Archive for December, 2011
Western Washington University’s philosophy program has been singled out for being among the top undergraduate programs in the country.
That assessment comes by way of The Philosophical Gourmet Report, a respected biennial review, according to WWU.
The Philosophical Gourmet ranks the English-speaking world’s doctoral programs in philosophy based upon the advice of several hundred prominent members of the philosophy profession.
WWU wasn’t in the doctoral rankings but was mentioned in a section that focused on philosophy programs at the undergraduate level.
“Among schools that do not offer the PhD or MA in philosophy, those with the best philosophy faculties would probably include: Amherst College, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, Reed College, University of Vermont, Western Washington University, and Wellesley College,” read the 2011 report edited by Prof. Brian Leiter of the University of Chicago.
It marked the second time that Western’s philosophy department garnered such notice.
Western Washington University has handed out its first honorary doctorate degree, and it went to Jane Lubchenco, chief administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a celebrated marine scientist, WWU says.
Lubchenco has held the top post at NOAA since 2009, becoming the first woman and the first marine ecologist to do so.
The Legislature, earlier this year, gave WWU the OK to grant honorary doctoral degrees to recognize outstanding achievement in arts, letters, sciences, or the professions, or for service in education, government or humanitarian endeavors.
Lubchenco received the honorary doctorate degree at fall commencement earlier this month.
Go here to learn more.
I am so glad the folks at Vista Middle School in Ferndale told me about their new quilting club. I don’t quilt, but I had a blast writing about this new club.
I pasted the story below this sentence.
Principal Mary Kanikeberg flits among students in a classroom at Vista Middle School on a recent Thursday, showing one how to thread a Bernina sewing machine and another how to iron flat a border that he will sew onto his quilt.
It’s the last remaining days of the first session of a new quilting club that Kanikeberg started this fall at the request of a young student who, while admiring the principal’s creations in her office, said, “I wish you would teach us how to quilt.”
So Kanikeberg put out a signup list to gauge other students’ interests at the Ferndale school. Thirty-six kids wanted to be in the club.
“Who knew?” said Kanikeberg, an avid quilter. “It’s got a life of its own. It’s kind of a hoot how excited they are.”
Each session lasts about eight weeks and has space for 12 students.
Eleven volunteers who are themselves quilters are helping the students make quilts that are either 11 rows by 11 rows, or 9 rows by 9 rows.
Among them this day was Keena Hudson, a junior at Ferndale High School, whose grandmother taught her how to sew and quilt.
“It’s great that they’re starting now,” said Hudson, who wished there had been a quilting club when she was in middle school.
The club was made possible through Kanikeberg’s energy, and contributions from volunteers and businesses.
Kanikeberg and her friends have supplied fabric for the quilts, and assembled kits that include 150 squares of fabric. She found sewing machines for the club in storage at Ferndale High School. She interviewed students to find out what kind of theme they wanted for their quilts, and what colors they liked.
And she told the school’s boys about famed male quilters, such as Kaffe Fasset and Ricky Tims.
“They’re like the quintessential quilters in the male world,” Kanikeberg said. “I wanted boys to know that it’s also good healthy stuff for them to be doing and to be creative.”
Kanikeberg has been impressed by the support the club received from the community.
“It’s been a lot of donations, and time donated, and a lot of adults working with the kids,” she said. “It’s amazing, the outpouring.”
That includes discounts from Fourth Corner Quilts and Two Thimbles Quilt Shop, as well as discounts and donated fabric from Fabric Etc.
Meanwhile, Quality Sewing & Vacuum in Bellingham has donated the servicing on all 13 of Vista Quilt Club’s sewing machines. Servicing one machine usually costs about $100.
That assistance has helped stretch the new club’s budget.
“Everything’s running on a shoestring,” Kanikeberg said.
The club is providing a creative outlet for students like seventh-grader Sarah Barker, an athlete who was learning how to tie her quilt — the last stage — under the watchful eye of volunteer Cherie Thomas, a Ferndale resident who recently retired after 32 years at Ferndale High School.
“Do you want to put your knots on corners, or in the middle?” she asked Barker, who said the club was fun and that she was making hers as a “present for someone special.”
Thomas taught business education before retiring.
Meanwhile, seventh-grader Noah Souriall was ironing the border for his quilt — which featured an outdoors theme with bears, deer, evergreen trees and a cabin nestled in the snow — under Kanikeberg’s direction.
“My mom said that it would help me with my math skills,” Souriall said when asked why he joined the club. “It turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be.”
Those skills include measuring, geometry and algebra, school officials said.
The quilting lessons also are open to adults, who use their own machines. One of them was Bryan Milliren, a seventh-grade teacher at Vista, who planned to surprise his wife on Christmas with the quilt he was making.
“I’m having so much fun. It’s total stress relief,” Milliren said. “It’s so fun to be a learner with the kids.”
Saying that “today we have a fractured education system, if you can call it a system,” Gov. Chris Gregoire on Tuesday, Dec. 13, rolled out a series of reforms for the state’s K-12 system.
Gregoire says she’ll put these proposals before the Legislature in January.
Her proposals are:
- Put into place a new teacher and principal evaluation system. Here’s the Associated Press story on this topic, including reaction from 82,000-member union, the Washington Education Association.
- Help struggling schools through partnerships with universities, which would provide research and innovation to help improve student performance. The idea is to create six, university-led laboratory schools among those in the bottom 5 percent of consistently low-achieving schools.
- Reduce some requirements for students and administrators to allow more time to be focused on instruction.
- Create the Office of Student Achievement, which would focus on educational attainment for students from high school through kindergarten graduate school.
During her press conference, Gregoire once again made her case for a temporary half-cent increase in the state sales tax that she is proposing to help offset a $2 billion budget shortfall and deep cuts in education.
If approved by voters, the three-year tax increase would raise about $494 million through 2013, with a big chunk of that going to education. The tax would expire in 2015.
Click here to read more of Gregoire’s education proposal.
And here’s what State Superintendent Randy Dorn had to say about Gregoire’s plans.
The Governor’s proposal for education reform has many parts that I support. Creating stronger ties between the K-12 system and higher education so that students succeed in college is a great goal. And any additional help from the state for struggling schools should have a positive effect on student achievement.
And implementing the teacher and principal evaluation system is a necessary step to achieve needed reform. Like the Governor, I want every teacher to be effective.
I disagree, however, on some of the details on how to “improve or remove” ineffective teachers. I’m proposing legislation that would change a teacher’s tenured status, to “provisional” status, if that teacher gets two consecutive “unsatisfactory” ratings. That would give a superintendent the flexibility to remove the teacher without employing the current expensive and unwieldy legal procedure.
I have long supported giving teachers who struggle in the classroom appropriate support to improve. But I also believe that if a teacher cannot improve, an administrator should be able to remove that teacher quickly. I’m very pleased that the issue is on the forefront of the Governor’s education plan. I look forward to working with her and the Legislature in January.
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