Ohio’s Kids Are Not Lab Rats
By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association Knowing when to move on with a lesson and when to slow down, when to allow a teachable moment to blossom even though it will mess up your lesson plans for the rest …
Why I do it
By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association I can’t remember a time when teaching hasn’t been part of my story, when I didn’t answer, “Be a teacher” to the ubiquitous question “What do you want to be when you grow …
Provide Feedback on Revised Technology Learning Standards
Registration Open for Focus Groups The Ohio Department of Education is seeking your feedback on a draft of the revised Ohio Technology Learning Standards. Feedback will be used to refine the draft document for review and adoption by the State …
A Perfect Storm
The education news in Ohio recently is so utterly unbelievable it reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live Weekend Update segment “Really?” with Seth Myers and Amy Poehler. Governor Kasich wants to abolish teachers’ “lounges”. Really? David Hansen intentionally excluded online charter school failure rates in order to make them look more successful. Really? Superintendent Ross circumnavigated the State Board of Education to override the Youngstown improvement plan to create a new one. The state legislature pushed through the legislation allowing that move in one day, giving no time for debate. Really?
It's Not an Option For Me
By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association This year was the 20th time I have joined my local association. Honestly, the first time I did it, I was young and naive and so used to signing papers that I think …
ODE Seeks Educator Input on the Draft Financial Literacy Model Curriculum
The Ohio Department of Education is seeking input regarding the Draft of the Financial Literacy Model Curriculum. Individuals or groups of educators can review the Draft Financial Literacy Model Curriculum and then fill out and submit their comments. The review …
10 Things Every New Teacher Should Know (and a Few Reminders to Help Veterans Keep Their Sanity)
By Julie Rine, Minerva Local Education Association Parents are not the enemy, but it can feel like it when your first contact with them is concerning a problem. Be proactive. Communicate early and often. Call within the first month of …
There’s Nothing Funny About This Joke — Ohio’s Charter Schools
Last week, ODE official David Hansen resigned after admitting that he left out failing grades for some charter schools in the evaluations of the groups who sponsor them. His defense was that the F grades of those schools, when factored in with the other grades, would “mask successes elsewhere.” A simple Google search of “Ohio charter schools” will give you two things: a list of general charter school information sites as well as specific charter schools available, and many, many articles about the horrifying state of charter schools in Ohio. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal, and the Columbus Dispatch have all written critical articles or editorials about the lack of accountability and transparency with Ohio’s charter schools.
An Open Letter to Kasich et al. About Ditching the PARCC
Dear Governor Kasich and Ohio Legislators, When I heard the news last week, my first instinct was to raise my fist in the air and yell “YESSSS!” You listened to the very public outcry from teachers and parents, and you …
Protesting the Picketers
One of my colleagues once gave me the advice that we cannot focus on the fantasy of how things should be, but instead we must deal with the reality of how things are. The reality is that we have kids in our classrooms every day who are in great pain, who feel that the way they feel or the choices they have made are unacceptable and wrong. They are bullied and beaten down by words or fists. They are mocked and made to feel like freaks. They have lost friends and family because of who they are or what they have done. That’s why it is unfathomable to me that anyone would not want our classrooms to be a place of safety and acceptance, a place where a teenager can feel respected and be treated with common decency.
