Maybe that’s because she’s a product of an urban district, or perhaps it’s because she sends all four of her children to OKC schools. Still, one part of her story is certain: After graduation later this month, she’ll be ready for that first teaching job at U.S. Grant High School thanks to the Urban Teacher […]
education
Posted inNews
‘No tolerance’ doesn’t teach
In 1999, the committee was shocked to learn that the OKCPS only had 485 alternative school slots for students with behavioral or attendance problems, health conditions, pregnancy or parenting challenges or who were institutionalized. According to the state’s Needs Assessment, the OKCPS needed another 1,205 slots. We also knew that punitive policies, such as “zero […]
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OKC schools need real change
After more than 35 years in the education realm, retiring Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Karl Springer said that he is most proud of three policies he helped implement. He brought the “Great Expectations” curriculum to elementary schools and Teach for America to the district and put into place a year-long school schedule that allowed […]
Posted inNews
Class act
Mary Kate Henson Credit: Mark Hancock “Childhood obesity in Oklahoma is on the rise in all areas, but in zip codes with lower incomes, lower accessibility to grocery stores and low walkability, poor health trends are even higher,” said Mary Kate Henson, health promotion specialist at the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, which established the “Wellness […]
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Head of the class
Credit: Brad Gregg With the recent release of the Princeton Review’s annual “Best of the West” list, Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma Baptist University and Oral Roberts University are designated as among the top colleges in the western United States, proving the schools offer more than Scripture-quoting professors and M.R.S degrees. Perhaps less surprising, The University […]
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Terrific teachers
—Makes students his or her top priority;—Has the ability to stimulate students; —Consistently looks for and brings to the classroom current and stimulating material; —Works with students outside the classroom on projects that give students a practical application for the subject; —Keeps up with his or her field of expertise; —Has the ability to see […]
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Back to class
In less than five minutes on May 20, that world was turned upside down when a tornado demolished her school as well as neighboring Plaza Towers Elementary. Between the two schools, Singleton and some 80 teachers lost most of the classroom supplies they had bought, made or borrowed during their careers. Such items either were […]
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Avoiding a fiasco in education
High-stakes testing forced schools to narrow the curriculum, focus on remediation and test prep, and commit to basic skills instruction that verges on educational malpractice. Worse, states must start using primitive bubble-in tests for teacher evaluations. Teachers are also supposed to turn on a dime and teach the opposite types of tests, known as Common […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Booking it
The seniors — some of them retired teachers, grandparents and great-grandparents — were especially concerned about the students of Plaza Towers and Briarwood, the two elementary schools demolished by that EF5 twister. So the 175 residents of Buckner Westminster Place in Longview, Texas, did something about it. On July 1, two administrators from the facility […]
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Evolution revolution
Credit: Brad Gregg As evidence, the National Center for Science Education recently pointed out that two university departments in Oklahoma stepped back to Scopes “monkey trial” territory to defend evolution’s honorable status in higher education. The University of Central Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma State University have separate, if equally unyielding, statements on the importance of […]