Tuesday Open Thread

The Seattle Education Association membership is meeting today and will vote on striking.  Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 29th is scheduled to see negotiations but I guess not if the teachers go on strike.

Here is an excellent summary from Summer Stinson, the head of Washington's Paramount Duty, about how we got here.  Pressure needs to be brought upon the Legislature and the Governor to fix what is really a big mess.  I'm not sure there is a confident or happy school district in the entire state about what the future of school funding really looks like.

Teachers should not have to accept less money because of the legislature’s mistakes. I sympathize with legislators who want to be done with the education funding issue. I'd like to move on with my life, too. But legislators have the obligation to come back and fix what they broke. After all, they’re going to have to revisit the funding issue thanks to their own use of short-term funds. It’s a problem legislators created for themselves.

When strikes took place in red states, teachers were supported by the public and cheered on by Democratic leaders, such as DNC Chair Tom Perez. But here in Washington, some Democrats prefer that parents not challenge the smoke and mirrors “solution” that Republicans and big business pushed and Democrats accepted.

She also calls out State Superintendent Chris Reykdal who seems to have stumbled on this issue.

For example, Chris Reykdal, who was elected as State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2016 with strong support from teachers, has now come out against teachers getting the raises they’re due. He is now advising districts to limit raises to what is sustainable with the two funding cuts on the horizon.

Look who's coming to town? Arne Duncan, here to shill his new book (October 3rd at Town Hall).  I may go with the hope there will be a comment period.  There are several other events to call to your attention:

How the Supreme Court is Threatening the Rights of Our Students - September 13th

The Self-Interested Altruism of Today’s Elite - September 20th

Teaching for Black Lives (local authors/activists) - September 24th 

Birds, Bees, and #MeToo—Helping Our Kids Build Gender Equality - October 11th

The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid - October 20th

 

From the Atlantic, why LeBron James' new school really is unique.

On school safety, stories from NPR. 

Should school staff be trained to stop bleeding (as may happen during a school shooting)?

Should we train children what to do - actively - during a school shooting? There are already training clinics for kids.

From former Ballard science teacher, Eric Muhs:

I'm HEADED back to the SOUTH POLE !!
As you may recall, I had an amazing opportunity come about in 2002 to go to the pole to work on what became the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory. Since then, I've stayed involved with project, developing teaching ideas.
I'll be posting about this here on FB, youtube, and elsewhere, and I expect to do some live webcast from the pole in December.
If you have a group that might be interested in a talk, or a classroom visit, or even a group of students that wants to design an experiment that I can take to the pole, well, just let me know. Lots of big science news from Ice Cube this summer, so it's a particularly exciting time to be involved in neutrino astronomy.

A really great A-Z article on back-to-school from the Spokesman Review in Spokane. 

What's on your mind?