When Sherman Alexie comes to a book fair, he enjoys the communal storytelling.
“I like the notion of all that energy surrounding books,” says Alexie.
Alexie is the author of award-winning novels, poetry and short story collections about Indian characters living on and off modern-day reservations. His protagonists frequently share a deep, obsessive love of books and basketball.
Alexie returns to the Miami Book Fair Tuesday night at 8:00 for a much-anticipated author talk—his last appearance at the fair in 2009 was a wildly engaging performance of his stories with a heavy dose of stand-up.
Alexie joined us from a studio in Seattle for a conversation on why, in an age of e-readers, books—and book fairs—matter.  You can listen to that interview here:
Alexie also talked about his young adult audience—and what it means to author a banned book.
Charlie Crist is seeking the governor's office as a Democrat after once holding the post as a Republican. He's been leaning on education issues early to mark differences with Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
Charlie Crist has to close a sale.
The one-time Republican governor now wants to become governor as a Democrat.
But he needs to convince Democrats he’s now one of them if he has any chance of challenging Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
It’s why Crist is talking about his education record during the early days of the campaign — especially his 2009 decision to accept federal stimulus money.
That money ensured teachers stayed on the job, Crist said at his campaign announcement earlier this month in St. Petersburg.
“I am proud of my record as your governor. Investing in public education,” Crist said, before pausing.
“Education,” he said again, to applause. “And stopping the layoffs of some 20,000 school teachers during the global economic meltdown.”
Crist, Scott and former Democratic state Sen. Nan Rich are using education to distinguish themselves from each other. They are the only announced candidates for governor, though U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson or others might enter the race.
Standing at the water’s edge on Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus, Nicholas Ogle shows a crowd of teenagers what looks like a giant, rotten green bean.
Credit Daniel Rivera, Student / Nicholas Ogle
Nicholas Ogle will replant the mangrove propagules collected by MAST students.
“We don’t want any mushiness anywhere, especially at the top,” he says, then chucks the specimen to the side.
Ogle, an environmental coordinator with FIU, is showing this marine-science class from the new MAST magnet school at FIU how to pick out a healthy mangrove seedling. The students will then be sent to duck in and out of the mangrove roots at the coastline, collecting seedlings — “propagules,” the scientist calls them — to eventually be replanted in a mangrove restoration project.
Mangroves are often cited as a first line of defense against the impact of sea-level rise. And in many ways, so is this interaction between the students and Ogle.Â
Florida doesn’t require students to learn about the effects of climate change — such as sea-level rise — until high school.But in South Florida, kids observe rising oceans all around them. They see them on television, online and in-person.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the sea level in Miami has risen more than nine inches in the past 100 years — and scientists expect a big increase in the next century.
So South Florida schools and outside organizations are forming partnerships to build an educational bridge connecting what students learn in school to what they see in their changing environments.
Every morning, children at Education Station begin the day with a hug and a book.
Florida’s legislative session is months away, but educators and politicians are already talking about making early childhood education a priority.
“Early childhood is viewed as childcare, and not early childhood education, which it really is,” says Dr. Susan Neimand, director of the School of Education at Miami Dade College, which runs a nationally recognized early learning center called Education Station.
“We know that the brain starts developing from the time the child is in the womb—and the proper attention for that is not given,” says Neimand.
LISTEN: Why Early Learning Matters To Florida Educators
From the infant room to the pre-K class, children at Education Station start their day with a hug and a book. It’s part of an evidence-based approach to cultivate learners. The center is staffed by professionals trained in child development and students from the school of education.
Research has shown that children who get high-quality early learning—where instructors are trained in child development and reading and learning are encouraged through play—are more likely graduate high school and go on to college. They’re less likely to end up in jail. As a result, the federal government estimates that every dollar invested in early learning can save about seven dollars in the future. Continue Reading →
Speakers lingered hours past when the hearings were supposed to end so that they could share their thoughts on the Common Core with Pam Stewart.
The conversation about Common Core standards hit a fever pitch in Florida last week.
Florida’s education commissioner, Pam Stewart, moderated three hearings about the Common Core in Tampa, Davie and Tallahassee. The listening sessions came out of an executive order issued by Gov. Rick Scott. Along with the request for public input, the governor has been distancing Florida from its position as a leader in a consortium to create a Common Core-aligned test.
More than 750 people showed up to the listening sessions. Parents, teachers and activists all took their four minutes at the microphone to tell Florida’s education leaders what they think of the Common Core.
A sign from a California protest against Common Core State Standards.
The Florida Department of Education is holding three public hearings this week to gather criticisms and support of Florida’s new math and English standards known as Common Core.
Florida is one of 45 states to fully adopt the standards, which outline what students should know at the end of each grade. Designers say the standards emphasize critical thinking skills, asking students what they know and to prove how they know it.
But as Florida schools prepare to use the standards in every grade starting next school year, critics are pushing back. They worry Common Core will increase time spent testing, will be costly, will reduce local control over educational content and will not be as challenging as Florida’s current standards.
Florida is three years in to implementing Common Core. The standards are fully in use in kindergarten through second grade, while other grade are using a combination of Common Core and Florida’s previous standards.
There are fewer custodians and support staff in Florida public schools than there were in 2007.
A StateImpact Florida analysis of jobs in Florida public schools shows that while full-time staffing is almost back to pre-recession levels, one group of employees hasn’t come back: the support staff.
Since the recession began, Florida’s public school budgets have been hit with more than $2 billion dollars in cuts from state and federal funding, decreased property tax revenue and sequestration. StateImpact has been following the resulting layoffs and hard choices in schools across the state.
But at the start of last school year there were still about 15,000 fewer full-time jobs in Florida public schools than there were in 2007. Almost all of those jobs — 99.5% — are support staff positions. Custodians, secretaries, classroom aides—there just aren’t as many people filling those roles anymore.
LISTEN: WHAT IT MEANS TO LOSE SUPPORT STAFF
You can see a breakdown of year-to-year full-time employment numbers in Florida public schools here:
Century Tower at the University of Florida. UF Online will open in January.
Last week the Florida State University System Board of Governors approved the business plan for a legislatively-created online university at the University of Florida.
The school, UF Online, will start offering classes in January. Students will be able to earn their baccalaureate degree completely online (though they may need to complete some lab at a state college or other facility). The school will offer degrees in seven majors to begin: Biology; business administration; criminology and law; environmental management in agriculture and natural resources; health education and behavior; psychology; and sports management.
We sat down with Andrew McCollough, associate provost for teaching and technology at the University of Florida, to talk about UF Online
McCollough says he doesn’t yet know who the typical UF Online student is, but expects the school initially will have a stronger appeal to transfer students. He also explains why the University of Florida is emphasizing that the UF Online will be similar to being an student on campus.
In ten years, the school expects to enroll 24,000 students and offer 35 degrees.
Florida is backing out of its role as a leader on the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) assessment.
jannoon028 / freedigitalphotos.net
Take it back? Gov. Rick Scott wants Florida to sever financial ties with the PARCC assessment
The PARCC consortium is made up of 18 states and the District of Columbia. The states are working together to develop a new, multistate assessment test that would measure students’ achievement in the Common Core.
Florida has been one of those states. When Charlie Crist was governor, the PARCC group won a $186 million federal grant to support its work—and Florida was put in charge of the money.
But now, controversy is churning over the Common Core standards, and Governor Rick Scott has asked to sever those financial ties.
But opponents of the standards, known as Common Core, have turned up the heat throughout the spring and summer. The opposition hails from the political right and the political left, and their concerns range from whether local school districts and the state are ceding control over education, the quality of the standards and the amount of testing associated with Common Core.
That’s what lawmakers face as the return to Tallahassee next week for the first week of committee meetings to prepare for the 2014 legislative session.
Florida is in the midst of transitioning to the new standards, which outline what students should know at the end of each grade. The standards are scheduled to be used in every grade by the time classes start next fall.
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