Top Ten Things You Do Not Learn About Teaching in College

Yes, we are on the late freight with this one. But it's funny and we thought you might get a kick out it.

LAUSD Students Need "A Call To Action"

We've all heard a lot about Mayor Villaraigosa's improvement plan for LAUSD schools. We've heard a lot about the replacement of Principals and the need for swift resolution when under performing teacher are identified. What we haven't heard is a "call to action" for students and parents.

“Rather than blaming the abominable dropout statistics, if we are going to
decrease the number of dropouts, the responsibility must be approached as a
shared responsibility,” said LAUSD board member Marguerite LaMotte said. “Based
upon the expectation of all stakeholders that students will not dropout before
graduating, differentiated resources must be provided as needed.”

The first teacher of a child is their parents. Without students and parents stepping up and taking responsibility for learning it will be extremely difficult to change test scores and drop out rates. The best of the best teacher's would still have difficulty with unenthusiastic learners. The vast majority of the teacher's are there to see that their students learn. Mayor Villaraigosa and Superintendent Brewer need to focus on motivating students and parents, not bashing the easy targets, teachers and principals.

We all remember the emphasis that LAUSD District offices put on improving the API. You couldn't walk onto a campus without seeing the API score and what the importance of the score was. At each of the high schools within LAUSD, that same focus should be made on the graduation rate. Students can not achieve a goal; if they have not been asked to.

CTA's Response to State Budget Crisis

Principals Pushed Out

Just five months after Mayor Villaraigosa took control of 10 of Los Angeles' lowest-performing schools, principals at seven of the sites requested transfers.After the principals' transfer requests, the mayor's partnership sought applicants through advertisements within Los Angeles and across California. The new principals named Tuesday are: Tim Sullivan, Markham Middle School; Leo Gonzalez Jr., Stevenson Middle School; Sonia Miller, Gompers Middle School; Christina Rico, Hollenbeck Middle School; Charlene Green, Ritter Elementary School; Tanya Stokes-Mack, Figueroa Elementary School; and Sherri Williams, 99th Street Elementary School. Mayor Villaraigosa should work on cleaning up the surrounding
neighborhoods.

Five of the seven schools are within a 5 mile area. They all draw from the same neighborhoods. If the Mayor wants to do something about the schools. Maybe he should focus on cleaning up the area around the schools. On a daily basis, the students have to dodge prostitutes, gang-members, drug dealers, and the local drunk to get to school. How can you expect administration and staff to get the best from their students if the students do not come to school prepared and are distracted daily by outside influences. Yes, Mayor Villarigosa has to do something about the performance at these schools. But it is unfair to hang the performance solely on the principals head. Has he looked at the crime rate in these neighborhoods and looked to fire the LAPD Precinct Captains? Has the Mayor called on the local PTA to work more with families? Failing schools are not just one persons fault.

Lynwood Teachers Gets 6 1/2 Year for Child Porn

Sad, sad, sad........We never wish bad things to happen to people. But, as a teacher, this guy should have known he was doing wrong and should have searched for help.

A former first-grade teacher at Lynwood’s Lincoln Elementary School was
sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison Monday for possessing child
pornography.Kenneth Edward Kothe, 61, of Alhambra, was also ordered by U.S.
District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper to serve 10 years of supervised release — a
form of probation — after he is released from prison and to register with law
enforcement as a sex offender for the rest of his life.Kothe also cannot teach
children again unless he gets permission from a court or his probation officer.
Kothe pleaded guilty April 21 to one felony count of possession of child
pornography. Cooper set a self-surrender date of Aug. 11Kothe was arrested Nov.
28 in connection with a federal Internet child porn probe. Federal agents took
him into custody as he was leaving for work, prosecutors said.At the time of his
arrest, Kothe had stored at least 114 image files and 13 video files of child
pornography on his computer’s external hard drive, court documents state. Agents
also seized two bins full of child porn images Kothe had printed after
downloading them on his computer, as well as approximately four ounces of
marijuana, prosecutors said.During an interview with agents, Kothe admitted to
downloading and printing the images and paying for child pornography, which was
“entertainment to him, like a video game,” court papers state.Kothe stored the
sexually explicit images on a file folder labeled “XXX,” prosecutors
said.Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Dugdale said after Monday’s hearing that one
of the images Kothe possessed showed an infant being raped.Attempts to reach
Michael Berry, Kothe’s attorney, were unsuccessful.Berry appeared in court
Monday on behalf of Kothe, Dugdale said.The State Bar of California suspended
Berry July 1 for failure to pay bar member fees. Dugdale only learned of Berry’s
suspension following Monday’s hearing.