Taylor’s open letter to American parents:

I’m writing directly to parents because nobody in the administration, the district office, the state DOE or the Federal DOE will listen. As the layers of bureaucracy softly fold over and smother classroom practice, there’s hardly a sound. So we teacher bloggers are trying to make one. If you don’t listen either, we’re all in serious trouble.

Keep it mind next year.

This guy has me completely confused. By day he’s a mild-mannered School 2.0 reporter, writing posts with titles like District Technology Plan, stuff I’d tag “readlater” in del.icio.us and then forget about.

But at night he goes to war, swinging a heavy bat at scary-as-hell topics like the one TMAO intro-ed a few weeks back (paraphrased) “how do we train new urban educators?”

His response, reposted in its superheroic entirety:

Right now, this very second, realize that there’s nothing going on in your teacher prep classes that is going to help you in any way shape or form once you get into a building, unless you change the paradigm. Here’s how:

Immediately start busting heads with your professors and the other pre-service teachers in your classes. Call them on their shit and be prepared to be called on yours. If you begin steeling yourself now you’ll be ready once you get into a school building and have to do the same thing with other teachers and administrators.

Next, take note of everything these classes area telling you to do and plan on doing the exact opposite. This will also help you once you get into a building. Look at what other teachers are doing, and do whatever the polar opposite is.

Make some commitments right now.

1. You will not use the grade book as a weapon against your students. In fact you may want to commit to not using your grade book at all. You may need to keep one to fool the administration, but under no circumstances should it reflect what you report to the office at the end of a grading period.
2. Commit, right now, to not failing a single student. No matter what. If you do this it will completely change how you work with young people.
3. Never forget that you are there to help kids. Nothing else matters. Not even a little.

Good luck. Fight hard. Teach with a chip on your shoulder.

Add his rap- and indie-heavy last.fm profile to this blurry picture and I’m even farther from figuring this “Mr. Moses” character out. All I know for sure is I’d buy him a beer.

Mr. Moses, whoever you are, I raise a glass to you:

I guess Washington just shot to the top of the States To Move To When California Splits Along The San Andreas And Merges With The Pacific list:

Many people will argue the problem with teacher salaries is that they are too low to attract and keep good teachers. That may be true. But the types of pay reforms outlined by Washington Learns recognize a deeper problem: the failure of the current system to make distinctions among teachers who have specialized skills, who accept difficult job assignments, or who are more effective in the classroom.

This also in: the upward trend of teacher SAT scores and general aptitude will both reach a carrying capacity if we can’t offer them better incentives.

[both via Jacobs]