The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

The Flipped Class Manifest

"The Flipped Classroom is an intentional shift of content which in turn helps move students back to the center of learning rather than the products of schooling." Read more

A Complex Web: Teacher-Student Relationships

"Like most of us, they (teachers) had complex personalities that meshed with some people and conflicted with others." Read more

Two Families. Two different paths to "academic excellence." And, the winner is . . .

But the two families - one Chinese, one Mexican/Jewish - have made strikingly different decisions about how to pursue academic excellence. One relies on a parent-driven focus on tutoring, advanced classes and testing drills, while the other allows . . . Read more

Apple and Education Publishing: The Disruptor

". . . we'd like you to come along for the ride. But if you choose not to, we won't hesitate to leave you behind . . ." -John Gruber, Daring Fireball, referring to his "guess" about Apple's strategy for the education textbook marketplace Read more

The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System

UPDATE January 19th: NEW VIDEO - Dan Rather in HDNET's this Tuesday's "Finnish First" - Watch video plus Bob Compton trailer to "The Finland Phenomenon" Read more

Great minds don't "do desk" alike. Surprise.

The series is called "Desktop Diaries" - with three videos that are such an indulgent insight into their working minds, as expressed by their organization - pack rat version, the streamlined version Read more

This is your child's brain on homework. Or, is it?

Homework: Too much, too little, or the wrong kind? Read more

The Best Book about Education for Everyone?

The Global Achievement Gap: Why even our best schools don't teach the survival skills our children need - and what we can do about it Read more

Something's Gotta Give

What stays, what goes, and what we're missing in education Read more

Learning how to teach better through "Lesson Study"

What we can learn from Japan Read more

Understanding Dyslexia: Watch Documentary Video Trailer

"By conservative estimates, one in five people are dyslexic.' James Redford, director, of "D for Dyslexia" premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this month. Read more

Technology: Enabling a "Golden Age" for Introverts?

"Rather than riding the texture of a live conversation to figure out how to give and receive information, people are now used to simply pushing their thoughts out into the world, to be responded to at some undetermined future point." Read more

Visions of Mathematics: What Content Should We Teach?

Ben Daley of High Tech High Outlines a Revolutionary Approach to Math Read more

Is Science "Just So Darn Hard?" Or, do we make it so?

Why so many college students are dropping STEM & what to do about it Read more

Don't be a bully. LOSER.

New Video Release Read more

"An Amazing Time For Math In This Country"

High School Math Teacher Dan Meyer, gig At Google, riffs about Math - photo NOT Meyer(!) TED talk Read more

How the Flipped Classroom Is Radically Transforming Learning

. . .AND how it changes the way teachers talk with parents - - - Read more

How U.S. Education is Failing our Kids: Eric Ries

. . . how our educational system teaches students that incremental effort always brings incremental benefits. Not so . . ." Read more

A Holiday Dinner Conversation: Why didn't I learn this in school?

Now, here were college grads looking for jobs, and not recognizing that showing curiosity and asking engaging questions could show MORE about WHO they were than reciting some resume paragraph to interviewers in a random interview. -C.J. Westerberg Read more

Legendary Quincy Jones riffs about technology, music, math, creativity, and . . . parenting

" . . .We'd go to executive conferences with Bill Gates and he'd say, 'Alan will you please take over?' . . . " - Quincy Jones Read more