I’m curious to know if anyone is using the Oxford Shakespeare Project site, which provides both print texts and online resources (”translation” options, graphic novels, etc.) for students.
With Shakespeare back on the radar as most states work toward Common Core, is it the right balance of cost and resource?
From Time magazine comes the news that General Electric’s foundation is getting into the educational funding business.
This morning the GE Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the multinational General Electric Company, announced a landmark $18 million investment to support state implementation of the new Common Core standards and train teachers how to use them …
GE is giving $18 million to Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit consulting organization launched by David Coleman. Coleman, a Rhodes scholar and classicist who built and sold a successful student assessment company before moving into the nonprofit sector, is one of the architects of the Common Core standards. Student Achievement Partners will use GE’s money to create institutes to train teachers, build an online tool for sharing resources and lessons, and help teachers model best practices with the new standards …
In addition to the size of the donation, GE is running toward controversy rather than away from it. The Common Core is not universally popular, and among many conservative (read: business-friendly) state legislators, the shared standards project is an object of great suspicion, if not outright opposition. And there is a determined group of activists and academics trying to bring it down.
I asked Bob Corcoran, the President of the GE foundation, why they were stepping into the breach when there are so many less controversial ways to be involved in education. He described the development of the standards as an incredibly hard-won achievement, but then pointed out that the coming implementation of these new standards would be the real “test of mettle, a test of commitment.”
Question for you: If you had the funding you needed, what kinds of PD would your staff benefit from if you are in a Common Core state? Now … how could you provide it for no money?
Side note: is it just me, or does it make you just a teensy bit uncomfortable that the guy who wrote the majority of the standards is now getting a huge influx of cash for his organization to help implement them?
Read the entire article here.
A while back, we talked about the many questions facing librarians as they assume responsibility for assessment.
Here, we probe the second question from the scenario — how do we look at our students’ level of achievement and turn the mirror on ourselves? How can we learn about our strengths and weaknesses as teachers and guides by looking at how well our students did? What can we learn and improve upon?
Our scenario pal Mike is back again … what advice can you give him? We hope to be able to publish your perspective in School Library Monthly. Wouldn’t it be fun to see your name in print and share it with administrators as their parting idea about the power of librarianship in your building?
Thanks!
