Star Ledger--One of the best teachers in the country is in N.J. And, she just won $25,000 for it.
Nicole Silva thought she was in a dream or some kind of movie when she heard her name called.
Colleagues and students at Nathan Hale Elementary School in Carteret were cheering wildly for their third grade teacher in the gymnasium. It was as loud as if they had won the lottery.
She couldn’t understand why. Silva doesn’t teach to win awards.
“This is something I love," she said. “It’s not a job for me."
Barry Carter | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Updated Dec 7; Posted Dec 7
Star Ledger--6 N.J. schools targeted with bomb, gun threat hoaxes in same day
Six New Jersey schools were locked down and searched Friday after bomb and shooting threat hoaxes were made by phone, officials said.
Linden High School; Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, Lawrenceville Elementary School and Lawrenceville Prep in Lawrence; and County Prep High School and McNair Academic High School in Jersey City all received threats just hours apart on Friday.
It is unclear if they are related.
Sophie Nieto-Munoz | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Updated Dec 8; Posted Dec 7
Education Week--Special Education a Growing Priority in Teacher-Training Circles
Lisa Nelson earned a master's degree in middle school education and taught for five years. But she never learned much about dyslexia until her own daughter began struggling in school.
Madeline Will| December 5, 2018
NY Times—OP-Ed: The Misguided Priorities of Our Educational System
We spend too much money on college students and not enough on everyone else.
Consider two high school seniors — one who exhibits strong academic talent and one who does not. For one, December marks the homestretch of a yearslong effort, intensively supported by his school, to prepare the perfect college application. For the other, December is just another month on the path to, well, whatever might come after graduation. The former will likely proceed steadily toward a bachelor’s degree; the latter is unlikely to finish college if he enrolls at all. To whom does our education system owe what?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/opinion/college-vocational-education-students.html
Oren Cass| Dec. 10, 2018
Washington Post--The best — and worst — education news of 2018
Every December veteran educator Larry Ferlazzo looks at the year in education news and makes his list of what he thinks the best — and the worst — of it was.
Of course it is subjective, and if you disagree with him, tell him (nicely) in the comments.
Ferlazzo is a teacher of English and social studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento He has written numerous books on education, writes a teacher advice blog for Education Week Teacher and has his own popular resource-sharing blog.
See whether you agree with his assessment. You can find links to his lists from past years at the bottom of this post.
Valerie Strauss| December 7