But, when I am writing about things that need to change, like the practices and politics of US public education, politically correct language targets maintaining the status quo.

Spinning “positive” descriptions our of real-world issues carries us no closer to solutions. Placing failure in a positive light does little to motivate our schools to the resolve those issues, and reform the practices the keep failures entrenched.

Learn from Counselors

Perhaps my tendency to expose “negatives” is a byproduct of counselor training.
 
There is one counseling dictum…

“The presenting problem is never the real problem.”

This generalization supports a corollary belief that problems that get patched and glossed over, remain unresolved…until root causes are identified and rectified.

We need to dig after root causes, and

Rectifying Root Causes with Targeted Solutions

 
For example, one problem facing public education is that teachers are burdened with the stress of multiple, useless tasks that distract them from instruction (lunch counts, lunch duty, bus duty, teaching to the test, test score disaggregation, grading papers, etc.)
 
Closing in on the root cause of this issue, we find that school district decision-makers use a loophole in the labor laws to force teachers to “accept responsibility” and perform these non-payoff tasks (often to the exclusion of important, educationally useful tasks) because teachers are “exempt” from the right to be paid for overtime work.
 
An easy solution to this issue would be to increase teachers’ pay by 1/7 to give teachers an eight-hour work day, then pay teachers a standard overtime rate (time and one half) for any work performed beyond that eight-hour workday. This strategy would instantly eliminate scores of unnecessary tasks that teachers are “required” to perform because school district administrators would cease assigning useless tasks due to the negative, bottom-line impact.
 
Another problem facing our schools is that US teachers spend over $1 billion USD of their own money on classroom and instructional supplies that the school districts that employ them fail to provide. The solution: Teachers turn in “discrepancy /variance/ exceptions” reports to school boards and local newspapers;” i.e., “write up” principals, directors and superintendents who fail to perform the basic management function of providing classroom instructional materials in a “just-in-time” manner. This could mount a grassroots effort to oust educational higher-ups that fail to do their jobs.

Upend the “Teacher Accountability Myth”

This strategy would also deal a “death blow” to the “Teacher Accountability Myth;” i.e., that teachers are not accountable.

The correct accountability model would focus upon school district administrators and executives assuming accountability for providing whatever is needed to educate our students and support teachers’ classroom instruction.
 
In the case of students “falling behind their age-grade achievement level,” one solution is to offer individual tutoring to every student, as needed, for as long as needed; until every student is performing at an adequate level.

Oh! No! We can’t afford a solution like that.
 
But, where is the real “negative?”

1.) Stating what the real problem is and providing a solution to the underlying problem (to promote debate and targeted action)
or
2.) Accepting the status quo and provide the (lame) excuse that “such although-needed solutions would cost too much?”

Students have Real Talents

In the case of our school districts, I see the incredible talents, abilities and possibilities that our children bring to school…and I compare our current emphasis on achieving minimum-skills test score competencies as “treading water with the hope of achieving greatness.”

In fact, our educational processes seem geared toward achieving uniformity, mediocrity and talent-stagnation.

And, who is taking the action that will actualize and realize the potential of our students?

Trick question: Of course many teachers struggle against politics, bureaucratic handcuffing, and minimal classroom support to draw out learning experiences that boost the lifelong pursuit of excellence from their students.

But, when this alchemy of learning fails to happen, who has the courage to say that our students deserve better and that nurturing our children’s talents requires that we spend real money (a lot more money) on the “right things” of education?

We need to reverse the current pattern of criticizing the folks that point out the need for improvement and change, and we need to chastise the entrenched, “positive” folks whose bureaucratic speech would pretend that they could (in political terms) spin silk donkey ears and silk elephant ears from political pork and political excrement.

The Lack of Money in our Schools Myth

Besides, the lack of money for education is a “myth.” There would be plenty of money for our students’ education if…
 
* We stop spending (wasting) money on the wrong things
* If we do what it takes to reach and teach each and every student (no excuses)
* If we do what it takes to support our teachers and make their jobs easier
* If we build a track record of real successes for students’ learning
* If we begin to measure students’ progress in meaningful ways and show the tax-paying public that we are getting results
* If we “up end” the “Teacher Accountability Myth” and understand that school district administrators and executives need to be accountable to teachers
 
A majority of people would fund education to levels that rival our country’s war effort if only our school districts began delivering the results that our students are capable of achieving.

Positive Spin on a Track Record that “Ain’t So!”

Who believes that the bureaucratic-speak (positive spin on negative news) can serve our students better than “telling-it-like-it-is?” The situation is negative and remains so despite the fact that US schools world rank is near the top for spending money.
 
The number of students that leave school high school without graduating is a national disgrace. And, critics note that these numbers of “drop outs” are undercounted.

At the community college level (even the university level), a large percentage of the students that do graduate must take remedial reading and remedial math courses before they are allowed to take courses that count toward their degrees (a daunting uphill, steep slope climb that many students don’t accomplish).
 
Bright, talented, dedicated teaching-major graduates come to our schools with zeal, with caring and with a resolve to make a positive difference in the lives of young people…and half of these teachers are gone from the profession in three to five years. Why? Who is telling these teachers what they need to know to survive and thrive? Does misleading Newbie teachers by singing a “positive song” erase the challenges that they face? Will chirping platitudes assist our new teachers?

Or, does someone need to comfort new teachers and explain to them that the stress and frustration that they experience in their daily teaching lives is not their fault. Rather, these issues

A Lesson for our Schools from IT Project Management

 Another of my educational vantage points comes from my experience in IT project management.
 
Do you think that with an infrastructure project installing servers, network stitches, fiber cabling, network drops that we accept that even a single piece of this project fails to function?

No. Every item works, we have warranties and we have service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure that every element continues to function…and we have hand-off training and documentation to ensure that we can manage going forward.
 
What would happen if we adopted a Zero-Defect-Rate model for Education. This means that all students succeed.

All students means “every single student.” Achieves means that students reach their levels of talent and performance, and that every student learns to his or her academic potential.

Is it negative to write that our school districts are missing the mark when students fail to graduate in huge numbers?

Or is it negative to fluff up excuses such as: “It’s the low quality students fault.” “It’s a lack of parental support for our schools.” “Its the fact that teachers are not accountable.” “It’s the fact that our schools don’t have enough money,” “It’s the fact that we spend too much money on our schools.”

Excuse Givers…The Real Negative People

I believe that “excuse giving” school managers are the real “negative” people, and I believe that identifying problems and providing solutions is a positive step towards change and reform. I believe that “telling it like it is” so that unacceptable situations can be rectified deserves credit for taking a positive step toward the change and reform that our students deserve.

The school year is revving up again. Teachers are raring to go. Students are filled with hope and possibilities.

Will our students talents and abilities shine with new opportunities for subject-area mastery and academic achievement, or will the tarnish of the failed approaches of last year (and the year before, and the year before that) continue to hold our students’ achievement captive?

Our students deserve the joys that blossom from success and achievement. And our students’ children and grandchildren deserve the improved economic conditions that a competent education bestows.

It’s time to accept past failures and decide to embrace reform.

It’s time to label “politically correct, positive spin”…the sin of “painting rainbows over the rust and stagnation of past failure” as the “negative” that it is.

Praise the Whistle Blowers and Reformers

Find praise for the whistle blowers, change agents and reformers that tell us where we’re at…and offer solutions.

Our students deserve more than a “business as usual” school year. Our students deserve targeted school reform. Can we deliver what our students need? Identifying root causes for entrenched failure, then eradicating obstacles to success is the first step. Let’s take action and reform.

Here is the results of a test for Quick Site Creator software and the amazing speed of WordPress at getting posts indexed.

Amazing Speed of WordPress Blogs Getting Indexed by Google

Just how fast can you get a WordPress Blog indexed by Google?

Of course, the Blog is established; but this is pretty fast!

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The software that preforms this magic is adaptable and customizable…

Workshop Title:

Global Communication and Today’s Foreign Language Students

Presenter: Rosa Shely, Spanish teacher, Earl Warren High School

Date: April 10, 2010

Time: 9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Location: Northside Activity Center, Culebra just inside 410.

Cost: Free

How can you get today’s foreign language students interested and consistently involved in class?

How can learning Spanish be relevant to them?

How about taking your students on a “virtual trip” around the world?

How about your students being active customers at their own “Latin American restaurant?”

Let them see and experience how Spanish is integrated in our community… here, nationwide, and globally.

Emphasis on today’s global communication through today’s technology will be the focus;

• Planning, using, and posting podcasts
• Designing, and tailoring to your class available PowerPoints
• Using Google Earth and computer based games such as Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, among others to incorporate the material you want to include
• Using foldables
• Using current Spanish music videos and music CD’s
• Real “telenovelas”
• Active participation in Spanish debates
• Experiencing Latin American art through the use of Cornell notes and directed activities

Participants will be involved in actual lessons and receive their own packet with all the presented activities guidelines/handouts, and game templates.

Remember to bring your own laptop and a flash drive! (Recommended, but not required.)

Teacher In-service credits available.

Marketers and SEO folks multiply content, fabricate comments and outsource link-building so that words abound like so many high-calorie but empty of nutrition fluff-foods.

Google and Bing will have arrived when their algorithms learn to dump this SEO junk before indexing it, and find really satisfying content.

Web 4.0 and Web 5.0 content will be as similar to real foods (i.e., organic vegetables, fish, meat and potatoes, salad, fruit, stir-fry) as junk food (i.e., fast-fat, bloat-enabling, tummy-protruding, gout-intensifying, not-fit-for-pigs) content slop is not.

One marketer complained the 15,000 Internet Marketer accounts were canceled by Google. A lot more of these drivel-mavens have to go. Perhaps Google could join forces with the FTC and shake out the dead wood, rotten wood and warped wood that comprises most of Internet Marketing today.

The Internet is a true “Buyer-Beware” marketplace.

(Note: This is my response to a copyrighted E-mail message sent by Mike Filsaime concerning the sale of his 7-Figure Course. That message could not be reprinted here because it contained a copyright.)

Quoted copyright from that message…
“(c) 2009, MikeFilsaime.com, Inc.
3555 Veterans Memorial Hwy, Suite C, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, USA”

Here is the text of my E-mail response to that high-powered sales message…
_____

I don’t need another copy of the 7-Figure Code. I already have two printed copies. I don’t need another copy of the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript. I have one printed copy, and I also have an electronic copy.

I also don’t want to spend $15 for more copies of the same materials, and I don’t want to sign up for any more of your newsletters. I found that Matt Bacak’s and Russell Brunson’s newsletters to be much better for my needs than your newsletters.

I expected that access to the online 7-Figure course materials to be free, as advertised, but the $15 is not free.

Since I read the 7-Figure Code and Butterfly manuals, I am not sure that the online 7-Figure Course content is worth $15.

Please provide the totally free online content that your ads seemed to promise.

Since I read your defensive E-mail concerning all the people that wrote comments that you deleted and who posted Blog comments; I know that lots of other folks believed that the offer ads failed to live up to the promises that those ads made.

Subtle or distracting wording probably fails to meet the intent of the new FTC regulations that require transparency.

“Totally free” means absolutely no cost. $15 for shipping and handling of products that we don’t need is a cost that is substantially higher than “free.”

If you have trouble unloading 10,000 copies of these (not really free) manuals as your last E-mail plea suggests; even though E-mail sales pitches were sent to over 1,000,000 E-mail addresses touting the offer may indicate that…

1.) The market was already saturated with these manuals
2.) Each person received hundreds of the same E-mail offers as I did
3.) The perceived value of the manuals failed to exceed the cost of shipping and handling
4.) Folks were irritated (even angry) that the free offer turned out cost $15.
5.) Electronic copies of those manuals could have been placed on a DVD (with a higher perceived value) and sold at cost, including shipping for $1.75.
6.) The flood of negative Web 2.0 social media publicity cast too much doubt as to the value of this offer

Hopefully, you didn’t print all 10,000 manuals ahead of time, and only your reputation, not your pocketbook, suffered from this launch.

It will take some time before the current crop of Internet Marketing “gurus” learn to transition to the new FTC requirements for transparency and accurate (no fine print) advertising. So look for quite a few other “gurus” to retire or go out of business.

Hopefully, you won’t be one of the high profile marketers that the FTC chooses to use as a test case to compensate for the FTC’s lack of investigative, regulatory compliance and enforcement personnel.

Thank you.

Joseph Chmielewski, M.S., L.P.C.

Dear Congressman Smith:
 
Here are the comments that you requested.  Your survey card was crafted in a way that guarantees that the answers reflect a narrow, politicized (party) view of pressing issues.

Here is what you need to know, and what you need to do.

Reject the gridlock-oriented party politics of the past and get behind our president. President Obama is a novice and learning the ropes; and he needs your guidance.

What you need to do is learn from President Clinton’s playbook and develop legislation that is moderate and centrist.  Both the Democratic platform and the Republican platforms are stilted and dangerous. Neither party has enough answers to benefit our country. Both party platforms get issues wrong more than they get issues right.

Your cooperation by doing what is right for our country means rejecting the extremes of both parties and helping President Obama get on track. By your extreme resistance, you are driving President Obama into the arms of the extremist Democrats who you vow to resist because their ideas are just as bad for our country as the ideas of extremist Republicans.

Your resistance to doing what is needed (moderate, centrist) for our country guarantees that President Obama will become a Carter-like “One Term Wonder,” but the backlash to the extremes of President Bush go too far in the other direction…and our country continues to suffer for lack of moderate leadership.

Obstinate and wrong-headed Republican and Democratic policies, sticking to extremes and lack of cooperation make both parties look like children on a sandlot…one has the ball, one has the bat…and no one gets to play because they can’t  agree.

My advice to both parties: Grow up! Put our country’s need before party ideology. Finally do the job that you were elected to do. Or, go home and let country-first, party-politics last folks replace you.

Send President Obama the kind of legislation that makes him look like the best president ever, quit squabbling. Send legislation that is good for America, legislation that Democrats can’t refuse to get behind because they would look like quacks, charlatans and idiots.

Right now, both parties look like stooges…hostages of their party ideologies.

It is time for creative, collaborative thinking and cooperative action.

In a way, the scandals reflecting lobbyist and special interest influence in our legislative process act as a smokescreen and a distraction from our legislative dilemma; i.e., trusting in two political parties to do the work that we need when neither of those parties has the wherewithal to deliver unless they work together on centrist common ground.

Please quit being a Republican and become an advocate for America. Reject Democrat ideology and reject Republican ideology, and build a coalition of folks who want real change.

President Obama was elected to bring change to our country because his predecessor damaged our country and our country’s reputation. But, that change was supposed to be a benefit to our country. We were supposed to see cooperation, not a Democratic agenda that will prove just as defective and just as detrimental to our country as that of President Bush.

So, take true leadership and get off the Republican stonewall. Stop the Democratic mule that is heading over the precipice by offering the carrots and sugar of reasonable, cooperative legislation that will stop their blind charge to disaster in its tracks.

Please do what our county needs, and please do what our country needs soon.

And, has the product jeopardized its credibility with a "sneaky marketing trick?"

I loose confidence in a product when I suspect that the promoter needs to use a sneaky trick to get me to buy.

The program promises to create a viral E-mail system similar to Google’s Gmail. This software then can then provide free E-mail to people that sign up. Then, the outgoing mail has a branded message similar to the branding that HotMail made famous.

Sounds good, so far…

But, here is the sneaky part.

The product launch was suppose to offer only 500 copies. (Create scarcity.)

But, lots of affiliates were signed up. (The affiliates receive 50% commission.)

So, who is going to promote a product where only 500 copies are sold for half of $147?

Answer: Not many, but what if the 500 copies is only a ploy?

Here is a extract image from an E-mail message that I received on 7-22-09. (The sender’s name has been blocked out in case they didn’t know what is going on.)

And, here is what the sales page said.

Notice that I have to act at once.

But, what happens if you link today, 7-23-09?

Seems like the offer is still available. Maybe I’ll consider buying tomorrow?

Or maybe I won’t!

As I said, I loose confidence in a product when I suspect that the promoter needs to use a sneaky trick to get me to buy.

It is difficult to see how this product is "sold out" when a script is running, and it is difficult to believe that this sneaky strategy was unplanned. The reason: it is running a date script… that inserts the current date into the sales page:

As far as the script itself, the script does send and receive E-mail messages, and does provide Google AdSense ads to users.

But, if the product were truly viral, at one Gigabyte (1 GB) of mail storage, the product could violate the "Terms of Service" of your Web Hosts.

I checked with my Web Host, HostGator, and the installation of Fireball Mail didn’t seem to be against their "Terms of Service," as long as the folks that sign up for the free accounts do not use those accounts to send SPAM. (You’re in for a real hassle if they do!)

Other violations of your Web Host’s "Terms of Service" are to use the system to distribute pornography, viruses or materials that infringe on other people’s copyrights.

Another caution is ensuring that minors do not sigh up for one of these free E-mail accounts without parental permission.

The Fireball Mail test system was noticeably slower than Gmail, even when the software has a minimal load as a "demo system."

Summary: The software does what it says it does, so there shouldn’t be a need to employ sneaky tricks to market and sell it. And, although marketers might have a use for yet another free E-mail system, it is difficult to imagine that others would find such a system useful when Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Live/ HotMail are so well established.

The problem? Sneaky marketing tricks deflate credibility for this product.

Then, we learned that the Sun was the center of our solar system. Now we know that the Universe is about 13 billion years old, and that the Earth is more like the “dust on the dust on the dust of the dust” in importance, size and grandeur.

But folks with expanded perception tell us that this “huge, billions of galaxies” physical universe hangs like a tiny little basket with a golden halo in the incredibly wider, broader, deeper and multidimensional reality of the Astral Plane.

Maybe it’s time to quit thinking that the physical Universe is the center of creation?

Here is the issue…

Many of the Marketers who provided testimonials for the “Advanced Twitter Marketing” product also created sites with the standard…

* Reviews
* Domain Names as variations of “Advanced Twitter Marketing”

Of course, this affiliate relationship leads to doubting the product’s value since the social proof comes from folks with a vested interest.

When I write a review, my reputation is on the line, and there cannot be any profit motive influencing the straight talk, “tell-t-like-it-is” review.

With upcoming FTC regulation of the Internet Marketing space, all affiliate relationships will be required to be divulged.