Sleep Deprivation - Teens Should Start School Later!

SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND THE TRUTH ABOUT ADOLESCENT LEARNERS

More information below.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artseesdiner/2014/09/06/talk-with-me-sleep-deprivation-and-the-impact-on-american-learners A huge issue facing American Schools. Sleep deprivation. There is a simple fix, so why won't we do it? Our First Lady has made it her priority to end obesity in children by controlling what they eat, but, one of the leading causes in obesity is being ignore AND it also causes learning impairment, and an increase in adolescent disease! 

Say NO to Standardized Tests; Ignoring Science Spreads Ignorance!

My response to an amazing educators comments on Florida's newest standardized test. "All of the billions of dollars of research over the past 100 years has been thrown out by bureaucracy. It is amazing, while they fight tooth and nail to get everyone immunized before going in to school because science has proven that immunizations prevent the spread of disease, they continue to ignore scientific evidence that standardized testing causes failure, It diminishes and steals away from all of the scientific research over thousands of years stretching back to Socrates. The way we reach our kids to make them better educated, better humans, better people is not housed in a standardized tests. There is only one purpose for standardized tests and that is to make those who have studied economic science...it makes a lot of publishers from Marzano to McGraw Hill very wealthy individuals. Funny, one of the first test subjects, the very person who helped to establish Stanford tests became a leading destroyer of artistry in the classroom.: Madeline Hunter 1930. At the same time that Hitler was putting into play his mind control over the youth in Germany, Madeline Hunter was helping devise the very tests that would help to turn our nation into automatons. Thankfully the human spirit is stronger than a nation ruled by those would molest our children for their financial gain." https://crawlingoutoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/an-open-letter-to-my-students-i-am-sorry-for-what-i-am-about-to-do-to-you/

NCLB: No Change, Learning Backpeddles...

Tonight I was reading Michael Deshotels, Louisiana Educator article discussing the one thing wrong with President Obama's education lack of reform, and I was hearkened back to a set of articles that I wrote immediately after Obama took office. The series of 5 blogs outline what was in my opinion the only way to really move us away from a failed NCLB and into a new era of reform. What has happened is that NCLB has been strengthened, fewer educators are involved in making an impact and it seems that the greatest of change has come in the way of what our kids would be allowed to eat! Sadly, this major reform did not even come by way of Arne Duncan, but rather the woman behind the man! In truth, we are further behind and we are yet again facing failure and it is not on our kids report cards, but, rather Washington DC, is more appropriately Washington D-F!

If you have nothing better to do, and you are curious about what this educator had to say in January of 2009, then go for it!

Article One: 1/14/2009

Article Two: 1/16/2009

Article Three: 1/16/2009

Article Four: 1/18/2009

Article Five: 1/24/2009

I apologize if there are any major errors in spelling or in grammar as I am unable to access my own blog through wordpress. Due to some bizarre change over at some point my account was compromised and now it sits with my branded/copyrighted name, ArtSees Diner attached to it. This preceded the development of PBL3. 

Mary E. LaLuna's resume and philosophy can be found here.

Bridging the Achievement Gap through PBL3 and a PC!

Bridging the Achievement Gap through PBL3 and a PC! Increasingly with the inception of multi-facted technological advances, both parents working outside of the home, single-parent homes, and movement away from the parental family nucleus, (logistical concerns) children are coming to school deficient in not only language acquisition, as a result of rich experiential language sharing, but, deficient in simple problem solving strategies, hand's on development, in some cases deficient in learned skills such as riding a bike, skipping, in short kinesthetic, hand-eye developed skills. Schools must fill this void or like a child who walks before crawling, must go back and learn to crawl or suffer developmentally. NCLB and governmental imposed standards have diminished the plausibility of this taking place in the early developmental period. In the place of show and tell, skipping 101, hopping 101 and tumbling 101, finger painting, etc., is Alegbra Readiness and standardized test prep. Teachers of pk-3 know the importance of play. They chose to go into that level because in their souls they are still remembering the with fondness the time when they began to play at “school.” They wanted to continue this approach. Their Professors reminded them of the importance of “playing school” with their soon to be students. Instead they are quickly swept into the bureaucratic nonsense of the day. Along with this reality is the ever increasing achievement gap. While there has always been an achievement gap predominately due to the generational poverty both economically and academically, the reality of our current cultural demise has greatly contributed to this particular culture group. The need for play based learning to take a lead in educating all children, but most especially those who are suffering, who are caught in the achievement gap-hose is more important now than ever. Children play at growing up. School should feel like they are playing at becoming who they want to be when they grow up. Children should be playing at becoming doctors, lawyers, they need to be playing at who they will be, because that alone infuses goal based learning, success determined play. More importantly during some of my recent inquiry into advancing my research I discovered something quite telling about the “great divide” in academic outcomes. While we continue to glory in the technological advancements of our day, we ignore this simple fact: NOT everyone is advancing with it! In 2003 we were introduced to youtube, that was only 10 years ago. When I entered my first classroom as an educator in 2000 very few people had cell phones. Very few people had laptop computers. Many were still saying goodbye to their antiquated “machines.” While the academically inclined, the upper middle class were making room for their home computer systems, many were still hoping for a place to live for more than 6 months at a time. We have advanced rapidly, however, our school systems and our average urban home has not. They still fight to keep their lights on, let alone have a PC on their living room tables, or wifi accessibility for their kids to apply for jobs, do their homework and yes, take an online survey. A prior Post on Paper and Pencil = PC As long as that divide is in place we will not advance all populations, thereby closing the achievement gap. How is this for an idea? Bill, why don't you and all the other IT giants get together with Arne Duncan and instead of ensuring that everyone has an free phone, ensure that everyone has a pc, wifi (which should be free now anyway) and teach them how to use their pc's as a phone? It is a win-win situation. That is a start. Now, let's go play!

A Response to Education Week, 05072013 and A Tale of 2 Articles.

Article Numero Uno is from writer Jennifer Jennings and sets the reader off immediately by claiming

An Apology to Secretary Duncan

I will not blather on, but will rather post my comment made directly on Ms. Jennings' article. 

With all due respect, you do not need to feel humiliated, embarrassed, or sympathetic to an official paid for by our tax dollars. An employee of the United States. More people need to be willing to make vocal their dissension in this time. That is what the constitution is all about. Furthermore, the constitution is in fact being ignored repeatedly by our Federal Government when it comes to public education in the USA. Again, more people need to go back and do their homework. Far too many people who are non-educators, meaning they did not study the law, are now in charge of education. Just recently in North Carolina a HB was proposed to LIMIT THE RIGHTS OF THE PARENTS! Seriously, the school systems now know better than parents? Government, non-educators know more than educators? I wonder if educators were to start telling the AMA how to treat patients if there would be an uprising from the medical community? How is this different? Did he really have the grace, or did he have the brains to understand that he is an appointed employee of the people of this country and can in fact be removed from his position? I think I will apologize for you for being so complacent. "What saddens me is that the educational policy debate has become an overwhelming chorus of boos, of shout-downs, and of bitter personal insults, rather than a real debate about ideas and data and first principles. Unfortunately, this mirrors the direction that most American political debates have leaned in recent years. It is toxic." It is toxic and the toxicity is coming from Washington and therefore needs to be called out. The booing is merely a symptom of being ignored for far too long. You might do well to join the ranks of the sufferers. It is time to "Grasp the Nettle!" and to possibly recognize that what Peter T. Coleman writes about in his book "The Five Percent" has in fact come to the be the case in public education. The solution to the conflict in education is not to apologize, but, rather to do something that Washington and leaders in the ongoing bashing of educators fail to do over and over again, LISTEN! Could this be a case of a "Stockholm Syndrome?"

Rifts Deepen Over Direction of Ed. Policy in U.S.

I am 100% in support of the limits of standardized testing in this country. Primarily for the following reasons: 1) it benefits only those making a profit off of the failure of our children. A failure that is not the failure of them, or their schools, but, rather the way in which assessments are written, delivered and measured.

2) The time it takes away from meaningful instruction, and development of our children. When you factor in the amount of time teachers spend on preparing their students, school system spend on initiating, delivering, evaluating, etc., the cost of the testing to the local communities drains the system and literally takes away from meaningful instruction. More and more instruction is being set aside in order to measure and test. This is asinine and completely counter-productive. 

3) After 40 years of nationwide measurement, this has been proven time and time again as an ineffectual means towards academic improvement. 

So, with these 3 points outlined, why does is still exist? Because in anything, all one must do is follow the money. Who benefits from the manipulation of our children, teachers and schools? Well, for one, Washington, secondly, the publishing giants, such as McGraw Hill. Look into their Wall Street portfolio and you will see immediately what I am talking about. 

As far as a Common Core goes. I am all for it. As a professional educator with advanced degrees and experience, I believe this is one way in which a unified, national body of educators can rise up against a tyrannical governmental system. I believe when unified more parents will begin to demand that all children learn in a way that will allow for them to be successful in colleges across the country and globally. I ensures that children are given ample opportunities and educators can move from one state to another without losing their licensures. As it is now, if you are licensed in one state, then you cannot teach in another without going through extreme costs in order to obtain an out of state license, per se. This process actually keeps teachers from seeking better employment opportunities in the field of education. As it right now, because of the way our education system is set up, unless you are RIF'd, there is little opportunity for moving out of a school system if you have been there for 5 or more years. 

There needs to be a major Rift, but, it needs to be focused on the big problems, not Common Core Standards. To me that is the way of empowering all of us against tyrannic approaches toward public education.