Nathasha Alvarez Is Your Latina Diva On Wheels
This year Miami-Dade County Public Schools start Spring Break at the end of the third quarter which will be March 22, 2013. Nice! When we return, we have two weeks left until FCAT takes over our lives and the rest of the time to tie up loose ends. Continue reading “5 Ways For A Successful End of the School Year For Teachers, Parents and Students”
Sometimes there are groups of students who capture your heart as you capture their minds. This year, while my students may not be Einsteins, they have a heart of gold. It does happen every now and then. The last group of students who made me feel like this are now graduating seniors at their local high schools. This year, the kids have been amazingly kind and well mannered. Now to get them to have the hunger for more knowledge is the last piece to my puzzle. I don’t have much time. The school year ends at the beginning of June. The FCAT, statewide Reading test, isn’t my primary goal. Getting them to think on their own, use critical thinking skills, love novels and understand themselves is more important.
Continue reading “Some Watch Flowers Blossom, I Watch My Garden of Students”
Rick Lapworth’s view on Value Added Models takes on a funny yet, truthful view of the hypocrisy that goes with it.
What are your thoughts on VAM? Continue reading “The Golden Rule of Accountability: VAM Unto Others as You Would Have Others VAM Unto You”
It’s Thanksgiving in America. Can’t lose this opportunity to share with all of you my reasons to be so thankful this year.
From noon today until tomorrow at 3 pm, Miami-Dade County Public School teachers will be occupying the United Teachers of Dade building. They are protesting the contract which we all will be voting on tomorrow.
1. Many teachers realized that Continue reading “Occupy UTD: United Teachers of Dade Is Not Too United”
“NCLB effectively created the system of “teaching to the test” and “canned curricula” giving teachers less and less control over their classrooms, while students spend more and more time preparing for Continue reading “Seventeen-year-old Nikhil Goyal speaking at Florida International University”
This post is dedicated to my childhood friend, Bernabe Perez. He doesn’t fully understand my gripe with Miami-Dade County Public Schools treatment toward teachers and most importantly toward the students. This post might clear up some misunderstandings.
Today The Miami Herald wrote about a tentative agreement between the school board and the United Teachers of Dade. This new contract wants teachers to accept crumbs. Continue reading “Superintendent Carvalho Throws Crumbs at Teachers”
I am really enjoying this challenge to blog a post once a day. I didn’t know I had so much I wanted to share with the world. It’s very therapeutic.
Last night, I couldn’t take reading The Miami Herald online articles anymore. Its one sided reporting on the issues regarding Miami Dade County Public Schools, its school board and its Superintendent Alberto Carvalho were sickening.
The people who were reading these articles probably believed all of these untruths. There was no way that I could reach them with the truth as fast as the newspaper. It was like yelling into an empty room. Very frustrating.
I know I have better things to do with my time than focus on a system that is too corrupt to know the difference between right and wrong. But I do it because I can’t help not to do it. I can’t watch something wrong happen and stay quiet.
But I am thinking that if I share what I know with all of you, I might feel better. Maybe one day someone will stumble upon my blog and say, “Hey! Look! Someone was speaking the truth!”
So here goes. Continue reading “Miami Dade County Public School System Pays The Miami Herald $16,000 Per Month To Report”
A good friend of mine asked me why I bother discussing the corruption in our school system when it’s obvious no one cares. He is right to a degree. Almost no one cares. I care. As long as I care, I will continue to speak about the injustices and financial mismanagement in Miami Dade County Public School System. I can’t look the other way because I know that this will have an impact on our students which in turn will have an impact on our economy and the world around us.
I have a better question: Why do people look the other way? Continue reading “Are You Looking The Other Way?”