Michigan’s falling teacher salaries push some from the field

WARREN, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s declining teacher salaries are leaving many educators feeling undervalued and pushing some to leave the field.

The average salary for Michigan teachers continued to decrease last year, contributing to a 12% decline over the last decade, according to new data from the National Education Association, a labor union.

The Michigan Department of Education found that teachers’ average salary has stagnated since its peak in 2009, at $63,024, MLive.com reported .

Information from: The Grand Rapids Press:MLive.com, http://www.mlive.com

https://apnews.com/3576e27d38bb42ac8340991bfbab22a8

How Can I Help My Child at Home?

Wayland Union Schools offers access to several different programs that can keep students learning at home. Please read below to learn about the various programs. Usage may vary from grade to grade so please be sure to look at target audience and work with your child’s teacher to maximize the benefit of each program.Please contact your child’s teacher or the Technology Helpdesk (helpdesk@waylandunion.org) for usernames and passwords for the various websites.

IXL.com

Wayland Union Schools subscribes to IXL for students in grades 1-11 for standards based practice in Language Arts and Math.Click here to visit IXL.com

Information Place

The Information Place is a site that has been created and maintained by Librarians and Media and Technology Specialists at Wayland Union Schools. Each grade level has their own page and has a list of several websites that can be used by students to support learning.Click here to visit the Information Place

Mathseeds

Wayland Union Schools subscribes to Mathseeds for students in Kindergarten and 1st Grade. The program reinforces early numeracy and problem solving skills.(Mathseeds is paid for with Title I funds and is only available for students at Baker Elementary)

Click here to visit Mathseeds.com

MobyMax.com

Wayland Union Schools subscribes to MobyMax in order to provide students in grades K-8 with support and additional practice in Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.Click here to visit MobyMax.com

Reading Eggs

Wayland Union Schools subscribes to Reading Eggs for students in Kindergarten and 1st grade. The program reinforces early literacy skills.(Reading Eggs is paid for with Title I funds and is only available for students at Baker Elementary)

Click here to visit ReadingEggs.com

Reflex Math

Wayland Union Schools subscribes to Reflex Math to support students in increasing math fact fluency. Reflex math is utilized by students in grades 1-6.Click here to visit ReflexMath.com

Typing Agent

Wayland Union Schools subscribes to Typing Agent for students in grades 1-8. Students utilize Typing Agent to practice their keyboarding skills.Click here to visit TypingAgent.com

Read!

One of the best ways for parents to support kids at home is by fostering a love of reading! Make sure your child has access to a variety of books that they are interested in and can read. Our local public libraries are amazing resources. Our district has also been working on a project called Building a Community of Readers project to increase access to books by placing them in locations that our students visit or live close to. Check out the app linked below to find the locations of many Little Free Libraries in our community that provide a source of books for your child!

Building a Community of Readers

wuslfl.glideapp.io

SOURCE – https://www.smore.com/3u6ba?fbclid=IwAR0N-Jdd13faFCqRIDoBd_6gLV98SflDHczr78lwMF8-T9_-qdCLW2tFq9k

One Small Voice: Dems prove too many cooks spoil the soup

BY LYNN MANDAVILLE

You may be familiar with an old expression that goes “too many cooks spoil the broth.” Basically, the expression means that too many people in the kitchen kibitzing over what goes into the soup will…

Source: One Small Voice: Dems prove too many cooks spoil the soup

School’s out: Charters were supposed to save public education. Why are Americans turning against them?

By Jack Schneider an assistant professor of education at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, is director of research for the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment and co-host of the education policy podcast “Have You Heard.” Follow @Edu_Historian

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The charter school movement is in trouble. In late December, the editorial board of the Chicago Sun-Times observed that the charter movement in the Windy City was “in hot water and likely to get hotter.” Among more than a dozen aspirants for mayor, “only a handful” expressed any support for charter schools, and the last two standing for the April 2 runoff election both said they wanted to halt charter school expansion. In February, New York City’s elected parent representatives — the Community and Citywide Education Councils — issued a unanimous statement in which they criticized charters for operating “free from public oversight” and for draining “substantial” resources from district schools. A month later, Mayor Bill de Blasio told a parent forum that in the “not-too-distant future” his administration would seek to curtail the marketing efforts of the city’s charters, which currently rely on New York City Department of Education mailing lists.

READ – SHARE – DISCUSS – LEARN MORE HERE –

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2019/05/30/feature/charter-schools/?utm_term=.c4cb01d6cd33

Mary Holden: What Happened When a Veteran High School Teacher Switched to Middle School Teaching

Diane Ravitch's blog

Mary Holden is a teacher in Nashville, Tennessee. I have met Mary on several occasions, usually when I was in Nashville. She spent 15 years teaching  high school, then switched to middle school, teaching sixth grade. She wasn’t sure how she would react to the change. In short, she LOVED it!

There are many weird things that happen in middle school that I never experienced as a high school teacher. Boogers. Penises drawn in weird places. Bad smells, especially after PE on a hot day. Excessive bottle flipping. Weird dance moves that kids break into constantly and at the most random times. Fortnite, Fornite, Fornite. Pokemon. K-Pop. More Fortnite. Do you play Fornite, Mrs. Holden? No?? Why not? Some unusually phrased graffiti in the bathroom because these kids think they know what they’re talking about when it comes to sex but really they have no idea (most of them, anyway).

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Michigan: The New State Superintendent Brings Hope for Real Change

Diane Ravitch's blog

Michael Rice, the new State Superintendent in Michigan, is an experienced educator, not an ideologue or a politician.

His plans are sensible. He wants to steer the state back to responsible policies.

He was most recently Superintendent in Kalamazoo, which has one of the best school systems in the state. Itis terrific not because of its demographics or it’s scores but because of the Kalamazoo Promise, which has brought many students back to the public schools and led to systemwide improvements. The Promise, anonymously funded, guarantees that every high school graduate will receive a full scholarship to college. The longer a student is in the system, the more generous the scholarship.

School reform measures, such as Michigan’s third-grade retention law and the state’s A-F rating system; a statewide push to improve literacy and increase early childhood education; the publication of multiple research papers supporting increased funding for Michigan’s K-12 schools and the precarious…

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Yohuru Williams and Carol Burris: Where Do Democratic Candidates Stand on K-12 Education?

Diane Ravitch's blog

Yohuru Williams and Carol Burris assess the expressed views of the Democratic candidates—thus far—on K-12 education. 

One hopes that the other candidates will soon state or clarify their views about privatization, testing, funding, and other important issues that the president can change.

They should all be asked at town halls whether they will kill the federal Charter Schools Program slush fund, which is now $440 million a year and is being used by DeVos to expand corporate chains.

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Bernie Is Right About Charters: Ravitch and Burris

Diane Ravitch's blog

The New York Daily News published an opinion piece attacking Bernie Sander’s call for a moratorium on charter schools, echoing the NAACP and Black Lives Matter. The article claimed that Senator Sanders was hurting children of color.

Carol Burris and I published a response in the same publication to the attack, which is included here. 

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