Education talk

[NTP66]

Can't be worse than philly.

I'd rather live in the South than the Midwest, that's for damn sure.

Well, Fayetteville is a Midwest city in a (somewhat) Southern state...

I assume you're in NC, then? That really is middle-of-nowhere, NC.

[Tomas]

Can't be worse than philly.

I'd rather live in the South than the Midwest, that's for damn sure.

Well, Fayetteville is a Midwest city in a (somewhat) Southern state...

I assume you're in NC, then? That really is middle-of-nowhere, NC.

No, the "meaningful" Fayetteville (AR).

[NTP66]

Source of the post No, the "meaningful" Fayetteville (AR).

I actually know somebody else who lives in Fayetteville, AR. Tonight, I play the lottery!

[Freddy Rumsen]

Things north of I-40 is questionably South in Arkansas...Monticello, etc... is the South in Arkansas.

[Freddy Rumsen]

"In a recent survey of 1,000 faculty members, commissioned by The Chronicle, almost two-thirds of the respondents said they thought students today were harder to teach than those in the past, and they overwhelmingly said that student engagement had gotten worse. Administrators, who are well paid for supposedly assuring that students get good educations, apparently have never heard of grade inflation or bothered to read the studies questioning the value of evaluations, since they routinely turn the job of ranking the faculty over to the people the instructors grade."

"At the University of Vienna, I arrived convinced that students would pay full attention only to a class conducted in discussion, so I found it uncomfortable to stand at an elevated podium and lecture. But the students not only listened, they reacted so powerfully that I became fixated on making my next lecture better than the last. I resumed this practice when I taught in Belgium and Germany. The more attentive my students, the more enthusiasm I had for teaching as well as possible."

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Stude ... gnId=10293

[RonnieFranchise]

Adapt or die: interesting article about small colleges in uber competitive New England closing down. Schools that have no discernible outstanding programs, haven't expanded to Masters' Degree programs, online programs, and still have sticker prices $50+ all in are having trouble staying afloat.

Perhaps this isn't all that surprising.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/a ... ket-newtab

[DigitalGypsy66]

If you could tick boxes for everything my small college has done recently, it would look like your second sentence. Almost in the same order.

-We've added five Master's programs in four years, and will add a few more soon
-We've moved several degrees to completely online, with more to come soon
-Tuition is $38K or so; similar colleges in our region cost about this much, so we can't go above that number
-We have 2-3 programs that are well-regarded

Whew.

[dodint]

The college I went to for my undergrad and masters has changed its name for the first time since 1959. It sounds like a small thing but it annoys me a good bit. Making this decision in the name of branding is counter-productive to me. I'm probably going to stand on principle and not change it on my resume unless they send me two new diplomas.

[count2infinity]

Like, complete change? Or just a minor one?

[dodint]

It's a state school but the satellite campus name changed. So it's still recognizable as part of the state university system but has a fancy new name millennials and their kids will like!

It's called the Global Campus now, similar to PSU's World Campus.

[Pavel Bure]

Higher Ed is moving in the direction of needing to provide ease of access and customer service rather than sell themselves on academics or sports teams. I worked for a sizable for-profit that attempted to make the move to non-profit. It did not go well and they are now closed.

The larger well know. Universities will adapt and quite frankly crush competing schools in terms of the ease and service offered. Adjusting costs won’t happen for a while and it will probably take a significant downturn in attendance for it to occur.

That downturn in attendance is what ended up killing the school I worked for (along with historically bad graduation rates and no programs to set the school apart) insert just a pinch of gross mismanagement and smaller schools will have a very hard time surviving.

[RonnieFranchise]

2nd time through playing the “What colleges do you want to look at” game.

All he knows is he doesn’t want to go to school with his brother. For the one year they will overlap that would be uber convenient.

He’ll be a junior so there’s some time.

[count2infinity]

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0222447

Thus, children in a kindergarten curriculum that emphasized play, improving self-regulation, working together and helping one another, and hands-on learning performed better academically, showed less bullying and peer ostracism and more kindness and helping behavior than students in more traditional classes, and teacher enthusiasm for teaching soared.

Can't say I'm surprised...

[shmenguin]

several profiles of new jersey teachers are actually making less money as they take home more gross salary - because of insurance contributions increasing as you move up the pay schedule. this isn't like tax brackets. they're actually taking home less, despite making more in many cases.

mrs shmenguin picked a doozy of a career.

[NTP66]

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0222447

Thus, children in a kindergarten curriculum that emphasized play, improving self-regulation, working together and helping one another, and hands-on learning performed better academically, showed less bullying and peer ostracism and more kindness and helping behavior than students in more traditional classes, and teacher enthusiasm for teaching soared.

Can't say I'm surprised...

This is definitely noticeable to me when I go to back to school night and other events for my daughter compared to when I was in school.

[count2infinity]

It's the weirdest thing in education... seems like every single theory on how to educate kids is on a pendulum. And it just swings back and forth, back and forth. The "test, test, test, test" days are going to come to an end within the next decade or two, imo. The pendulum has reached its max and it's going to start swinging back.

[robbiestoupe]

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0222447

Thus, children in a kindergarten curriculum that emphasized play, improving self-regulation, working together and helping one another, and hands-on learning performed better academically, showed less bullying and peer ostracism and more kindness and helping behavior than students in more traditional classes, and teacher enthusiasm for teaching soared.

Can't say I'm surprised...

Didn't read the entire article, but my wife read "Spark" and has urged me to read it. It seems to be along the same lines - more physical activity = better brain activity.

[MWB]

It's the weirdest thing in education... seems like every single theory on how to educate kids is on a pendulum. And it just swings back and forth, back and forth. The "test, test, test, test" days are going to come to an end within the next decade or two, imo. The pendulum has reached its max and it's going to start swinging back.

Yup. We have started something kind “Mindfulness” this year. Promotes self care and basically handling life and stress. However, we’re not really doing away with the testing yet. Hopefully that starts soon.

[MWB]

So made a post about this in politics thread, because it was originally political. Now it’s shifted more to educational, or something. Basically, a parent posted on FB that he heard some kids say they heard a teacher had told her class “Pence should be shot in the head.” Parents then trip over themselves saying she should be fired. She was placed on leave.

This then started making the news, at which point people from all over the country started leaving reviews on the schools FB page, basically dropping it from a rating of 4.9 to 2.5. They commented how awful the school is and how could they let such a teacher exist.

Today, the sheriff released a statement saying, “There has been no threats made to anyone. Any statement that were made by the teacher will be addressed by Union County Public School System,"

It might be good if parents went to the school administration if they have a problem instead of social media. Very little chance she can keep teaching anywhere around here.

[Ted]

So made a post about this in politics thread, because it was originally political. Now it’s shifted more to educational, or something. Basically, a parent posted on FB that he heard some kids say they heard a teacher had told her class “Pence should be shot in the head.” Parents then trip over themselves saying she should be fired. She was placed on leave.

This then started making the news, at which point people from all over the country started leaving reviews on the schools FB page, basically dropping it from a rating of 4.9 to 2.5. They commented how awful the school is and how could they let such a teacher exist.

Today, the sheriff released a statement saying, “There has been no threats made to anyone. Any statement that were made by the teacher will be addressed by Union County Public School System,"

It might be good if parents went to the school administration if they have a problem instead of social media. Very little chance she can keep teaching anywhere around here.

[NTP66]

It's the weirdest thing in education... seems like every single theory on how to educate kids is on a pendulum. And it just swings back and forth, back and forth. The "test, test, test, test" days are going to come to an end within the next decade or two, imo. The pendulum has reached its max and it's going to start swinging back.

Yup. We have started something kind “Mindfulness” this year. Promotes self care and basically handling life and stress. However, we’re not really doing away with the testing yet. Hopefully that starts soon.

We had an all-hands meeting today at work where half of it was dedicated to mindfulness. For the sake of the children, I hope their lessons were better than ours.

[MWB]

Did you have to close your eyes and focus on breathing? That’s what we had to do. I declined.

[dodint]

Very little chance she can keep teaching anywhere around here.

Might there be support for the position that a teacher, an influencer of developing impressionable minds, who thinks assassination/violence is the answer to solving an ideological dispute shouldn't be teaching anywhere at all? That's not a disagreement about classroom demeanor; it's a defective mindset incompatible with functioning in society.

[NTP66]

Did you have to close your eyes and focus on breathing? That’s what we had to do. I declined.

Yes. Yes we did. Box breathing nonsense.

[MWB]

Very little chance she can keep teaching anywhere around here.

Might there be support for the position that a teacher, an influencer of developing impressionable minds, who thinks assassination/violence is the answer to solving an ideological dispute shouldn't be teaching anywhere at all? That's not a disagreement about classroom demeanor; it's a defective mindset incompatible with functioning in society.

I agree completely. The problem is, there isn’t anything beyond hearsay that this happened. It’s currently being looked into by the school administration, but because of parents going to social media instead of the administration to start with, it doesn’t matter what really happened.