Transparency in Teaching (stuff)

In this episode of "Transparency in Teaching," host Anne discusses three news stories related to education—the first shares how mastery learning has now been approved in all 50 states in the US. The second story explores why the Carnegie unit, which has defined learning for the past 100 years, is now considered obsolete. And lastly, Anne breaks down how the US spends money on education. Please sha...

It's Anne here with a mini-episode of Transparency and Teaching Podcast, the News Edition. We used to start our episodes with education news, but you know, uh, we got so long-winded as we talked about the main topics that we decided to cut that out. Well, lucky for you, I'm retired, so I have all kinds of time to update you on what's happening in the education world. The News Edition will share ne...

A recent article in “The 74” caught my attention this week. It discussed how Tennessee and Michigan are currently debating removing the statute requiring third graders who are reading below grade level to be retained. With state testing starting, people are worried about holding back the potentially large number of these students who may not pass the test. You see, aside from the average number of...

I don't think you'll find too many current student teachers who disagree that student teaching needs a revamp. Most teacher candidates spend at least 14 weeks student teaching consisting of 8 hours a day, teaching, lesson planning, and grading; Most teacher candidates attend staff meetings and parent conferences, too. Wait that sounds like what a regular teacher does. Well, that’s the point, to gi...

Welcome to Season 3 of Transparency in Teaching. Anne, here! Thought it might be nice to start off with a little true story that spurred the topic of this episode: Is it time to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance? I asked myself this question after visiting a high school class I was observing. When the "Please stand for the Pledge" announcement was given over the loudspeaker, I stood up and plac...

According to Merriam-Webster , the word indoctrinate originated in the 17th century.  It meant "to teach," as it comes from docēre, the Latin word for teaching.  But by the 19th century, the meaning shifted to signify teaching someone to uncritically accept a particular group's ideas, beliefs, and opinions. The key word is "uncritically."  This is supposedly why public schools and their teachers a...

What comes to mind when someone says, "Oh, that's a really good school?" Is it students all sitting in their seats, diligently taking notes? Is it passing along students who can read and do math on grade level? Or is it graduating students who can immediately join the workforce, or go to college, or interact with others with empathy and respect? Common sense would say a combination of all of those...

Hey, it’s Anne here to introduce today’s episode all about social promotion, you know, that practice where schools promote students to the next grade based on age instead of mastery. The idea is that keeping kids with their peer group is better for their self-esteem, not to mention promoting students with behavior problems provides some relief to the teacher, knowing that the student who made clas...

Don't be surprised if you find someone named "TBA" teaching your child's class. There will apparently be A LOT of TBAs in charge of classes this fall. School districts across the country report record numbers of unfilled positions at the start of this school year.  My state, California, reports a shortage of 50,000 teachers going into the 2022-23 school year. It's not just teachers either. Madison...

Hey, it’s Anne. Welcome to another episode of Transparency in Teaching. As summer vacation is ending, I was wondering if you are beginning to get a nervous tick when you hear, “Back to School Sale?” Or do you find yourself tearing up when you walk by the school supplies aisle? Or do you awaken in the fetal position, gripping the crumpled notification of your preservice professional development day...

Thank goodness teachers can put the 2021-2022 school year behind them! If ever there was a school year that deserved a "middle finger" 🖕🏼🖕🏼that was one! Many teachers felt this year was beyond their job description and called it quits. I'm sure parents and students may have similar stories to tell about what they learned from the school year from Hell. But as with any challenge survived, there...

 Happy 2022! Let's hope this year makes up for the last two! It's always good to be hopeful. And on that note, I hope public education survives. Last year brought educators and their curriculum under the microscope in a way I don't remember ever seeing. Much of the uproar seems to come from the usual media rabble-rousers and pot-stirrers. Today's episode delves into our side of this twisted narrat...

I'll be honest, in 35 years of teaching, this has been the hardest year so far. And that's not just because I'm old and kind of worn out. I think this whole Covid thing did way more damage to kids than just their academic abilities.  A year and a half of unsupervised living and no responsibility to live up to any standards has ruined so many kids' abilities to cope with structure and navigate in a...

The very first episode we produced remains one of our most popular. Why teachers quit should be something every would-be teacher should ponder before taking out loans to pay for college. You don't want to be one of the 44% of newbies who quit within the first five years , because then what will you do with all that useless college loan debt you accrued?   We contacted a teacher friend of ours who...

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become the latest way to demonize public schools. I admit when I first heard CRT I thought it was some medical test for the heart. Now it has become the fear-raising focus of concern among many people inside and outside of education. To better understand what CRT is I spent a lot of hours looking at where it came from in the first place. The research makes me believe...

My husfriend and I just got back from a trip to Hawaii. It was his birthday gift to me. Nice huh! We had to jump through a few hoops to get there. Our vaccination cards made it possible to avoid a 10-day hotel quarantine. (Get vaccinated, already!!🙄). It was a quick 7-day trip. Too short, but it’s always too short when I visit the islands. On the plane ride home, the flight attendants, take advan...

What makes an effective teacher effective? That's a pretty subjective question, isn't it? I'm beginning to believe that so much of what people think makes education good is subjective. Like, who decides what kids need to know for state tests and how to decipher those scores? Or who decides what is important and should be taught in schools.  Not to mention, who comes up with the best way to prepare...

This school year is FINALLY ending (thank god for small favors) and we are packing up our minimally used classrooms. For many teachers, this will be their last time having to do this. Covid caused many to throw in the eraser this year and turned in keys. They will look forward to new challenges this coming fall that don't entail lesson plans and students.  But for others, who are holding newly min...

The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in the 2017-18 school year there were 3.3 million full and part-time traditional public school teachers. That is the most recent count available. That's a lot of college tuition and credentialing fees. So does all the investment in a piece of paper that supposedly certifies a person is a competent teacher really mean anything? What does a...

Here's how the school year progressed. It started as "We won't likely be returning to campus this year." Then it changed to  "I doubt it will happen." Which changed to, "Maybe it will happen." Then to, "It's happening," and finally... "It happened!" Last week we were back in our classroom with students!  Well kind of... Families had the choice of returning to campus or continuing with the distance...

In 2005 then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to make changes to California's teacher tenure, increasing the time to achieve tenure from 2 to 5 years. He also proposed that teacher pay be based on merit, not length of tenure, and that continued employment be tied instead to performance, not, as he put it, “just showing up.” He called the system, “an educational disaster” “Our education system...

We are rapidly approaching the end of our 3rd quarter and it looks like a pretty done deal that after spring break, we will be going back to school for real this time!  So what does that really mean? We've been polling our students and so far it seems like most will be opting to stay right where they are, at home on Google Meet. So does that mean I'll have a class of three little people sitting at...

It should have been expected that the attack on the Capitol last month (has it been that long already?😳) would prompt controversial classroom discussions. Students want to explore their questions and find answers to their concerns. This puts teachers in an awkward space, where discussions must be guided without involving a teacher's implicit biases. But given the current political climate in this...

So it's Winter Break and we've had a little time to collect ourselves and get refreshed for round two of Online Learning.  I wish....  I don't know about other teachers but, Sharyn, Jen, and I are feeling a little burned around the edges. Actually, I think a lot of teachers are feeling like toast.   Covid is raging on. Here in California, it doesn't look like the end is anywhere in sight, vaccine,...

So the election is over (or is at least supposed to be over...) and Biden has a lot of work to do to help put the country back together. Of course, being teachers, we're rather focused on Mrs. DeVos's replacement. In this episode, we discuss a few of the possible people who are on the radar to replace her. Sharyn shares a little history lesson on the Department of Education and Biden's education p...