Calgary board signs contract with student entrepreneurs.

An innovative project by some enterprising young school children may get them an early start as entrepreneurs. 

http://www.prlog.org/10538796-student-company-signs-deal-with-calgary-board-of-education.html

Lions and Tigers

The grade 5 students at St. Paul Elementary School performed the Lion Dance to celebrate Chinese New Year. 

PD day March 22

Teachers in the school division have been given an extra day off work to listen to a full day presentation by Rick Wormeli. 

What are his ideas? Here is a good place to start. 

http://www.schooltube.com/video/cb83856191f9470e8937/Rick-Wormeli-on-Differentiation

Reading for kids

Absolutely one of the best educational ideas to come around in a long time is the AR reading program. Kids take a quick test to establish their reading levels and then select books from the library based on their personal reading level. The children then can enjoy free reading because the books are at their level. Many teachers have 10 minutes of silent reading to further encourage reading.

When the kids have completed a book they are then encouraged to take a quick quiz on the computer to give them some feedback about how well they understand what the read.

I have heard some concern that while the computer statistics indicate that kids are participating in the program, they are not achieving high enough grades on the quizzes. I wonder if it is a good idea to test kids on free reading? I wonder if it is discouraging to some if they feel they are not doing well enough on their free reading?

School teachers get large pay raise.

School teachers in Alberta will receive the 5.99 % increase in salary but what that means for education in our province is still unclear. The shortfall for this year so far is 23 million dollars. It may mean cutbacks in the number of teachers and therefore an increase in pupil teacher ratio and therefore more work for the remaining teachers. 

So far Education Minister Hancock is asking boards to wait before making staff cuts. 

It also means increases in support staff salaries and once again possible cutbacks that mean more work for those remaining. 

Interesting links

A couple of interesting links. 

1. The world clock displays ongoing calculations of population, military spending, species going extinct and more. 

http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php

2. Cool animation of Mars fly-overs. 

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/mars-fly-overs/

In support of teachers

One thing I always liked about Oprah is that she liked teachers. It seems to me that teachers are an easy target for everyone. 

Teachers have an extremely difficult job. They not only manage over 100 individuals per day, they also have to deal with the parents. Most parents are understanding and supportive of education, however there are a few very vocal parents who have become frustrated with the system and tend to vent on the teacher. That can be disheartening when at the end of a long day when the teacher has worked their tail off trying to accommodate the diverse needs of so many to be faced with complaints which often seem to be about small issues. 

Teachers are expected to be performers delivering effective, interesting and entertaining lessons 7 out of 8 periods per day. They are given 40 minutes to research, write lessons, mark assignments and prepare for the following day. Usually performers or public speakers, spend more time preparing for their presentation then they spend performing. That is reversed for teachers. 

If you consider that the average high school English teacher with say 80 students is expected to give a meaningful written assignment every two weeks. Each assignment should be at least 2 pages in length (most of the time much longer). Thats 80 (students) x 2 (pages) x 2 (assignments per month) which totals about 320 pages per month that the teacher is expected to read, which is about the size of a novel. Marking is not light reading but heavy, careful reading with comments and meaningful feedback for each student. Now consider that this must be done in the teachers "spare" time because all day long they are in the classroom teaching. 

Now that teacher is expected to not only offer a second chance to students but insist that they re-do assignments even if the child doesn't want to. Lets say 10 per cent or 8 out of 10 students need to re-do their high school english essays. That is another 8 x 10 x 2 or 160 pages of marking for the teacher to do in their spare time. 

Unlike most employees, teachers are not entitled to have washroom breaks because it leaves students unsupervised and are expected to eat lunch while doing supervision. 

It is a very demanding, high stress job. Thank you to teachers who keep trying to make a difference in the world. You are truly special people.