Really, Congress can’t regulate? Maybe not directly, but certainly indirectly they have! To backtrack: the Common Core State Standards are not federal standards. After all, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress no authority to fund or regulate schools or control curriculum, standards, or policy. But at its annual fall meeting in 2008, after previous informal discussions, …
Isn’t it sad that we can all identify with the chart paper PD? That’s right. This isn’t just your average “show up for a few hours and write on chart paper”-type training event. ”Apple Cores” as we call them, are put through an intense experience of collaboration, sharing, and even….*gasp*…failing. This is one that so …
Not a bad idea with election season coming up: The program to reward high-performing teachers with salary stipends is part of a long-term effort by President Obama to encourage education in high-demand areas that hold the key to future economic growth — and to close the achievement gap between American students and their international peers. But this …
In teaching my second set of students in the Social Media conference, I encountered two unique situations. The first was that another adult entered the classroom and told the students that they needed to put up their cell phones and pay attention. It took me a couple of seconds to respond, but then I looked …
Sometimes, I feel like the conversations about Twitter center around the impact that it can have on professional development too much. I certainly value it for that reason, but I don’t think that students will use it in the same way. Although I have heard that some teachers are exploring with Twitter in the classroom …
An interesting read on the evolution of education analyzing where we started: In terms of human evolution, formal education arrived quite late to the party. For millennia, young Homo sapiens essentially educated themselves: They observed, they imitated, they played, they tried, and they erred. The world around them was their classroom. And where we got …
Maybe Common Core isn’t targeting what students need at all. The modern workplace and lifestyle demand that students balance cognitive, personal and interpersonal abilities, but current education policy discussions have not defined those abilities well, according to a special report released this afternoon by the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science in Washington. You …
It is because I know, and have known since graduating from High School that the challenges faced by the education system are many. Everything from chronic funding shortages at many schools and Universities, to a fundamental disconnect between the way education is delivered and the 21st Century. Preparing your students for University/College has traditionally been …
What happens when teachers lose their inspiration? But it can’t be good news that a survey of teachers released in March by MetLife found the lowest job satisfaction numbers since 1989, with just 44 percent of respondents describing themselves as “very satisfied” with their classroom careers, down from 59 percent in 2009 and 62 percent …
Writing isn’t entering an unknown world. Even in futuristic societies and the unknown worlds of Ender’s Games and Hunger Games, there is a connection that readers can make to the experiences the characters are having and the way that they are relating to one another. Rosenblatt calls this a “living through” experience that enables readers …
