Teachers

Maryland's schools rank first in the nation in an analysis of factors such as high school graduation rates, student achievement, academic standards and accountability done by Education Week, a publication based in Bethesda. Maryland, ranked third last year, edged out Massachusetts by one-tenth of 1 percent. Both states were given a B grade overall, but the national average was a C. Maryland scored well on the standards for early childhood education and preparing students for college. The report is likely to be widely quoted in the next year by state officials, particularly Gov. Martin O'Malley and Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.

This is the season when local governments finalize their budgets for the next fiscal year, and the grousing about their penurious circumstances is in full swing. Some are even complaining that the state's revised budget and tax plan - signed into law by Gov.Martin O'Malleythis week - has put a serious crimp in their finances. In particular, they blame the state's decision to shift a portion of the cost of teacher retirement contributions to Baltimore City and the counties as ruinous to their own budgets.

Carroll County school officials told a grandmother to stop coming to her grandchild's class after she spent two weeks studying the teacher. A Baltimore County teacher recalls being threatened physically by a parent who happened to be a boxer. And in Howard County, overbearing parents are becoming such a concern that more than half the teachers surveyed say they have experienced "harassing behavior." For the past two years, 60 percent of the teachers responding to a job satisfaction survey conducted by the Howard County Education Association reported that they have been subjected to harassment.

Towson University will receive $2 million in state and private grant funds to start a new program designed to increase production of math and science teachers. The initiative will be based on the 15-year-old UTeach program, which more than doubled the output of math and science teachers at the University of Texas in Austin and is widely regarded as a model for training teachers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. UTeach offers financial incentives for math, science and computer science majors to train and enter the workforce as teachers.

After 36 years of teaching in public schools in Catonsville, Tom McDade has had enough. For the past three weeks, he has packed his books and classroom decorations. And yesterday, after the last day of school, he left for good. It's not easy saying goodbye to his life's work. There have been too many fine moments to recollect. Rewarding a young girl for reading 240 books. Watching pupils master difficult math. Parents saying, "Thank you," and meaning it. But teaching isn't what it was when McDade started.

On the way to the airport the other day, I drove through a town heading down the tubes. The sagging, peeling signboard in front of the high school said it all; even the press-on letters announcing a school board meeting were shabby and cockeyed, put on with no apparent care.I'm glad I've never met the principal, I thought to myself; I bet he'd have complained of demotivated students (brought up wrong), disengaged parents (don't give a hoot anymore), demoralized teachers (not like they used to be)

Teachers are not like the rest of us. They choose to be in the company of children who are not their own.Teachers not only like teaching children, but teachers also like listening to what they think, answering their endless questions, hearing about their troubles.And teachers like touching children, too. Enter any school in the morning before the first bell rings, and you will see youngsters returning to last year's teacher for a reassuring hug. It is part of the way teachers communicate with children.

For the first time in about a decade, the Baltimore County school system is poised to purchase a new reading series - perhaps two series - to ensure a more consistent reading program for all elementary school pupils. "We're looking for as much consistency as we can, for both teachers and students," said Jane Lichter, supervisor of language arts in the department of elementary curriculum and instruction. "But we realize that there are diverse needs. It looks like we'll pick two series because of the diverse needs of our student population."

As 36-year-old Howard Eakes sat in one of NASA's anti-gravity chairs, he realized the dream of the wide-eyed millions who, since its Kennedy-era development, have looked upon the space program in awe. Eakes was training to be an astronaut. He won't be blasting off into space anytime soon, but July 6 through July 11, Eakes, a fifth-grade teacher at Fountain Green Elementary School who also appears up to two days a week on the Harford Cable Network's live homework show, traveled to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., for the U.S. Space Academy for Educators Camp -- in short, space camp.

The Howard County Arts Council is looking for teachers to fill positions in its Visual and Performing Arts Summer Camps next year. Camps are open to students in grades K-7. Interested teachers should contact Wendy Meetze at 410-313-2787 for more information.

Jesse L. Thomas, a Baltimore Colts defensive back in the 1950s who then spent four decades at Morgan State University, serving for several years as its head football coach, died of dementia complications May 16 at his Columbia home. He was 83. Born in Guthrie, Okla., and raised in Flint, Mich., he was a much-praised athlete at its Central High School, where he was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame. He was Flint's 1945 Athlete of the Year and held letters in basketball, baseball, track and football.

Pamela Furness Engel, an Anne Arundel County biology teacher and teaching adviser, died of pancreatic cancer May 16 at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center. She was 58 and lived in Linthicum. Born Pamela Furness in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville and Columbia, she was a 1971 Atholton High School graduate. She earned a degree in biology at what is now McDaniel College and had a second degree in education at the Notre Dame of Maryland University, as well as a master's degree in biology from Towson University.

An Anne Arundel County parent whose gentle spirit is said to have built bridges between cultures at her sons' elementary school was named the Maryland Parent Involvement Matters Award winner Friday night. Ambareen Jafri, a 35-year-old Crofton mother of three boys, began her volunteer work four years ago when a Nantucket Elementary School teacher put out a request for someone who spoke Urdu to be a translator for Indian and Pakistani families. "Sometimes, you just [say], 'OK, this is my opportunity to help the community.

One hundred Baltimore city teachers have been labeled "model teachers" under the new Baltimore Teachers Union contract, the city school system announced last week, marking a milestone in the slow-paced implementation of the pact ratified in fall 2010. The teachers, who have undergone a grueling application process since last year, will receive a hefty pay increase of between $15,000 and $20,000 under the new contract, which is designed around pay-for-performance and a new career ladder.  The pinnacle of the career ladder is to become a "lead" teacher, and the contract stipulates that there will be only one in every school.

After beating back a series of challenges in the House of Delegates, lawmakers are poised to give final approval Wednesday to a plan to raise the state income tax to fund schools, police and Medicaid. The legislation, introduced Monday by Gov. Martin O'Malley and backed by the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, would subject top-earning Marylanders to the seventh-highest income tax rate in the country, according to the National Tax Foundation. Their rate now ranks 10th. The measure also would raise taxes on some tobacco products and fees on some state transactions.

Baltimore County parents and legislators will ask incoming schools Superintendent Dallas Dance to consider putting more teachers in high schools, where class sizes have swelled since positions were eliminated a year ago. Maryland Sen. James Brochin, a Baltimore County Democrat, said he wants Dance to examine restoring positions at high schools, where hundreds of classes have been dropped, soon after Dance takes over July 1. He said he warned county...

Editor: I am writing in response to Mr. Flen's letter to the editor published on Feb. 24. My daughter is an elementary school teacher and I know that she and her colleagues do not work 70 percent of the time! That may be what they are paid for, but that is not what they work. If you drive by any Harford County public school, you will see cars there well before the school day begins and also after the day ends. Teachers spend several hours before and after school preparing their lessons.

When Mark Chewning was a kid, he dreamed of being an artist. But at some point, the Baltimore resident's dream became all but dormant, giving way to about 27 years in the photograph-retouching business and a stint as supermarket deli clerk, as well as marriage, parenting, unemployment, divorce and self-doubt. Last week, Chewning, 54, was honored as the Student of the Year at Howard Community College. The single parent says his dream of becoming an artist will probably never come to fruition.

The Rev. John Wesley Bowen, a Roman Catholic priest and church historian who advocated sainthood for a 19th-century Baltimore woman, died of pneumonia Sunday at St. Agnes Hospital. He was 87 and lived in Catonsville. Born in Baltimore and raised on Linden Avenue, he attended Mount St. Joseph High School before entering the old St. Charles College, a seminary. He earned degrees in philosophy and theology at St. Mary's Seminary and the Catholic University of America, where he also earned a second master's degree.