Blog Archives

Greetings from the National Science Teachers' Association in Atlanta

17/3/2018

Here I am on the exhibit floor at the NSTA in Atlanta holding up the two, count 'em, collections of Nonfiction Minutes. 30 People Who Changed the World is a collection of biography Minutes and already a winner of the 2018 Notable Social Studies Trade Book Award and our new book 30 Animals That Share Our World due out in April. It's wonderful to see so many high-quality science books on the floor along with models, science tools, and products to make science hands-on.

One of the strands of the conference was science literacy, teaching students to read, speak, and write science. Alex Siy was with me and we spent Friday morning speaking to lots of elementary teachers about iNK's Spring Fling in Partnership with CILC.org on Tuesday. We are thrilled with the enrollment so far and many teachers said they'd enroll on Monday when they returned to school. It's not too late to register.It's NOT TOO LATE to sign up. Go to this website to register.

And if you're looking for something mystical about science, ponder this. Stephen Hawkings died on March 14, Pi Day He was 76 years old-- Read David Schwartz's Minute Happy Pi Day! There's more: Stephen Hawkings was born on January 8 , 1942, Galileo Galilei died exactly 300 years earlier on January 8, 1642 he was 77 years old. Albert Einstein was born on Pi Day, March 14 in 1879 and died at 76. There are some mysteries that we just have to dance with!

Last Chance to Join Our Spring Fling--a Free Opportunity to Have Your Students Ask Authors Questions Live!

15/3/2018

We're making history! This is the very first time we've tried a Spring Extravaganza where you and your students get to ask questions of authors right after you've read a Nonfiction Minute by them. It's also FREE. We are using interactive video conferencing in a whole new way so that you see the connection between good writing and good writers.

So make your plans to come to our Zoom Room next Tuesday, March 20, the vernal equinox, to dust the winter cobwebs out of your brains and be challenged by whole new ways of thinking. There is no better thing you can do to prepare for the upcoming Standardized Tests--After all, the testing companies excerpt our books for the tests. We oughta know what we think when we write, no? (If we don't, then no one does!)

It's NOT TOO LATE to sign up. Go to this website: Center for Learning and Collaboration. There are some classes who are spending the WHOLE DAY with us. How 'bout that!!!

When School "Choice" Is a Bad Choice

12/3/2018

"Backpack Full of Cash” is a new feature-length documentary, directed by Sarah Mondale, a daughter of two teachers and a former teacher-come-filmmaker. It is her answer to the education “reform” movement –the privatizing of education that is fueled by the profit motive by very wealthy people who call themselves education “reformers.” The American public-school system is one of the pillars of our democracy, which depends on an educated electorate. It is funded by taxpayers—state, local and, for the past 15 years, federal governments. The money is allocated according to the number of children in each district that it is mandated to educate. Thus, each child enrolled in a public school is worth an assigned amount of cash. If parents opt to send a child to a private school, that’s fine, their taxes still go towards public education because public education is also seen as a public good. Its mission is to provide education for all children, including children with English as a second language, children with learning challenges, and children with physical disabilities. It is also supposed to level the playing field between rich and poor, thus putting the American dream within everyone’s grasp.

“Backpack Full of Cash” documents what happened to the public-school system of Philadelphia during the school year of 2014. At a time when public schools were hit by a fiscal crisis, “reformers” in Philly offered a menu of alternative choices to parents, with some charter schools employing aggressive marketing, using the word “choice” as a euphemism for “better” and underplaying the ramifications of parents’ decisions on both their child’s education and the public schools. The outcome was not what was promised. And Philadelphia is not an atypical example of other parts of the country where privatizing of public schools has a grip.

In a nutshell, the film graphically shows how the “reformers” siphoned off taxpayer resources from public education. “Backpack Full of Cash” exposes the “reformers” erroneous propaganda by following the money.

· In 2002, George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind law that introduced extensive testing into every grade of the public school. Federal money was supposed to fund this. Ka-ching! Test -creating companies make a bonanza. Teachers are now to be evaluated by how their students perform on the tests. Teaching to the tests becomes entrenched in public-school classrooms, creating school days of skill and drill, narrowing the curriculum and decreasing the morale and increasing the attrition of good teachers.

· Race to the Top was the Obama administration’s compounding of the aims of the “reformers” by using money as a carrot for states to implement “reformers” missions: Standardized curriculum, standardized testing, more technology to cut costs (mostly teachers) and closing neighborhood public schools deemed to be “failing.”

· The founding of charter schools with no accountability to the taxpayer but promising all kinds of goodies to enrollees (by lottery) except for children with disabilities (not enough money to provide for them) prompted an exodus from the public schools and the backpacks of cash that went with it. While there are some charter schools that fulfill a mission of high achievement, most don’t do any better than public school and some do worse. Plus, the lack of accountability as to the allocation of funding offered an opportunity for corruption. Every time money changes hands, there an opportunity for someone’s pockets to get lined.

· A voucher system that allows the money for a child to follow the child to a private school, including religious schools. Thus, public money is now sent to religious institutions—a clear violation of the separation of church and state. In many places, these vouchers are euphemistically called “scholarships.”

The goal of the “reformers” and our current Secretary of Education is the privatizing of public schools where the data (as for most privately held businesses) is the bottom line. The evaluation of the quality of education cannot be reduced to simplistic numbers, including the testing. I, particularly, resented the “reformers” calling public schools a government “monopoly.” Public schools are run by local boards of education, elected officials accountable to their local public. At a time when the future of work will demand innovators, highly-skilled medical workers, and, yes, teachers with knowledge of best practices in education and humanity, the “reformers” are looking to “standardize” education to their own world views. Children are NOT widgets.

“Backpack Full of Cash” is tough to take, even when you know the story, because film shows how real people are affected by these policies. Thus, it has real impact. But I found a new ray of hope in the film with their documented success of the Union City school district of Union City, NJ. Here, parents didn’t buy “choice” but bought into making their public schools better. It is a model for hope.

The producers of “Backpack Full of Cash” are launching a community screening campaign. If you care about investing in this country, it’s a must-see. And now, our clueless Secretary of Education wants to spend money training teachers, who so desire, how to use guns to protect their charges. Thus giving the halls of learning increased opportunities for tragic mistakes. Can you imagine children killed by "friendly" fire?

Why We're Trying So Hard

7/3/2018

Jan Adkins (we call him Adkins) is a multi-talented Renaissance type who cares deeply that children engage in learning challenges. The Nonfiction Minute represents a prodigious amount of work on behalf of iNK authors, our editor, Jean Reynolds, now retired, (ha!) but the former founder and publisher of Millbrook Press and Roaring Brook Press, and Karen Sterling a full-time school librarian and mother of 5 who writes all the Transfer-2-Teaching pieces on each Minute. We put our heart, souls, and financial well-being on the line in creating the Nonfiction Minutes. And we make them available at no cost to you.

The great poet, Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) wrote: "The notion of emptiness generates passion," . When I first came across this line, many years ago, it occurred to me that the word "notion" is most significant. "Notion" means that you've had a taste, a vision, an inkling, a snippet of something -- enough to alert you to its possibilities and whet your appetite for more. Adkins, a most passionate man, added his thoughts to the mission of the iNK team,which I'm sharing with you:

"Many of you know I'm involved in a kind of crusade: Deus volt! I'm part of the Nonfiction
Minute, a series of tales from history and science written by some high-octane fact-writers
to persuade kids that reading nonfiction beats magic, superheroes, and romance by
a country mile.

"We have a formidable roster of science, art, and history writers. All of us sweat
  bullets as we boil down the best stories in the world (the real ones) to 400 plain
words, no more. We've got one of the best and meanest editor who ever rode a blue
pencil. She keeps us short and honest. We also audio record each nonfiction squib,
  which we find encourages readers to follow along.

"Teachers love us for grabbing reluctant readers with mind-candy reality and for
astonishing students accustomed to lexicon-limited, committee-controlled textbook
prose. We're excited about this.

"Help us out. Turn on the nearest kid to the NFM, and jog the first teacher you see.
Browse the NFMs, themselves, and suggest more subjects. Celebrate reality! It's more
  than the nightly news."

If you like the taste of us, maybe you'd like to see and hear us speak. Join the Spring Fling on March 20. Here's the link to register. Scroll down to find us on Track 3. We say that we'll answer questions on the Minute you read but you can test us to see if we're the read deal. Ask us a question about any Minute or even any book we've each written. Once you write something you own it forever!

On Good Authority: Telling the Truth to Kids

5/3/2018

It’s understandable that children are not sophisticated enough to sift truth from non-truth. They are always asking “It is true?” That’s why we children’s nonfiction authors have a special responsibility to make certain that “nothing is made up” in our books. That’s what the word “nonfiction” means. There are standards for truth for journalists—nothing is reported or printed unless it is verified by three independent sources. As a representative of a group of award-winning children’s nonfiction authors, iNK Think Tank, Inc, let me unpack a little of our process—how we learn what we write about and then what our publishers do to make sure we’re telling the truth.

My 2016 released classic (46 years in print) Science Experiments You Can Eat is a book of procedures. How did I know about what I wrote? I did every experiment in the book and did not write up the ones that failed. So I was my own primary source. In this new edition (third) my editor read it as if it had never been published before and returned the manuscript to me with 300 queries. I responded to every single one.

There are many steps between submitting a manuscript before it becomes a children’s nonfiction book. By my calculations, a thirty-two page picture book of 3,000 words (5 typewritten pages single spaced) is reviewed by at least seven people, each reading it an average of four times—25+ readings before it becomes a book. Talk about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s! This much investment is a statement about honor and pride of workmanship but mostly it is a tribute to the ultimate user—children. In the writer’s jargon of “show, don’t tell” our book shows them, “We’re giving you our very best. It’s what you deserve.” It is also designed to last and to be treasured.

Without exception, iNK authors travel to do research first-hand. If they write history, they all use primary source material; they go out of their way to interview experts and when the manuscript is finished, it is vetted by an expert. In some cases, they take courses before starting their research to make sure they comprehend their subject matter on a deep level. Only then do they understand what they can leave out and still be accurate and clear for children.

It is only when children are educated by materials that are written on good authority to be truthful that they develop the prior knowledge to be able to discern false news when they hear it.

Follow Vicki Cobb on Twitter: www.twitter.com/vickicobb

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Greetings from the National Science Teachers' Association in Atlanta

Last Chance to Join Our Spring Fling--a Free Opportunity to Have Your Students Ask Authors Questions Live!

When School "Choice" Is a Bad Choice

Why We're Trying So Hard

On Good Authority: Telling the Truth to Kids

Vicki Cobb

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Greetings from the National Science Teachers' Association in Atlanta

Last Chance to Join Our Spring Fling--a Free Opportunity to Have Your Students Ask Authors Questions Live!

When School "Choice" Is a Bad Choice

Why We're Trying So Hard

On Good Authority: Telling the Truth to Kids

Vicki Cobb

​​​​Archives

​Categories

Links

Company

Contact

Archives

Categories