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Tecee Boley | Reporter

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From New Narratives:
Image courtesy of New Narratives
Tecee Boley is a leading radio and print reporter in Liberia. She works at Liberia Women Democracy Radio as a reporter and presents programs on gender education and rural women. She also contributes to FrontPage Africa newspaper and Front Page Africa, Liberia’s most widely read newspaper and website, and is regularly heard on United Nations radio.

New Narratives Fellow - Tecee from New Narratives on Vimeo.
In her own words:
‘I am already living out my dream, to broadcast voices that are rarely heard. But I don’t just want those voices to be heard, I want authorities worldwide to take action.’

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Obi Emelonye's "Last Flight To Abuja"

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In Shadow and Act:
Although the Nollywood film industry is one of the fastest-growing film markets around, it still contends with a "poor quality films" perception often attached in describing the industry but filmmaker Obi Emelonye hopes to change that with his new big-budget thriller.His hit film The Mirror Boy was a huge success, critically and financially, in the UK and throughout Africa last year. His latest production, Last Flight To Abuja, is the first-ever Nollywood disaster film and, with a budget of $500,000, will become one of the most expensive Nollywood films made.

He realizes there's skepticism but thinks that can change telling The Voice..."I know there is a little bit of doubt about how would we compare in terms of quality of production values and storyline to Hollywood. But that argument is being won right now. Film-makers like myself are trying to use the conventions, the visual narrative style and the technology of the West in a very unique African way, to tell our own stories.”...[continue reading]

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Sizzlin' Classrooms

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This post doesn't offer any resources for you -- it's just an "old-fashioned" blog post that I hope will spark a little bit of discussion.

If you've read my "About" page, then you know that I'm currently a substitute for several local districts in an effort to keep my foot in education and to maybe gain a classroom of my own again next year.

While I would much rather be teaching in my own classroom this year, there are definite perks to substituting. Mainly, I love seeing what goes on in other classrooms. Substituting doesn't allow me to watch other teachers in action, but it does allow me to acquire many ideas on classroom setup, management methods, and lessons. I always leave at the end of the day with my brain buzzing with all the new things I learned. I try to write it all down as soon as I can so that I can apply it to my [future] classroom (when I get one again).

Anyway, I've been subbing a lot this semester, and I've noticed a definite trend in hot classrooms.


Source

I'm sure this probably has something to do with the budget cuts and the fact that schools are trying to save money in whatever ways possible at this point...right?

I'm naturally a pretty hot-natured person, so my body can find a way to sweat in the dead of winter (sorry if that's TMI). But when I encounter other teachers in the hallway whose hair has become stringy and their foreheads are glistening with beads of sweat, I know I'm not the only one who feels like she's in a furnace in some of those classrooms!

I am realizing just how lucky I was in my classroom last year, where I had free reign (to some extent) over the thermostat in my classroom. Teachers at my school last year could change their classroom temperature to anything between 65-80 degrees. The teachers I'm subbing for this year don't seem to be able to control the temperature of their classrooms at all. I even saw one smart-cookie teacher who was dealing with the heat by placing a lamp underneath the thermostat's temperature sensor; as the lamp's heat increased on the temperature on the sensor, the thermostat thought it was too hot in the room and kicked on a little cool air. Brilliant solution!

I was prompted to write this blog post after a subbing experience where the kids kept exclaiming over my red cheeks, and I could feel my glasses sliding down my face from the sweat. I ended up having to open the door to get some air circulating, but the teacher had written for her students to be doing some very social activities that afternoon, and I was afraid that our noise was going to disturb other classes. On the other hand, I knew it was way too hot in there to be able to keep the door closed....

This prompted me, again, to think about last year, when I had control over my thermostat.  Since I am naturally hot and I spent a lot of time moving around in my classroom, I kept the temperature at about 68 degrees. If my students spent a lot of time in their seats during class, I found that the girls would complain about the cold. But if I kept my students up and moving (which I wanted to do, anyway), they thought it was a good temperature, too. Upon entering, other teachers would comment on how "cold" it was, but then again, they weren't moving around and working up a sweat all hour, either...

If my college classrooms' temperatures weren't "just right," I considered them to be on the cool side. I have rarely ever been in a classroom that is too hot...until this year. It seems to be a common theme that most teachers agree that a chilly classroom is better than a warmer classroom. My college professors reasoned that a chilly classroom will keep students awake better than a warmer classroom will (although, if your lessons are really innovative and intriguing, the majority of students won't have a hard time staying awake, anyway!). I've also heard that a chilly classroom is healthier than a warmer classroom, since germs crave moisture and warmth. I don't want to freeze my students, but I do want everyone to be comfortable enough so that they can function with ease, myself included.

I find it very difficult to function in a hot environment because my mind can't seem to get over the fact that I'm sweating buckets (sorry again if that's TMI. I'm normally not this gross, I promise. :) ).

So I have a few questions for my bloggy friends:

1. Do you have the ability to control the thermostat in your classroom?
2. What temperature is your classroom normally?
3. What do you think is the best temperature for optimal learning? Why?

I'm anxious to know what you think!


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"My Robot is better than your Robot."

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"i.am FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll"

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Let Africa Trade With Africa

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via Feint and Margin:
In Africa, non-tariff trade barriers raise transaction costs and limit the movement of goods, services, people and capital across borders. To further development, African governments must embrace regional integration, break down these barriers and help Africans trade with each other.

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M.I.A. - Bad Girls

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Arab Spring pop culture continued...M.I.A mocks the ban on women drivers in the Saudi Arabia:

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DCPS School Closings and the Displacement Equation

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Eliminating poor performing seats poses no threat to children.
Only to seats.
Written by Candi Peterson

I have been writing about Empower DC, a well respected grassroots community based organization who has been pro active in rallying our troops to fight the Illinois Facility Fund's recommendations to close 38 public schools in the District of Columbia. Empower DC started meeting last November and recently held a planning session on February 4, 2012 with about 100 participants in attendance at their V Street office. Out of that meeting came an initial recommendation for supporters to attend Mayor Gray's One Citizen Summit at the DC Convention Center on Saturday, February 11, 2012. The  plan was to show a presence as well as deliver information about the proposed school closings and DC’s loss of affordable housing to summit participants. Empower DC's message to Mayor Gray was as follows: "We hold you accountable to save our schools and communities. We reject the flawed findings of the IFF report and its recommendations to close or turn around DC’s public schools. We demand a moratorium on school closures until a valid community-led process is developed for evaluating our schools."

Unfortunately, Empower DC members and supporters were threatened with arrest if they distributed materials inside the Convention summit.  Liane Scott of Grass Roots DC remarked:  "So much for a frank and open conversation Mayor Gray! Although, many felt the summit was genuinely participatory, others thought Gray was using the summit as an opportunity to present his plans to the public in the hopes that they would simply rubber stamp his agenda."

I strongly encourage parents, teachers, school staff and community members to get involved in upcoming planning meetings. Empower DC will be hosting another brief outreach planning meeting on Tuesday, February 21st at 1419 V Street NW at 6:30 p.m. Email Daniel@empowerdc.org or call 202-234-9119 ext. 104. Please check out below another guest post by Liane Scott of Grassroots DC on DCPS School Closings and the Displacement Equation.
Guest post By Liane Scott
The administration of Mayor Vincent Gray recently commissioned a study of DC schools by the Illinois Facility Fund (IFF) which was paid for by the Walton Foundation (Wal-Mart) and several other interests heavily invested in charter schools. The study divided DC schools into 4 tiers (Tier 1 being the highest “performing” and Tier 4 being the “lowest performing”).  The methodology used to rank the schools into Tiers was by looking at Standardized Test Score Results (DCCAS).
Overall the study offers 4 recommendations:
  1. Fill seats in Tier 1 Schools. Sustain the performing capacity of Tier 1 schools.
  2. Invest in facilities and programs to accelerate performance in Tier 2 schools.
  3. Monitor Tier 3 schools.
  4. Close or Turnaround Tier 4 DCPS Schools. Close Tier 4 charter schools and replace them with high-performing publicly-funded charter schools.
If you believe that test scores are the only thing that determines whether or not a school is worthy then using them as the sole criteria in the IFF’s study won’t bother you.  If, on the other hand, you view a school as an integral part of the community and for that reason should be supported, then you might have hoped the study might look into why so many DC schools are failing academically.  Despite the firing of hundreds of teachers from DCPS, academic performance has failed to improve by more than a few points.  It would have been nice if the issue was that simple.  Closing more than 20 public schools during the Fenty Administration may have increased class sizes and saved the city money but the achievement gap between white students and black students is wider than it’s ever been.  Following the recommendations of the IFF study may increase the number of publicly-funded charter schools but as there’s no real evidence that charter schools are actually doing better academically than DC’s public schools, it hardly seems like a recommendation designed to improve the schools.
Please note.  I’m aware that the mainstream media has suggested that the publicly-funded charter schools are in fact doing better academically than the traditional public schools but test scores just don’t bear that out.  If you doubt this, please research it for yourself.  Great Schools is one source for test scores and academic rankings.  You might start there.   I site them also because they’re rankings take more into account than academics.  According to their site, the top-ranked DC schools are all traditional public schools.  Although their rankings are hardly conclusive, I’m reasonably certain that they’ve been replicated by other reputable sources.  So, if in fact, the best schools in DC are traditional public schools, why would the Illinois Facilities Fund recommend that DC’s “Tier 4″ schools be replaced by publicly-funded charter schools?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to suggest that these low-ranking schools, which are mostly in Wards 7 & 8, be encouraged to emulate the successful public schools west of the Anacostia River?   The cynic in me believes with all sincerity that the real reason behind the IFF’s recommendation that DC’s public schools be replaced by charters has something to do with the fact that the Illinois Facilities Fund is a non-profit lender that lends mainly to charter schools not only in Illinois but soon across the whole of the United States.  Increasing the number of charter schools in DC may not improve the academic performance of DC’s student population. It’s not likely to reduce the achievement gap between our white and black students but it may very well help to increase the bottom line of the Illinois Facilities Fund (which given it’s emerging status as a national entity would prefer to be referred to as the IFF).
I’m also confused by the Gray Administration’s confidence in the study, not because of what appears to be a clear conflict of interest, but because the recommendations don’t seem to align with the purpose of the study itself.  According to the Washington Post, Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright’s reason for commissioning the study was, “to identify communities in greatest need of more education options.”  The report recommends that the communities in greatest need of more education options either close their schools or replace them with charters.  I don’t see how closing schools will provide the communities in Wards 7 & 8 with more educational opportunities.  Isn’t that a direct contradiction of the purpose of the study?  Presumably more charter schools will increase education options but if you’re simultaneously closing down potentially good public schools doesn’t that limit a families options to which ever charter school will accept their child?  As charter schools are not public schools in the sense that any child in the surrounding community can attend, a neighborhood’s charter school option simply won’t be available to every neighborhood kid.
Examine the IFF study yourself and see if you don’t come to similar conclusions.  Just so you know how many communities are likely to be impacted, here are the Tier 3 and 4 schools the report recommends to close or turn around broken down by Ward.  In total, there are 38 DC public schools are at-risk of closure.  Notice how many are in Wards 7 & 8.
Ward 1
Bruce Monroe @ Parkview Elementary School
Cardozo High School
Ward 4
Macfarland Middle
Raymond Educational Campus
Brightwood Educational Campus
Roosevelt High School
Ward 5
Noyes Educational Campus
Burroughs Educational Campus
Browne Educational Campus
Spingarn High School
Wheatley Ed. Campus
Ward 7
Plummer Elementary
Beers Elementary
Randle Highlands Elementary School
Aiton Elementary School
Drew Elementary School
Kelly Miller Middle School
Woodson High School
CW Harris Elementary School
Davis Elementary School
Nalle Elementary School
Ward 8
Orr Elementary School
Ballou High School
Hart Middle School
Hendley Elementary School
King Elementary School
Leckie Elementary School
Anacostia High School
Kramer Middle School
Garfield Elementary School
Stanton Elementary School
Johnson Middle School
Malcolm X Elementary School
Ferebee-Hope Elementary School
Terrell/McGogney Elementary School,
Patterson Elementary School
Simon Elementary
As a parent and a resident of Ward 7, I’m all too familiar with the struggle to insure that my daughter gets a good education. What I see when I look at the above list of schools is an administration that would prefer to disinvest in low-income communities (like mine!) rather than implement the practices that they know work in wealthy communities.

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