The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

Japanese schooling: "whole child" education, not just academics

"Japanese Schooling Attempts To Develop Students' Creative Talents,
Not Just Academic Skills." Read more

TOP VIRAL VIDEO POKES "THE SYSTEM"

Funny and most illuminating. Sir Ken Robinson, one of education's rock stars, WILL transform your view of education. Read more

Singapore Math - The Most Visual Math?

Is It Better For Problem Solving? Are Drawing & Visualization As Important As Numbers? Teacher Bill Jackson Gives Us Answers. Plus Bonus Video. 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

Why Other Countries Do Better in Math

Should Parents "Race to the Tutor"? It's not what you think. Guest post. Read more

Bill & Melinda's Field Trips

What Parents Can Do to Promote Learning. We know that children who are exposed to more real-life outside- the-class-wall activities guided by parents and schools, usually having to do with level of income in their household, tend to do better in school and in life. Read more

Are STEM subjects "Just So Darn Hard?" Or, do we make them so?

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

The Chinese Curse. Is America Next?

"HIGH SCORES BUT LOW ABILITY"
Is America Leaving Behind What Asia Wants? : Controversial Book & Video 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

"No one tests you on empathy"

Lots of very smart people lack empathy. They're able to test their way through life and get A's. How about empathy, adaptability, initiative and responsibility? Read more

Ask a student, how does your teacher learn?

"They (educators) need to be able to model their own learning process for their students. Ask just about any student how much her teacher knows, and you'll get a quick answer. Ask a student how her teacher learns, and you'll likely get a confused look. This must change . . ." -Will Richardson Read more

Are you "That" Parent?

How many good questions aren't asked about schools and education because of the apprehension of being "that" parent? 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

Sleepy Teens in School: Does a later "start time" for the school day work better?

Liz Bowen, The Baltimore Sun, reports that a group of Arundel mothers deliver petition for national legislation. Caption showing high schoolers for the STEM magnet school catching a school bus at 6:15 A.M. Read more

"Gaming the System: Redshirting in Kindergarten"

"I wonder if we'll look back on the way children were raised in our particular time and place and say, 'What were we thinking?'" -Malcolm Gladwell Read more

Five-Minute Montessori

"Seeing the big picture allows students to take ownership of their learning - a critical element in fostering each child's natural learning desire." Read more