Shopping Cart

Home > Shopping Cart 

Stenhouse Newslinks
May 16, 2006

C O N T E N T S

1) Launching literacy work stations
2) Teacher working conditions
3) PD Corner: From craft to profession
4) Living in a world filled with fear
5) Patricia Polacco controversy

Note: If you'd rather not receive Newslinks in the future, just 
forward this message to unsubscribe@stenhouse.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------
1) Launching literacy work stations
----------------------------------------------------------------
How do you set up 10-12 literacy work stations in a small 
classroom? What problems arise and how can they be avoided or 
solved? How can mini-lessons be used to help manage stations, 
introduce new materials, and constantly build connections to 
current events, student interests, and the literacy curriculum?

Demonstrating key principles and practices from the best-selling 
book Literacy Work Stations, Launching Literacy Stations is a new 
three-part video series by Debbie Diller. Primary teachers Patty 
Terry and Vicky Georgas work with Debbie as they launch new 
stations together, develop lessons and strategies for managing 
stations, and help students sustain interest and high-quality, 
independent work.

A 24-page Viewing Guide complements the video series, providing 
discussion questions, classroom extensions, suggestions for short 
PD workshops, and 11 reproducible handouts including "The Most 
Common Mistakes Teachers Make in Launching a New Station and How 
to Address Them." Follow this link to download the entire Viewing 
Guide and watch three sample video clips:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0443.asp?r=n89

Launching Literacy Stations: Mini-Lessons for Managing and 
Sustaining Independent Work, K-3 * Debbie Diller
3 30-minute programs + Viewing Guide * $295.00
DVD format (includes 12 minutes of extras):
http://www.stenhouse.com/0443.asp?r=n89
VHS format:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0420.asp?r=n89

----------------------------------------------------------------
2) Teacher working conditions
----------------------------------------------------------------
In 2002, 2004, and again this year, North Carolina surveyed 
teachers as part of the state's Teacher Working Conditions 
Initiative. The questions address five areas: professional 
development, leadership, facilities and resources, teacher 
empowerment, and time. Results are used to shape state and local 
policies, recruit and retain teachers, and evaluate school 
leaders.

Data from the 2004 survey were used by the Center for Teaching 
Quality to develop the Teacher Working Conditions Toolkit, a 
website that provides recommendations and resources for each of 
the five areas of the survey, with links to hundreds of web 
resources for teachers, leaders, policy makers, and community 
members:

http://www.teacherworkingconditions.org

----------------------------------------------------------------
3) PD Corner: From craft to profession
----------------------------------------------------------------
*May Quote of the Month*

  If you are committed to your own lifelong learning,
  to an ongoing study of the art and science of your craft,
  then consider being a teacher.

--Rick DuFour

Two recent articles reflect on teaching as a profession and 
explore the challenges that teachers and schools face to assess 
practices and professional development. "Examining the Teaching 
Life" (Education Leadership) suggests that school staff members 
develop a set of learning principles and use them as a basis for 
peer review, self-assessment, and evaluation of professional 
development:

http://www.stenhouse.com/rdteachinglife.htm

"The Buddy System" (Teacher Magazine) asks how educators can go 
beyond professional learning communities to create ongoing models 
of collaborative problem-solving:

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2005/01/01/04view.h16.html
(Free registration required; if you are not already a registered 
user, click on the red "Register now" button.)

Is teaching a true profession, or merely a skilled occupation? How 
does it compare to established professions such as medicine, law, 
engineering, and social work? In "The Development of Teaching as a 
Profession," Vince Connelly and Michael S. Rosenberg attempt to 
define what distinguishes professions from other occupations, 
tracing the evolution of established professions and comparing 
them to education. They conclude that teaching is "not quite a 
profession" and present several factors that may determine whether 
it will become one:

http://www.coe.ufl.edu/copsse/docs/RS-9E/1/RS-9E.pdf
(9-page executive summary)
http://www.coe.ufl.edu/copsse/docs/RS-9/1/RS-9.pdf
(34-page full paper)

----------------------------------------------------------------
4) Living in a world filled with fear
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Increasingly we are living in a world filled with fear. It's a 
world in which the majority of children are stored away in 
warehouses called schools and daycare centers, and in which great 
pains have been taken to remove the risks from everyday life."

Chris Mercogliano, codirector of the Albany Free School, describes 
one person's suspicions about meeting him at a downtown bus stop 
with six kindergarteners during a bagel run, and goes on to 
explore how fear in our society affects the ways we raise and 
teach children:

http://great-ideas.org/Mercogliano191.pdf

This essay is from the Spring 2006 issue of ENCOUNTER: Education 
for Meaning and Social Justice. Published quarterly, selected 
articles of the current issue are posted here:

http://great-ideas.org/enc.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------
5) Patricia Polacco controversy
----------------------------------------------------------------
The dispute between children's book author Patricia Polacco and 
SRA/McGraw-Hill involving the cancellation of her appearances at 
the IRA convention surfaced in the general interest press over the 
weekend. Here's an account from Saturday's New York Times:

Critic of No Child Left Behind Was Disinvited From Meeting 
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/us/13author.html
(Free registration may be required.)

An open letter by Polacco fueled the story, circulating widely via 
e-mail, listservs, and blogs. The letter is posted on her website, 
along with her response to McGraw-Hill's position:

http://www.patriciapolacco.com/"

----------------------------------------------------------------


----------------------------------------------------------------
Please send comments and questions to Chuck Lerch, Newslinks 
Editor, at  or call (800) 988-9812.

View archives of past issues here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/nlindex.asp

To subscribe to Stenhouse Newslinks, please send an e-mail with 
your request to  or visit our Web site at 
http://www.stenhouse.com.

Stenhouse respects your privacy, and we never share e-mail 
addresses with anyone. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail 
communications from us, just forward this message to 
.

Stenhouse Publishers
P.O. Box 11020
Portland, ME  04104-7020
Tel (800) 988-9812
Fax (800) 833-9164
http://www.stenhouse.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2006 Stenhouse Publishers
Prices are subject to change without notice