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.
Follick said the board could receive those suggestions early next year.
Florida is one of 45 states which have adopted Common Core. The standards outline what students are expected to know at the end of each grade. But critics across the country have raised many concerns about the standards, including asking if the standards are in improvement, if Common Core will increase testing time and if the standards are appropriate for elementary students.
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.
The Broward County Public School district has been honored for its anti-bullying policies.
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Broward County Public Schools are being honored for their anti-bullying policies.
Equality Florida recognized the school district at its annual gala this weekend. Broward was specifically being recognized for its policies protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
“The tough reality is that even today, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students face relentless bullying and harassment in our schools across the state and across the country,” said Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of Equality Florida. “Broward Schools have really stepped up to make sure those students are protected”
Broward County Public Schools were the first in the state to write an anti-bullying policy that specifically addressed sexual orientation and gender identity.
Pollitzer said that beyond what they’ve done on paper, his organization has been impressed at the resources Broward Schools put toward protecting LGBT students.
“They have a tremendous resource in their safe schools department that reaches out to schools all across the county to make sure they have resources and training for supporting and protecting LGBT students,” says Pollitzer.
Also important, he says, is that the policies Broward developed don’t just protect children in South Florida: “Broward’s anti-bullying policy has become a model that has now been implemented and protects more than half of the students all across Florida.”
Former Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett.
Indiana’s Inspector General has filed an ethics complaint against former Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett for using state computers for campaign business in 2010.
The Associated Press reported documents showed Bennett had kept a database of campaign donors on state computers and had asked staff to parse campaign speeches by Democratic opponent Glenda Ritz:
This summer, the Associated Press published documents showing Bennett’s team kept a database of Republican donors on Indiana Department of Education computers.
Bennett, a Republican, served one term as state superintendent before being ousted by current schools chief Glenda Ritz. He resigned his post as Florida Commissioner of Education earlier this year after media reports revealed his team changed the school letter grades of several schools here in Indiana, including a charter founded by a prominent campaign donor.
“Throughout my time in public service I made every effort to be cognizant of and to follow state rules and guidelines for elected officials,” Bennett said in a statement. “I understand no conclusions have been made in this matter and I look forward to working with the Ethics Commission and the Inspector General’s office to demonstrate proper adherence to state rules and guidelines.”
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, right, chats with WUSF's Carson Cooper.
Shortly after becoming Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam asked lawmakers to move the state’s school lunch program to his agency. Lawmakers approved the change in 2011.
Putnam stopped by WUSF’s studios this week for an interview with Florida Matters. Host Carson Cooper asked Putnam what has changed since his agency took over school food programs.
Q: One of your first priorities when you took office was to move the state school lunch program over from the Department of Education over to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. You called that a win-win situation. So are Florida kids scarfing down Florida fruits and veggies now?
A: They’re doing a lot better job about it than they were in the past. You know, it’s kind of indefensible in the past that you would have a child in a Plant City school eating Mexican strawberries. Or a child in the Orange County schools drinking Brazilian orange juice.
Professor David Sobel has spent much of his academic career examining how to engage children around issues of changing environments.
Earlier this week, we looked at how kids who live in coastal Florida learn about sea-level rise. They witness it all around them: on television, in school, sometimes in their front yards.
Even so, big, landscape-changing events in nature can be tough for children to understand.
So we spoke with Professor David Sobel, who has spent much of his academic career at Antioch University in New England examining how to teach kids about the environment. He’s developed the Environmental Ladder of Responsibility (seen below)—a developmentally appropriate framework for the when and how of talking to children about environmental issues.
Q: How do you talk to kids about sea-level rise?
Sobel: Sea-level rise is just one aspect of talking to kids about climate change. I think we’d consider them wed together.
Trying to engage kids in understanding the issues and figuring out what they can do about it without inordinately scaring them is a great approach to sea-level rise.
It’s important that kids progressively understand the issues. Before you dump a lot of responsibility on them, you’ve got to make sure they feel connected to the natural world, and at one with it, and understand its beauty. And have a sense of why they want to protect it before you recruit them to be conservationists. Continue Reading →
Florida is one of 45 states which have adopted the math, English and literacy standards, which outline what students should know at the end of each grade. Critics have questioned the quality of the standards, whether they are appropriate for young students and the cost of training teachers and purchasing new classroom materials.
Unfortunately, Florida employers face a skills gap in the state — an urgent shortage of a resource as basic as food, more valuable than gold and in higher global demand than oil. According to a study conducted by the Florida Council of 100, Florida businesses spend an estimated $3.5 billion each year training their employees in the basic skills they should have learned before entering the workforce.
The Florida Standards, our version of the Common Core State Standards as adopted by our state and 44 others a few years ago, give our schools an ambitious but reachable target to help close this gap. They focus on the key areas of mathematics and English language arts and help ensure that our high-school graduates are prepared to go to college or enter the workforce and compete in the global marketplace.
Marshall Criser III is likely to become the next Florida university system chancellor.
He was always the favorite, and now Marshall Criser III is the finalist to become the next Florida university system chancellor.
Criser was one of four finalists interviewed by the search committee Tuesday. The panel unanimously chose Criser.
Criser is the president of AT&T of Florida and has a long history in state higher education. He’s a trustee at the University of Florida (a position he’ll resign if he becomes chancellor) and has served on the Higher Education Coordinating Council.
The Board of Governors will vote on Criser at their meeting on Nov. 20th and 21st.
“Marshall Criser has demonstrated a clear passion for our universities and our system, and he can provide a strong voice in Tallahassee,” said Manoj Chopra, search committee member and faculty representative on the Board of Governors.
The Broward County Public School Board aims to decrease the rate of arrests in public schools.
The Broward County School board teamed up with a group of community partners this month to sign a collaborative agreement on school discipline. The agreement, first of its kind, establishes new guidelines for handling non-violent misdemeanor offenses on school campuses, outlining when law enforcement is necessary and when problems can be handled through school resources.
Representatives from the Broward County-Fort Lauderdale NAACP, Juvenile Judicial Circuit, Public Defender’s office and County Sheriff’s office, among others, signed the agreement with school board members in Fort Lauderdale.
Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie says the new procedures are a common- sense approach that will give students the benefit of the doubt. Continue Reading →
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