Some of it isn't even eBooks. The students at my school rarely use textbooks anymore due to the curriculum that's been implemented. Most of the time their reference material and assignments is being given to the teachers in pdf form by the curriculum office. Being able to have the kids just look at it on an iPad as opposed to making lots of copies has some value.

I just wish my district had at least been smart enough to go with iPads. They ended up with some grant and bought Nooks for all of the kids... Great until you realize that B&N is pretty much shutting down with that now or soon. We'll probably have wasted more money in the end by trying to save money!

Is it really? I don't know about your school, but with all of the required training, paperwork, etc. I know quite a few teachers that work some ridiculous hours grading. Personally I spend about 14 hours a day at work in the fall, but I do get paid a bit extra based on the amount of extra time I put in. This 9 months stuff though simply isn't true anymore. The expectation is that teachers spend at least 4 of those weeks doing workshops and training opportunities that mostly don't involve pay to do so. If you're fortunate the district might pay for the training.

Also, 64k is plain and simple not much I'm guessing cost of living wise there. Personally I started in another state at 31k with a Bachelor's Degree just nine years ago. My colleagues in other fields jumped in at similar degrees at 55k+. I had probably 60 more credit hours when I graduated than them too! At this point I'm paid about as well as I could expect at 50k where I'm at. That's with significant extra duty pay amounts built-in, and I feel bad for the teachers without that because they're not being paid well enough.

Oh, and the fact you don't see the homework doesn't mean teachers have nothing to grade. Many of those teachers are teaching seven periods a day with the maximum number of students in each class. Figure roughly 210 students a day with a grade expected from many of them on every assignment. Even if you're just putting a checkmark and marking it in the computer at a rate of .5 minutes per assignment you're talking 105 minutes of work. You figure you get home at five or so, fix dinner, eat, you're up to seven. Let's say you have kids and have to take care of them, some of them don't start grading till nine, and don't finish till nearly eleven at that rate.

Just because you don't see your childs' teachers working does not mean they do nothing. You probably get to leave your work at work. Must be nice?

Personally I saw it take off at my college my last year or so there. It was a university that has many umm... socially awkward... individuals. We also used AIM a lot at that point and I can remember times when we had conversations over it, even though the person was in the same room as us. (Granted that was mostly pure laziness too...) For that kind of setting the idea of being able to 'meet' over Facebook was a lot more comfortable.

The one thing I find myself still on Facebook for more than anything is a professional group that's started up. There are about 10k members and it's a pretty good professional development tool.

The point and problem of this has been known to us as educators for a long time. Other countries do not force everyone into the same mold and test every kid in the end. By the time students reach the test as seniors here, the ones that don't care aren't in the system in other countries. We have a higher populace tested, whereas other countries give up on the lower students earlier. The articles point is if we remove the lower end (like most other countries do) we fair much better than the existing stats. Personally I think we're foolish to continue our existing system. It's not working!

There are many reasons I see girls do better in school on the whole. I think one of the main reasons though is that the majority of teachers tend to be women. These are women who took getting an education seriously, and often times know what worked for them to learn the subject. I think those teachers are often able to reach those that are similar to them. The interesting thing to me though is that I think competitiveness rises for the top spots in classes frequently from the boys still. They'll do anything to be number 1, and sometimes that hard work pays off. Often times though you see a couple boys clustered in the top ten still, with a significant portion of girls following that before more boys. I think the last 6 years of valedictorians in my school district have all been girls.

With only two other male teachers at the junior high campus I teach at, a science teacher and a PE teacher, I really do think that a lot of boys get left behind in learning styles.

There was actually a study conducted with real babies I believe in Canada... might have been US in the 1950's or so. They were given absolutely no nurturing at all, fed, changed, that was it. No stimulus was given. It was a terrible chapter in psychology that I remember reading about in college. It was eventually shut down after it went on far too long and the neglected children were permanently scarred from it. I can't seem to find the exact study right now, but it was a very visible and terrible result in those children. If MRI technology had been in use then I'm sure it would probably verify this study too.

So true. When I went to Cleveland to go to school I couldn't believe the story at first. Moral of that story is never eat anything from Lake Erie or the river!

I think there is something to be said for this. The only problem is do you really know what you want to do when you're 13? 14? 18? For me I didn't make my decision between a degree in Biology, or Music Education until my third semester of college when I was 19. It's a lot to ask a kid to decide the rest of their lives when they're 13. Unfortunately I watch that one happen all of the time.

I believe that students do need to have a good basis in math so that they have options open to them in the future. By not keeping those options open they have limitations that are tough to overcome. That being said, as I watched a student I admired greatly drop out of high school and decide to do his GED instead this past month - Solely because he couldn't pass the state math test... I am nodding my head at a lot of the points of this article. Most kids really don't need to do much past basic functions and statistics when they get to the real world. I know that sounds like a load of dung... but I use something on the Algebraic level a couple times a year... Maybe? At the Calculus level never. Statistics is almost a far more useable form of math so they understand things placed in front of them. I think that's ultimately what this writer is trying to get to. Not to get rid of math, but understand that it's foolish that we keep this massive hurdle up to prevent the masses from being able to move forward in their educations.

I don't know how much better this would be than a password or the pattern unlock idea... Fingerprint scanners can be fooled, and a financial incentive to do so would make it tempting for thieves anyway. I guess it'll keep the honest people honest though. It would be quicker than either of the first two in theory. I can't see apple wanting to clutter up their devices with a scanner somewhere though, this is probably just a patent grab.

Unfortunately I think the argument that Apple itself isn't responsible will probably be considered true in the end. The book publishers on the other hand can, and should, still get nailed to the wall. Charging as much for an ebook as a physical book is completely off-base. You still have to make the money back on editors, artwork, advertisement, etc., but the physical print, transportation, and storage costs should cause those books to be discounted a good amount. As it is, much of the time you can buy a print edition cheaper than an eBook version on new releases...

Apple certainly deserves some of the blame, but I just can't see the DOJ managing to make it stick against them in this case.

Originally xylophones were all wooden, and the expensive ones still are, but many are made of synthetic material now.

As a band director that teaches percussion it drives me nuts when people call a Glockenspiel (or bell set) a xylophone. I think it's caused by some of the toys that are available for little kids that are mislabeled.

If you aren't in teaching to teach, you won't last long. It's probably the most thankless job you'll find sometimes. I love what I do, and I love teaching, but if it wasn't something I loved doing I could be making a lot more money doing something else. Personally I think this is a case of a state overstepping it's bounds. At some point teachers need to have some sort of rights to have lives, and unfortunately I see a spiral continuing down from here further and further. Pretty soon we'll be back to the 1800's teachers rules...

I don't know about the poster, but personally I remember paying $500/semester for a technology fee. I definitely was paying for an internet connection at my university (along with the software library, etc.). If this had gone on there we would have literally revolted I believe... I did not go to a state university though, and somehow I doubt the OP is either. It strikes me as something a conservative private college would do.

I was up in the mountains about 7 miles away when it started... It's ridiculously dry right now, high winds, and high temps. All that's going to be possible is evacuating people. The bad thing is it's going in the opposite direction of the 2000 fire, so there's plenty of fuel. The Bandalier National park has had about half of it's area burned so far as of earlier today. Thoughts and prayers to all who are in its path.

Most superintendents tend to be teachers, turned principals, turned superintendents. In a lot of states, such as Texas where I teach, they base retirement based on the last 5 year average of salary earned... When a superintendent may make 80k-130k per year that's a pretty big incentive. That does not mean they were good teachers, and for the most part means a large gap between college and becoming a superintendent.

Overall I thought the premise of the letter rang very true.