Disqus - Latest Comments for audhilly

Re: Best Raw Dog Foods

audhilly — Thu, 18 May 2023 07:41:30 -0000

Would you check Hegl’s Badland Ranch. She has an impressive video on the foods in her food. It looks pretty good if it is all she says. It’s air dried.

Re: Best Raw Dog Foods

audhilly — Thu, 18 May 2023 07:38:35 -0000

You used to include Primal. Is there a reason this brand no longer is on your list? I used it almost exclusively for my boys for years based on your recommendation.

Re: Another Voice: Mastering test-taking is essential to chilren’s development

audhilly — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 16:28:17 -0000

This is a straw man argument. Opposition to the current state testing regime is NOT the same thing as being against assessment generally. One can be in favor of assessment and evaluation of data and not be in favor of this test. Valid arguments against it include questions of purpose, use, transparency, frequency, and impact.

1) Purpose: A test should evaluate a curriculum not determine it. If it determines it, as it must being as high stakes as it is, then the curriculum is narrowed to accommodate what will actually be evaluated. What purpose does a narrowed curriculum serve? The only purpose that is clearly present is the purpose of the test makers to profit from it and the politicians to present an appearance of concern regardless of local impact or local objection.

2) Use: The high stakes nature of the test creates well deserved panic. It doesn't so much identify quality of instruction as it undermines the relationship between teacher and student. Putting food in a family's mouth is not a casual concern, and even the best teacher in the world knows that she can not force a child to put in a best effort on a test. As a result, competition to avoid the least ready student is already fierce.

3) Transparency: A test whose inner workings we may not see, whose quality and fairness may not be vetted and whose flaws may not be enumerated with text based detail (even in private) is a test that is subject only to the maker, even though that maker bears none of the consequences. I have multiple examples of flawed questions that I could and would point to if allowed. As long as we're all for testing, I am waiting for a court to subpoena the tests for the last three years and put them to a public test of efficacy and fairness.

4) Frequency: The State currently believes that there should be a state test every year in every single subject and that each test should have enormous impact on its stakeholders. Learning how to take multiple tests in 3 day marathons that you must prepare for by drilling the format is a questionable test of college and career readiness. It seems a fairly literal minded, numeric view of learning. To do it every year erodes the nature of the classroom and learning environment. Even law school leaves its highest stake test to the end, gives access to old tests and allows do overs until you pass. It doesn't demand an annual ritual of anxiety and endurance and a month (minimum) of preparation in order to undergo it. Frankly, the extent to which the working world demands levels of pernicious anxiety and acceptance of overwork is the extent to which IT must be reformed, not our education to reflect it.

5) Impact: The impact of these tests argue against their value for children generally. Who believes that 5 to 14 year old children are benefited by taking an annual test of such magnitude that it threatens to upend a community and destroy or shame the professionals that serve it? Is that really what is needed to build career readiness in children? Is a new standard that fails most of the children of the state a healthy way to change curriculum or build agency? Who really believes that??

I am disturbed that you seem to conflate assessment in general with a toxic test culture mandated by corporate, state and federal voices that bear no consequences (yet) for bad policy. If I were a member of your school board, I would be concerned by your lack of concern about these tests.

Re: The Rockefeller Foundation’s True Plans with Golden Rice: GMO for Population Control

audhilly — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 16:02:04 -0000

The coopting of governance by corporate concerns is a corruption of the social contract that citizens make with their government. Most thoughtful people realize that capitalism needs to be regulated where it conflicts with the social good. I think we could start by instituting campaign finance reform and making it more difficult for government workers to transfer in from or out into the private sectors where they may have been lobbied or financed. I agree that there's plenty to uncover about both Big Agri and Big Pharma. I certainly don't think they just want to feed and cure the people. They want to make profit, and they put profit ahead of the public good. For this reason, they need to be regulated in their endeavor. However, on the issue of a eugenics program using GMOs to kill large swathes of the world population? That needs some proof. This article hasn't provided any.

Re: The Rockefeller Foundation’s True Plans with Golden Rice: GMO for Population Control

audhilly — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 14:23:30 -0000

Your article on GMO foods as part of a plan to control the populations of 3rd world countries was misleading and included quotes from texts that neither support or prove your assertions. After researching your Ted Turner quote, it became clear that Turner was advocating a world policy of one child per family as a means for decreasing population and stemming the currently exponential and unsustainable growth that we now enjoy. You can agree or disagree with his views, but they do not support the assertion that there is a global elite using GMO foods to starve or sterilize 3rd world populations.

Re: http://www.lowellsun.com/rss/ci_20212675?source=rss

audhilly — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:48:30 -0000

Early literacy happens in the home before it happens in school. Aware parents read to their child and put the building blocks of decoding, word recognition, reading enjoyment in place prior to entry into Kindergarten or preK. Unfortunately, not every parent is aware that they have a part to play in their child's literacy development, and clearly Jennifer Rush didn't know it. If Rush's daughter came into a class in Lowell where many of the other children had early literacy training and her daughter did not, clearly that would undermine her child's self confidence. That is why parents work with their children prior to school entry and that is why early literacy programs are so essential for those children who do not have parents working with them at home.

Rush places the responsibility for her child's early illiteracy upon the first grade teacher who she feels failed her child and undermined her self confidence, but a little closer look might demonstrate a lack of at home literacy training that would have placed her child among her peers rather than behind them. I know this because I was one such child myself. My mom worked long hours and didn't know that other parents were building in early literacy for their children. Compounding this lack was a change of districts from one that used kindergarten for play to one where kindergarten had a strong literacy component. As a result, I came into first grade (in 1962) not knowing the alphabet, much less how to read. All my classmates were already basic readers. My teacher, Ms. York (bless her wherever she is), chose to teach me to read after school rather than put me back a year. Personally, I wonder if I wouldn't have benefited from a delay when I was too young to feel demoted by it. But it all worked out some years later when I got a perfect score on the Language Arts portion of my SATs.

Is good teaching essential? Absolutely. And perhaps this cautionary tale also speaks to having a common set of expectations for each grade so that a child in one kindergarten class can expect similar exposure in another. But, it also speaks to parent responsibility, which is a piece that is seemingly always absent from discussions about reform. I don't think we can solve a problem this pervasive by ignoring the condition in which parents send their children to school. For good or for bad, isn't it time to shed a little sunshine upon parent responsibility? While people fuss about how to score teachers and evaluate their ability to solve massive social issues inside their classrooms, can we get an amen for putting some of our resources into educating parents about how to give their children the best chance throughout their education? And how about a little teeth? Let's factor in some accountability for parents if we're all about what's in the best interest of their children.

Re: DC School District Fires More than 400 Employees

audhilly — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:10:59 -0000

I think it's the parents that get the free babysitting.

Re: Don’t Believe Critics, Education Reform Works: Jonathan Alter - Bloomberg

audhilly — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 10:11:33 -0000

I agree that the bar has been lowered, but not by teachers. It's been lowered by policy makers who have wanted to look away from the impact of racism and socio-economic class on performance. They lowered the bar to get quick success for the most disenfranchised citizens. The well meaning but incorrect assumption was that a measure of early success would manifest into a permanent attitude of success and then we'd all go to college. What happened is that the bar got lowered for everyone and the prepared child is bored in school and the lowest level performers are still drowning. And then they try to compensate by creating silly gifted programs that have 5th graders reading Shakespeare prior to getting basic tools. As a teacher, I have fought that trend my whole teaching career. I believe our standards are low, too. I do not believe that they have been increased by the test culture except for the lowest performers who now get some literacy development where once they got paper mache rain forests all year long. However, I do not believe that they learn how to be critical thinkers or writers through the test. I do not believe that reading comprehension and manipulative multiple choice tests with unreasonable distractors is the way to improve instruction. As a teacher with an eye toward survival, I have to spend a good amount of time teaching kids how to identify distractors in multiple choice tests. I don't think that's preparing them for anything but other multiple choice tests. That isn't enough instruction for my child, I don't know about yours.

As it relates to survival: my union has protected my well being and that's what it should do. I started out at 19k and now after 22 years of teaching, I'm making a decent salary, at last... without support from the union, I would be working class rather than middle class. I would have to fear for my elder years rather than live modestly now so that I can live modestly but in secure comfort in my old age. Not only do I think that this is fair, I think that this is a basic social framework for a successful democratic society. If your public is not getting a decent lifestyle, health care and protection in old age in exchange for working most of their lives, why are they doing it? Why obey laws and cooperate with a system that keeps you financially and physically insecure. I can do that without working 60plus ours a week out of my home. You may believe that we're lazy and I'll never be the one to say that there are no laxy teachers, but most of the teachers I know are hard working people and deserve your respect, as well as control over the profession. And this is where my union missed the mark: by not struggling to keep teachers as decision makers in their own fields, we are accosted by absurdly ignorant but powerful outsiders who have literally no experience in the matters over which they make decisions. At best, they have a disingenuous two or three years before escaping into universities and think tanks where they pontificate and use their bully pulpit to make noise and their connections to obscure their own multiple failures in the field (Rhee, Gates).
What you are proposing is to view teaching as something that anyone can do. Apparently teaching is not a profession that requires training and multiple years of experience to do well. You would undoubtably want a surgeon with multiple years of experience and lots of practice at the operation you needed. You would expect that your lawyer had dealt with many cases prior to dealing with yours. In my view, I wasn't really worth my salary until about my 5th or 6th
year and even now, I revise and reconceptualize my curriculum every
year. But, a businessman who has been successful in an unrelated field or a 20 something whose privilege and wealth in life lead them to the Ivy halls know enough to decide what needs to be done in schools? Even with their failures in that field well documented?

Are you sure you're not being overly influenced by rhetoric?

Re: Don’t Believe Critics, Education Reform Works: Jonathan Alter - Bloomberg

audhilly — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:08:03 -0000

when a full third of the graduating class is moved off to different schools, when the top disrupting students are transfered out, the resulting scores are not an example of improvement in teaching. You know this, we know it and through a relentless effort to inform, we will educate the American voters. You're disingenuous when you imply that removing low performers is synonymous with improving teaching or when you suggest that expertise in a field is less valuable than enthusiastic ignorance.

Re: Anatomy of a Fake Quotation - Megan McArdle - National - The Atlantic

audhilly — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:02:15 -0000

I'm offended by the word "perchance."

Re: Anatomy of a Fake Quotation - Megan McArdle - National - The Atlantic

audhilly — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:00:45 -0000

I'm offended by the word "perchance."

Re: Infographic: An Education in For-Profit Education - Campus Progress

audhilly — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:09:59 -0000

major abuses can't be shrugged off, nor can they be compared away. Online courses and blended courses are here to stay, but for profit colleges are scams. We should begrudge win big rewards where no outcomes are had. And the market does not correct. It obscures and continues after profit. Capitalist fantasies about universal correction of wrong through market forces has not been proven to be correct.

Government regulation is the way to keep profit motive from overtaking the public good. Make a profit, but not through fraud and deception. Remove the right to access pell and college loan dollars from for profit universities that don't pony up with real opportunity, job placement etc. Watch them go under or become what they advertise and dont' have to be in a celebrate the victor market economy.

Re: Infographic: An Education in For-Profit Education - Campus Progress

audhilly — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:04:27 -0000

I am k12 and I teach 25 classes a week. Where I live tenured professors teach 6 classes a week and their summers start a month before mine. They make less money, but they have more time to publish, consult and build careers. Adjuncts are wage slaves... what industry hopes all the rest of us will be soon.

Re: What Do Kids Say Is The Biggest Obstacle To Technology At School?

audhilly — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:29:50 -0000

The most engaging lesson is not more engaging than your bff telling you what happened in the lunchroom yesterday. Let's face it, even in an engaging conference, it's fun to text your friends. Plus, it isn't really necessary for kids to "phone in" their answers. Nor, do we really need to teach them how to do that. They do it without any support from us.

That being said, ipads and digital textbooks, opportunities to make multimedia presentations (beyond the powerpoint), learning about visual literacy, understanding how to use social media as a medium for change or commerce is useful and meaningful. We need to get into the swim on this.

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Dr. Horrible Kills Television and Filmmaking as we Know It

audhilly — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:02:42 -0000

I thought it was great.. Joss Whedon is an incredible talent.

Re: Good teaching is good teaching.

audhilly — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:32:44 -0000

thank you

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Upcoming Cool Cat Calendar

audhilly — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:31:46 -0000

are you thinking about the possibility of providing professional development to schools? Just wondering :)

Re: Some questions about teaching

audhilly — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 08:31:41 -0000

1. Perhaps a better model is to evaluate students individually, measuring one year against the next for an idea as to how much growth there has been and with some basic expectations for annual growth. We could also measure across a cohort group. If 5 children who came in to 5th grade moved up a grade or two grades in reading, but one made no progress, then we might surmise that the issues impacting this student are not strictly under the control of the classroom teacher.

2. no comment.

3. We know that children learn everything better when they are freshest and that they become increasingly more impatient and unfocused as the day continues. The academic teacher wants the fresh part of the day and seeing all the exit classes as vehicles for relaxed expression or energy burning activity, rather that legitimate subjects unto themselves with real rigor that requires a fresh, focused student just like any other subject. Also, scheduling is a complex art and it isn't always possible to schedule everyone into the dream slot. So... I'm in competition with the realities of scheduling, which cannot always accommodate best practices. And I'm in competition with other teachers who might also like students at their freshest and most malleable.

4. What purpose does an intervention or way of teaching serve if not to lead to better results? It should be that. The problem is that some results are not so easily measured. Depending on the student, the ability to acquire skills may be impacted by the ability to focus, delay gratification,organize materials, handle frustration, value educational objectives, manage time etc. We need multiple ways to assess all students (not just those with IEPs). That doesn't for a second mean that we don't need objective testing in place. Only that we need other types of evaluative tools that help us to identify different types of growth over time.

5. I think that we all know that there are poor teachers that can not be removed, however not unlike the criminal justice system, the guilty are sometimes protected by the same organs that protect the innocent. Education (which is about literacy AND the free flow of ideas) requires a shield to protect educators from the whims of political fashion. If teachers don't have protection in the form of tenure, the free flow of ideas is at risk and therefore the rights of citizens and the existence of open societies is also at risk.

6. Politicans aren't in control. They are controlled BY the interests of their constituents. The right of a society to measure the effective use of it's resources is fundamental. And, to be honest, if students (certainly in the USA) had basic skills in place by graduation, the government would have less reason to interfere with school structures and policies. We can not expect them to stay out of the game if we're losing it.

7. Big question for another time :)

8. The research that shows smaller class size? I'd like a link to that research. I've seen research that suggests that private schools are not doing better than public as an overall measure. Of course, some private schools do significantly better in all areas of measurement. What I do know is that private schools can cherry pick their students. It's easier to do well when you can remove any poor performers and send oppositional behavior problems right back into the public arena.

9. I think the idea that the learner knows what is best for them is voodoo educational philosophy. What we need to know is not instinctual. You need to have a basic understanding of the world, a developed brain, some maturity and experience to even know what there is to know... never mind whether or not you need to know it.

Therefore, a young child has no understanding of what is best for them. They should be guided in their education with adults who observe interests as a way of supporting development, but not to the exclusion of building foundation and increasing exposure. By high school, a student is moving toward control of their direction; they can choose some but not all of their direction. An entry level college student may know a direction yet still need guidance in terms of foundational aspects to a career. Eventually, the wise student begins to choose WHO will give them guidance in a what that they have determined for themselves. Mentoring can continue throughout a lifetime...

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Google Adsense Nonsense

audhilly — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 06:48:53 -0000

I'm very surprised that there isn't a filter in google that protects education related sites from any ads that are inappropriate. Way to lose a market segment. Sorry I said pants. :)

Re: Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Meet Audrey Hill: Woman with a Vision for Flattening 7th-8th grade classrooms

audhilly — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:21:35 -0000

Thank you so much for posting, Vicki. I'm very excited to be doing this and a little nervous. I look forward to watching it d develop with the others that come on board. I know we'll have a lot of questions going forward.

Re: ablog

audhilly — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:17:35 -0000

testing new comment system