the mailing lists I'm on:
http://www.odt.org/Pictures/poplcart.jpg
It is a fascinating picture of the world, showing relative sizes of countries according to the number of people in each country. Make sure to look for Canada, and Greenland.
http://www.odt.org/Pictures/poplcart.jpg
It is a fascinating picture of the world, showing relative sizes of countries according to the number of people in each country. Make sure to look for Canada, and Greenland.
Unschool lesson in economics (or trip to the mall)
One of the most important things we can teach children is how to use money wisely. For a lesson in economics, my kids and I hit the mall. The kids were excited to see all the stuff for sale. While in each shop, I would discretely point out the price. The kids were surprised at how much more expensive items costs at the mall. We talked about "over head" costs and how that is passed on to the consumer.
We also took a minute to watch the other shoppers. We talked about whom the shoppers were (mostly teens and early twenties) and what the shops sold (goods geared to that crowd). We also discussed impulse buying and credit card debt. I went into detail about how much an item bought on credit really costs.
We are going to do a follow up lesson after Christmas, so the kids can see how the prices change after the holidays. I especially like the end of the year sales. (That is about the only time I shop in a mall). A couple years ago, on New Year's Day, I bought (for only $9) a very nice artificial Christmas tree that would have cost me $90 if I had bought it two weeks earlier. Because of allergies, we no longer use a "real" Christmas tree. Before buying the Christmas tree on sale, we borrowed a friend's artificial tree which looked a bit on the battered side. Now, every year when I put up that discount Christmas time, I feel so happy. I think about how nice it looks in comparison to the tree we had used before. I'm teaching my children that part of the joy of obtaining something you want is waiting and saving to get it.
We also use the "Money doesn't grow on Trees" method of money management. The girls each have savings accounts and we make regular fieldtrips to the bank to make deposits. The girls fill out their own deposit slips (except the 5 year old) and wait in line to see the teller (including the 5 year old). My 11 year old is paying for much of her clothes. My 9 year old saved up money to go on a trip to Virginia to see her cousins. When the kids ask to eat out, I ask them if they are buying. Most of the time, they decided it is better to eat in. ;)
We also took a minute to watch the other shoppers. We talked about whom the shoppers were (mostly teens and early twenties) and what the shops sold (goods geared to that crowd). We also discussed impulse buying and credit card debt. I went into detail about how much an item bought on credit really costs.
We are going to do a follow up lesson after Christmas, so the kids can see how the prices change after the holidays. I especially like the end of the year sales. (That is about the only time I shop in a mall). A couple years ago, on New Year's Day, I bought (for only $9) a very nice artificial Christmas tree that would have cost me $90 if I had bought it two weeks earlier. Because of allergies, we no longer use a "real" Christmas tree. Before buying the Christmas tree on sale, we borrowed a friend's artificial tree which looked a bit on the battered side. Now, every year when I put up that discount Christmas time, I feel so happy. I think about how nice it looks in comparison to the tree we had used before. I'm teaching my children that part of the joy of obtaining something you want is waiting and saving to get it.
We also use the "Money doesn't grow on Trees" method of money management. The girls each have savings accounts and we make regular fieldtrips to the bank to make deposits. The girls fill out their own deposit slips (except the 5 year old) and wait in line to see the teller (including the 5 year old). My 11 year old is paying for much of her clothes. My 9 year old saved up money to go on a trip to Virginia to see her cousins. When the kids ask to eat out, I ask them if they are buying. Most of the time, they decided it is better to eat in. ;)
Hats off to a classy response
Yesterday EdWonk had a post linking to an article about Joel Turtel and a column by Joel Turtel. EdWonk had a derisive comment based on something in the article that he thought Joel had said. It ended up that Joel had not said the particular line. (The article was a bit confusing.) When EdWonk recognized his mistake he apologized for it. My respect for EdWonk has dramatically increased. (I've always been impressed by what a great job he does with the Carnival of Education postings.)
Links to interesting postings - 13 Dec 05
Daryl Cobranchi found, as Daryl put it, a truly wonderful essay by an assistant professor who talks about why he and his wife homeschool. It is a good read, well worth checking out. I am reminded of some studies that found that as a group public school teachers are more likely to put their children in private schools. And in some of the worse school districts in the nation, almost half of the public school teachers would pull their children from the public schools. The observation in the study was that as informed experts they recognized how bad things were.
From a Google alert I learned of an article about a young ski racer who is homeschooled so he can get in enough practice. Another alert lead me to a column by Debra Dragon, a homeshcool columnist, who talks about how many studies show homeschoolers are doing well academically.
One more Google alert linked to an article about many problems in Montgomery County public schools. This was a scary line: "But when a kindergartener is stabbed on a bus by a sixth grader and the school system doesn't make this information public, it certainly looks as though administrators are interested in protecting only themselves." The article mentions many child safety issues the Montgomery County public schools have, and how the administration seems more interested in covering up, rather then fixing.
From a Google alert I learned of an article about a young ski racer who is homeschooled so he can get in enough practice. Another alert lead me to a column by Debra Dragon, a homeshcool columnist, who talks about how many studies show homeschoolers are doing well academically.
One more Google alert linked to an article about many problems in Montgomery County public schools. This was a scary line: "But when a kindergartener is stabbed on a bus by a sixth grader and the school system doesn't make this information public, it certainly looks as though administrators are interested in protecting only themselves." The article mentions many child safety issues the Montgomery County public schools have, and how the administration seems more interested in covering up, rather then fixing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)