Who are we fighting for?

In my casual research tonight on the Occupy Wall Street movement, I came across this video, called "Occupy the Department Of Education":



I was really surprised. The Common Core Standards are, in my humble opinion, probably the best federal initiative for public education since I've started teaching, and maybe even ever. They are clear, measurable, rigorous and allow teachers plenty of creative freedom in the classroom. But then, was this demonstration really about the standards? I could see PTA members troubled over New York City's questionable recent history with public education. Mayor Bloomberg took over the schools and made miraculous gains by lowering the standards. But now the Common Core will raise them. Are people angry because they worry their kids might not meet the standards after years of low standards and be held back, as is the practice in New York? Or are they just angry they didn't have a say in whether or not the standards were adopted?

It's clear that many people, both on the left and on the right, currently feel alienated from their local, state and federal governments. I also came across this image tonight, which I thought was interesting. (And, as a teacher, I love Venn Diagrams!)


I guess my main concern from watching the Occupy DOE video is that I don't want the tone in this country to turn so combative, so "people" vs. "the man" that we throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. I don't want to see systems that can work abandoned because people feel disempowered (i.e., public education as the enemy.) When really, low standards for public school students is what we should be fighting.

Apps, Apps, Apps!

An amazing presentation at the LWP Technology Conference on Sunday by Amy Vujaklija enlightened me to a number of amazing smart phone applications that can be utilized in the classroom.



Common Core

View the standards for math and literacy by grade level - no more lugging around heavy and cumbersome binders!



GoodReads and GoodReads BookScanner

Check your students' comments and track their reviews with GoodReads' App, and scan the barcode of any book to read the GoodReads review. Great for book talks!



Home Library

Scan in your classroom library and keep track of all your titles and their costs. You can actually check books out to your students on your iPhone, so you'll know who's reading what at all times, and be able to decrease the number of "lost" books, or even hold students accountable. You can even send them a friendly reminder about the book right from this application!



TeacherPal

A personal organizer for teachers. You can track attendance, grades and behavior. It creates data you can share with students, parents and administrators to make sure all kids are successful.




Edmodo

A way to stay connected with students. Send notes, reminders about homework or assignments due, be accessible to your students for homework questions.



Dragon Dictation

Great for special needs students who have "scribe" as an accommodation on their IEP. Students can dictate their writing, and the application records it as they speak. Unfortunately, the only way to punctuate is to manually add periods, commas or other punctuation.



Dictionary.com

A great ap for teachers and students for building vocabulary. The word of the day is an added bonus!