Without a Paddle's Open Salon Blog

Nina Simone on Sunday: Love Me or Leave Me--and....

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:11:49 -0500

My son popped up off the couch to watch this with me. Then I found this (which reminded him of a video game tune!)

Happy Sunday!

Wanna Run Some Schools? 250 up for Grabs in LA

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:08:52 -0400

The school board voted Tuesday to allow charters to submit plans to run 250 Los Angeles Schools. According to the New York Times the Los Angeles Unified School District oversees about 688 schools over a large, large area.

(Please be sure to click this when you are ready for a little backstory--you never know, Antonio Villarogosa, LA's mayor, Ben Austin (a faux parent organizer) or Steve Barr the founder of Green Dot--a charter school franchise might come and reorganize your school district for you some time too!)

Before this vote we already had some charters within the district--things called dependent charters (run as part of the district, with teachers who belong to the union) and plenty of independent charters. The private charters have had difficulty finding sites that meet state regulations. At the same time LAUSD has been building lots of schools to ease overcrowding. Well, we're not crowded anymore and the charters have been able to use some of the public school sites to run their operations. The year before last my middle school almost shared our campus with an outside charter.

To me, charters ARE public schools. However, I'd like them to be mandated to take all neighborhood kids in their boundaries if they are on a public school site. And they should be transparant and watched closely.

I was pointed to a Stanford study published in June which indicates that charter schools aren't always producing higher test scores--and when they do, they aren't significantly higher than traditional public schools. On top of that, for poor kids, the scores are worse than those of poor kids at traditional public schools. An important point because in LA 4 out of 5 kids live below the poverty line. Also, the study notes that it isn't any easier to get rid of a poorly functioning charter school than it is to get rid of a poorly functioning teacher.

What I'd like to see in Los Angeles, is not another Green Dot. I'd like something like Harlem's Children's Zone here because that program addresses the whole child. I heard Geoffrey Canada on NPR one day explaining how his program is not just aimed at schools--but aimed to educate whole communities. Parents are helped in the raising of their babies! Health issues are addressed. And the focus is to create a culture that values and respects academic success. There was something said about how kids should feel, from their community, that doing poorly in school is not cool. In the past there were seeds of thoughts to work in this way through LAUSD and the state, but it never came to be.

This change will be enormous and chaotic and interesting.

It looks like my school--teachers, staff, and community will figure out how to proceed. Two years ago we'd started looking at the possibility of being a dependent charter. It will be an adventure.

Again, check out the backstory http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_1318522. When my grandparents came to LA in '29 they thought it was a cowtown--well, without some good newspapers, that what you are. (Back in the day we had Hearst's Herald vs. the Times for a while and that produced great news coverage! At least the Daily News and the LA Weekly try top pick up where the Times is weak.I love how the LA Times didn't mention how those meeting worked. They bash teachers horribly. The LA Times hasn't really been the real LA times though, in years and years.

LA to Give 50 Schools Away to be Run by Charters--Opinions?

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:08:29 -0400

I'm curious... What do OSer's think of charter schools?

Tomorrow the LAUSD's board will vote on whether or not it will make fifty new school campuses available for operation by charters. (The entire agenda is linked here-this resolution is on page 5 of the pdf)

There are mixed reviews on charters. Some feel that the encroachment of the private sector into what has been a public service will destroy public education. Some say it's a union busting mechanism (but charters were partially initiated by the American Federation of Teachers.) Some consider the charter movement an opportunity to give parents and teachers local control.

Does anyone out there have experience with charters?

Thanks!

Eat All the Lasagna You Want--Just Don't Trash My House!

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:08:24 -0400

A little question tickled my mind one day. I'd just taken out the trash. I was walking back to my house from the dumpster. It was spring and it was clear and just getting warm and my mind just went:

"Wouldn't if be great if I could somehow make some money without doing anything?' It was like a hummingbird flying in my face. (This has happened to me--it's weird when they stare at you.)

As I got closer to my house I noticed two people sort of scoping out the street. This didn't strike me as odd--I live near the beach. People walk by all the time. (They skate and bike and skateboard too.)

Plenty of the people gawk as they go by. Some of the houses in the neighborhood are architecturally interesting. My house, and the others on my little block are simply super-cute.

When I noticed the looky-lo0s lingering I went outside.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?"

They said they were going to be filming the Garfield Movie and a Baja Men video and they were looking for locations.

"Well, you can use my place!"

So they offered me $250 and I accepted. (Later, neighbors, who are more familiar with the Biz, said I should have asked for more--but what did I know? I'd just had the thought it'd be neat to make money without having to do anything and the opportunity came so fast--it didn't occur to me that I should ask for more.)

Of course, I had to tell the folks at work. The kids--6th graders mostly--thought it was cool. They liked both the Baja Men, and Garfield. Most of my friends thought it was cool too, but one of my colleagues scared me. (An aside: he was a cute substitute teacher who came from a wealthy family that had an enormous fishing business up in Alaska. This tidbit about him always fascinated me. He didn't look like he came from fish wealth. He may have been trying to be an actor or comedian--these are the people who sub when the teachers are sick in Los Angeles.)

The plan was to take a sofa out of my house with Garfield sitting on it. Then he'd be carried out to a waiting lasagna van, placed inside and driven away.

"They will trash your place," the cute sub told me.

So, on the day of the filming. I stayed home to make sure they didn't trash my little house (it's only 400 square feet--if you turn around inside you could trash it pretty easily. Garfield doesn't have the littlest butt after tall.)

And it was another gorgeous April day. But it was hot--unusually hot--in the high 80s, maybe even the 90s with no breeze, right here by the beach. I hung out and watched the filming and chatted with the Baja guys. My students had a substitute. (Not the cute guy, but I really don't remember who filled in for me that day.)

It was so gorgeous that apparently there were lots of subs working that day.

The book-end coincidence:

Unbeknownst to me, the Los Angeles Times was investigating teacher attendance at my school district.

I'm rarely absent. It's not worth it unless I've got a fever and have to stay home. There's serious payback from the kids, who can't admit they miss you--but will show you their displeasure when you get back anyway.

An article appeared that Saturday, the day after the filming: that particular Friday had the highest level of teacher absentees ever recorded!

The music for the song Holla!, isn't on the video, but you can tell, it really was a gorgeous day. Garfield did not go in my house, so it wasn't trashed. You can barely see the house in the video--it's in the middle of the video, behind the lasagna van before pasta gets thrown on it.

Missing Panic Button--Now Found (just a funny picture!)

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:07:43 -0400

it's been a while since I saw this sign. It just up and disappeared one day--which really sucks. But not to worry. Found it again:

Now I've got to go find those worm holes I've been hearing about.