By Tom
Regular readers to our blog may have noticed that I frequently mention NCATE. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education is responsible for holding colleges of education to high standards. And that’s important. No one wants their child spending six hours a day with someone who didn’t go through a decent teacher education program.
So how does it work? How does NCATE go about checking out teacher schools to see if they’re any good?
Do you want to receive your Stories from School posts through Twitter? Now you can . . . .
Some days I feel like Sisyphus, carrying the same basket of
laundry upstairs just to have it end up downstairs to be washed, or picking up
toys just to have them appear on the floor as if a godly punishment for
hubris. Again and again, day in and day out. Some days are better than others.
However, this week, it was especially Sisyphistic.
Yep, that’s right. I just used that adjective. Check it out
on Google in a month and see if it has caught on with the teenagers, “Hey
Jennifer, you are looking totally Sisyphistic with your physics textbook.”
Anyway, I do have a point. And an education
point at that. It goes like this . . .
I have to admit, I have a bias here. I feel comfortable around technology and use it for education and social learning. I teach two online courses and use technology in my classroom for podcasts, vidcasts, and instruction; my students use technology as well for more than word-processing. So when I saw that Michigan was leading the way in online courses, I had to read the article, oh, and by the way, the article is online.
I am again looking forward to the classroom. I feel like it was long ago when I was there. I miss the interactions between students, watching young people make meaning of the world around them. I miss the opportunities to improve compassion and skill and purpose. I miss working with teachers who, by default, are amazing people with amazing talents to impact the learning of children.
COME ONE, COME ALL! Share your “you can’t teach that” story. Share what caused a curriculum complaint. Perhaps it was a book, a unit, a topic, or a method of teaching. 
Teachers can teach anyone, anything. Last week I taught my neighbor’s son how to ride a bike. Being a highly trained teacher, I used widely accepted educational practices, current trends in education, and data based analysis. Read about our week through my daily notes . . . .
This meme was sent out by Nancy Flanagan, a thoughtful blogger at Teacher in a Strange Land. The purpose was to get a group of people sharing their thoughts on what policymakers should know.
So, after many hours of whittling down my list of 104 items (trust me, that was down from the previous number), I have my five.
1. Forty-seven minutes is not an adequate or desirable amount of time to do deep, mature, extensive, thinking. You know . . . the level of thinking that creates meaningful learning and life-long learners.
2. . .
Disclaimer to all administrators past, present, and future: I am sure you are all wonderful people. Work hard, care about students. Just wonderful. Smiley folks. Perhaps even a bit jollier than the average person. Smarter, too, I reckon. However, a colleague of mine just started his administration program and I have to admit, I felt a bit of sadness.
By Tom
This month we’ve heard both presidential candidates address education. Nothing too surprising was said: Obama’s in favor of parents getting more involved in their children’s schools but against vouchers. McCain’s in favor of vouchers but against teacher unions. However, there was one issue that both candidates seemed to agree on, at least in principle: merit pay.
The idea of merit pay has been batted around ever since I can remember. It sounds like a great idea. A win-win. Good teachers get more money while the students get a better education. Competition leads to better products and lower prices in the retail industry, right? Athletes thrive when they compete, don’t they? It sounds like a simple solution to a very complicated problem.
Which is exactly why it won’t work, at least the way most people envision it.