Colorado Classroom - Latest Comments

Re: Arne Duncan presses student loan issue, long-term support for higher ed

Payday Advance — Sat, 12 May 2012 06:25:05 -0000

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Re: Video: Civil War battle comes to life for Thornton students

GRANNY — Sun, 06 May 2012 01:25:19 -0000

THE STAGING OF THE CIVIL WAR WAS SUPER, AS GRANDPARENTS IN CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS, WE ARE GLAD STUDENTS HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE SOME OF THE "HISTORY" THAT HAS MADE UP OUR BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY.....THANK U FOR CHANCE TO ENJOY SEEING OUR GRANDSON!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Top schools in Colorado for CSAP growth

L4c — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:41:48 -0000

I don't understand Csaps completely, but in my school thats the foecos. I believe Csaps are a waist of student educational time. Living in a small town we should have csaps we should strive for student to get a degree and go to college. Csaps test each student, students have test everyday not to menchun finals.

Re: Lost opportunity for Liberty

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:50:06 -0000

I think there's nothing to really be critized here. The first part where all the children got pocket Constitution's and quizze's to help them learn more about it is a great idea. When I was in school in Ohio from K-12 I don't recall even once talking about the Constitution or given a copy. The most civics we recieved was in our Social Studie's textbook which talked about Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abe Lincoln and that's about it up until 8th grade. Then in High School we were taught about The President, Vice President, and the branches or Government but that was the sum total of my education. So I'm really glad kids as young as 5th grade are learning this. Also about going down to State Capitiol and have the House member's read the Constitution line by line, is also a fantastic, teachable, and inspiring moment. For one they get to see where laws are discussed and made, as well as seeing the house members in person, to a child who is maybe interested in the law can see a role model type figure, and visualize him or herself in that person's shoe's. And as far as complaining that reading all 27 amendment's was somewhat unbearable, shows your lack of involvment in your child's development. All of the amendments are very important, yes some more than other's, but to get a start to finish understanding of something so important is vitle in the understanding proceess. i.e. One amendment might give a preview of another amendment or by understanding the one they had to have the foundation of the other. Kind of like the Bible. If you don't read the full text you might not understand other chapters or verses as clearly or at all. And like the Contitution, there are some books that are more tedious of a read than other's. Lastly you say they may have missed an opportunnity by going to the courthouse on their final day to "explain to kids what the Constitution means, or why it was significant, even revolutionary." They studied this as a week long project so I believe there was ample time to discuss such things and come to understand it. Children should always be taught with an enthusism for learning. That way they feel as if they gained something from it. Sincerley, Brian

Re: Teacher effectiveness: The studies

IB — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:27:46 -0000

So many factors seem to have been left out, although you did post the links to the material. I'm wondering about the level of education within a subject area--many educators don't have M.A. or PhD degrees in their subject areas. Often times the higher degrees have been granted in things like 'Curriculum Development' or 'Brain Research' and rather than concentrated study in their subject areas. IMHO, it seems like there should be more incentives for teachers to get advanced degrees in their subject areas, and that once a certain level of education is attained, teachers should be allowed to teach a class here and there in subject areas for which they might not be listed as 'highly qualified' but in reality they are qualified. Example: a teacher of a World Language could most likely teach a class of ESL or Reading; a history teacher might be able to teach a literature course; a science teacher could teach a math class. In other words, there are many highly educated people stuck teaching the same courses year after year, and they get bored. Perhaps if teachers were able to pick up classes in other subject areas, more growth could happen.

Re: Creating an appeals process for teacher evaluations

Crandon — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:57:36 -0000

I'm just curious when the Colorado teachers are going to wobble... a universal sick day would be good stuff. Don't get too stressed, a wobble is much better then a wholesale strike, which is where the powers that be are pushing the teachers... Pay freezes, coupled with performance based pay schedules, control taken away from teachers, mixed with increased (by over 100%) health care costs is a recipe for disaster. Teachers in Colorado need to stand up as one, and walk out of the classroom until they are treated like the professionals they are. No, I'm not a teacher... I'm actually a construction worker. This stuff wouldn't fly on a job site, why are teachers letting this happen?

Re: Creating an appeals process for teacher evaluations

Haiku73 — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:28:21 -0000

The whole teacher evaluation process is rediculous and a waste of time and resources. As teachers, our plates are already full. We work weekends grading and are always planning and preparing. To boot, our clients are generally students that would rather be doing something else.

I think the eduational system in the US is failing and will continue to do so. We are not looking at the real issues: crummy leadership and weak parenting.

Teachers do their best with what they have. Yes, there are bad teachers but they do not outnumber the good.

I guess my biggest concern is in "What other field do you blame the lowest people on the ladder?" If this was a war and we were losing, we would put the blame on the President and not the privates. If this were football, we would blame the coaches and not the players for a bad season. Look up people and not down

Re: Focus groups to begin as CDE continues to work on teacher rubric

U.S. Citizen — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:28:17 -0000

So when are we going to start working on rubrics for students and parents? ... it sure isn't the teachers and school districts that are solely responsible for student achievement.

Re: Gates foundation releases 2nd report in teacher effectiveness study

U.S. Citizen — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:23:22 -0000

weighing the pig more often doesn't make it fatter - we need to identify how to IMPROVE instruction and student achievement rather than spending so much time & so many resources on MEASURING it ...

Re: Race to the Top winning announcement

U.S. Citizen — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:02:12 -0000

10% of what was requested? So the other 90% will essentially continue our practice of unfunded mandates. How convenient.

Dear Mr. Udall - Colorado is NOT a "leader in innovation and driving reform." Where do you figure that? Colorado does a great job at creating reactive reform mandates that are not funded rather than creating PROACTIVE reform strategies that actually have an impact on student achievement & teacher effectiveness.

It's better to LEAD the chase than do a lot of chasing which is what Colorado does.

Re: Douglas County Schools updating families with promising, but vague, budget news

U.S. Citizen — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:58:35 -0000

She is NOT a leader but a puppet of an incompetent BOE that's driven by agendas. Dr. Fagen taught all of THREE years prior to her job-hopping excursions. If her job history is any indication, she'll be gone within the next 2-3 years - the sooner the better.

Re: Douglas County Schools updating families with promising, but vague, budget news

Chaos — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:46:35 -0000

These cuts should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been watching the DC budget for the last three years. These cuts were ALL predicted in a public meeting where an independent accounting firm put it all in simple numbers three years ago. The sad part is how the school board has dragged its feet based on political ideology by never really pushing the bond measures during the last election thereby deepening the hole the district is finding itself in right now. Maybe Dr. Fagen should stop baking cookies, and take one like the rest of the teachers are. Teachers have not seen a pay raise in over three years, their health benefits have been gutted and the class sizes have ballooned to close to 180students/teacher/day. Now she says we need to teach six classes and the class size will magically drop from 35 students/class to 30. What does the DC community think is going to happen to the quality of their kids' education when you treat teachers like sweatshop workers? Dr. Fagen gets paid roughly $40K more than any superintendent in the state. Maybe she should start by taking a pay cut like the rest of us rather than sending these half-ass emails that do nothing but infuriate the same people she is trying to inspire.

Re: Douglas County Schools updating families with promising, but vague, budget news

U.S. Citizen — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:36:35 -0000

Priceless - the first paragraph is about her family and cookies. That's why I stopped reading - perhaps that was her goal. Lol.

Re: New report about school resource officers

Ben1 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:09:34 -0000

Arrests and Tickets go up simply because the officer is on hand to deal with the illegal situations that come up. Without the officer the behaviors still exist but there's no one there to make the arrest or give the ticket. In those situations the student is either sent home, nothing happens, gets suspended, or the autorities have to be called in. The resource officers aren't only present as a heavy hand but they are also active in things like restoritive justice and helping to avert potentially harmful situations. Helping kids to make the right decisions throughout their school day. Many SRO's act as a counselor to the kids. Many kids develop a positive relationship with their SROs because they are very supportive to the overall process of the school. Please don't try and make them out to be a bad thing for schools. It is a very good thing to have in some buildings, TRUST ME. As far as "crime not increasing in the schools that cut their SRO"? Lets be smart.......... the crime may not increase but it certainly doesn't decrease. And yes, having an SRO will lead to more tickets and even arrests. Again, let's be smart.......... If a cop is on hand when there is illegal behavior then of course there will be more tickets and arrests. Without a cop on hand illegal behavior typically goes without arrest or ticketing. Use your head, people!!

Re: A more engaged DPS board? And more on school recommendations

DPS Parent — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:56:56 -0000

Perhaps all the board members should do the same. At what rate are they doing it? Don't single out one member just for kicks. Do you have a race or class problem?

Re: A more engaged DPS board? And more on school recommendations

Kent Avery — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:36:20 -0000

IsAndrea paying back her restaurant binges, and if so, how quickly, at at what interest rate?

Re: Back and Forth in Northwest Denver School Board Race

DPS Latino — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:38:57 -0000

They say they want to inspire critical thinking about the issues, huh? But the schools Lifer promotes are heavily test intensive and rote based. How many of these wealthy Latinos send their own kids to West Denver Prep?

Re: Michelle Rhee and Margaret Spellings to biz community: Make partnerships meaningful

Kmshornet — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:01:38 -0000

Until teachers opinions and comments along with student opinions and comments are factored into the whole ed reform/debate...not much is going to happen. Well yes, public education as we know it will be dismantled and you can expect a cheating scandal like DC, Atlanta, NJ, et alia to come to a local school near you. And while we bash educators, why in the heck do we look to business people to solve our problems? I mean seriously. Our current 3 year Great Recession, the credit market implosion, mortgages, outsourcing, etc isn't that the result of these savvy business people, Enough Already.

Re: Michelle Rhee and Margaret Spellings to biz community: Make partnerships meaningful

Conny Jensen — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:15:01 -0000

Margaret Spellings. “Until we incite ourselves in kind of a ‘we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore’ led by the business community with parents involved, we’re not going to move the needle and people are not going to believe there is a problem in this country.”

The problem is child poverty. Try learning something on an empty stomach or under stress induced from a home environment where mom and dad have no time to give to you because they are busy with jobs, menial ones at that! 22% of American children live in poverty! Poverty also carries high risk for poor health.

This nation and the wealthy people in it should be ashamed about not caring for children's immediate needs!
“The internal state of a child helps determine what it will perceive and learn. A child who is hungry or exhausted, ill or anxious does not learn well.” – Bruce Perry ~ http://www.buildbetterschools....

Re: Michelle Rhee and Margaret Spellings to biz community: Make partnerships meaningful

Tutucker — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:58:20 -0000

Michelle Rhee knows nothing about educating kids. She is part of the business reform movement that plans to privatize public schools. Segregation at its best. Business leaders should be listening to education leaders. You do realize that Rhee was fired from her job in Washington DC, right?

Re: Gov. Hickenlooper announces Education Leadership Council members

Teacher — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:07:01 -0000

This is JUST like the Race to the Top committee--hardly any actual classroom teachers on board. Typical.

I tell my students NOT to go into education, rather engineering, linguistics/second language, science--they will have respect and better salaries, and they will not struggle to pay their bills.

Re: Gov. Hickenlooper announces Education Leadership Council members

Allison — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:42:09 -0000

One teacher? All those people and only ONE is a teacher???

Re: Reform ad campaign, One Chance Colorado, 3rd TV spot

Gail_clarke — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:40:57 -0000

One Chance Colorado is a stalking horse for Boulder Democrat Senator Rollie Heath's tax increase, Proposition 103 on the November 1, 2011 ballot.

It will raise personal and corporate income tax, and statewide sales and use tax (on phone and energy bills, for example). The billions raised is "for education" but the Legislature has full authority to spend the money as it chooses.

An estimated 30,000+ jobs will be lost if Prop 103 passes.

One Chance Colorado wants accountability in the classroom and more "investment" for educators. Until we see really meaningful reform in the unions, Colorado taxpayers will do well to give this "feel-good" p.r. campaign a resounding NO vote on the November ballot.

Re: Denver Public Schools graduation numbers: a closer look

Debsded — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:07:37 -0000

The rate could be based on a simple increase of students enrolled in the district not improvement.

The graduation rate needs to take into account the number of students enrolled as freshman and the number that graduate after 4 years. Most students do not stay a 5th year in school to take concurrent college classes. Schools like to link graduation rate to the students they have as seniors that graduate that year and they pull out all stops to "grant" them the credit. Which is okay at some level but not if students actually need the prerequisite knowledge and skill for college and workplace.

What is most important isn't the fact they graduate, it is who can enroll in college without needing remediation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that schools hand out credit for courses students may or may not have shown proficiency in, that happens all the time. Then, the students wonder why they have to take 2-3 remediation courses before they even sit in an introductory class.

Another ploy to benefit adults, students are sitting in AP classes being "told" the content in place of improving in reading and writing so that DPS can say they have increased enrollment in AP classes. Sure some students could benefit from a little push into a higher expectations for themselves but the majority flounder and continue to need reading instruction.

Re: Merida recall canned

Pachavez1 — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:35:39 -0000

Well it's March 30, 2011 and over 6000 signature have been turned in for the recall of Nate Easley! Not a word of it in the Post! Still when I go to the Spot, this tired slam of disappointment on how joe silva could not turn in 0 signatures for a recall against a FINE school board member like Andrea Merida. DPSP (Denver Public Schools Post), your true anti- neighborhood, anti little guy bias is showing! You should be ashamed of yourself!!!