February 2012 Archives
When Was the Last Time You Shadowed Your Child-Tween-Teen in School for a Day?
"It is a grim experience." - Grant Wiggins responds to a John Merrow post about the Saving Our Schools Rally Read more
The 3 Myths about Competition: How it affects student motivation
"When 85% of school is built around competition . . " Read more
Learning Math: The Symbol Barrier
Street Math, School Math, and Video Games Read more
Ten To-Do's for Young People to Consider
#1 - Build a "Personal Board of Directors" Read more
Is Learning a Sport?
Students should not go to school to win - students should go to school to learn. Read more
Do students and teachers get feedback or measurement?
"And haven't we yet learned that any measure or reward only works as an incentive in the short term, if at all?" Feedback is self-generated. An individual or system notices whatever they determine is important for them. They ignore everything else. Read more
What is the "right" kind of parent?
"It is sad to me when I hear parents feeling bad that they aren't doing "x", or feeling bad or embarrassed that they are doing "y"or doing too much of "x", or reluctant to ask questions and convey their concerns." Read more
Harry Potter Dissed by Oscars. Video - Humor.
Videos: Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes : How It Should Have Ended Read more
Santorum on ABC's This Week w/George Stephanopoulos
Higher education as indoctrination machines for liberalism & what makes him want to "throw up" Read more
Passion-Based High School vs. High School Boredom: Choose
"We cannot afford to tweak around the edges" ----Dennis Littky, co-founder Big Picture Learning, New TedxNY Talk Read more
Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions
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
The Case for Distraction . . . or Ritalin?
"It is the attempted standardization of a human being and of a notion of achievement that is limiting, prescriptive and bullying." Read more
Is Math Art? Dream or Nightmare?
"A Mathematician's Lament"Every parent & educator should check out this book excerpt Read more
Jon Stewart & Arne Duncan: Two Different Conversations
Last night on The Daily Show, Sec'y of Education Arne Duncan joins Jon Stewart. Video. Read more
New Literacies? Why?
"Relevancy is not an option." Read more
TEENS -- A LOST GENERATION? NOT SO FAST.
Over 14 million views - "brilliant" video - under two minutes Read more
Are Teacher Education Programs Irrelevant?
"The most innovative teachers are drawing on experiences and skill sets they developed outside of education." Read more
"How to Turn Your Child Into a Bully"
How do you solve family conflicts? How are bullies born? The issue has been the subject of intense study . . . . in a much needed look at the possible origins of bullying behavior: the home. Read more
What Makes Kids Creative? A Box or a Spaceship?
Just tell me what to do. I want to be right. Read more
Say 'No' to the Greek Chorus
"The mess, the mess! . . . an engraved invitation to transformation. . . Certainty is dead. . ." Read more
BIG SHOES: The "de facto national model of the digital school"
the genuine heartfelt desire of young people to be in the company of adults who are doing adult work, and the way our institutions and adult lives are structured more and more to keep us at a distance. - Diane Meier, "In Schools We Trust" Read more
Have The Jetsons Arrived?
From "Connect A Million Minds" Initiative - 3 Minute Video. Read more
Michelle Obama beats Jimmy Fallon in White House Race
Video--- FLOTUS Michelle Obama takes on Fallon to promote her Let's Move initiative. Read more
Educational Testing: Where conservatives & liberals agree? Sigh.
"And if the point of education really is the production of abstractly and measurably skillful people who don't necessarily know anything in particular, it's a vision (maybe a chilling one) that, at least, should be articulated for parents - and voters - to decide on." Read more
"What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends?"
"Let me summarize my feelings toward Asian values: . . .F--- grade-grubbing. F--- Ivy League mania. F--- deference to authority. . . . F--- earnest, striving middle-class servility." Read more
The Dark Side of Our Achievement Culture
New "Race To Nowhere" Trailer Video Read more
"It's Disengagement, Stupid"
The 10 Essential Rules for Engagement Read more
Is This The Best High School in America?
WATCH: How These Six Minutes May Change Your Idea of Innovative Education (dramatically). Phillips Exeter, Harvard Westlake & Lawrenceville may be taking notes from this charter school leading the next wave. Does your High School look anything like it? Read more
Noam Chomsky: The Purpose of Education
"Education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own. . . " Read more
21st Century Skills: A "thorny problem" in the classroom
. . . .most high schools' science "experiments" are really "demonstrations," because they are "rigged" for the right answer, thereby disqualifying them as true experiments where outcomes are unknown. Read more
A "rising global army of freelancers." Are students equipped for this world?
The problem lies with the system that punishes artists and rewards bureaucrats instead. Read more
A Wild Conversation with Maurice Sendak
"There's something in this country that is so opposed to understandingthe complexity of children."-Maurice Sendak, author, Where the Wild Things AreStephen Colbert and Maurice Sendak sit down for a interview. Not for children. Humor. ... Read more
Three Young Women Wow Crowd at TEDx
" . . .making my own opportunities when I didn't even know what I was doing." Read more
What Color is My World? by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
African-American Inventors & Innovators: MSNBC Morning Joe video Read more
Student and Teacher Evaluations: Drowning in Data?
"The "articulated instruction module" or AIM program would require teachers to evaluate each student on 100 different skills. This means for a class with 30 students, the teacher would need to assign 3000 separate grades every quarter." Read more
"I can write a 20-page research paper and my roommate can't .."
It's an amazing skill. Also, they feel more comfortable talking. They report they are participating in class discussions and backing up what they say with evidence and that they feel very comfortable in their first year of college. It's amazing how often we hear from college profs and job recruiters how these skills - writing, communicating, researching and supporting an argument in-depth - are lacking, even from "A" students. A disconnect of assessment, one would think. Read moreMany of the Innovation Generation are deeply worried about the future of the planet, seek healthier lifestyles, and want to make a difference more than they want to make money. . . . . But they are swimming against the tides of tradition. A lot of parents still harbor hopes that their children will pursue prestigious careers and be economically better off than they are. . . . Too many teachers and employers still reward the 'old school' behaviors of deference to authority and striving for 'success,' conventionally defined - and count on carrots and sticks . . . . for motivation.Tony Wagner, Harvard-educated author, Educator, Collaborator, Creating Innovators, The Finland Phenomenon with Bob Compton, The Global Achievement Gap
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