TJUSD Board Meeting - June 11, 2015

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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 11, 2015

Postby wildrose » Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:48 am

Transgender Students Can Now Choose Which Restroom To Use
This was actually addressed in the April 2015 board meeting:
http://www.tronanews.us/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=286
Nondiscrimination/Harassment - The focus here was gender, gender identity, and gender expression. (4 items) Basically language was added to existing policies and regulations address these issues as per either state or federal requirements. For instance, the following passage is included in one of the Administrative Regulations:

Determining a Student's Gender Identity: The Coordinator shall accept the student's assertion unless district personnel present a credible basis for believing that the student's assertion is for an improper use.


The coordinator would be the superintendent in our district. Board members asked for clarification several times regarding the implications of this policy. For instance, under what circumstances would a biological male be permitted to play on the girls' softball team or possibly use the girls' restroom. Obviously this is a controversial and sensitive issue.

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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 11, 2015

Postby shadylady » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:57 am

Charter school aims to erase achievement gap for African-American students
We see achievement gaps throughout the country and this school has the focus of erasing that gap for its students. Let's just hope that they don't resort to teaching to the test or cheating in order to at least appear to solve the problem. For some reason I get the feeling that's exactly what's happening in this case.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 11, 2015

Postby cactuspete » Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:23 am

Memphis professor behind racist tweets resurfaces at crosstown school
Social justice warriors have a tendency to impose their idea of justice on others. They see the world in a warped way and take steps to push the world in the direction they think it should go, often committing atrocious acts of injustice in the process. Not that such is the case with the charter school mentioned in the previous post, but like shadylady says, something seems askew with the lady running the enterprise. It's like she has a chip on her shoulder, an ax to grind, a hidden agenda, or maybe a point to prove no matter what it takes. So, yeah, she's likely to teach to the test or cheat in order to appear to have been successful and she's likely to feel justified in doing so since she sees her cause as a just cause.
:roll2:
Zandria Robinson, who taught sociology at University of Memphis until resigning on June 11, had previously posted on Facebook and Twitter that she did not want her daughter attending school with “snotty privileged whites,” apparently ramped up her social media rhetoric after leaving the job. In a series of tweets that began June 26, nine days after white racist Dylann Roof gunned down nine African Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church, Robinson wrote that “whiteness is most certainly and inevitably terror” and said she expected to see “thinkpieces about how more mental health services could prevent white people from acting how they are conditioned to act.”

LINK: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/06/memphis-professor-behind-racist-tweets-resurfaces-at-crosstown-school/
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 11, 2015

Postby desertrat » Tue Jul 07, 2015 7:38 am

Ed-Tech Lessons from 'The Simpsons'
Unfortunately most schools purchase a lot of gadgets and gizmos, but fail to use them effectively. Computers become glorified typewriters, attendance sheets, and slide projectors and are not used to actually teach students useful skills and concepts. Failure to elevate the curriculum nullifies any positive potential gains that should result from acquiring enhanced technology. This is one of public educations biggest failures.
After being told, "Here's a check—take this check," Principal Skinner sets about digitizing the entire school, bringing in e-books, interactive white boards, 3-D printers, a digital flag, and even a robot vacuum to serve as janitor Willie's "supervisor."

Sadly there's no escaping this conclusion:
The show clearly exaggerates schools' unpreparedness for new technology—but perhaps not by as much as we'd like to believe.

LINK: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2015/06/ed-tech_lessons_from_the_simpsons.html
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - June 11, 2015

Postby pcslim » Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:54 am

desertrat: Exactly. Schools do a horrible job of utilizing technology. They collect all sorts of technological gadgets and then they use it for tutorials (glorified worksheets) and in the ways you mention, but as you say they fail to elevate their curriculum as a result of adding technology. A focus on coding skills is probably the single most valuable thing that could be infused into the curriculum, but so few teachers have coding skills that it's extremely unlikely that we'll see any improvement. It's truly unfortunate that public schools fail to take advantage of such an amazing opportunity.
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