Vad innebär då ett EdCamp? Jo, det är en knytkonferens ideellt anordnad av lärare och för lärare där man träffas några timmar och samtalar och utbyter idéer kring ämnen som man är intresserad av. Det finns inga inbjudna talare eller förutbestämt innehåll. Istället så bestäms innehållet på plats genom att deltagarna sätter upp lappar om vad man vill prata om på ett inrutat schema, en s.k. grid. Syftet med diskussionerna är att utbyta idéer, kunskaper och erfarenheter kring ämnena. Ingen är ansvarig för diskusionen utan det bygger på att alla aktivt bidrar.
Vill du vara med den 29 oktober så gå in på hemsidan där du kan läsa mer och anmäla dig her på sidan. Det finns också en Facebooksida här.
Platserna är begränsade så först till kvarn gäller. EdCamp är gratis så allt du behöver ta med dig är ett öppet sinne för diskussioner och nya möten.
Jag möter legenden Arne Trageton. Han letar efter studenter, förskollärare och lärarutbildare som skulle vilja delta i ett nätverk för att studera hur barn skriver sig till läsning.
Läs mer här:
Our schools should be at the forefront of promoting civic solidarity and guaranteeing social mobility; private schools, however, do the opposite. They produce not a meritocracy but a plutocracy, in which a tiny minority is able to entrench its power and privilege. Thus the inconvenient truth is this: if we genuinely want to create a level playing field for our children, and ensure equality of opportunity and social justice, there can be no place for private schools. It is time to abolish our educational caste system.
If I ignore the contradictory argument in the article that the strike is not really about money, yet the teachers should just accept a deal because the district is offering a raise, I can agree with them that this strike is about the future of Chicago. We just have a different notion of what that future should look like.
For the Tribune, that ideal future seems to be a privatized education system, wherein public schools no longer exist. The Tribune is very explicit in its belief that the solution to the educational issues of Chicago is the destruction of the Chicago Teachers Union. The problem is that they never explain why this will actually improve student education.
So you might ask: if many charter schools have a higher percentage of inexperienced teachers, and perform at a comparable level to traditional public schools, why does experienced teaching matter? If charter schools replace all of our traditional public schools, the advantages that charter schools currently hold would be gone. Charters would be forced to accept and teach all students, no matter their discipline, special education, or parental involvement issues. In this world, with a revolving door of inexperienced teachers ill-equipped to handle those issues, Chicago would see its student test scores decrease, and a decline in the overall educational experience of its students.
Instead of that vision for Chicago, I hope for a future with strong neighborhood schools where teachers work together with CPS to create safe environments and strong learning communities. I hope for a future Chicago where students learn in classrooms that have small class sizes (which research suggests is beneficial to student learning) and sufficient technology (computer labs, libraries, and climate-controlled environments). I hope for a future Chicago where principals evaluate teachers using a fair, objective, and multi-faceted system, not one that is largely based on student standardized tests (which have been found to be unreliable and invalid at measuring teacher performance). I encourage Chicagoans to share my vision of the future, and to speak out against those that seek to privatize our public education system.
Tysta tankar 