Silence Is Assent: Je Suis Charlie #charliehebdo

Je Suis Charlie. I Am Charlie Hebdo.

A collage of Charlie Hebdo covers. Taken from Berlin's BZ paper.

I'm posting this following the good idea of Dov Bear, who wrote: 

I am urging ALL of you to do this too. Put the collage of Charlie Hebdo covers (taken from Berlin's BZ paper) on your blogs, your Facebook pages and tell your local papers you want them to take a stand and run this, too. Tell the terrorists that they don't control the public discourse or the free exchange of ideas.  Tell them they aren't going to win this. We get to think. We get to talk, We get to laugh. And they can't stop us.

Silence is assent.
The pen is mightier than the sword. I hope.




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Guest Post Interview: School in Singapore

You might remember that I'm participating in the 2013 Blogathon (a post a day in June). There are certain "theme" days and today's suggested theme is a Guest Post Swap with another blogger who is doing the blogathon. In my case, I found Dominique Goh, who lives in Singapore and is a primary school teacher, to be my guest poster. (I am her guest poster as well!) Dominique blogs at dominiquegoh.com. I decided to do a short Question and Answer interview with Dominique, and here it is. 



1. You teach primary school in Singapore. What grades/ages does that cover? How large are your class sizes? Do you have one group of students and teach all subjects to them, or do you teach a particular subject and students rotate? Does school go year-round?

I cover from grade 1-6 (or as they call it here Primary 1 to 6), the kids are from 7 -12 years old. At present the classes are 30 per class for the lower levels however from  Primary 3 onwards there is streaming and the top end classes may pack up to 40 students in the class with varying number of students in the other classes. We teach by subjects and the students are the ones that rotate and go from class to class. I teach English, Maths,Science and Music. It depends on which subject combination is given to you at the start of the year as in certain years I did have physical education and art classes to teach also. 

School goes all year round with breaks as follows: 1 week in March, 4 weeks in June, 1 week in September and 6 weeks in Nov/Dec. The start of the school year is in January and it ends in November.

2. I think the main languages in Singapore are Chinese, English, and Malay. At what age to children start learning languages in Singapore--how many languages, how often--are they expected to reach fluency in their non-native languages? (Anything interesting about language learning would be great!)


Most kids start to learn language from birth. They are expected to learn a minimum of two languages as it is compulsory here. English and your mother tongue. For us as we are Chinese we learn both English and Mandarin at school.  Both are treated as 1st languages here and for my own family we introduce the kids to more then a few languages from birth as we use English, Mandarin and Cantonese at home.
My aim is to raise a multilingual toddler/kid so I have been introducing them to other languages like Japanese and Korean. I intend to introduce them to French when they are older and they too get to hear and learn basic Malay as many elders around us speak Malay.  
I believe that it is important to have the kids introduce to the different languages as early as possible as they will be the least resistant to learning something new. Exposure is the key to getting them interested in languages.

3. Singapore is a small, urban island. Do children in Singapore access nature/natural environments? If so, how? Are they taught environmental education? 


Yes we live on an island but there are many pockets of greenery around as the place has been landscaped by the urban architects... there are many parks and even nature/jungle areas still around on the island.  In fact in the area where I am living in there is a bike trail that cuts throughs a greenery corridor and even to the wetland areas.  The school schedules trips to various parks or even the offshore islands around Singapore to see the different  plants/animals in their natural habitat.  We do have a great focus on being environmentally friendly with Earth Day celebration in school. 

4. I think the educational system in Singapore is pretty different from the U.S., and more centralized. How do people become teachers? What kind of training do they get? Compared to other jobs, are teachers paid fairly well, medium, or poorly? Is it a well-respected job? 

To be an educator in Singapore you first have to apply for the job with the Ministry of Education. Upon passing the selection test you have to undertake a Post Grad Diploma in Education from National Institute of Education before you are qualified to teach. Upon passing out you are bonded for 3 years and posted to a school to teach. Teachers are paid fairly well however unless you assume higher leadership positions it would be hard for your pay to be equal to those in the corporate sector. It is not as well-respected as before due to the degrading of society and its moral values however it is a relatively safe occupation as in guns and other weapons etc. are not allowed for civilians on this island and so there is no chance of massive shoot outs/killings in school. 
Hope that I have answered your questions.

Here is my bio.
Dominique Goh, Singaporean elementary school teacher, professional blogger and mom of three. Catch her on her blog as she shares about her experiences with her kids, education, cooking and baking. The photos are by Dominique Goh.

Did You Ever Think About Getting An Exchange Student?

My first introduction to exchange students was in high school, when my friend Melinda went on an exchange to the Philippines. When she came back she had lots of great stories, and she brought me, as a gift, a set of boxes that I still have.

I've been contemplating the idea of getting an exchange student for several years, and now we've officially decided to go ahead and take the plunge! For now, I'm not going to say any more about our exchange student, but in case you want to know more about exchange students, here is some information.

There are two exchange programs working in Washtenaw County: One is AFS USA (formerly the American Field Service), and the other is YFU-USA, or Youth For Understanding.

Interesting factoids

Youth For Understanding began in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area. It started as a cross-cultural exchange with Germany in the years following World War II, with the idea that if German youth had a stronger relationship with the rest of the world, that would improve the chances of peaceful relationships in the years ahead. Now they work with students from all over the world.

American Field Service started as an ambulance/field hospital service by the American Colony in France during World War I. Between World War I and World War II it offered graduate level scholarships. AFS began the intercultural exchanges that are familiar to us immediately following World War II--but they began by working in many more countries. Now they work with students from all over the world.

Now both programs work in many countries around the world. We are working with YFU, but it might just be because we found them first.

Interested in finding out more? Here is some contact information:

Youth for Understanding: http://yfu-usa.org/

AFS USA: http://www.afsusa.org/

Here is a story on Chelsea Update about exchange students coming to Chelsea.

Does 2+2=4? (This is not a math question)

But Bogin added courses like antimanipulation, which was intended to give children tools to decipher commercial or political messages. He taught a required class called myshleniye, which means “thinking,” as in critical thinking. It was based in part on the work of a dissident Soviet educational philosopher named Georgy Shchedrovitsky, who argued that there were three ways of thinking: abstract, verbal and representational. To comprehend the meaning of something, you had to use all three.
When I asked Bogin to explain Shchedrovitsky, he asked a question. “Does 2 + 2 = 4? No! Because two cats plus two sausages is what? Two cats. Two drops of water plus two drops of water? One drop of water.”

This is an excerpt from a thought-provoking New York Times article, My Family's Experiment in Extreme Schooling, by Clifford J. Levy. 

New Year, New Business

Here are a few things you might want to know about coming up VERY soon.

1. You might remember that a year ago, during the AAPS budget forums, participants were invited to indicate interest in working on strategic planning subcommittees. I had thought that would happen last spring, but it was delayed, and delayed again--at least the public participation part was. Although there are, I believe, 8 subcommittees of the strategic plan, they are only asking for assistance on three of them. [Why only three? I don't know. At the budget forums people were asked to indicate which of 8 subcommittees you might be interested in joining.] In any case, there is a January through March timeline for this--at least, that is the plan. I also can't really tell what some of these strategies mean. For instance, if you were interested in the education achievement gap, or school funding, what would you choose? Here are the details from AAPS News: 

Action Teams will reconvene in January to discuss these strategies:

• Strategy  No. 1–  “We will create a complete educational program featuring personalized learning that realizes student aspirations and meets international standards.”
• Strategy No. 5 –  “We will implement a system to ensure continuous development of staff capacity.”
• Strategy No. 6 – “We will engage and inform our constituents to engender trust and support to accomplish our mission and objectives.”

Contact Liz Margolis by Jan. 7, 2011 if you would like to be a member of one of the Action Teams listed above. E-mail her at margolis@aaps.k12.mi.us or leave a message at 734-994-2236.

UPDATE 1/5/2010: Read the comments from Liz Margolis of AAPS if you would like more information about the strategic planning process.

2.        My friend asked me last month, "Would you send your child to the International Baccalaureate school?"
           I said, "Probably not, but I'm glad it will be there for someone else. I'd be more interested in Washtenaw Technical Middle College where you could get actual college credit for the classes."
          He said, "Really? I would have thought you would be really interested in an immersion language program."

OK, so let's get something straight: International Baccalaureate schools are not immersion language schools. You can read more about them in this earlier post (and its links). It is possible--but not guaranteed--that an IB program will give you college credit. Many of our local school districts are banding together under the auspices of the WISD to set up an IB school. [Dexter is planning on integrating an IB program into their own high school.]

Why am I telling you this? Because, if you have a student entering ninth grade, you might want to check out the International Baccalaureate question and answer sessions (mandatory for application):

Please plan to attend one of the following sessions:

• Wednesday, January 12: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Tuesday, January 18: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Thursday, January 27: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Monday, January 31: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Wednesday, February 9: 7:00 p.m.  – 9:00 p.m.
  

Information sessions will be held at:
Washtenaw International High School (WIHS)
510 Emerick Street, Ypsilanti, MI 48198.
For more information, please call 734-994-8100 x1263, or visit the web site at http://www.wihi.org/

3. Ann Arbor's Community High application packets are available now and are due on or before 2/11/2011. Information can be found here.

4. Ann Arbor's Skyline High also has an application and information here, also due on or before 2/11/2011.  It looks like they have reduced the number of outside-of-Skyline-district student openings from 125 to 100. I am guessing that this is related to the fact that the number of in-district students has been increasing, but I'm not positive. (Nor am I sure about how that decision is made.) Also, if you are in-district, there is a curriculum night on January 12th (which seems early to me!).

4. Similarly, Ypsilanti's New Tech High School is also taking applications for incoming freshmen. Find more information here. Unlike Community and Skyline, New Tech High School is open to students from other districts.

4. I changed the blog design. I'm not sure what I think--and comments are welcome.

To I.B. or Not to I.B., That Is the Question

I've been reading that International Baccalaureate programs may be coming to Washtenaw County. I wrote about the programs before here.

Take, for instance, this article from Dexter's Squall newspaper, written by Brittany Martini (Squall co-editor) and featured in annarbor.com on March 13, 2010--it features the process that Dexter High School is going through in preparation for switching from a school with AP classes to a school with an IB program.

Tentatively, in the fall of 2011, juniors and seniors will have the opportunity to either enroll in International Baccalaureate classes or enter an IB program and eventually receive an IB diploma... Dexter High School currently offers Advanced Placement (AP) classes to upperclassmen, but, according to [social studies teacher Susan] Walters, there is a definite difference between the two.“In terms of students, IB classes offer an opportunity for them to earn college credit, just like AP.... Also, the more challenging and greater variety of courses we can provide for students, the richer our curriculum will be.
"Students who take individual IB classes can test for college credit; students who only take IB classes during their junior and senior years can earn enough credits to enter college with sophomore standing or close to that.”
Besides a different approach to the test, IB and AP classes differ in price as well. 
According to Pam Bunka [Fenton English teacher]... Fenton recently adopted the IB program and has seen elective enrollements fall because of this adoption...The IB test is approximately $224 dollars, which is significantly more than the AP test.”...“The IB program allows students no room for electives,” Bunka said. “The electives a student in the diploma program has to take must be IB-approved classes. This means they can not take a band class; they have to take a band theory class instead. This applies for art classes as well. A student would have to take an art theory class instead of a regular art class."...
The IB diploma program forces students to take only IB classes...Regardless of the potential benefits and drawbacks from the program, whether DHS will become an IB school is still up in the air.

 At the same time, the WISD is looking at creating an IB program in East Middle School.  [Sarcastic side notes: 1) The WISD apparently doesn't have enough to do with taking on the "countywide" transporation; and 2) isn't it so convenient that Ypsilanti happens to have an empty middle school that could be used. Oh, but "no decisions have been made." OK, sarcasm over.]
Seriously, I am open-minded about the IB program, and I don't know much about it, but I want my questions answered.

According to this June 30, 2010 article by David Jesse,

"The Washtenaw County Superintendents Association has been talking about adding an IB program at the high school level for much of the last school year.
“This spring, they voted to move ahead with the planning of a countywide magnet high school using the IB Diploma Program, beginning with a target of 150 students with a goal of up to 600 students by year four,” Allen said."

 It happens that this article sparked a lot of comments, which I will get to in a minute. My basic problem is that I still didn't know what this program is/was.  Luckily for me, the New York Times posted an article a few days later that at least explains the details. 

The lesser-known I.B., a two-year curriculum developed in the 1960s at an international school in Switzerland, first took hold in the United States in private schools. But it is now offered in more than 700 American high schools — more than 90 percent of them public schools — and almost 200 more have begun the long certification process.
Many parents, schools and students see the program as a rigorous and more internationally focused curriculum, and a way to impress college admissions officers.
To earn an I.B. diploma, students must devote their full junior and senior years to the program, which requires English and another language, math, science, social science and art, plus a course on theory of knowledge, a 4,000-word essay, oral presentations and community service. (Emphasis added.)

Translation: devoting their full junior and senior years means no electives.

According to the New York Times article, the most common opposition comes from a belief that it is too internationally-focused (follows a "United Nations agenda"),  and the cost.

Others object to its cost — the organization charges $10,000 a year per school, $141 per student and $96 per exam — and say it is neither as effective as the A.P. program nor likely to reach as many students.

 Side note: I like the idea of a United Nations agenda.

 The Times article also looks at a school implementing the program in Maine:

Because it is so rigorous, the I.B. is not for everyone. At Greely, only 21 juniors started the full program this year, and three subsequently shifted to a mix of I.B. and regular classes. But those who stayed with it seemed enthusiastic. “It’s like a little club of scholars,” said Maggie Bower, a junior.

 In the comments on the Annarbor.com article, I thought there were some really good questions, which I will aggregate here:

Will the teachers at the IB program have to move from their current school district in Washtenaw County to the ISD? Will there be countywide busing available? How will students be selected for the program, using standardized tests or recommendations and grades? And, will students who attend the program be able to play sports at their "home school" or will the IB program also offer a sports program as a comprehensive high school? Is this just another way to funnel resources to elite students? How would this compete with the new High School program the Ypsilanti district is planning for the former Ardis elementary building? Will teachers remain employees of their home districts? How will districts fund this, and what will it cost them? How is the WISD going to be held accountable to the local voters? Will this program "cream" the most motivated students from each district, leaving fewer options for those left behind? How much money for renovations to a school building, and what will that cost/where will the money come from?

And I have a few more questions:
What kind of impact would this have on electives--music, art, gym?
What kind of impact would this have on after-school activities--theater, sports?
What kind of impact will this have on smaller schools in the county--for instance, Manchester, Willow Run, Whitmore Lake--will it mean they have to cut sports programs because they don't have enough enrollment to support them? Will this support disinvestment in local schools?
How do we keep the Washtenaw Intermediate School District accountable?
Why is the IB program preferable to AP?
We already have the Early College Alliance, connected to EMU (as well as the charter school, Washtenaw Technical Middle College). With both of those, students end up with actual college credits. Why is the IB program preferable to expanding these (ECA and WTMC) programs? 

Is there anything that I missed? Add your questions below.

Literacy: MiLitPlan, ESL

State Literacy Initiative:
The Michigan Department of Education is drafting a statewide literacy plan called MiLitPlan. They are forming a review team that begins work this fall. If you would like to join the review team, please find an application attached. [I got this through a health listserve, so I don't think you need to be a literacy "expert," but you should have some interest/skills.] The deadline for reviewer applications is August 4th.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you about the Michigan statewide literacy plan (MiLitPlan) that was initiated in May 2010. . . We would like to invite you to be part of the review process for the MiLitPlan. . . If you are interested in joining the review group for the MiLitPlan, please complete the attached form and email it to Connie McCall at mccallc@michigan.gov or fax to (517) 241-0247 by August 4th, 2010 (more information below).
Thank you in advance for your interest in working on the MiLitPlan. We look forward to your input and support for this important statewide literacy initiative. If you have questions about the attached information form or general questions about the MiLitPlan, please contact Connie McCall at the email address above or by telephone at (517) 335-3678. If you have any further questions about the MiLitPlan, please contact Ruth Isaia at isaiar@michigan.gov, or by telephone at (517) 373-2590.

English As A Second Language (ESL) Welcome Fair:
Hosted By: Ann Arbor ESL Community Advisory Board (a group I didn't even know existed!)
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
12-3 PM
Skyline High School
Second Floor Commons
2552 North Maple
Learn About Ann Arbor’s Community Resources & Services Health, Wellness, Safety, Sports, Recreation, Education, Tutoring, Pre-School, Childcare, Libraries, Transportation, and MORE!

ESL ELPA TESTING
The Ann Arbor Public Schools will also be administering the Michigan English Language Proficiency Assessment at Skyline High School to potentially eligible ESL students between 10 AM and 4 PM for students entering grades 6-12. Sign up in your child’s school office. Details will also be on the Ann Arbor Public School’s

ESL Website- http://www.aaps.k12.mi.us/ins.esl/home
 
Last year I did hear about a foreign student who was automatically placed in the lowest English because school staff made the assumption that his English was poor. As it happens, his English was fairly fluent. An intervention by a relative was required to set the school straight. School staff are supposed to give you an assessment test, even if you join the school in the middle of the year...

The Law of the Sea

Tonight, I was driving and listening to a segment of The World (the PRI show, The World) where they were discussing the progress President Obama is making (very slow, indeed) at getting the Senate to advise and consent on treaties. Apparently the U.S. has a habit of having diplomats agree to a treaty, and then the U.S. essentially lives by the terms of the treaty, but we don't actually ratify it.

Case in point? The Law of the Sea.
Wait a second...THAT hasn't been ratified?

In eleventh grade I had a social studies teacher who taught an elective class on The United Nations and International Diplomacy: The Law of the Sea. (That was not its exact name--but it was something close.) Mr. Sax deeply believed in democratic values and thought that the Law of the Sea was extremely important both for the environment and the world. Although I think he might be right about that, at the time it seemed somewhat esoteric to me, and certainly not worth getting as excited about it as he clearly was. [He was an idealist. I believe he was disappointed that Esperanto had not succeeded.]
The Law of the Sea treaty was written in the 1970s and early 1980s, and revised again in the 1990s. This is, in fact, one of those treaties that we have not ratified, but have been abiding...but if the U.S. doesn't ratify the treaty, then we are not officially a party to the treaty.

In any case, that story on The World transported me back to a subject that I hadn't thought about since eleventh grade. Was it worth learning about? I don't know. It was fun to recognize it today.

The other item Mr. Sax insisted that we learn has been more useful to me. He insisted that we learn to fold the newspaper so that it could be read while riding on the train or subway without getting it in your neighbor's face. (And of course, he meant The New York Times, because what other newspaper would be worth doing this for?) Now that I found useful--at least when I lived in the New York area.