When a Teacher Learns

On the very last day of school, during the very last class, the teacher turned to the students. He looked at each of them slowly and started to speak.

“Each of you knows what you have learned from me. All of you know what you have learned from your other teachers – or not, as the case may be.”

The students chuckled nervously. It was funny, but in a way, it was not.

He continued with a question, “How many of you, however, know what your teachers have learned from you?”

Eyes widened. What did he mean?

“Today” said the teacher, “I will tell you.”

“I have learned from you that different people learn in different ways.”

“I learned that some of you learn at different speeds, different paces.”

“I learned that all of you have your good days and bad days. I do too.”

“I learned from you that I forgot what it was like to be a student, and I want to thank you for reminding me how hard it was.”

“I learned that if I really wanted to know how to teach, I need to listen to what my students tell me, even when they do not know that they are telling me anything at all.”

“I learned that if I want to be a better teacher, I have to learn how to listen first, act second and judge last. I learned that I should ask my students what will make me a better teacher as well; for if I expect them to be better students, they ought to have at least as much say in what will make me, make them, such.”

And the teacher did listen; and at first it was like the echoes in a large empty room. Then, slowly, slight murmurs rose to sound and voices became clear. And here is what they said:

Real Honduran News

Three blogs posting a variety of new regarding Honduras include: narconews, hondurancampesino and lagringasblogicito.  Beware the feuding between the last two -- but if you read between the lines of all three, you can get a clearer picture of what is happening here.

Living Under A Curfew

Remember when you were a teenager and thought the curfew imposed by your parents was bad? Now try a 4 pm to 7 am curfew imposed by the government and you just ran out of drinking water! And no, you can't drink the tap water.

Then you hear the curfew is extended from 7 am to 6 pm! I'm going to have to start collecting rain water and boiling water from the tap -- and hope the electricity stays on.

These are some of the few joys of living in a developing country like Honduras. I just hope things do not turn violent and that this coup situation resolves itself peacefully.

Phrases to live by...

1. Fix the problem not the blame.

Often attributed to the Japanese, I first came across it in the movie Rising Son with Sean Connery.

2. Asking forgiveness is easier than asking for permission.

Read Admiral Grace Hopper created this one. Amazing Grace.

3. There are two kinds of fool. One says 'This is old, therefore it is good' and the other says 'This is new, therefore it is better'

Guess I've been all kinds of fools.

Ottawa Valley teacher shot in Honduras

A former Ottawa Valley teacher is fighting for his life in a Honduras hospital after he was shot several times in a brazen drug-related carjacking on his way to a goodbye party for a former colleague.

Dennis Spencer, 58, the principal of a respected international school in northern Honduras for the past four years, was stopped at a traffic light in San Pedro Sula sometime between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday when two armed men forced their way into his car.

They pushed a female colleague, also a principal, into the backseat and then at gunpoint ordered Spencer to drive. Within a few minutes, they were overtaken by two men in a second car who opened fire, striking Spencer in the arm, shoulder and skull, before speeding away. No one else was hit, and the two carjackers fled.

Spencer’s colleague, dazed and frightened, wandered through the neighbourhood knocking on doors to get help, eventually finding someone who called for an ambulance.

Spencer, a teacher for 25 years in Renfrew County, was rushed to Cemesa Hospital where he was placed in medically induced coma early Saturday after surgeons operated on his brain. It is believed he was hit in the head by shrapnel, possibly shards of glass sent flying by bullets.

Doctors often place head injury victims in comas to keep brain activity to a minimum while they assess the extent of the trauma.

Ron Vair, the Canadian who runs the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana where Spencer has worked since 2005, said Sunday that doctors hope to gradually ease him from the coma today. The brain has shown no abnormal swelling, and doctors remain “guardedly optimistic” he will recover.

Spencer’s wife Barb, who was in Pembroke visiting one of the couple’s two adult children when her husband was attacked, flew back to Honduras Sunday.

In the meantime, Spencer’s colleagues from school have been lining up to visit the popular principal in hospital.

“There has been anywhere from 10 to 50 people there at a time to see him,” Vair said. “He is a real good fellow. The staff really love him. I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about him.”

Spencer was principal of Esceula Sampedrana’s smaller elementary school campus in La Lima, a mountain community about 30 kilometeres from San Pedro Sula, a city of half a million and the site of the school’s main campus.

In all, the school has about 2,000 students and 200 staff, more than 30 of them from Canada, according to David Schult, a Kitchener, Ont. native who is a vice-principal at the main campus.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Young Honduran activist and editor inspires children living with HIV

Education Week: No Effect on Comprehension Seen From 'Reading First'

Education Week: No Effect on Comprehension Seen From 'Reading First'

No Effect on Comprehension Seen From 'Reading First'
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
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The $6 billion funding for the federal Reading First program has helped more students “crack the code” to identify letters and words, but it has not had an impact on reading comprehension among 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in participating schools, according to one of the largest and most rigorous studies ever undertaken by the U.S. Department of Education.

While more time is spent on reading instruction and professional development in schools that received Reading First grants than in comparison schools, students in participating schools are no more likely to become proficient readers, even after several years with the extended instruction, the study found.

Among both the Reading First and comparison groups, reading achievement was low, with fewer than half of 1st graders, and fewer than 40 percent of 2nd and 3rd graders showing grade-level proficiency in their understanding of what they read. On a basic decoding test, however, 1st graders in Reading First schools scored significantly better than their peers in the comparison schools.

The final report of the Reading First Impact Study, released today by the Institute of Education Sciences, is part of the $40 million evaluation process for the program, which was rolled out in 2002 as part of the No Child Left Behind Act.

“Advocates for the program will be pleased that it’s shown a positive correlation on [improved] decoding skills ... the focus of the program,” said Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, the outgoing director of the institute, the Education Department’s research arm. “I don’t think anyone should be celebrating the fact that the federal government invested $6 billion in a reading program that has shown no effects on reading comprehension.”

Curriculum Matters: Evolution Debate Under Way in Texas

Evolution Debate Under Way in Texas

The Texas board of education is the latest state entity to begin debating the status of evolution in the state's science academic standards.

To provide a quick overview: The current version of Texas' science standards calls for students to understand the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories. That language irks scientists, who see it as a way of falsely implying that evolution is riddled with flaws, as opposed to being one of the best-established principles in science. A draft produced by an expert committee recommended dropping that language, as part of a broader reworking of the standards. Then Texas' board of education appointed a separate, six-member panel to review that document (see their comments in the link above), some of whose members were critical of the first draft and recommended changes. Some scientists are worried that those appointees are interested in seeing evolution presented in a more critical light.

Technorati

Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

By Martin Roberts
Wed Jun 25, 4:28 PM ET

MADRID (Reuters) -
Spain's parliament voiced its support on
Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in
what will apparently be the first time any national legislature
has called for such rights for non-humans.

Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions
urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by
scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic
relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.

"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights
and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will
doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro
Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project.

Spain may be better known abroad for bull-fighting than
animal rights but the new measures are the latest move turning
once-conservative Spain into a liberal trailblazer.

A Close Shave

We raised 400$ for Casa Alianza. For more information on Casa Alianza, click here.