GLOBAL
Citizen Digital. World’s most celebrated teacher Peter Tabichi meets Pope Francis at the Vatican The Pope shook Peter’s hand, gave him a rosary, and they held a brief conversation about the importance of the teaching profession following the service.
New York Times. In China’s Crackdown on Muslims, Children Have Not Been Spared To carry out its campaign, the party needed not only new schools but also an army of teachers, an overhaul of the curriculum — and political discipline… “Teachers are the engineers of the human soul,” the education bureau of Urumqi recently wrote in an open letter, deploying a phrase first used by Stalin to describe writers and other cultural workers. The party launched an intensive effort to recruit teachers for Xinjiang from across China. Last year, nearly 90,000 were brought in, chosen partly for their political reliability… The influx amounted to about a fifth of Xinjiang’s teachers last year, according to government data.
tes (UK). Teacher training framework sets bar ‘worryingly low’ Eight specialists in teacher education have come together to voice their concerns about the initial teacher training (ITT) framework in a blog for the British Educational Research Association (BERA).
Teachers College. The Key to Improving Refugee Education? It’s supporting teachers, argues TC’s Mary Mendenhall at a Global Forum The method and open-source materials developed by Mendenhall and her students to train and support refugees as teachers is now in use in 20 nations worldwide. Mendenhall is currently leading a four-year research study on teacher and student well-being in northern Uganda and South Sudan.
UNITED STATES
Chalkbeat.
1) New report dings Denver’s preschool program quality, but there’s more to the story Part of the reason the Denver Preschool Program has less stringent rules on class size and teacher credentials than what national researchers recommend is because it follows state licensing rules. Those rules don’t require lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree, assistant teachers to have an entry-level credential called a CDA, nor 4-year-old preschool classes to be limited to 20 children…
2) Why a local university is investing in a new teacher residency program to fill a pressing need in Detroit and Dearborn schools The Wayne State program begins with an 18-month period in which the students will receive a $40,000 stipend, complete a master’s degree, and receive a teaching certificate. Following that, for two years teachers would receive mentoring and professional development while teaching.
Cincinnati.com. More US schools teach in English and Spanish, but not enough to help Latino kids: Classes taught in both languages help students from various backgrounds, but many districts have fought to keep Spanish out of schools. Would-be bilingual teachers often face challenges such as the cost of their education and the tests they have to take to become certified in bilingual education. “We know that there’s a greater need for bilingual education teachers than we can meet right now,” Schall says.
Education Week
1) Chief Justice Warns That ‘Civic Education Has Fallen By the Wayside’ He mentioned the work of the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who over the past two decades has “quietly volunteered as a tutor at a local elementary school, inspiring his court colleagues to join in the effort.” That judge is Merrick Garland, whose nomination for the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama was blocked by Senate Republicans in 2016. Garland volunteers at J.O. Wilson Elementary School in the nation’s capital.
2) Finding New Ways to Engage With Language in New Mexico Pauletta White, assistant superintendent for student support services in Gallup-McKinley County Schools, said the district has at least one Navajo language teacher at every elementary school… But White said teachers, who must be certified by both the Public Education Department and the Navajo Nation, are hard to find.
3) More States Say They’re Teaching Media Literacy, But What That Means Varies Training teachers and surveying instruction is complicated in part because the media landscape itself is shifting so quickly, said McNeill. “That’s why it’s so hard,” she said. “The curriculum would have to constantly change to keep up.”
4) Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Teacher Recruitment?
5) Teachers, the Robots Are Coming. But That’s Not a Bad Thing. If designed with educator input, these technologies could free up teachers to do what they do best: inspire students to learn and coach them along the way.
6) Teaching in 2020 vs. 2010: A Look Back at the Decade And, perhaps as a consequence of some of these policy shifts, even getting teachers into classrooms is tough. Fewer people are enrolling in colleges of education, and states have reported persistent shortages, including in perennial areas such as special education. There’s been more of an emphasis on recruiting teachers of color into a predominately white profession, but the growth has been slow.
7) The 2020 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. TC Professors include Henry (Hank) Levin-37, Christopher Emdin-73, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn-103, Jeffrey R. Henig-108, Amy Stuart Wells-111, Aaron M. Pallas-113, Thomas Bailey-118, Michael A. Rebel-155, Judith Scott-Clayton-160, Sarah Cohodes-194, Henry (Hank) Levin-37, Christopher Emdin-73, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn-103, Jeffrey R. Henig-108, Amy Stuart Wells-111, Aaron M. Pallas-113, Thomas Bailey-118, Michael A. Rebel-155, Judith Scott-Clayton-160, Sarah Cohodes-194, Jordan Matsudaira-196
Hechinger Report. Black boys need the guidance and mentorship of black male teachers: Why do black men comprise just 2 percent of the U.S. teaching force? A positive snowball effect of representation in classrooms will also increase the number of black boys who aspire to become teachers, aiding generations to come.
KRQE. State lawmaker introduces bill hoping to solve statewide teacher shortage After 19 years of teaching, State Rep. Debbie Sarinana (D) says it’s time for some changes… That’s why the Manzano High School math teacher is sponsoring House Bill 92, in hopes of starting a Teacher Residency Program.
New York Times. Overlooked No More: Margaret McFarland, Mentor to Mister Rogers … received her master’s degree from Columbia University in 1928 and later earned her Ph.D. from Teachers College at Columbia University… McFarland was also fond of teaching by parable, gently guiding her students toward clarity by telling stories and asking questions rather than providing critiques. Her methods made a lasting impression.
Star Press. Ball State announces new dean of Teachers College Anand R. Marri will join the leadership team at Ball State University as dean of Teachers College, effective July 1, BSU announced on Tuesday… In 2003, after earning his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he joined Teachers College at Columbia University. At Columbia University, his research focused on economic literacy, multicultural and urban education, and teacher education…
Teaching Tolerance. Welcome to The Learning Plan Builder. Based on the four domains of the Social Justice Standards (Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action), our Learning Plan Builder allows you to select meaningful student texts, choose how you’ll teach them and how you’ll assess student learning.
The Atlantic. What School Could Be If It Were Designed for Kids With Autism: Tracy Murray’s kindergarten classroom in New York City has a unique approach to supporting students on the spectrum. When a student on the spectrum is present, majority-neurotypical classrooms typically have one certified teacher—many without special-education training—and one or more teacher’s aides, who help students with special needs follow teachers’ directions and complete academic tasks. ASD Nest, meanwhile, places two certified and specially trained teachers in each participating classroom, which allows one of them to provide one-on-one social, emotional, or academic support whenever the need arises, without disrupting the lesson or pulling a student out of the classroom.
U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid. StudentAid.gov Now Offers Aid Resources All in One Place
Washington Post.
1) America’s schools are more diverse than ever. But the teachers are still mostly white. People of color are less likely to go into teaching and less likely to stay in it. Education requirements, low pay, unhappy workplaces and lack of respect all can contribute. The result: At every step on the road from high school student to classroom teacher, people of color fall away. They are less likely to go to college, less likely to enroll in teacher preparation programs, less likely to graduate and less likely to be certified as teachers, the Education Department found in a 2016 report.
2) How to get kids to love to write Some schools of education do a poor job of teaching students how to teach the subject, and some school districts do not provide teachers with a valid curriculum. There are, too, teachers saddled with as many as 200 students — “we feel like we’re drowning,” one teacher said — who can’t assign many writing assignments because they don’t have the time to grade them.
3) Teach for America to Senate president: Ferguson to step into biggest role yet In a recent interview, Ferguson considered what the Teach for America version of himself might have said about becoming Senate president at the same time Maryland was about undertake the largest effort in a generation to overhaul public school education. “At the end of the day, if we focus on the fundamental point that every child deserves true access to maximizing his or her potential, we will make the right choices,” he offered.
NEW YORK STATE
AM NewYork. Board of Regents proposes expanding TOC II and certificate programs to increase teacher diversity In 2016, the state awarded $3 million from the My Brother’s Keeper initiative to fund TOC programs. Out of the 16 colleges and universities awarded, seven are in New York City; Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Medgar Evers College, Herbert Lehman College, Manhattan College, Queens College and the Teachers College at Columbia University.
New York State Education Department. Board of Regents Meeting Agendas: January 13-14
NEW YORK CITY
Gothamist. Why Are NYC Parents So Upset At The Idea Of Scrapping ‘Gifted And Talented’ Programs? “There is no consistent curriculum or standard of pedagogy that gifted teachers are required to invest in,” said Matt Gonzalez, the Integration and Innovation Initiative Director at NYU Metro and a member of the SDAG panel. One of the many problems, it seems, is that the general population has a misguided conception of what being “gifted and talented” means. “It’s not something that we discovered, it’s something we invented about a century ago,” said James Borland, a professor at Teachers College…
Teaching Residents at Teachers College (TRatTC). 2012-2020 production report: 18 peer-reviewed publications, 54 global conference presentations and counting!
