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| JP Associates RSN Newsletter for March 30, 2011 |
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New Report Points to Raising Teachers' Status
The U.S. is being urged to raise teachers' status in order to improve its public schools. How? By recruiting better qualified candidates, training them better and increasing their salary. This is according to new report on comparative educational systems from Andreas Schleicher, overseer of the international achievement test known as "Pisa."
According to Schleicher, countries like Korea, Singapore and Finland, who are top-scoring countries, only recruit the highest performing college graduates for teaching positions.
"Teaching in the U.S. is unfortunately no longer a high-status occupation," says Schleicher. "Despite the characterization of some that teaching is an easy job, with short hours and summers off, the fact is that successful, dedicated teachers in the U.S. work long hours for little pay and, in many cases, insufficient support from their leadership."
President Obama agrees, and said in a recent speech on education, "In South Korea, teachers are known as 'nation builders,' and I think it's time we treated out teachers with the same level of respect."
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The 2011 JP Institute for Excellence in Education
Featuring Acclaimed Keynote Speaker Dr. Anita Archer
Active Participation: Getting Them All Engaged
Do you have students who are not attending or participating during your lessons? In this session, Dr. Archer will present research validated procedures for actively involving ALL students in instruction including the use of verbal responses, written responses, and action responses. In addition procedures for involving all students in the reading of classroom materials will be presented. Procedures will be explained, demonstrated, and practiced. Examples will represent a variety of courses and age levels. Participants will also analyze the best practices demonstrated in videos.
Dr. Anita Archer serves as an educational consultant to state departments, county agencies, and school districts on explicit instruction and literacy instruction. She has taught elementary and middle school students and is the recipient of ten Outstanding Educator awards.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE 2011 INSTITUTE GUIDE AND RESERVE YOUR SEAT AT THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE OF THE YEAR!
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Australian Teen Finally
"Snaps" After Years of Being Bullied
Read the article, then click the link at the bottom to join the discussion in the RSN Forums!
It turns out bullying issues aren't exclusive to the United States. Last week a case of a teen standing up to his bully was caught on video and posted on YouTube. Casey Heynes, the Australian teen who body slammed his bully in the video, has been dubbed "The Punisher," and said he just "snapped" after being picked on for years. The video is all over the web and has been described both as frightening and impressive as the victim finally reacts to the bully who is shown punching Heynes in the video several times. continued below 
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"CONGRATULATIONS!" - Janie Feinberg, JP Associates
The Positive Behavior Support Team from long-time JP Partner Della Lamb Elementary Charter School has been selected to present at the This Missouri State-wide Positive Behavior Support Conference on June 14 and 15 in Columbia, Missouri. Their school was selected to present after a state Review Team toured the school and came away impressed (not surprisingly, we feel that way EVERY time we see them too!) .
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Check out this new Institute Session!
Word Study and Advanced Phonics for Adolescent Readers:
Understanding the Structure of the English Language 2 part series
Are you a Middle School or High School Teacher who has students who read single-syllable words with little effort, but have difficulty decoding longer multi-syllable words; students who may lack the knowledge of the ways sounds map to print; students who may have difficulty breaking words into syllables or do not use word analysis strategies to break words into syllables; and finally, students who do not have any knowledge of the meanings of parts of words to help build an understanding of content vocabulary? Then this session is for you. The session is designed to give you the basics of the structure of the English language, the current research to support instruction, and you will walk away with specific, basic tools to enable you to scaffold instruction for your struggling students to achieve high standards.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER TODAY!
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April 18th webinar with Perry Zirkel
What you need to know to comply with the new Section 504: Which students are eligible for special education services and what they're eligible to receive
Click the banner below and sign up for this ERN upcoming webinar!
Register by March 21 and get CD-ROM as bonus!
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 U.S. Being Urged to Raise Teachers' Status (continued)
The five things U.S. education reformers could learn from higher-performing countries, according to the report, includes adopting common academic standards, developing better tests for teachers to use in diagnosing students' daily learning needs and training more effective school leaders. "Make a concerted effort to raise the status of the teaching profession" was the chief recommendation. Furthermore, Universities with education programs must become more selective and rigorous.
Although raising teacher salaries is a factor in raising teacher status, it is not the main focus. Schleicher says "You can spend a lot of money on education, but if you don't spend it wisely, on improving the quality of instruction, you won't get higher student outcomes.
Lucky for you, JP has been in the business of helping teachers master their craft for over twenty years. We are all about teacher and school improvement. Helping teachers is our passion! We have an idea of how you might feel about this topic, but we aren't in the business of reading minds, so please drop us a line to tell us what you think. We'd love to hear your opinion on this topic! Send your thoughts to rsn@jponline.com or post them in the Leadership forum in the Responsive School Network™.
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Bully Fights Back (continued)
Said Heynes, "I actually snapped, and grabbed him, and picked him up off the ground and threw him to the ground in self-defense." He went on to say, "I wasn't really thinking, I was just like, 'Yeah, finally it's over. I was scared."
The video, 40 seconds long, captured the incident at Chifley College in St. Mary's North near Sydney. Heynes said he has never fought back before, and didn't plan to this time, but his anger "just built up," and he fought back for the first time. The teasing had been going on for weeks prior to the fight, with the bullies calling Heynes "fattie," slapping him on the back of the head, tripping him, and throwing water bombs at him "practically every day."
Once, the bullies even duct-taped him to a pole. Heynes said he was lonely, and even admitted he had contemplated suicide. Said Heynes' father, "I didn't realize how much trouble he was actually in until I saw that video." Heynes said of the video, "Well, that goes on every day, Dad."
So what happened to the boys?
Both boys were suspended, due their school's Zero Tolerance policy regarding fighting. While many are praising Heynes, his father fears the video will invite even more bullies to target his son. "He's not a violent kid, it's the first time he's lashed out and I don't want him to be victimized over that."
This is a hot topic! Bullying happens every day in America, whether we as educators want it to or not. How does your school handle bullying issues? Where do you stand on this particular story? Have you personally been affected by bullying or seen bullying occur? Please share your thoughts with us by clicking the engage button below - we want to hear what you think!
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