Education Station NewsOK.com Blogging Community

Oklahoma City schools Superintendent Karl Springer left me a voicemail last night referring to yesterday’s post about the Dallas district layoffs. Here’s part of his message:

“Hi Wendy, it’s Karl Springer. Hey, I’ve been reading your blog on the Dallas Independent School District. We have openings in Oklahoma City for some teachers - several elementary positions. Be nice to be able to get some of those people from Dallas to apply.”

If you know someone who was affected, you might want to pass this information along. A list of vacant positions is available here: www.okcps.org/jobs/okcpsvacancy.pdf.

Expected layoffs came today for teachers across the Dallas Independent School District. This is a simple post to send you over to the Dallas Morning News’ education blog, where you can read posts from those teachers and their colleagues about the impact today is having. Some comments are rather poignant.

http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/an-open-post-for-those-who-wer.html

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

I covered a student summit yesterday at the Cox Convention Center where 200 high school freshmen from Oklahoma City talked about school dropouts.

You can read the story and watch related videos at www.newsok.com/news/education.

Then share your feedback here.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

CutoutDissection.com. It’s more than a Web site. It’s also the legal name of a North Carolina 19-year-old formerly known as Jennifer Thornburg.

Thornburg changed her name and started a Web site by the same name to protest animal dissections in schools, according to this article.

Separately, Oklahoma City science teacher Sherry Groeger-Godwin was selected from Northeast Academy as one of 185 middle and high school teachers nationwide as a fellow in the year-long 2008 New Science Teacher Academy. The program is designed to curb what the National Science Teachers Association says is a high attrition rate of science teachers.

Groeger-Godwin is one of four teachers selected from Oklahoma. The others are Holdenville resident Orvilla Coleman of Moss Public School in Holdenville, Mead resident Angela Joines of Silo Public School in Durant, and Pryor resident Leland “Terry” Newton of Union Intermediate High School in Broken Arrow.

Share your thoughts on dissections and science education in general in the comments section below.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

Educators should be paid like babysitters, says EducationNews.org columnist Robert Archer, who’s going on his 13th year as an English teacher in Washington state. They should be paid baby-sitting wages not to insult them over the work they do, but because he figures they would make more money. Archer admits he doesn’t have all the kinks worked out for his idea, which is based on what his children’s babysitter charges, but it’s an intriguing one to read nonetheless — just click here.

Meanwhile, this article from Education Week illustrates what some school districts nationwide are facing as the economy stumbles. Their actions, such as halting new school construction, are compounded by worries about future hits if sales tax revenue declines further as consumer spending constricts.

And this bit of news out of Tulsa gives a glimpse into how the state’s largest district is dealing with both factors: teacher pay and a tight budget.

Share your thoughts on teacher pay and school funding — particularly the views in the above links — below in the comments section.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

I was up earlier than usual this morning to cover International Walk to School Day. I went to Western Village Academy, a charter school in northwest Oklahoma City that accepts all students in the neighborhood.

The morning weather was brisk – cool enough that I could see my breath when I reached the school just after 7 a.m. – but invigorating, too.

You can read more about the walk at Western Village and watch a video about it tomorrow on NewsOK.com.

In the meantime, I’d like to know: Did you walk to school growing up, and do you let your children walk now?

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

Last night’s Oklahoma City School Board meeting was held at John Marshall High School instead of at the administration building.

The meeting started out with a rather significant turnout, and Chairman Kirk Humphreys told the crowd they made up “the greatest number of happy people I’ve seen in some time.”

The school’s choir kicked off the meeting with two songs, and first-graders from Martin Luther King Elementary School followed with one more. I don’t know what to make of it, but I did notice that only two of the twelve first-graders were boys.

The audience dwindled to just less than 50 people, including district administrators, once those presentations and the recognitions of more than 70 teachers and students were done. In other words, there were no more public comments than usual — three people spoke last night — because the meeting was held out at a school site.

Still, I liked seeing more of a school, even if the lack of wireless Internet access meant I had to wait to file my story about a truancy contract until after the meeting. (UPDATE: This link will take you to the PowerPoint presentation made to the board last night about the truancy program.)

The move also made for a little more banter among board members. At a previous meeting, Thelma Parks made a small fuss about traveling elsewhere, and Humphreys offered to pick her up and alluded to the movie Driving Miss Daisy.

“I did come as Miss Daisy, and he was really nice to me,” Parks said Monday as the meeting came to a close.

“And she was totally charming,” Humphreys cut in before Parks wound down her remarks.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

After leading workshops last week at a regional math convention, state Teacher of the Year Heather Sparks is back in the news again.

All Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit organization that tries to help struggling students, issued a congratulations today to Sparks.

Sparks graduated from an All Kinds of Minds program called Schools Attuned and went on to become a program facilitator.

The Oklahoma City Taft Middle School teacher said the professional development she received through Schools Attuned “significantly changed” her teaching and helped her with her algebra and pre-algebra lessons.

Oklahoma was the second state to launch a statewide Schools Attuned program thanks to funding from the state Legislature and Department of Education. The funding allows people to go through the training without paying the standard $1,500 fee.

More than 2,500 Oklahoma educators have gone through the program to date. If you’re one of them, share your thoughts on the program below.

UPDATE: Sheryl Flowers with Schools Attuned called me this morning, Oct. 7, to update the number of Oklahoma educators who have gone through the program. She said it’s up to 3,904 in 231 districts.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

-PERSONAL LOOK AT DISTRICT LAYOFFS: More than 60 central office employees in the Dallas school district were shown the door at the start of this week, and more cuts - including teachers - could be on the way later today as officials try to remedy an $84 million budget shortfall. Here’s a view on the situation from Donald Claxton, who briefly headed the communications department at Oklahoma City Public Schools under former Superintendent John Porter after working in the Dallas district.

-BOYCOTT MOVES TO THE BALL FIELD: An Illinois state senator from Chicago took his stab at school funding reform to last night’s playoff game between the Cubs and the Dodgers last night. Sen. James Meeks also led a student boycott of lower performing schools at the start of the year.

-CONFUSING STUDENT ASSESSMENTS: This Washington Post story talks about a literacy program’s assessments that start on a seemingly arbitrary scale of 2 to 16 and then switch to the letters J through P. I’m not questioning the scale or the program there, but the article did make me think about whether parents can always understand how their students are evaluated.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

State schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett is reading Don Freeman’s book “Corduroy” to students at Oklahoma City’s Mark Twain Elementary this morning.

The reading time with students is part of a national effort to break the world record for the number of children reading the same book with adults on the same day.

A nonprofit organization called Jumpstart is spearheading the “Read for the Record” event. Jumpstart also raises money to provide books to children in low-income families.

Some of my favorite books to read at the age of Garrett’s audience today — prekindergarten through second-grade children — were the “Amelia Bedelia” stories.

What are your favorite childhood books?

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter