Wow, I haven’t written here in a really long time. I’ve been so busy with school and other activities that I haven’t taken the time to blog about important personal things.
So here’s an update:
So that’s about it in a nutshell. I’m going to try to blog more here on a regular basis.
The average Utahn has to work from January 1 to April 17 to pay taxes.
Utahns carry one of the higher tax burdens in the West. A per household measurement is a more accurate calculation, experts say, because Utahns have more children on average than any other state.
Here, again, is where more education is needed. (See my post yesterday on education in domestic violence.)
In a state where “abstinence only” can be taught in health classes, there is something wrong with this picture. Our tax burden could be gradually decreased if our educational efforts in various areas were revised….
This morning’s Deseret News has published an article reporting that 93% of schools in Utah earn U-PASS grades.
U-PASS stands for Utah Performance Assessment System for Students and the reported results are for 2004-2005.
Schools that passed had either 75 percent or more of their students proficient in language arts, math and science or had a substantial number of students (who were not proficient) making considerable progress toward proficiency. “These first-year results give meaning and context to the U-PASS testing system,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington. “What we especially like about U-PASS is that it gives students and teachers credit for growth in their learning.”
Under No Child Left Behind, if one group of students misses the mark on test scores or participation rates, the whole school fails to make adequate yearly progress. That’s because federal law aims to shine a bright light on areas where children might be falling behind to compel schools to address problems.
But U-PASS judgments are more holistic.
“They give you credit for growth that (NCLB reports) do not,” said Mark Peterson, spokesman for the State Office of Education. “(NCLB reports) are strictly status where as U-PASS is status and growth.”
Read more here.
This is good news for our schools which often are under criticsm and scrutiny. Our educators work hard given the large class sizes and low amount of money (relatively speaking) with which to work.
Today the entire school community where I teach took a field trip to see the Diavolo performance. It was awesome.
Diavolo is a company that incorporates modern dance with larger than life-size objects to educate audiences about teamwork, trust, dreams, and inspiration.
Diavolo was founded in 1992 in Los Angeles by Jacques Heim to create large-scale interdisciplinary performances which examine the funny and frightening ways individuals act with their environment. The craftiness and wit of Diavolo is captured by the stylized fox logo. Constantly changing the image presented to the audience, Diavolo has developed a movement vocabulary that creates an almost cinematic experience of powerful images that develop abstract narratives of the human condition.
The company is comprised of dancers, gymnasts and actors who create performances collaboratively under the guidance of Heim. The sets created are outrageous and surrealistic and form an intrinsic part of each piece of work. Everyday items such as doors, chairs and stairways provide the back-drop for dramatic movement ā leaping, flying, twirling ā that creates metaphors for the challenge of relationships, the absurdities of life and the struggle to maintain our humanity in an increasingly technological world.
Part of the show was getting students up on the stage to acutally do some performing. They had students totally trusting the dancers by having them fall into their arms from a platform.
Some of us travelled to the University on our “grease bus” – our bio-diesel school bus:
We weren’t permitted to take flash photos but I managed to get a few without my flash:
…..getting rid of our National Forests! Yes, that’s how we fix things – sell stuff!
The Secure Rural Schools Forest Service FY 2007 Initiative is aimed at reauthorizing the Secure Rural Schools program for another five years. To help fund this initiative, the Administration recommends selling a limited number of acres of National Forest System lands around the nation. Lands that are potentially eligible have been identified and are displayed in a table at the following link Lands Potentially Eligible for Sale by State and National Forest.
Here are the Utah sections of forest proposed to be sold (click link).
Learn more about the Sale of FS Lands.
There you have it. Instead of reducing expenditures in other areas (like the WAR department), we’ll just degrade our environment further by cutting down forests for services that should be funded without going to this extreme.
Just when you think you have heard it all……
Published on Friday, January 27, 2006 by the Progressive
Teacher Awaits Day in Court
by Matthew Rothschild
Deb Mayer was a teacher of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana, during the 2002-2003 school year. On January 10, 2003, she was leading a class discussion on an issue of āTime for KidsāāTime magazineās school-age version, which the class usually discussed on Fridays and which is part of Clear Creekās approved curriculum.
There were several articles in the magazine that discussed topics relating to the imminent war againstIraq, and one that mentioned a peace march.
According to Mayer, a student asked her if she would ever participate in such a march.
And Mayer said, āWhen I drive past the courthouse square and the demonstrators are picketing, I honk my horn for peace because their signs say, āHonk for peace.ā ā She added that she thought āit was
important for people to seek out peaceful solutions to problems before going to war and that we train kids to be mediators on the playground so that they can seek out peaceful solutions to their own problems.ā
Mayer claims in a pending federal lawsuit that the school chilled her First Amendment rights because of this one conversation in class, which she says took all of about five minutes, and that the school district refused to renew her contract because of it. (The quotes above are taken from court documents.)
I spoke with Mayer on January 24āmore than three years after this incident took place.
āIt didnāt dawn on me that people would object to me saying peace was an option to war,ā she says. āI didnāt even think it was controversial.āBut it sure turned out to be.
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Last October an opportunity came my way that is perfect for me. I took over as Coordinator of my school’s Service-Learning Program. The program was set up at the time for juniors and seniors to go into our community at various agencies and volunteer once per week during school time, with accountability in the form of written reports and reflections. Although my predecessor did a great job of “getting the ball rolling”, there were apparent (to me) flaws with the current system. After the first semester I changed the format of this program.
Beginning with this year’s juniors, all students must have one credit in service-learning, incorporate their experiences into their evolving portfolios at the end of each year, and develop a senior project (sort of like a thesis, only with a more hands-on approach).
My job also entails attending conferences and service-learning fairs at local colleges. I designed and developed two projects as and added feature to this program whereby undergraduate students will come into our school and work with me on the service-learning opportunities for a given class they are taking. My projects were recognized and accepted by local colleges and universities for this semester.
Service-Learning is a vital component in the school. The vision is to incorporate it into the curriculuar structure of each course taught in our school. My job is to provide education and opportunities to facilitate the implementation of this concept.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged city academy, education, salt lake city, service-learning, Utah
Hold onto your schoolbooks, folks.
Your kids still aren’t safe. Take action. (see end of this post)
Background:
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, there is a provision that requires schools to hand over children’s contact information to the Pentagon. To refuse to do so results in the Federal Government Funds for that school being pulled. Under this provision, parents have the option of requesting that the school not release records of their children – the “opt out” clause.
Common Dreams has posted an article from the Vermont Guardian which learned that Parents cannot remove their childrenās names from a Pentagon database that includes highly personal information used to attract military recruits.
This was discovered after many parents had completed the opt-out requirements, only to have their children still be contacted by recruiters.
Parents must contact the Pentagon directly to ask that their childrenās information not be released to recruiters, but the data is not removed from the JAMRS database, according to Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Not only that, the Pentagon is spending millions of dollars on this effort.
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Greg Palast has taken a test that is part of NCLB, which mandates taht all children achieve on-grade level progress. However, the test creators do not take into account socio-economic issues when creating questions.
NO CHILD’S BEHIND LEFT: THE TEST
By Greg Palast
New York — Today and tomorrow every 8-year-old in the state of New York will take a test. It’s part of George Bush’s No Child Left Behind program. The losers will be left behind to repeat the third grade.
Try it yourself. This is from the state’s actual practice test. Ready, class?
“The year 1999 was a big one for the Williams sisters. In February, Serena won her first pro singles championship. In March, the sisters met for the first time in a tournament final. Venus won. And at doubles tennis, the Williams girls could not seem to lose that year.”
And here’s one of the four questions:
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Today’s Salt Lake Tribune has published a Taxpayers Guide to the 2006 Legislative Session. Tax issues are expected to be a predominant theme during this session.
Included in the guide is information on issues such as:
The Deseret News this morning has published a poll which indicates that about half of Utahns would rather have their tax dollars spent on education than to receive a tax cut. This information comes one week before opening day of the Utah Legislative session, Monday, January 16th and in the face of a report that Utah is facing an accelerated economic growth period.
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Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 