Now THAT'S Dedication!

At Joanne Jacobs site:

As battle raged in Baqubah, an Iraqi teacher realized students wouldn’t be able to take end-of-year tests critical to their future. The roads were mined or blocked by the U.S. and Iraqi military. School directors were afraid to come pick up the tests. So she picked up the tests herself and boated across the Diyala River to deliver tests to 1,300 students.

Even Vampires Eventually Leave You Alone

The state of Washington, apparently not understanding what the words teaching shortage in math, science, and special ed mean, has decided to up the annoyance factor for experienced teachers, by requiring MO' MONEY:

Professional Certification (ProCert) is a relatively new program that requires teachers who hold initial Washington State Residency Certificates to return to education school for one to two years of additional coursework in such archetypal ed-school activities as reflecting on "their intentional decision-making skills," collegial collaboration, portfolio development and writing professional growth plans.

God forbid that teachers not REFLECT ON THEIR PRACTICE! at every opportunity. When they're not planning, grading, counseling, conferencing, and, oh, yeah, TEACHING!Why is this a big deal?

ProCert tuition is especially onerous to the targeted early-career educators who already are struggling to survive on low pay, and in many cases to repay college loans.

Moreover, the requirement is redundant. There already are established systems in place for meeting stated ProCert objectives, including demonstrating positive impact on student learning. ProCert is a program that treats teachers as slackers who must be bullied into career planning.

Teachers with excellent performance reviews and six to seven years of in-service training, teachers in shortage fields such as math, science and special education, even teachers with master's degrees in education, all will be fired unless they register for ProCert.

It is such hoop-jumping that causes educators to leave the profession early, and that keeps otherwise highly qualified teachers out of public education altogether.

Ed schools already wield far too much control over Washington's system of public education, with virtual veto power on who even gets to become a teacher, and often limiting entry into the profession to those who demonstrate a politically correct mindset or who are deemed amenable to indoctrination.

Those teachers who've been out of Ed school may not understand this rant - the situation was different, even 15 years ago.

Now, the Ed schools have moved into 1984 territory - exercising thought control on the budding teachers. For example:

• LeMoyne College of Education kicked a grad student out of its Ed school for expressing politically incorrect thoughts.
  
  
• Washington State's "dispositions" concept.

Guys, I've been there. While in grad school, I encountered the dreaded PC professor, who openly derided all who didn't parrot her twisted (and terribly misinformed) views. Fortunately, I didn't suffer in silence - I posted my thoughts on No Indoctrination. Never let it be said that computer geeks don't know how to even the score.

Small Changes to the Blog

I moved my template to the new Blogger Layout. It took little time, and, as I've found from my others blogs, it is ridiculously easy to use and modify. One of the few times in life that an upgrade is actually an improvement.