The Carnival Of Education: Week 1

The Carnival Of Education: Week 2 is now open. Please click here
There are a number of different carnivals (For a comprehensive list, please click here.) already out there in the 'Sphere. After quite a bit of encouragement, we are delighted to be hosting the first edition of The Carnival Of Education. What we have done is assemble a variety of interesting and informative posts from around the EduSphere (and a few from the Larger 'Sphere) that have been submitted by various authors and readers. We think that they represent a great variety of topics and writing styles.

A word or two about the order in which the entries are presented. Those that were submitted by the writers themselves have been placed in the order in which they were received. Most of the reader submitted posts were posted the same way. The exception is where two or more writers address the same topic; we then juxtaposed them.

It has been our pleasure to correspond with a number of people that are deeply interested in issues related to education. We have certainly learned many great new things.

We have tentatively planned to host the Carnival on a weekly basis, but we are looking forward to other sites hosting sometime in the future.

Submissions for next week's Carnival Of Education Week #2 should be sent to: owlshome [at] earthlink.net and should be received no later than 10:00 PM (Pacific) next Tuesday, February 15, 2005. For full details, click here.

A special thanks to all the sites that helped "get the word out" about The Carnival. Of course, any help that may be given in "spreading the word" about this edition will be deeply appreciated. We heartily welcome all feedback, including, (but not limited to) comments, questions, concerns, or constructive criticism.

Now....Let's go on some rides......

Moebius Stripper at tall, dark, & mysterious has written a very informative post that informs us that the challenge of grade inflation is not limited to U.S. or British schools.

Eduwonk.com is always interested in issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of quality teachers. Eduwonk lets us know about a southern governor that has made a proposal to offer monetary incentives for National Board Certified Teachers to work in schools that have a critical need for high quality teachers.

The controversial subject of teacher tenure is being discussed over at Up The Down Staircase. (We here at the 'Wonks found the dialogues in the "comments" to be especially interesting.)

Dave is a teacher that writes about a variety of topics at his site, which is called Hubes Cube. Dave thoughtfully reminds us practicing classroom teachers that some parents tend to blame teachers for their child's misbehavior without looking into the facts. (Teachers and parents should definitely look at this entry.)

The author of Right on the Left Coast is Darren, who is a classroom teacher. He takes a look at the pros and cons of The No Child Left Behind Act. (The NCLB is currently a hot topic of discussion among everyone in the Education Community.)

In a story that is aptly called "Cookie Monsters," Joanne Jacobs reports that two girls were sued by a neighbor that did not appreciate the girls' gift. (Be sure to see how the community is rallying to the young ladies' defense.)

Tango Man writes over at Gene Expression. In the debate over "Anti-Racist Multi-Cultural Math," Tango tastefully asserts his position on this controversial issue.

Michael over at Highered Intelligence is concerned that U.S. high schools aren't performing as well as they should and makes a suggestion as to who should be working a little harder.

The teaching of good writing is always a challenge, and one of the most difficult concepts to teach kids is using the comma for clarity. Over at Discriminations, they show us how even The New York Times manages to confuse its readers due to inconsistent punctuation.

Janet at The Art of Getting By is a teacher that lives and works in New Jersey. She did not have a good Super Bowl Sunday. (Consider going over to her site and leaving a comment or two.)

The use of high stakes testing isn't limited to educational matters. Number 2 Pencil alerts us to the disquieting fact that I.Q. Tests are sometimes being used to make life or death decisions.

Jenny D. is giving a well-reasoned opinion about the use of I.Q. tests in cases of capital punishment.

The use of I.Q. tests in death penalty cases is also explored by Chris Correa. Chris is concerned that the results of the test were quite possibly in error.

Mr. Babylon teaches at a high school in the Bronx. He tells us about one of those challenging students that teachers never forget. (I have had plenty of those myself.)

A classroom teacher in California, Polski3 is the author of Polski3's View From Here. Polski lets us know what administrators can do to support both new and veteran teachers.

Over at Assorted Stuff, they offer some great practical advice for educators that are interested in applying for administrative support jobs. (The advice is good for anyone that is interested in applying for any position, in or out of education.)

Katie at A Constrained Vision writes that student achievement is the responsibility of both teachers and pupils. Here is a peek:

Teaching has a certain reciprocity--student effort inspires teachers to be better, and teacher effort inspires students to be better--and to focus only on one side of that equation ignores that synergistic potential. Having a good teacher made me want to perform better; when I was impressed by a teacher, I wanted him/her to be impressed by me. Mediocre teachers, on the other hand, had no such effect; I cared much less about their opinions of me.

In what we think is an excellent entry, Betsy's Page gives us fellow teachers some outstanding advice about the teaching of history. (Check out how Betsy held her classmates' attention when she was in sixth-grade!)

Lectrice at The Blackboard Jungle describes every substitute teacher's nightmare. (I remember that bad dream well.)

A classroom teacher, Clarence is new to blogging, and he writes at Remote Access. His students have been testing four days and he lets us know what it's doing to them. Be sure to check out the analogy that he uses at the introduction of the post. (His site is powered by typepad. It makes me have second thoughts about Blogger.)

A judge ordering the removal of stickers from the front of science textbooks is the subject of an entry at Greg's site, Urban Educ8r: A Wickerblog. (Evolution, creationism, and "Intelligent Design," have been the subjects of much passionate debate lately, and will be for the foreseeable future.)

Here at The Education Wonks, we raise the issue of schools censoring the content of high school newspapers. (Any case of censorship gets our closest attention.)

Once again, we would like to thank everybody that lent us their invaluable support in helping make The Education Carnival a reality, and we enthusiastically invite all authors (and readers) of education-related posts to send in their entries for next week's Carnival. For full details on how to get your entry included, please click here.

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