California Father

  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Short Story: Clippings

BOCES Ice

by admin on December 5, 2010 · 1 Comment

At Fox Meadow BOCES kids were the ones you liked to stay away from, the retards, the ones who were bused in. There were two patches of ice on the big field below the school: the big one for the normal kids and the small one for the BOCES. One day I wandered onto the [...]

Continue Reading →

A Social Story for Bill Gates

by admin on December 5, 2010 · 1 Comment

Social stories explain social situations that might be difficult for kids on the spectrum to understand.  I have tried to write them for my six year old son and recently we animated one together (see above; Flash required). A social story for Bill Gates might go: Sometimes we want to help. We try to help [...]

Continue Reading →

Podcast 58: Day 60 of School

by admin on December 4, 2010 · No Comments

Talk to You Later-Notes to My Son: Day 60 of School

Continue Reading →

Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System, Oh My!

by admin on November 29, 2010 · 3 Comments

Neal Kingston, director of the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas, believes there’s a better way to evaluate what special-education students know, and don’t know. In October, the U.S. Department of Education awarded his center a $22 million grant – the largest in the university’s history – to develop a [...]

Continue Reading →

Dust Bowl Teachers

by admin on November 28, 2010 · No Comments

What was it like to teach during the Great Depression? Well, if you were like Ann Marie Low, living in Dust Bowl North Dakota, it was probably pretty tough. $50 a month, no heat in the hotel room you share with another unpaid teacher, when you’re not forced to take another room that a trucker [...]

Continue Reading →

Getting Small

by admin on November 26, 2010 · 1 Comment

I remember that old Steve Martin routine, Getting Small, whenever I visit with my family. “Let’s get small,” Steve would say, like a crazed drug fiend, and raise the mike stand over his head. With fifteen other family members crowded around my sister’s Thanksgiving table, I feel just like him, my concerns dwarfed beside my [...]

Continue Reading →

Podcast 57: Day 45 of School

by admin on November 14, 2010 · No Comments

Talk to You Later-Notes to My Son: Day 45 of School

Continue Reading →

Podcast 56: Day 12 of School

by admin on October 3, 2010 · No Comments

Talk to You Later-Notes to My Son: Day 12 of School

Continue Reading →

Finland and Special Ed

by admin on September 30, 2010 · No Comments

Wondered how they treat special ed students in super-testing Finland and found that  in 2009 about 8.5% of Finnish students were transferred into special education and about 23% received part-time special education services. In LA Unified 10.8% of all students receive special ed services, in charters only 7%.  What does this say?  Maybe that in Finland [...]

Continue Reading →

Are Newark Charters Cheating Special Ed Kids?

by admin on September 26, 2010 · No Comments

At Dr. Diane Ravitch’s recent appearance in Los Angeles (which I videotaped; see below) one of her best lines quoted Rutger’s education economist Bruce Baker: “If I knew that a car that I was about to buy would surely explode one of every five times I got into it I would rather walk.” Dr. Ravitch [...]

Continue Reading →
← Previous Entries
  • Tags

    Add new tag Advanced Aged Arne Duncan Art Assessment Autism Barack Obama Bath Time Bed Time Bill Gates Blame Boom Box Charters Charter Schools Darwin Diane Ravitch Drawing Education Fatherhood Fiction Floortime Guilt High Stakes Testing IEP LAUSD Legal Rights Man Cave Manhattan Institute Mayor Bloomberg NCLB No Child Left Behind NYC Public Schools Obama Podcast Race To The Top School SLD Special Day Class Special Education Specific Learning Disability Students Tenure To My Son Toys Unions

    WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.

  • Recent Posts

    • BOCES Ice
    • A Social Story for Bill Gates
    • Podcast 58: Day 60 of School
    • Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System, Oh My!
    • Dust Bowl Teachers
  • Archives

    • December 2010 (3)
    • November 2010 (4)
    • October 2010 (1)
    • September 2010 (7)
    • June 2010 (3)
    • May 2010 (10)
    • April 2010 (5)
    • March 2010 (9)
    • February 2010 (5)
    • January 2010 (4)
    • December 2009 (2)
    • November 2009 (7)
    • October 2009 (11)
    • September 2009 (11)
    • August 2009 (9)
    • July 2009 (22)
    • June 2009 (26)
    • May 2009 (17)
    • April 2009 (3)
    • March 2009 (16)
    • February 2009 (14)
    • January 2009 (18)
    • December 2008 (10)
  • Blogroll

    • Big Education Ape
    • Charter School Scandals
    • Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog
    • NYC Public School Parents
    • On Special Education
    • Perimeter Primate
    • Schools Matter
    • teacherken
    • We Go With Him
  • Tweets

    • White kids over-identified autistic? African-American learning disabled? A. Advocacy B. Racism C. None of the above. D. All? 7 hours ago

    • Whites kids over-identified autistic? African-American learning disabled? A. Advocacy B. Racism C. None of the above. D. All? 7 hours ago

    • "Special Needs Respite Care Goes 5-Star" http://tinyurl.com/27nhwyp 8 hours ago

    • Special ed over-ID?1206specialed http://www.statesman.com/news/education/1101754.html 8 hours ago

    • RT @DianeRavitch: Public schools are not shoe stores. Closing them and opening another solves no students' problems. Help the kids, don' ... 10 hours ago

California Father

Pages

  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Short Story: Clippings

The Latest

  • BOCES Ice
    At Fox Meadow BOCES kids were the ones you liked to stay […]

More

Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments, and stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed.
© 2010 California Father
Platform by PageLines