http://edutales.tattleteaching.com Sites and Sounding Off Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:01:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Tidbits from the last three weeks: Half of all art & music positions will be eliminated next year, and the remaining ones will be cut the year after.  In 2012, there will be no art, music, dance, or theater teachers in LAUSD. A teacher who went down to file paperwork at Beaudry ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/12/03/ugh/ Tonight I was over on Tom Vander Ark's blog.  TVA, you might remember, was formerly of Bill Gates' ed foundation and one of the short-listed candidates in the last LAUSD Superintendent search--the one that yielded. . . da-da-da-dah. . . Admiral Brewer.  He's posted a bit from Fareed Zakaria's interview ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/11/30/literacy-in-the-21st-century/ Anthony Cody, a National Board-certified teacher in the Bay Area, has launched a project to get teachers to write to President Obama.  He's planning on gathering the letters and mailing them to the White House on November 23rd. Here's mine: Dear President Obama, I'm not a worrywart by nature. I teach 5th ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/11/20/resegregation-what-i-worry-about/ Is this where you want them to go? http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/11/16/where-your-taxes-go-war-v-education-2/ This week teachers learned the district is thinking of: 1. cutting days out of the school year 2. increasing class sizes in January 3. cutting the number of teachers again. And then the following landed in my inbox: Position/Title: Director of Operations Organization: The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools Organization Description: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/11/05/ever-more-bureaucrats/ Another brilliant idea from the LAUSD bureaucrats downtown.  Three years ago they spent hundreds of millions of dollars installing classroom ac units with thermostats programmable only downtown (remember all those bond measures you're still paying for?).  This summer we've returned to our classrooms to find that they've reprogrammed the thermostats ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/09/17/hot/ This last week two incidents highlighted the district and its administrators' disregard of freedom of speech. First, 15 8th graders at Liechty Middle School were denied their diplomas when they turned their backs on their graduation keynote speaker, LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia. They were protesting increased class size and teacher ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/06/25/lausds-inner-nazi/ A few weeks ago the LA Times did an expose on a teachers being kept out of the classroom at full pay because of misconduct or allegations of misconduct.  Here's a new movie coming out on the NY equivalent.  While the cases in the LA Times story seemed to show ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/06/23/teacher-misconduct/ From the American Friends Service Committee.  Hurrah for Quaker simplicity... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/06/20/war-v-education/ Teachers are cut. Class sizes go up. Summer school goes away. But somewhere, perhaps on a campus near you, sits a person paid to watch tests. I'm not sure which tests: CELDTS go to Sacramento, as do CSTs (I think). Maybe it's the forms and affidavits teachers ... http://edutales.tattleteaching.com/2009/06/15/the-keeper-of-the-testing-papers-lausd-waste-contd/