Comments on: Wells’ Staff Responds To City Desk Joke http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/06/18/wells-staff-responds-to-city-desk-joke/ <em>City Paper</em> Writers on News, Politics, the Media, the Arts, and More Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:57:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Jason Cherkis http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/06/18/wells-staff-responds-to-city-desk-joke/#comment-176941 Jason Cherkis Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:10:50 +0000 http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/06/18/wells-staff-responds-to-city-desk-joke/#comment-176941 Kudos, Don. Your anger is a thing of wonder. It is awe inspiring! That being said, not EVERYONE has been using PowerPoint for a decade. It may be difficult for you to understand being a parent of a pre-K kid (let's hope he doesn't make any PowerPoint jokes at the dinner table!), but a lot of schools either don't have the technology that you speak of or are only now coming online. A lot of schools still struggle with adequate air conditioning and trash pickup. Having been to several schools over the course of this year, I saw very few if any classrooms equipped for web-video tutorials. At Hart Middle School, I believe the principal barely had a working desktop computer. So your 'lil Bill Gates might be able to one day make some awesome viral videos with talking unicorns or odes to Christopher Cross but a lot of students are going without such technology. That being said, my PowerPoint line was meant as sarcasm. A throwaway line. The greater issue is student-teacher ratios and whether or not these new hyphenated schools will be ready come September.And whether the vacant schools will turn into nuisance properties or something useful for their communities. Yr graph about the chancellor not directing which schools are specialty schools is either incredibly naive or just fuzzy headed. You do say that the Chancellor has to approve them. Do you really think Rhee and her staff aren't involved in this process? But thanks again for your angry rant. You're like the Bill O'Reilly of the City Desk comments section! Keep up the good work. Kudos, Don. Your anger is a thing of wonder. It is awe inspiring! That being said, not EVERYONE has been using PowerPoint for a decade. It may be difficult for you to understand being a parent of a pre-K kid (let’s hope he doesn’t make any PowerPoint jokes at the dinner table!), but a lot of schools either don’t have the technology that you speak of or are only now coming online.

A lot of schools still struggle with adequate air conditioning and trash pickup. Having been to several schools over the course of this year, I saw very few if any classrooms equipped for web-video tutorials. At Hart Middle School, I believe the principal barely had a working desktop computer.

So your ‘lil Bill Gates might be able to one day make some awesome viral videos with talking unicorns or odes to Christopher Cross but a lot of students are going without such technology.

That being said, my PowerPoint line was meant as sarcasm. A throwaway line. The greater issue is student-teacher ratios and whether or not these new hyphenated schools will be ready come September.And whether the vacant schools will turn into nuisance properties or something useful for their communities.

Yr graph about the chancellor not directing which schools are specialty schools is either incredibly naive or just fuzzy headed. You do say that the Chancellor has to approve them. Do you really think Rhee and her staff aren’t involved in this process?

But thanks again for your angry rant. You’re like the Bill O’Reilly of the City Desk comments section! Keep up the good work.

]]> By: Don http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/06/18/wells-staff-responds-to-city-desk-joke/#comment-176907 Don Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:22:48 +0000 http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/06/18/wells-staff-responds-to-city-desk-joke/#comment-176907 It is ignorant to say that the "technology school" will be "jazzed up" with powerpoints. That's sloppy reporting from someone who has already been chastised for sloppy reporting. There is this thing, it's called self-standards, and it's as much in short supply in government-run institutions as it is in failed free press experiments. Want that raise? Sorry, Craiglist ate your raise and ate your buddy's job too, he gets laid off. My son's Pre-K class in DCPS utilized the web, web-based videos and learning software, and every class has one or two computers in it. Being a technology school does not mean the teachers will use powerpoints, ferchrissakes, EVERYONE's been using powerpoints for the last 10 years, how can you present without them in this day and age? The specialty elementary schools are NOT being assigned from the top down by the Chancellor, the decisions of what the technology school means will be decided upon by the principal and the teachers and negotiated or approved with the Chancellor. If all the principal can come up with is powerpoint, which is already in-use in the pre-K environment at other schools, then the principal should rightly be fired. My guess is that no one but the author of this article, who will probably go in Creative Loafing's next round of layoffs, thinks that's true. It is ignorant to say that the “technology school” will be “jazzed up” with powerpoints. That’s sloppy reporting from someone who has already been chastised for sloppy reporting. There is this thing, it’s called self-standards, and it’s as much in short supply in government-run institutions as it is in failed free press experiments. Want that raise? Sorry, Craiglist ate your raise and ate your buddy’s job too, he gets laid off.

My son’s Pre-K class in DCPS utilized the web, web-based videos and learning software, and every class has one or two computers in it. Being a technology school does not mean the teachers will use powerpoints, ferchrissakes, EVERYONE’s been using powerpoints for the last 10 years, how can you present without them in this day and age?

The specialty elementary schools are NOT being assigned from the top down by the Chancellor, the decisions of what the technology school means will be decided upon by the principal and the teachers and negotiated or approved with the Chancellor. If all the principal can come up with is powerpoint, which is already in-use in the pre-K environment at other schools, then the principal should rightly be fired. My guess is that no one but the author of this article, who will probably go in Creative Loafing’s next round of layoffs, thinks that’s true.

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