Without a doubt, for anyone who is interested in the education field, be it as a teacher, a student or a parent, teachingtips.com is an excellent resource to have at your finger tips. Literally. But, one post regular readers will not want to miss is this one which lists 50 must read blogs by educators.

And, I am very proud to announce, that Crux-of-the-Matter is listed as # 5 on this list under the “general” blog category and as a blog that “focuses on issues in the news about education, politics and disabilities in Canada and all over the world.”

The categories of the 50 best education blogs are: “general,” “subject specific,” “international,” “technology” and “tips and tools.” And, as Christina Laun writes in the preamble:

“Whether you’re new to the teaching field yourself or a seasoned veteran, you can find inspiration, advice and shared experiences by reading the blogs of other teachers. Both established bloggers and those new to the game like the bloggers listed here can offer some interesting and sometimes entertaining reading material for anyone involved in the education field.Check these new bloggers out the next time you’re looking for something educational to read.”

A great resource and I am pleased to be able to post on it.

At this time of year it is a good time to honour classroom teachers. As I wrote not too long ago, Prime Minister Harper recently honoured them as well. They are dumped on by the public so much of the time for the problems within the system, their accreditation bodies, their union leadership and the various provincial government’s — all situations beyond their control or influence.

What they can influence, however, are the children in their care — in loco parentis – in place of the parents. Like parents, they love children and they want only the best for them. And, yes, in spite of two months vacation every summer, teachers work very hard. For all those who complain that they work just as hard, that may be true. But, that shouldn’t take away from the dedication and commitment most teachers have for their jobs.

And, contrary to popular opinion, most teachers do not have two months off in the summer. Both my husband and I had to complete our university and graduate degrees during that period — all so we would be better teachers.

So, for today, let’s look at what teachers do in the life of our children and grandchildren. Think about it. Children spend most of their day — and young lives — with their peers and their teachers, not with their parents. As a result, the affect those teachers have on their outlook on life is tremendous.

What is nice is that at this time of year, most people put aside all their grievances with the “education system” and think of individual teachers. It is the time, as Moira MacDonald writes, when parents and their children frantically look for just the right thank you card or end-of-the-year gift – a gift that is personal enough to show that the child and his or her parents really do appreciate all the teachers have done during the year.    

One teacher I have been following this year is a high school English teacher. He has his own blog called “The Lamppost.”  Take a visit to his blog. He obviously stretches his students to the max to cover not only current affairs, but the classics — literature and philosophy both. He is an example of how dedicated teachers can be and I know there are many more out there in the blogosphere that I have missed.

To teachers everywhere, thank you. And, if you got another collection of thank you “mugs” this week, just start another shelf. Each one will remind you how important you are in the life of the children you teach.

H/T to Cathy Cove for MacDonald’s column.

We all know the often misquoted reference to “those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it.” Some think it was said by a Roman philosopher, Napoleon Bonaparte or Winston Churchill. Well, it was 19th century philosopher and essayist George Santayana in his Reason in Common Sense, the first volume of his The Life of Reason.  Apparently his actual words were:”Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.”

Therefore, I think the Toronto District School Board’s decision last Thursday night to approve the development of a curriculum for a Grade 11 course on genocide and crimes against humanity in the 20th and 21st centuries was a good idea. As Natalie Alcoba of the National Post reported in Thursday’s paper it ”delves into examples of genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries, including the Holocaust, Armenia and Rwanda.” She also wrote a related column in Friday’s paper entitled “Genocide Course Sparks Contoversy in Toronto.”

In it she reported:

“The committee of Toronto District School Board officials and university academics that reviewed the complaints insists that politics has no place in this debate. ‘Disagreeing about the appropriateness of the label of genocide is not the same as denying that the killings occurred,’ committee members said in a report that was submitted to Toronto school trustees. ‘Genuine historical controversies do belong in a high school curriculum and can be beneficial in giving students an in-depth understanding of complex events and in teaching students critical thinking.’”

I agree. Not only that, the course will be very relevant for the here and now because “Students will examine identity formation and how ‘in groups’ and ‘out groups’ are created, including an analysis of how bias, stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination impact on various groups.” That will make it real because even in individual classrooms and schools, such groups exist.

While I have been critical of the TDSB on previous occasions, I think officials and trustees were right to make this decision. These various genocides happened within the last hundred years or in Rwanda’s case, likely in the Toronto students’ own lifetime. And, while current regimes may not like it (e.g., Turkey), the only way we can honour the memory of those who lost their lives is to talk openly about these historical events. In fact, to deny the various genocides will continue to dishonour the dead.

Although additional crimes against humanity may be added to this curriculum, such as the Ukrainian famine of the 1930’s, the bottom line is that a Grade 11 history curriculum on modern day genocide is a good idea for all the right reasons. 

To paraphrase Santayana once again: Unless students are told about historical crimes against humanity, there is always the chance that new generations will repeat them.

C/P at Jack’s Newswatch.

This is the first in what could be a series of articles on how parents can develop a “Home Curriculum Plan” to home school. This “Home Plan” will be like a blueprint or a map. It is like a blueprint because before you can build a house, you need to build a foundation upon which everything else is connected. Or, it is like a map because in order to get to a destination, you have to know where you are going to begin with. 

 But, let me assure parents, flexibility can be built into any Home Plan.Essentially, what I will be doing here is what I used to do when I taught teacher education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

First and foremost, like anyone who teaches, parents need to be able to articulate what they believe about teaching and learning — their personal philosophy or orientation — because before anyone can determine what their priorities are they have to know what is important to them as individuals and as parents and what isn’t. For example, one parent might believe that “learning by doing” activities and field trips are the key components of their child’s learning. Another, might prefer a more structured situation.

So, in a notepad, write down the answers (in rough or point form) to the following questions.

1. Why do you want to homeschooling? Or, why do you home school?
2. What are your goals as a homeschooler? Short term? Long term?
3. How do you want your children to benefit? Short term? Long term?
4. What do you believe is the purpose of a good education?
5. How do you think children should be taught and why should they be taught that way? 

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Can you believe it? Blamed for everything negative that has ever happened to Ontario, including bad weather, the Mike Harris government apparently did something right.

Beginning in 1999, students in Grade 9 were told that they had to complete 40 hours of community service during their four years of high school. They also knew that they had no choice in this requirement, that the volunteering was mandatory. Meaning, that the 40 hours had to be finished successfully in order to graduate from Grade 12 with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).

However, as Moira MacDonald wrote in a column in yesterday’s Toronto Sun:

“While schools encourage students to start thinking about it in Grade 9 and suggest doing 10 hours a year, there are always those last-minute few who have to pull out all the stops in April, May and June.”

“Gerald Mak, student trustee with the Toronto District School Board, tells me some students have not been able to graduate when they hoped, because they couldn’t get their volunteering done in time.”

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I both agree and disagree with former Mike Harris Education Minister, John Snobelen on issues in his column in today’s Toronto Sun.  I agree that the Dalton McGuinty government has achieved peace in our schools by giving in to most, if not all, teachers’ unions demands. I disagree, however, that teacher-librarians are not really needed in school libraries. 

That is a very shortsighted view, to say the least but currently in line with what many school boards across Ontario, and no doubt across Canada, are trying to do — to replace teacher-librarians with library technicians. And, why are they doing that? Not for the good of the children that is for sure. They are doing it for one reason and one reason only — to save money!

Snobelen seems to be suggesting that one way to deal with this situation is through linkages to public libraries and public librarians. How is that possible when most public libraries are already being underfunded (see ‘Bye Bye Books’)by their respective municipal governments? In fact, like school libraries, most Ontario libraries have fewer qualified librarians, more library technicians and reduced library hours of service.  And, let’s not forget, there are many rural Ontario communities that don’t even have a public library within driving distance.
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When I went to teacher’s college, it was drilled into us that, as teachers, we would have a tremendous amount of responsibility because we were “in loco parentis” or ”in place of parents.”

Now, what exactly does that mean? To me, at that time, it meant that teachers (under the authority of their principal) were to be responsible for the safety of their students in their classrooms or when they were on supervision in the hallways or the school yard. In fact, we were told we were legally responsible during such times of supervision. It was that serious an issue.

However, times seem to have changed so slowly, few may have noticed that “in loco parentis” no longer seems to apply. While I know all school boards and principals do their utmost to protect the children and youth in their care, and most classroom teachers really do watch out for their students, parents need to know what is happening.
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Rarely, do classroom teachers and public school administrators leave comments on this blog. Let’s change that right now. I want to hear from them. If they want to contribute to the debate about why public education is the best model for parents and their offspring, this is the time to do it. 

But, this debate should not be left up to me. I too was a parent and had major problems with dealing with teachers — people I taught with in fact. Moreover, the problems and anger that people have now with the Ontario system cannot be unique to this province alone.

That said, I simply cannot believe that everything about the publicly funded systems, secular, French or Catholic, are all negative. Most of us of adult age today managed to survive our school years. In fact, some of us thrived. But, if parents want choices, beyond the “system” as we know it, what do today’s  educators say to them?

The bottom line is that I would like to hear from educators AND parents. What parents need to know is: What do teachers have to say about the school choice option (as in charter schools, vouchers, etc)?  If visitors have any doubt about what the term “school choice” has come to mean, I would suggest they visit an excellent site called the Society for Quality Education. 

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Note: Revised and shortened slightly after initial posting.

Not long ago I posted articles here on what makes an excellent school and a successful principal. I also published my disagreement with the Toronto District School Board decision to fund an Africentric black-focused school. This post will deal with an excellence piece in the Toronto Star. Written by Kristen Rushowy, it is about the new principal at C.W. Jeffreys high school in Toronto.

Well, when I read the Kaplan article, I was struck how much the new principal at C.W. Jeffreys, Jim Spyropoulos, seemed to meet the criteria of what makes a school and principal excellent. A difficult situation for anyone, C.W. Jeffreys is a high school of 890 students and where young Jordan Manners was shot and killed in May of 2007. Yet Spyropoulos takes it all in stride.  Obviously, the right kind of leader in the right place at the right time.

And, what exactly does Spyropoulos do? He apparently is just himself, greeting students with “How you doing, man, you good?”  In fact, he greets all the students at the main door in the morning and says goodbye to them in the same spot at the end of the day. He continually walks the halls, directing traffic, speaking to students as he goes. On one of those walks one young girl with a Muslim head scarf shouts “Mister, will you come to our class today and see what we made?” “Definitely girls, of course I’ll be there.” And, later in the day, he IS there.
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Written by Cathy Cove and originally published in the Goderich Signal Star on March 21, 2007. Used here with the author’s permission.

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To say that tutoring students is big business is an understatement. Parents are choosing to hire tutors for their children at ever increasing rates. A 2004 survey conducted by Ontario Institute for Studies (OISE) authors D.W. Livingstone and D. Hart found that just over a quarter of parents report purchasing private tutoring for a child within the past three years. The survey also found that among those hiring tutors, the overwhelming majority rate the quality of their (oldest) child’s school as at least satisfactory, and almost half are satisfied with the public school system in general.

When it comes to augmenting studies for understanding and proficiency, students and their families have always depended on classroom teachers for help. Arrangements can still be made with classroom teachers for extra help. Some parents have paid for private tutors selected from a list of individuals provided to them through their local school.
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