LANGUAGE ARTS-NEW MEXICO

NMCTE Program Proposals Due July 15

Submit a program proposal for the New Mexico Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference, to be held October 24 and 25 in Albuquerque.

Historical Housing Crunch

From the Associated Press: 

Twain, Wharton homes join others in financial peril

By  STEPHANIE REITZ  –  1 day ago

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Mark Twain, Edith Wharton and other boldfaced names among the dead have something in common with living Americans in these hard financial times:

Their homes are in jeopardy.

For scores of historic house museums, simply keeping the lights on has become a challenge. The Mount, Wharton's home in Lenox, Mass., is trying to stave off foreclosure with a feverish fundraising campaign. The Twain House in Hartford can't even afford to buy energy-saving light bulbs that would slash its electric bill.

Experts say this summer may make or break some sites, many of which already have cut their hours and staff and are struggling for donations in today's troubled economy.

More here.

Eggers on Teachers

Dave Eggers, the author of a A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and founder of the 826 Valencia writing center, is now working on a documentary about the professional lives of teachers. 

College for Everyone?

An argument some education reformers make is that in the future just about everyone will be going on to some form of higher education.  This article from today's Sacramento Bee suggests otherwise:

By 2015, a regional job surge is forecast, but it poses a quandary

Vocations won't need a 4-year degree

By Deb Kollars - dkollars@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, June 16, 2008

A fresh jobs forecast for the Sacramento region shows tens of thousands of new openings coming our way, but not all are the type public schools are emphasizing.

Although a major push has taken hold in public schools to get all high school graduates ready for college, the new work force study found the vast majority of jobs will require no postsecondary education.

"Employers are going to have a lot of jobs, good quality jobs, that won't require four years of college," said David N. Butler, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Linking Education and Economic Development, or LEED, which was involved in the study.

More here.

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NMCTE Program Proposals Due July 15

Submit a program proposal for the New Mexico Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference, to be held October 24 and 25 in Albuquerque. 

In the Age of Facebook

From Education Week's Digital Directions:

June  9, 2008

 

Friend or Foe? Balancing the Good and Bad of Social-Networking Sites

     

By Michelle R. Davis

      

Principal Conn McCartan of Minnesota’s Eden Prairie High School had no plans to police the Internet and its social spheres. But in January, he was mailed a computer disk containing photos of students drinking alcohol, and the photos had been posted on the social-networking Web site Facebook. McCartan couldn’t ignore the rule-breaking.

McCartan and his staff interviewed 43 students; 13 of them were subsequently disciplined. Most were members of athletic teams and clubs that have specific prohibitions and penalties for underage drinking.

“Facebook is a public site, but we didn’t go out there looking for it,” McCartan says of the misbehavior that came to light. “Somebody sends us something, and we’re obligated to respond.”

With the advent and rapid growth of social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, an increasingly significant portion of school-age socializing takes place online. The result is that school leaders are being forced to deal with a host of unsettled and even unsavory issues—such as when to monitor students’ online activities, and how to deal with the very real results of online socialization that spills into school hallways.

More here.