summer soundtrack
(DJ Ceeplus Bad Knives at CAMH’s Steel Lounge Underground Party)
I think I’ve already used this DJ photo before but it’s the only DJ photo I have that I like. So it’s getting recycled.
Every summer needs a good soundtrack. My summer soundtrack is still unfolding as summer gets underway but here’s a tentative tracklist:
- The new Metric album, Fantasies, in its entirety. They released it themselves, how great is that?
- Um, I’m going to go ahead and put down Pete Yorn’s new album Back and Fourth down even though I’ve only heard one song off of it and the album doesn’t get released until next week.
- Forest City Lovers – Watching the Streetlights Grow
- Throw in 2 or 3 tracks from The Cool Kids
- Of course, Matt and Kim – Daylight
- …
Okay, confession. I don’t really want to write a whole post about summer songs I like. I’m just stalling because I’m going to write a mega post about marijuana and I feel really “out of shape” when it comes to writing and I need to get back in practice before I write it. Marijuana’s a hard topic. It’s pretty polarizing. Kind of like Kobe Bryant. And when it comes to polarizing topics, I really struggle writing because I want to distance myself from Michael Moore and crazy Hollywood celebrities as much as I want to distance myself from the Texas Young Republican Federation and Focus on the Family. It’s also particularly difficult because most people have their minds made up already so I have to somehow make people stick around. And of course there’s the whole auto-import to Facebook mechanism I have set up so that everything I write here automatically imports as a note there. And my Facebook friends list is a confusing mix of people.
Okay really, it’s not all bad. It’s boring to only write about things that everyone agrees about.
I just feel so rusty and out of practice. So I’ll give myself a few more posts before I tackle it.
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For those of you who aren’t on Google Reader, check out this NYT article I shared about a cool charter school called, The Equity Project. It’s basically this charter school that is paying $125,000/year salaries to their teachers with additional bonus incentives. And it’s not just a money dump. They got a ton of applicants (as you might expect) and they interviewed 100 to get the cream of the crop: 8 teachers. It’s not like they just scooped up all the Harvard grads. They looked for great teachers with “engagement factor”, good “classroom management” and a true love of teaching. In my mind it’s like having a school full of all of your favorite teachers from grade school. Incredible. I also love that this charter school highlights teachers that have been doing amazing things in kids’ lives for regular teacher salaries. And I think about all the teachers that applied, didn’t get hired, and will happily keep teaching at their current jobs because they love it. It gives me chills thinking about it.
Here’s how they describe themselves:
“The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, a 480-student middle school in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City that will open in September 2009, aims to put into practice the central conclusion of a large body of research related to student achievement: teacher quality is the most important school-based factor in the academic success of students, particularly those from low-income families.[i] In singling out teacher quality as the essential lever in educational reform, TEP is uniquely focused on attracting and retaining master teachers. To do so, TEP uses a three-pronged strategy that it terms the 3 R’s: Rigorous Qualifications, Redefined Expectations, & Revolutionary Compensation.
TEP will spend over 15 months recruiting master teachers who meet eight rigorous qualifications. These teachers will then meet TEP’s redefined expectations. These expectations center on (a) a professional work-day that includes daily peer observations and co-teaching (b) a work-year that includes an annual 6-week Summer Development Institute, and (c) a career arc that fosters professional growth through a mandatory sabbatical once every five or six years. These redefined expectations are unified by one principle: student achievement is maximized when teachers have the time and support to constantly improve their craft.
TEP teachers are valued and sustained through revolutionary compensation: a $125,000 annual salary and the opportunity to earn a significant annual bonus based on school-wide performance. TEP has created a sustainable and conservative financial model that allows the school to compensate its teachers appropriately without relying on outside private funding.[ii] It accomplishes this primarily through cost savings that result directly from the tremendous quality and productivity of its teachers. In short, hiring and paying master teachers what they are worth is a cost-effective mechanism for boosting student achievement.”
I wanted to clap when I read this footnote:
“TEP does NOT fundraise to support its investment in teacher compensation. This is because a central feature of TEP’s mission is to demonstrate that schools can make a radical investment in teacher equity by reallocating existing public funding.”
Public education is close to my heart because I’m kind of crazy about public schools and wish that everyone cared about it as much as I did. I really think it’s the solution to a lot of our nation’s problems. I’m personally conflicted about private schools because I know they provide stellar educations but I think they’re also sucking the life out of the public schools. This topic is also close to my heart because my sister, Anny, and my bestbud, Judy, are both public school teachers. I see firsthand the effort, time, and intelligence it takes to be a good teacher. And for all the lucky kids that get to be in their classrooms, I know that there are a lot more kids who are in classrooms where they aren’t learning how to read, write and count.
But of course, I could be wrong about all of this. TEP could be wrong. That’s why this charter school is so fascinating to me. Maybe higher salaries isn’t the solution. Then we move on to the next big idea, I suppose. But if it is? If higher teacher salaries mean more passionate teachers who help students perform better and eventually have higher graduation rates from high school — oooh wee! That would be huge. I really hope this charter school succeeds.
Ack, still rusty.
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