Saturday, January 16, 2010

The U.S. Constitution - Lesson #2: The Structure of Congress

Article I, Section I - All legislative power herein shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

This simple sentence describes the very basic structure of the legislative branch of our government, but does not describe the massive amounts of debate and compromise needed to create our government, specifically the legislative branch.

Under the Articles of Confederation there was a unicameral (one house) legislature where the states had equal representation (one vote each). This section of the Constitution creates a bicameral (two house) legislature, named Congress; the two parts being named the House of Representatives and Senate. At the Constitutional convention both ideas were debated. Many wanted to keep the unicameral system with equal representation, known as the New Jersey Plan. The other plan, known as the Virginian Plan, sought to make a bicameral legislature with both houses membership being determined by the population of the state. After much debate (which more of it will be shared in up coming lessons), they compromised on a bicameral legislature. One house's membership would be based on the population of the state (House of Representatives) and the other would be based on upon the idea of equal representation of the states (Senate).

One principle you see in this section of Article I is that of the separation of powers (principle of dividing the powers of government between separate but equal branches). Each branch of the government has specifically defined powers laid out in the Constitution. The specific power given to Congress is legislative power; the power to make laws. One overlooked item in this section is the fact that ALL legislative power is vested in Congress. When a president writes executive orders, or a regulatory commission makes new rules without a law from Congress they are usurping the power given to Congress by the Constitution.

Associated with this is the principle of checks & balances (principle of each branch having a set of checks on the power of the other branches). Since the Congress is a two house legislature that means there is a series of checks and balances on each other so that the House and the Senate do not get more powerful than each other. We will examine these checks and balances over our entire study of the Constitution.

But for today that is all I will discuss. The next lesson will focus on the structure and setup of the U.S. House of Representatives. Any questions? Class dismissed.

Friday, January 15, 2010

My Perfect School - Grading Policy #1

If anyone knows me, they know a huge stress and angst I have felt this year in my teaching job this year has been due to over regulation of the teachers by the administration. Specifically its over regulation of grading practices and policies. That is what I intend to focus on today for my perfect school.

Last year I implemented a grade weighting system intended to show more clearly a correlation between grades and learning. I call it the 90-10 weighting. The summative assessments are weighted heavier than the formative assessments, specifically in my class ninety percent of a grade is determined by their summative assessments and ten percent of a grades is determined by the formative assessments.

Formative? Summative? What do you mean Adam? For those of you who are not educators I will explain these terms. Formative assessments are those assignments that form the knowledge or skills students need to learn. This would be like the notes, in class assignments, and homework given by the teacher. It is there so that the student can practice and accurately form the knowledge correctly. Summative assessments are those things that summarize what the students learn, like tests, quizzes, essays, projects, etc. Everyone clear on the vocabulary? (Seven second pause for questions) Good moving on.

The reason behind this grading weighting is to put the emphasis back on learning not on the process or how hard the student works. I explain it to my students like this. What things that the teacher gives you to do in class really tell you, as a student, if learned the material. Does the homework tell you learned the material? Do the notes show you learned the material? Most kids instinctively point to their tests as that things that tells them if they learned the material. So if we are grading based on what they learn tests, quizzes, projects and other summative assessments need to be the largest grade weight in the class. The grade then reflects what they have learned.

In my school we would have a system similar to this. It would be the policy of the school that teachers would have to implement a form of this system. Summative assessments would be the largest weighted grade. It would then be up to the departments and/or individual teachers to determine what they proper division between summative and formative would be.

One criticism that I have heard on this system is the fact that a student could take the quizzes never do any of the assignments and still pass the class. That is very true. I know a student who did just that. He was a smart kid. He came up to me about three weeks into the year and asked me, "If I just pass the quizzes and don't do any of the homework can I still pass your class?" I said, "Yes, because you are proving to me that you learned the material."

Other criticisms I hear is about kids who are poor tests takers or don't get it the first time. A teacher will need to make allowances for factors like that. A policy they implemented this year at my school is the ability to retake an assessment they did not do well on. That would also be the policy of the school. The teacher can set reasonable guidelines for a student to retake or assign an alternative assessment. To some that means you have to correct your quiz first. For me it involves doing all the assignments you may have not completed before that assessment was given. Either way the poor test taker and the student who maybe a little bit slower still has a chance to show the teacher that they learned the material.

I plan on addressing grading policy a little bit more in detail but this is good place to start. Comments or questions? (Side note: Blogspot does not seem to recognize summative as a real word.)

Thursday, January 14, 2010

News of the Day - 1/14/2010: Transparency

So one news article, or maybe its a column I don't know, caught my attention today. Here is the link:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/01/joe-biden-update.html

So basically this story goes into all the claims made by the Obama Administration that their president would be one of the most transparent administration. Well that's not so true. The author goes in great detail to show how even a meeting with the chief of transparency for the recovery programs is a closed meeting; no press allowed. As well as many other meetings that are closed to the press.

The bigger issues is that President Obama speaks out of both sides of his mouth in a lot of cases. He was against and attacked Sen. McCain's tax on health insurance. There is now a tax on our health insurance in the proposed legislation. He said there would be no lobbists working in the White House. Only took eight days for them to break that and then recind the executive order. He wants to allow gays in the military (which I support by the way), but no that is also delayed. He fought against President Bush keeping guest logs to the White House as private but then defends the same practice when he is in office. He even broke a law that he cosponsored as the junior senator from Illinois, which technically could be an impeachable offense. You want more proof of his broken promises, go to this story by the AP:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100114/D9D7MDGG0.html

Comments?

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

My Perfect School - Extended School Year and Day

There are not real good stories in the news to which I want to comment (Most of the news is focused on Haiti right now. My prayers go out to all the men and women trying to dig their way out of the rubble). Also, I am currently trying to find an article to confirm some information presented yesterday in during "The Savage Nation." As soon as I can find the links I will more than likely post it as a News of the Day.

This is one area in which I actually agree with our President. I believe the school year and/or day in the United States needs to be extended to make us more competitive in the world. Where I differ with the president is that it should not be federally mandated. Education has always been a state and/or local issue. Therefore its up to the states and local communities to make those changes. But enough with politics, here is my reasoning behind the extended school day and year.

The main reason the school year and/or day needs to be extended is because we are working within a system that was used over 100 years ago when the society was very different. The nine month school calender was implemented because families need their children to help with the planting and harvesting of the fields. Now in the last 100-150 years our society has moved from primarily rural to urban and suburban. The traditional nine month school calender no longer is valid for about eighty percent of the nation.

The longer school day is also need so that students have a rich and complete education. Nowadays so many different things take up our student's lives when they should be focusing on school and their education. From basketball practice, to dance recitals and work. All of these things are great and beneficial but how much education has been lost to extracurricular activities, both inside and outside of school. That though is a topic for another time.

The school year would be comprised of three fifteen week trimesters. There would fourteen weeks of content and a week of exams. Between each trimester there would be at least a week break. Generally I would love to see if we could make it so the school "year" runs January through December but that might be stretching it at this point. In the traditional school year format, the first trimester would run roughly from the last week in August to the week before Christmas in December. I have planned for a possible week off during Thanksgiving, as well. The second trimester would run from the beginning of January through the beginning of April. The last trimester would run from the middle of April to the beginning or middle of July. Students would then get 5-6 weeks off as "summer break." By the way this plan is primarily for high schools since that is the level in which I teach. I fully support year round school for elementary schools with a track system properly implemented.

I would have school start between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning. Each class should run between forty-five and fifty-five minutes. Students would have to take between seven and eight classes a day. This means they would let out between 3:30 and 5:00 in the afternoon. I would not use block scheduling. I know the benefits of the block but find the faults of the system out weight the benefits. In a traditional period schedule student actually have more seat time with each teacher. They get more practice in essential skills in math classes. There it is easier for a teacher to see patterns of behavior, both academically and behaviorally, in the students.

Comments or questions? Feel free to post them. Lets start a discussion.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

My Perfect School - No Central Adminstration

Another feature I plan on contributing to my blog is my plans for the school I will build one of these days. Here I will try to explain some of the features that will be part of that school.

The first one is getting rid of as much of the bureaucratic central administrative structure. I see too many good teacher become deans, principals, and supervisors. It is my opinion administrators do almost nothing to influence the lives and education of the child. It is the teacher's in the classroom that make the different nine times out of ten. Here is my plan.

There will be managers of different specific areas but the teachers will run the major administrative functions of the school by working in various committees. The managers and the committees will work together saving money and time. The managers would be preferably teachers with experience but some are not required. Here is one example.

There will be an Evaluation Manager. It is their job to observe and evaluate every teacher in the school multiple times a year. These evaluations along with other evaluations from department chairs, colleagues, parents, and students will form a better picture of a teacher's strengths and weaknesses. The Evaluation Manager will then present to a rotating committee of faculty who should and should not be rehired during for the next school year. Also if there is a special circumstance the committee can be called to release a teacher prior to the end of the year. The teacher evaluation committee will not know exactly what teacher it is since the evaluation information will all be anonymous, with each teacher getting an ID to represent them at these meetings.

There will be an Discipline and Attendance Manager that keeps track of said records. If a student is sent to the discipline office. They fill out the paper work, set up appointments for conferences on behavior problems, dishes out disciplinary consequences, if needed, as well as other things that will fall into their domain. If there is a student that needs to be suspended or expelled then the discipline committee will be called to discuss the issues and give the student their due process.

The hiring of teachers will be handled primarily by a committee of teachers, specifically the Department Chairs, to search for and interview possible candidates. Budgetary items will be the concern of a Finances Manager and his staff.

Those teachers who serve as committee members will be compensated in some way out of the school's budget. They would either receive a stipend or an hourly rate for their work. Managers would be a salaried position at the school.

So what does everyone thing of my idea? Will it work? Give me your critiques.

Monday, January 11, 2010

News of the Day #1 - 1/11/2010: Harry Reid

Today I would like to comment on the story that broke this past weekend. The story below is from the local newspaper the Review-Journal.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/reid-sorry-about-race-comments-81088102.html

I have several issues related to this news that I relate to you in no particular order

First, did Harry Reid lie? I would argue his statement, while entirely improper and filled with derogatory language is the truth. President Obama, senator at the time of the quote, is a light skinned black man since he was parented by an Kenyan and a white U.S. citizen. Also President Obama speaks very good English and does not use Ebonics or a black dialect of the English language to reach people. He is a example all of us should live up to and exemplify. So if Sen. Reid did not lie, then I have no real issue with what he said.

Secondly, while Sen. Reid did use a term that could be labeled racist its none of our business. The person who he was making the comment about accepted his apology. While I may not agree with the language he does have the freedom of speech and made amends for his actions. Also this was like 2 years ago, so it has little validity today. I don't think Sen. Reid is racist.

The bigger issue in this whole news story is the hypocracy of the Democrats. If this had been a conservative or a member of the Republican Party (which is not always the same thing), the democrats would have been calling for guilty party's head. He would have lost all power and position in Washington, D.C. The fact that both Sen. Reid and former President Clinton are both quoted with offensive material in the new book "Game Change." Yet there is no outrage from the democrats shows them to be hypocrites in the worst way.

Lastly, Republicans and conservatives need to get off this issue, right now. To push it is only going to waste time and energy that could be better spent attacking the many wrong things Sen. Reid is doing as a Senator and majority. They should before the press daily about the nontransparent way this bill is being compromised on with Pelosi, Reid, and Obama. They should talk about how no senator has even seen or read the Senate health care bill that has been sitting on the majority leaders desk since it was written. They should be talking about how the procedures of the U.S. House and Senate are being subverted to pass a bill, polls say a majority of Americans do not want. To double on the hypocrisy from my previous point; the actions of Reid, Pelosi and Obama are exactly the same methods they complained about several years ago against the Republicans. They should lead by example.

Anyway, just this government teacher's take on the news of the day.