The Notebook

For Teachers

Welcome to our page for teachers.

Please browse the links to the right for great information just for teachers. We're still building this page so please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions!

NEWS FROM THE NOTEBOOK

Helping students take the lead

by Connie Langland

Simon Hauger’s idea of a great lesson is this: ask the student “what is really near and dear to your heart” and then stand back, let the student take the lead, and watch the student’s efforts unfold.

Hauger, who runs the Sustainability Workshop with fellow teacher Michael Clapper, said students learn by doing, coming up with ideas, developing plans and completing projects, large and small.

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The Notebook * April 2012

Giving teachers more say

by Benjamin Herold for the Notebook and WHYY/NewsWorks

Something in Brenda Wolbransky's classroom doesn't feel right.

The 32-year District veteran is pacing the rows of her honors English class at George Washington High, coaxing her students into a conversation about Lord of the Flies, the classic tale of British schoolboys who get trapped on an island and descend into anarchy.

Most of the students are attentive. But the discussion feels rushed. A young man excitedly connects the characters in the book to his own friends. Wolbransky perks up, hesitates, then reluctantly steers the conversation back onto its planned course.

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The Notebook * April 2012

NEWS FROM THE NATION AND REGION

2012 Distinguished Teachers

Sixty-three Philadelphia high school teachers were named 2012 winners of the Lindback Award for their talents. The Christian R. and Mary S. Lindback Foundation celebrates excellence in education and has been awarding the teaching prizes since 2008. There is one winner from each school. The winners will be honored Tuesday at ceremonies at the Prince Music Theater. Meet the winners and read excerpts from the nominating information.

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Philly.com * May 7, 2012

A Million Teachers Prepare to March Out the Classroom Door

By Anthony Cody

The Metlife survey of American teacher has been much discussed in recent weeks. The biggest red flag I see waving here is the 70% increase, over the past two years, in the number of teachers who are likely to leave the profession in the next five years (from 17% to 29%). Assuming this data is accurate, this amounts to more than a million teachers who are preparing to march out of our classrooms. And this is in addition to the roughly one million baby boomers approaching retirement age! I wonder if the teaching profession as it is now being redesigned and redefined is one that any of us would have chosen when we began teaching? And I especially wonder who would choose to teach in a school with a high level of poverty?

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Education Week * March 18, 2012

Survey: Teachers work 53 hours per week on average

By Francie Alexander

Teaching is a much talked about yet often misunderstood profession. Educators frequently hear well-meaning comments from parents and friends like “It must be so sweet to spend your days with children” or “How wonderful to be done for the day by three o’clock.” Are they serious?

Teaching is joyous, but it is also hard work! It is fast-paced, multi-faceted, and complex. I should know. I spent many years as a teacher and it is the hardest and most satisfying work I’ve ever done.

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Washington Poat * March 16, 2012

Stories of interest to teachers

No diploma, no job

by Benjamin Herold Posted in February 2012 Edition | Permalink

'I Want to Be Working': As part of our comprehensive coverage of dropouts and jobs, the Notebook and WHYY's NewsWorks have created a multimedia package of materials for our readers and listeners. Listen to Monica Reyes's story in Benjamin Herold's radio report for WHYY. View a slideshow, infographics, and additional reporting. Check out the hour-long discussion of Philadelphia's dropout crisis on WHYY's Radio Times. And join us this Wednesday at Johnny Brenda's to share your perspective.

Like almost 14 million other Americans, Monica Reyes is looking for work.

"Macy's, Walmart, Kmart, Sears, Friday's, Outback," said Reyes, ticking off her list of recent unsuccessful job applications.

A sluggish economy has made finding work difficult for people from all walks of life. Nationally, the unemployment rate is still above 8 percent. Four people compete for every job.

Few of them will have a tougher time finding work than Reyes.

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SRC hears urgency, skepticism on Great Schools Compact

Submitted by Benjamin Herold on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 15:11 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Benjamin Herold
for the Notebook and WHYY/NewsWorks

Philadelphia’s new Great Schools Compact lays out an ambitious goal: replace or transform 50,000 seats in low-performing schools with better options.

But will the Compact include a push to close low-performing charter schools and help successful District-managed schools flourish? Or will it function solely to accelerate existing efforts to close District-run schools and expand the city’s burgeoning charter sector?

Those were the biggest questions on the table during a lively discussion Monday night attended by about 100 people before the School Reform Commission’s “choice, rightsizing, and turnaround” committee.

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E-mentoring program aims to reduce dropout rate among Black males

Submitted by thenotebook on Thu, 02/23/2012 - 16:00 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Samantha Byles

With the dropout rate among African American and Latino male students slow to improve, many people ask how one can keep these students engaged in their education.

“The best way I think is to look for things that interest them,” said Anthony Martin, the founder of What it Takes (WIT), a Philadelphia-based e-mentoring program aimed specifically at connecting at-risk Black male students with successful Black men.

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State prohibits Philly teachers from administering PSSA to their own students

Submitted by Dale Mezzacappa on Tue, 02/28/2012 - 18:43 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

Update 2/29, 2:40 p.m. PDE has just confirmed that three charter schools, including the Chester Community Charter School and the Hazleton Area School District, have also been required to follow this protocol. The other two charter schools are both in Philadelphia: Philadelphia Electrical and Technical Charter High School and Imhotep Institute Charter High School.

PDE spokesman Tim Eller said that even though hundreds of schools in Philadelphia have not been flagged for any suspected testing irregularities, "The Department believes it is necessary to apply the policy districtwide."

He also confirmed a statewide change: In the past only the building principal had to sign a certification that the testing protocols had been followed. Now multiple signatures are required. The building principal, the district and school assessment coordinator, and the proctor must all sign documents affirming that they have followed protocol and not tampered with the test booklets.

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West Philadelphia nonprofit opens 12th public school library

Submitted by thenotebook on Wed, 03/07/2012 - 14:22 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Samantha Coggin

Last summer Heston Elementary School Principal Icilyn Wilson-Greene received a phone call from the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePac) about an opportunity to restore the school’s library.

It was a welcome call because a large and growing number of Philadelphia public elementary school students don’t have access to a school library or a certified school librarian, and Heston was struggling to keep its own library doors open.

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District on-time graduation rate surpasses 60 percent

by Paul Socolar Posted in February 2012 Edition | Permalink

The School District's on-time graduation rate climbed 3 percentage points last year to 61 percent, the first time in memory that more than six of ten Philadelphia students have graduated on time. That figure is the percentage of students who entered 9th grade in fall 2007 and finished high school by 2011.

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Teacher anger?

Submitted by Guest blogger on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 16:00 Posted in Community voices | Permalink

Earlier this week on Metropolis, Tom Ferrick wrote about comments he read on the Notebook blog. We're republishing his piece as a guest blog post. Teacher unhappiness is a national trend. The newest MetLife teacher survey, released earlier this week, showed that "in the past two years there has been a significant decline in teachers' satisfaction with their profession," decreasing 15 points since the survey two years before.

Charter schools are a fraud. The leadership at school district headquarters is clueless. Powerful interests are combining to ruin public education in this country. Teachers are being made scapegoats for the failure of urban schools.

So say Philadelphia's public school teachers, as they fill the comments section on on the website of the Philadelphia Public [School] Notebook.

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ORGANIZATIONS OF INTEREST

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
Represents more than 16,000 women and men working in Philadelphia public schools today. This group includes teachers, librarians, school nurses, counselors, psychologists and social workers, secretaries, paraprofessionals, and classroom assistants.
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers has more than 3,000 local affiliates, including the PFT, 43 state affiliates and more than 1.4 million members. Founded in 1916 to represent the economic, social and professional interests of classroom teachers, it is an affiliated international union of the AFL-CIO.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association
Represents the labor, policy, and professional interests of more than 187,000 public school teachers and education support professionals, staff in state higher education institutions, nurses in health care facilities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become teachers
National Education Association
The nation's largest professional employee organization, it is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA has 3.2 million members who work at every level of education-from pre-school to university graduate programs, and has affiliate organizations in every state, including the PSEA, and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.
Philadelphia Writing Project
Located at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, this organization works to enhance the teaching of writing as a critical tool for learning in all Philadelphia schools.
Need in Deed
Need in Deed’s mission has been to prepare youth for civic responsibility and service to others, enabling young people to become capable, contributing members of their community by using the My Voice service-learning framework in public schools.
Teachers Learning Cooperative
The Philadelphia Teachers' Learning Cooperative (PTLC) TeacherSPACE is a teacher center welcoming teachers and parents in Philadelphia to network, share ideas, and collect resources in a creative environment. PTLC is committed to developing our teaching and inviting others to share resources in order to support Philadelphia students’ creative voices, academic engagement, and emerging leadership.
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Focuses on education policy, education leadership, and education advocacy.
Fair Test: National Center for Fair and Open Testing
Advances quality education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools. Also works to end the misuse and flaws of testing practices that impede those goals.
U.S. Department of Education
This extensive site includes resources and data on student achievement and on federal efforts to ensure equal access to high-quality education.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Teach for America
The national corps of recent college graduates and professionals of all academic majors and career interests who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools.
Math for America
Similar to Teach for America, Math for America recruits non-teachers, specifically non-teachers with a background in math-related disciplines. They also have a fellowship program for current public high school math teachers.
Teacher Jobs
Search available teaching jobs throughout the country. Upload your resume and review a list of sample schools the site has worked with in the past.
More Teaching Jobs
Prospective teachers can search teacher job openings and schools can post positions and conduct candidate searches.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Educators Professional Development
A worldwide database of professional development opportunities for educators.
Continuing Education through U.S. Department of Education
Learn about a variety of professional development options, including instruction on how teachers can create a safe and drug-free classroom.
Knowledge Delivery Systems
Provides online professional development courses for K-12 teachers to earn continuing education (CEUs), in-service, or graduate credit. Courses can be applied towards state license re-certification, salary increase, and career advancement.

OTHER TEACHER RESOURCES

Edutopia
A publication that offers teachers information about integrated studies, project-based learning, teacher development, and other educational topics.
Rethinking Schools
A magazine that covers a variety of educational topics of interest to teachers and other educators.
Teaching for Change
Provides teachers and parents with various tool to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world. Some of these tools include professional development workshops and publications.
Teachers Learning Cooperative/TeacherSPACE blog
The Philadelphia Teachers' Learning Cooperative (PTLC) TeacherSPACE is a teacher center welcoming teachers and parents in Philadelphia to network, share ideas, and collect resources in a creative environment.
Philadelphia Museum of Art education pages
The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Wachovia Education Resource Center provide a wide range of free services and materials for Philadelphia teachers and their students that help make learning come to life! Learn more about class visits and videoconferencing lessons for Pre-K - 12th grade, teacher workshops, and teacher resources.
Teaching Tolerance
A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, this organization isdedicated to reducing prejudice, improving inter-group relations and supporting equitable school experiences for the nation's children.
PA Education Voters
A non-profit organization that promotes a pro public education agenda with elected leaders, legislators and the public by lobbying for laws that further a sound education policy.
Education for Liberation Network
A national coalition of teachers, community activists, researchers, youth and parents who help to improve the practice of a liberatory education.
Pennsylvania Department of Education Academic Achievement Report: 2007-2008
Here you will find Philadelphia School District and school reports that contain information about Adequate Yearly Progress targets, last year’s results and next year’s targets, and a discussion of results for parents and educators.
Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning
A 52-page document that provides information about the use of children’s cell phones and other hand-held devices in an effort to support learning in and outside of school.
The New York Times Learning Network
A mix of activities for students, parents, and teachers that promote education. Learn about using the New York Times as a teaching tool in your classroom. Get free lesson plans for grades 6-12.
Philadelphia Inquirer’s Report Card on Schools
School-by-school information from the Inquirer’s Report Card on the schools.
School Data Direct
An online service providing comprehensive education data as well as analytic tools.
School District Office of Accountability, Assessment and Intervention
Monitors and reports on the performance of schools and district support functions. Reports student achievement and demographic data to multiple audiences such as central offices, schools and regions, the State and federal governments, and the public. Also collaborates with the District's Office of Information Technology and outside vendors in the design and maintenance of district data systems.