Time for Back to School

Just for fun this infographic about going back to school might be something you want to add to your Teacher Pages and Blogs:

Tweeting Students Earn Higher Grades

Twitter has entered a number of college lecture halls and shows promise of encouraging higher student grades.  In an experiment conducted at a medium-sized college, results showed that the students who interacted with their professor and the course content via Twitter scored higher grades than those who did not use the tool.

By the semester’s end, grade point averages of the tweeters were, on average, half a point higher than their nontweeting counterparts. In a 19-question student-engagement survey given over the course of the semester, using parameters such as how often students contributed to classroom discussion and interacted with their professor about course material, Twitter users scored higher than non-Twitter users.

Facebook: Teachers and Students Must be Careful

There is no doubt that as social media platforms such as Google +, Twitter, and Facebook continue to increase in popularity that learning how to use these tools in any profession is going to be a learning process. When it comes to education increasing school districts and entire states are looking to legislate how teachers will be allowed to interact online. In an article on CNN today it is reported that Missouri has enacted a law that bans some teacher-student communication through Facebook.

Low Teacher Salaries have a High Cost

I caught an interesting article in the New York Times discussing what the cost of paying teachers low salaries will end up costing us. I think that it is pretty much common knowledge that there are a number of areas in which if you pay a little now it can save you from have to pay more later. The best example is making sure to have oil changes in your car on a regular basis. For the $20 that it cost every few months for an oil change you can save the $1000 or more it will cost later to have your entire engine re-built.

Some interesting quotes from the article include:

Teachers Have Great Qualities

Empathy
The ability to bond with students, to understand and resonate with their feelings and emotions. To communicate on their level. To be compassionate with them when they are down and to celebrate with them when they are up.

Teachers Fighting False Perceptions

Over the last few weeks I continue to have the same thought. Teachers if they are going to ever get the respect they deserve are going to have to get pro-active in changing the public’s view of them and the work they do. My original thought was that a national leader would have to emerge that would coordinate nationwide teacher strikes so that communities could learn what would happen if people stopped deciding to be teachers. Then this morning I came across a story out of Livonia. It is reported that teachers there decided to hold a “grade in” sort of event at a local mall. The purpose of this event was to demonstrate to the public that a teacher’s work day does not end at 3 PM.

Layoff Notices for Teachers in Detroit

Today Detroit’s manager sent out layoff notices to 5,466 teachers. In addition 250 administrators are also being notified of lay offs as well.

The district is unlikely to eliminate all the teachers. Last year, it sent out 2,000 notices and only a fraction of employees were actually laid off. But the notices are required by the union’s current contract with the district. Any layoffs under this latest action won’t take effect until late July. No matter how many teachers lose their jobs this is just another example that many states are deciding that the budget issues should be corrected by eliminating resources for children.

It amazes me that so many people talk about how important the children are to us as  s society, and then we decide that the best place to cut budgets are in the services for children. Obviously teachers are over paid. Obviously teachers do not have to work hard. Everyone knows that teachers jobs is really just working like 5 hours a day and then they take off like 4 months a year. We don’t ask them to really try and it is their fault that the economy is in bad shape.

The other thing that is so confusing is that people who are not in unions are so anxious for the teachers unions to go away. They think that union workers get too many benefits and too much pay. How about instead of wanting other people getting less why don’t they collectively bargain better pay and benefits for their jobs?

Teachers in Nevada Protest Cuts

In Carson City Nevada teachers, students and education advocates rallied Monday against deep spending cuts and education reforms outlined in Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s $5.8 billion proposed budget. A crowd estimated at 250, most of them teachers, demonstrated outside the legislative building in support of more money for public schools. On the steps of the legislative building, teachers and parents protested Sandoval’s plan to hold general fund spending to $5.8 billion for 2011-13, cutting hundreds of millions in state support for K-12 education. Sandoval and the Republicans appear determined to stick together to block any Democratic moves to raise taxes, which require a two-thirds majority vote.

Classroom Management Tips for Teachers

Inspiring students to be motivated and engaged in the learning process is an essential part of managing a classroom. Teaching students while calmly and effectively managing disruptive behavior is a vital skill for every educator.

Experimenting with new behavior management methods can help determine what works best for you and your students. Their unique personalities and challenges make every class different; a technique that proves effective for one student may not work well for her classmates.

Here are five tips you can try in your classroom. The more tools you have in your toolbox, the more effective you’ll be at managing a variety of classroom behaviors.

Good Reasons for Teachers to get Masters Degrees

With the way the political climate is today it is difficult to imagine a time when professionals made the decision to enter the field of education. While teachers unions in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and around the country are fighting for their lives it can be hard to imagine what a teaching career will look like five or ten years from now. Despite the difficult times teachers are currently going through it can still be important for educators to consider their careers through long term thinking, and to work towards getting a Masters Degree. There are still a number of reasons to get a Masters Degree including the following.