What If Educators Had To Face The Press After Testing?

After every professional football game, a press conference is held, where the coaches and select players go in front of the sports reporter and do a dissection of the game. (This happens as well in collegiate sports, and most any professional sports as well.) It is a time honored tradition.

The coaches, even if they are in a bad mood because of a loss, must take questions from the reporters:

Conversely winning coaches go through the same post game ritual and answer essentially the same sets of questions.

It is a public exercise in metacognition. Players as well are asked to participate in the press conference.

Sometimes, these are painful to watch, especially when the coach or players know that they should have won but did not. It is very interesting to see them, in real time, try to explain what went wrong or what went right. For many, they have data at the ready, can reel off numbers of interceptions, yards per passing play, etc. Sometimes, the coach and players make up excuses, blame the referees, or rattle-off clichés about the better team winning or this not being their week.

If you have never watched one of these, you should.

That got me thinking, what if educators had to face the press like coaches do, but after the standardized test scores come in for their schools?

Can you imagine it: A principal would be like the coach, and the teachers would be like the players. They would have to explain to their community why the scores are the way they are. What they plan to do to fix the scores, and then take questions.

Principal Smith: “Before I take any questions, I want to thank you all for being here today. As you know, this year was a difficult year a lot of changes to the rules, a lot of personnel changes at the beginning of the year. We lost a few veteran teachers, we had to bring in some rookie teachers, and of course, the poor results from last year’s scores had a lot of people thinking we would not have a winning test season this year. I believe we proved them wrong as most of the scores clearly indicate. We are moving in the right direction and look forward to next season. Are there any questions?”

Reporter 1: “Tell us Mr. Smith, what was the turning point in this year’s test scores? Who were your bright spots?”

Principal Smith: “Well, we could have done better. We always are trying to do better. Our Third grade teachers really stepped up this year, but it looks like the Fifth grade fumbled the Math portion of the test. The fourth grade held the line and pretty much did what we expected them to do.”

Reporter 2: “What will you be doing differently next test?”

Principal Smith: “We need to be looking at maybe shuffling around our personnel. Our Fifth grade needs stronger support in Math, so we will be looking to bring in a stronger math teacher. Also, we need help in our Special Ed secondary. Too many dropped questions, not answered questions. Not quite sure why that is happening. We need to look at the film, er the data.”

Reporter 2: “Does that mean you are going to fire a Fifth grade Math teacher?”

Principal Smith: “ I am not a liberty to discuss personnel matters at this time, suffice it to say that we need help in Fifth grade and our current players are not picking up the ball and running with it. So we may move, we may shuffle, we may bring in a specialty teacher.”

Reporter 3: “Who was your standout player this season?”

Principal Smith: “Without a doubt, it was Ms. Lopez. She went 4 for 4 with all of her students passing all of the tests. Here she is to talk about it.”

Ms. Lopez: “ I just want to thank God for giving me this opportunity. And the students, they did an outstanding job.”

Reporter 4: “Ms. Lopez why your students do better this year than last year?”

Ms. Lopez: “I think it had to do with how we changed out Math and reading techniques this year. We personalized the learning experience, we moved to new digital books, and we spent more time working on the basics.”

Reporter 4: “And you plan on doing that next year?”

Ms. Lopez: “We need to have a hard look at our data, then make decisions. But we seem to have done something right this year and we want to replicate it next year as well. Thank you.”

Principal Smith: “Thank you all for being here. No more questions. Thank you. Thank you.”

Questions would be shouted out by the reporters, pictures would be taken..it would all be very exciting. But we don’t treat education like we treat sports. We don’t ask educators to publicly explain their results. Maybe we should. Maybe we should begin a new ritual of having educators explain to their public exactly what happens at they schools. And maybe, we need to treat education with the same importance that we do sports.

This is possibly the WORST education-related post on Tumblr. 

This kind of “defending ourselves” IS happening in schools across the nation, it’s just not televised. And the only reason for the level of scrutiny in “sports” is because it’s a 20+ BILLION dollar industry. There are entire television networks with 24-hour sports news.

No one should WANT that level of private-sector money or economic incentivizing behind education, and the fact that this blogger is clamoring for it is disgusting. Education is not, and should not be, an industry. Education should be open access for everyone, not another gate-keeping measure. 

Secondly, let’s set aside for a moment that a player is judged solely on their own stats, rather than an average of every other player’s stats. Let’s ignore that players are specialized, and their “ratings” are based on their individual skills. (Kickers are judged on different data points than QBs). We don’t tell coaches “yeah, we know all your guys are good at different things, but they each need to increase the total number of touchdowns by 18% a year or you’re fired!” Let’s set all of that aside in this blogger’s sloppy attempt at a metaphor. 

To draw this comparison of teachers to football coaches/players only highlights the immense, almost laughable, salary inequalities that exist between the two. You want me to act like a football player? Let’s start by respecting the profession as much as we glorify football players, and start paying me like a football player. Get the hell out of here with your teacher-shaming bullcrap.      

If a girl feels uncomfortable hanging out with you alone, and you get so offended by that, it makes you angry, she probably made the right choice.

I know I’ve reblogged this recently but still so spot the fuck on.

I taught them well...

a possibly unpopular gripe

you know what bugs me so much? people who don’t work in education saying something like this:

here’s why i hate it. those tasks, while very useful, require the ability to read basic directions and utilize tools like the internet to define basic terms. also, there are many resources that the average person can access to guide them through these processes. also, i actually do expect that when my students graduate, they can read and follow directions and access resources to learn new things. these learning skills are part of the capacity building that many schools employ when teaching their students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.

also, like, you know who else complains that students never learn anything useful? STUDENTS. and students aren’t always the best judge of whether they are learning at all…have you ever heard a student say “we never do anything in here” even though you are building beautifully scaffolded lessons and your students are demonstrating growth and learning your content? yeah, me too.

meanwhile, we live in a country where lots of people think that the mainstream media just MAKES UP the news and that memes on Facebook are reliable sources of information, adults in charge of making decisions for the nation literally refuse to collaborate with one another, and people who sit in the highest offices demonstrate an utter disdain for critical thinking. we need close readers and critical thinkers. we need scientists and historians and people in all fields who value numbers and data, who aren’t afraid to ask tough questions, and who are willing to listen to voices vastly different from their own.

one might say that it’s the value of budgeting one’s money, or the cold hard reality of how taxes really affect ones earnings that really needs teaching, but to that i would say, they do learn those things. the republicans just passed a ridiculous tax bill. do you think kids across the country aren’t reading about this in their econ and government classes? do you think that in the push to provide access to college for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds that educators aren’t prepping students to understand the difficulties of taking care of one’s self?

this, to me, is just more of the disrespect and misunderstanding that plagues educators and the education systems, and it’s a lot of white noise that jams up the frequency when people who actually know what they are talking about…like people who work in schools…can speak about what their students are actually doing and what types of changes would make schools better.

if your highest aspiration for our young people is that they learn how to do something that a website will do for them for free, then i would say it’s not teachers who are failing kids.

Vitka Kempner (1920-2012): Avenger of the Holocaust

Sorry, I know that was insanely long. At least I only post these like once a month. It was also very difficult to write. As you can imagine, there’s a ton I had to leave out, even long as this is. Full entry here.

Art notes and whatnot behind the cut. As an FYI: I will be traveling for about a month and a half, so I won’t be updating very frequently. But for people in Portland: I will be at Rose City Comic Con - and to people in the UK, I will be at Thought Bubble UK.

Keep reading

Why does being a woman put you at greater risk of having anxiety? Part biology, part what we teach our kids about their place in the world.

So we’re teaching girls to be anxious wrecks and boys to disregard the possibility of consequences for incautious behavior.  This explains a lot of things. Like… why women are anxious wrecks and men are frequently surprised when it turns out their actions do in fact have consequences. And why men don’t bother asking for help even when they really need it, and thus more frequently die from treatable health conditions (including depression), while women end up getting a broad stereotype of being hypochondriacs (and then having a hard time getting treatment for legitimate health concerns).

https://www.ted.com/talks/caroline_paul_to_raise_brave_girls_encourage_adventure/transcript

Great example of how feminism serves not just women but people of all genders, including men.

what is white culture

clapping after an airplane lands

Fuck off.

THANK YOU

say it with me kids american people are not the only white people american people are not the only white people! AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE NOT THE ONLY WHITE PEOPLE.

Excuse you, but Americans aren’t purely white either. Americans are every and any race. Americans have culture too. It’s not a melting pot because cultures aren’t lost in us. It’s a salad bowl. Cultures are welcomed and celebrated by us. Anyone can be American.

Thanks for adding American cultures, it’s the first time I’ve seen someone add it in.

It got even better

ITS A SALAD BOWL- I FUCKING LOVE THAT!!

The older I get the more fiercely protective I get of younger girls. I was heading into work yesterday and I saw that 12 year old (I mentioned her before, the one who wore makeup) talking to this older man. She’s normally really bubbly but she looked a little more subdued talking to him so I go over and loudly say “Hey sweetheart, who’s this?” And the guys just glares at me and she says “oh um his name is Justin.” And I’m like “Hi Justin, how do you know her?” And he gets nervous and is like “I just saw her jogging and thought I’d give her pointers.” So I just kinda tilted my head and looked at him for a minute. He literally asked me “are you a cop or something? I haven’t done anything wrong.” So I took her to the McDonald’s near by, bought her something and had a talk about not talking to strangers. Low key I’m debating the next time I see her parents (they drop her off at the gym and leave her there for hours) to maybe have a talk with them or something. Idk if it’s my place tho

Just to add because some messaged me saying that I was being a nosey bitch: so a woman who used to go to my gym (and my same university. Like I used to see her at my job and on campus) actually went missing not far from my intersection (literally a 5 min walk away from the major intersection) on may 10 and they found her body literally last week (June 19). Everyone has been on high alert lately so when I saw this random dude talking to this little girl, my brain immediately went into defence panic mode. So yeah call me nosey if you want

This world could use more nosey b*tches.

I’ll stop being a nosey bitch when males stop being predators

Always be a nosy bitch where young girls are concerned. Always be a nosy bitch where creepy old men are concerned

His first reaction was to go on the defensive and ask if she was a cop. HE WAS UP TO NO GOOD AND KNEW IT. That girl he was talking to was 12. TWELVE.

Be a nosey bitch til the day you die. No regrets.

setup and punchline

The artist is luo li rong

The statue doesn’t have big enough titties to have been made by a man.

I know I’ve reblogged this before but the schadenfreude is too delicious.

By the way, the statue is called  La mélodie oubliée (The Forgotten Melody). Luo Li Rong also painted it:

And here she and the statue are in a more formal setting (museum or art show, I can’t tell):

“Dork ass losers”

OK not only do I think she’s a sorceress but now I have a massive crush on her

I will always reblog this.

Wtf chris

show up. buss it open. leave immediately.

Madison Hooper Equine Photography

god I LIVE for late summer nights at the barn when the sky is turning yellow and there’s a nice breeze so it’s not too hot and the only sound is the horses munching hay like those nights make me feel like I can breathe again

*deep sigh* i wish some distant relative of mine would leave me an old farm in their will so i could fuck off to the countryside and save the harvest goddess

Abba’s heroics continue today, as she saved us from a potentially nasty encounter which might have left one or both of us seriously injured. 

We went out for a hack today, the plan being to get in an easy 10km, walk, trot, maybe some canter. And at first everything went so well. The weather is balmy, there was just a hint of a breeze, the fields were green, there were sheep and lambs, and cows and calves, the wheat is growing, the rape is starting to flower on the hillsides, and the daisies are coming up through the grass, so that here and there the ground is carpeted with a hundred fallen stars. 

Abba let me open and close the gate into the sheep and cows’ field without any fuss at all, moving carefully and deliberately, and positioning herself almost perfectly. We got in some lovely trots, Abba alternating between stretching herself out and looking around with raised head and pricked ears, scanning the wide open world. There were geese in the fields, and swallows cutting and swooping through the air, and the reeds were filled with singing birds. It was beautiful. 

We crossed the donga, and rode through the open gate into the next field, where I glimpsed the loose ostrich one field over. That put a bit of a crimp in my plans, because Abba had been so generous in offering up such wonderful behaviour that I felt asking her to pass a free-roaming ostrich was a bit much. So we went to the top of the field we were in, turned around to snap some photos with the sun behind us, and then rode back at a relaxed walk. 

The path we were on bends around midway up the field and runs directly back below its upper course, to reach the gate in the donga. This also means that it heads towards the upper field, where the ostrich was. 

Abba pricked her ears as we meandered along, and following her gaze, I saw that there were now two ostriches, and one of them was walking along the fence line in our direction. Not a big deal. But then, as we kept going, so did he, and Abba and I both read something of his intent, even at that distance. I started to put my leg onto her to keep her going at a brisk walk, because if he reached the open gate between our two fields before we reached the gate in the donga, he could dash maybe two hundred metres, if that, straight down the hillside and be on top of us. 

We were almost at the donga when he reached the upper gate, and to my horror, but not surprise, he turned and made straight for us at a jog. I pointed Abba’s head for home, and asked her to leg it. She picked up a canter, and hustled us through the gate and across the donga. On the other side, I asked her to walk, and looked over my shoulder. 

The ostrich was much closer now, and coming even faster, with his wings spread in threat. We had a short dash back across the sheep and cattle field to the locked gate, and while I thought of swinging right and using the open space to lose him, I also knew that he might catch us - and the idea of Abba being on the receiving end of his kick was terrifying. 

So once again I let Abba out, and she responded. It was a heart-stopping race as far as I was concerned, Arab horse or ostrich, which would prove faster? I was pretty panicky, my mind full of images of the ostrich catching us and disemboweling Abba with a kick, or Abba bolting across the field in fear, with or without me, or getting to the gate with no time to spare, and the ostrich right there. It was also not as dramatic it sounds - Abba distanced him at a canter, so I don’t think he was very serious about attacking us, once he saw we were retreating - but even once we had left him behind I kept her trotting, which she was more than happy to do. She would probably have delighted in a good brisk gallop to the gate, but I did not want to encourage the ostrich to run any faster. 

I will say that I was pretty shaken by the whole thing. This is not one of the Ostrich Ranch birds, and he seems to be less mild mannered than Simon, who spent a month or so in Abba’s field. I don’t mind ostriches at a distance, and I am quite happy to give them space, but to have him cross a field and go through a gate to charge us - well, I am not happy about that. The farm owner is trying to get the farm from which this ostrich and his companion escaped to retrieve them, but as their owner has shrugged and left them for the last two months, who knows how long it will be before they remove their ostriches. 

Once we were safely home, and the ostriches reported at the farm office, I let Abba wander around the grassy patch outside her field to graze, and resumed work on mending my chaps, because needlework is a great activity to do when your hands are still trembling from an adrenaline rush. An hour or so later, when leaving the farm, I found that the ostrich had actually followed us right to the gate, because he was roaming the fenceline amongst the sheep and cows, which was when I could get a photo of him. 

I am so grateful to have such a brave, good-minded little mare. I don’t know many horses who would have settled down to race an ostrich without bolting, and she just calmly carried us both to safety.  

you need to edit this a little and submit it to some horsey publication (or even nonhorsey), it is a fantastic bit of short nonfiction

oh my god y’all almost got caught by that evolved velociraptor

bravo abba!!