Students And Teachers

Nearly 200 voices will join together this week, as choral singers from Notre Dame Preparatory School, Bryn Mawr School, Calvert Hall College High School, Hereford High School, Loyola Blakefield and Roland Park Country School present a combined concert on Sunday, Dec. 16, at 3 p.m., in Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium. The students will perform George Fredrick Handel's "Messiah," complete with orchestra and professional soloists. Conducting the performance will be Peter Lander from Hereford High School.

There are many programs known by their acronyms in education; many of these have political origins. People can debate the effectiveness of the various programs, but it is stunning to hear the almost universal objections to one of the newest acronyms: the SLO. SLO stands for Student Learning Objective. Generally, it is an objective to be chosen by teachers to demonstrate student growth by measuring progress made between a baseline test and a final test. SLOs are part of the latest attempt to evaluate teachers, implemented this year in Maryland and stemming from the overly-simplistic desires of politicians to "fix" education by getting rid of "bad" teachers.

Barbara M. Dandridge, Caught between a mandate to attend an extra day of school yesterday and the lure of carefree spring vacations, Howard County students and teachers struggled and many succumbed. Schools found 20 percent to 50 percent of their students absent on a Monday, a weekday that rarely sees an absentee rate greater than 10 percent, said Patti Caplan, spokeswoman for Howard County public schools. Students were not the only ones eager to begin their spring breaks. More than 660 teachers were absent yesterday, compared with an average of 300 to 350 for a normal Monday.

There's plenty that distinguishes Ravens rookie offensive lineman John Urschel from his teammates, including his prodigious academic career and potential in the field of mathematics. But what I couldn't fit into Sunday's story was the fact that, with all of his football and academic responsibilities, Urschel taught two classes at Penn State - and did it well, by all accounts. Urschel said it's not typical for master's students to teach at Penn State - that responsibility typically goes to doctoral students.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - This morning, when students walk past the palm tree outside Al-Nidimiyah High School after an unplanned 40-day break and go into the classroom, the lesson plan in national culture class will be different. No longer will teacher Ali Abid stand before a portrait of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and glorify him as the latest in a line of great leaders going back to the caliphs who followed the prophet Muhammad. "We are going to say this is the end of this man," said the 36-year-old Abid, sounding neither sad nor happy about Hussein's fall from power.

ELDERSBURG - Students and teachers hoping to provide encouragement to soldiers involved in "Operation Desert Shield" have written many letters and cards.First-graders have corresponded with Sgt. John Burton, their teacher's brother. In addition, Burton provided fifth-grade students with a list of soldiers who are not receiving mail in hopes that they will establish pen pal relationships.

A group of German students from South Carroll High School will be among 200 students and teachers from around the state attending the first Maryland Organization for German Students convention tomorrow at the University of Maryland College Park.Participants will meet with Germanic Studies faculty, tour the campus and attend a workshop with Uwe Kind, an educator, artist and musician who has developed the "SingLingual" method of teaching foreign languages.Students also can attend workshops on German-American business; the Internet, World Wide Web and German; minority literature in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; and German popular music.

Findings this spring by state inspectors that repairs and maintenance of Baltimore schools have been badly managed expose a level of disrespect for students and teachers that should not be tolerated. School system officials must be more aggressive in fixing the problems, and Mayor Sheila Dixon's call for an audit of school construction and renovation funds should be conducted as quickly as possible. In addition to having some of the oldest school buildings in the state, Baltimore has a history of not managing its facilities very well.

Hereford High School in northern Baltimore County has the distinction of being the only county school to undergo extensive renovation even as its students attend classes.Last night, the principal of the school sought to calm parents and students concerned about potential safety and health problems stemming from the work."I believe it is safe," Principal Ray Gross told about 500 parents during a back-to-school meeting. "That does not mean it doesn't stink."The 37-year-old school, located in the 17300 block of York Road in Parkton, is undergoing renovation at a cost of between $14 million and $15 million.

DENVER - Sitting in front of a huge American flag, federal Judge Lewis Babcock taught a lesson in civics last week. It was a lesson a majority of the Colorado General Assembly and governor never learned in their lame - and probably unconstitutional - attempt to force the state's schoolchildren and teachers to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It is beyond the power of government, said Judge Babcock, to compel anyone to say the pledge. The judge read extensively from a 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed his position.

As a long-time educator, I recognize the need for the Common Core State standards and strongly support them. However, as the standards have been rolled out in the public schools, some major concerns have been raised ( "In defense of Common Core," June 27). While I agree that the Common Core standards will raise student skills in all areas, my first concern is that the Common Core has not taken into account the developmental level of the child. The standards have been mapped backward to develop the skills that students will need when they graduate, yet they fail to take into account how students' brains grow.

Education in Maryland has received some plus grades with the selection of a Baltimore County teacher as National Teacher of the Year ( "Baltimore County educator named National Teacher of the Year," April 30). And on another tack, there's the time the Howard County school superintendent dropped in on the kids by parachute to make her point. These fine educators know how to motivate students. It's the personal relationships between students and teachers the make this happen.

The Baltimore County school board voted Tuesday night to approve one of its largest contracts in recent years, an ambitious $205 million plan to supply laptop computers to the system's 150,000 students and teachers over the next seven years. The school system will lease HP EliteBook Revolves, the centerpiece of Superintendent Dallas Dance's initiative to put a laptop in the hands of every student in the next several years. Dance said the school system will pay for the computers in part with savings from centralizing the purchase and operation of printers, copiers and other technology, and by evaluating whether central office employees who leave the school system should be replaced.

Morton "Jerry" Baum, founder and executive director of the Fund for Educational Excellence and a retired clothing manufacturing executive who was a tireless champion of city public schools, died May 5 from complications of Parkinson's disease at his Roland Park home. He was 87. "I first met Jerry in the 1980s when he was executive director of the Fund for Educational Excellence," said Brian C. Rogers, chairman of T. Rowe Price, who had served as a member of the organization's board.

Nearly 200 voices will join together this week, as choral singers from Notre Dame Preparatory School, Bryn Mawr School, Calvert Hall College High School, Hereford High School, Loyola Blakefield and Roland Park Country School present a combined concert on Sunday, Dec. 16, at 3 p.m., in Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium. The students will perform George Fredrick Handel's "Messiah," complete with orchestra and professional soloists. Conducting the performance will be Peter Lander from Hereford High School.

As he rode the morning school bus and sat in first-period class Tuesday, the 13-year-old student at Stemmers Run Middle School in Essex gave no indication that he had a cellphone-size gun in his pocket — much less that he planned to pull it on his classmates and teacher, according to official reports. But other clues — vaguely alarming comments to classmates, unorthodox or unusual changes in behavior — were likely there in the preceding days, weeks or months, waiting to be identified and pieced into a pattern, say experts on school shootings.

Change can be unsettling in the best of circumstances. But the students and teachers in two Howard County high schools are tackling the problems associated with change and proving that the effort can also bear fruit. By switching from a six- to a four-period day, students and teachers at Atholton and Howard high schools report good feelings about the new schedule, including the opportunity for students to take more electives and the challenge to teachers to teach more effectively.The two schools accomplish this in different ways.

Five county schools seek grant money to plan improvements County school officials are seeking a $248,000 federal grant to create smaller "communities" for students and teachers within five of Anne Arundel's largest high schools. Recent educational research shows that more personalized education increases the likelihood of improved academic performance, lower dropout rates and better student-teacher relationships, according to the grant application. The money - available through the U.S. Department of Education - would be distributed among five high schools: Annapolis, Arundel, Glen Burnie, Old Mill and North County.

I have attended Towson High School for four years, and the change in class size this year was a dramatic shift. Your recent article made clear how cutting 200 high school teachers in the Baltimore County School System has negatively affected students and teachers ("Baltimore County high schools see class sizes grow," May 12). Thirty-two percent of classes have more than 30 students this year, a 22 percent increase in one year. This will not only make it hard for students to get individualized attention, but the classes will also become more challenging for teachers.

Editor: It is indeed welcome news that the Harford County Public Schools, on the initiative of Superintendent Dr. Robert Tomback plans to fortify the offerings of advanced placement courses to students (As noted in The Aegis editorial, "Cause for concern" published Feb.17) but one has to wonder if we have seen this pattern before. In Harford County Public Schools, a positive public relations pitch drives almost everything and reports of increased AP enrollment is seen as a positive public relations tool for the local school system.