Archive for nationalliteracymonth SmartBlogs
“In the 20th century, the issue around the world was democracy, with Dr. King marching in the southern states, Nelson Mandela marching in South Africa, and Gandhi before them marching for justice in India. The issue was democracy, and without the vote you were a slave. Today, in the 21st century, the issue is global economics, and without an understanding of the language of money (financial literacy), and a bank account, you are still a slave.[…] Continue Reading »
It can be a challenge shifting through all of the educational technology tools available to educators and students today. What’s more, educators sometimes feel like they must compete with students’ tech devices for attention in the classroom.
“While many argue that we have to create a quiet and distraction-free work environment, we also must acknowledge that our students are trained to check-in to their devices on very regular intervals,” says Sam Patterson, dean of student advising and outreach at Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto, Calif.[…] Continue Reading »
Through a very unpredictable series of events, I will be living in Toledo, Ohio, for the next 10 months. As I consider myself the consummate “Philly Girl,” I anticipated a relatively rough transition. However, the strength of my digital network has completely astonished and surprised me. In short, I realized that my colleagues can support me regardless of my postal address.[…] Continue Reading »
In a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article titled “The Real Reason America’s Schools Stink,” author Charles Kenny highlights an interesting fact: “In the U.S., kids from homes where there are more than two full bookcases score two and a half grade levels higher than kids from homes with very few books.”
And while Kenny’s assertion — based on statistics generated by Stanford University economist Eric Hanushek and his University of Munich research partner Ludgar Woessman — is specifically referencing the bookcases of parents, my bet is that students with large personal libraries are also doing pretty darn well in school.[…] Continue Reading »
In my previous column, “Are textbooks an obstacle to learning?” I urged teachers to assume a more significant role in determining the “big ideas” of their classrooms. Rather than abdicating such significant decisions to bureaucrats and publishers, the experts — we educators — ought to be the arbiters of a curriculum’s content. To that end, and also to answer the questions I asked previously, I hope to suggest some basic premises on which we can build a new set of curricula that better reflects the purpose of American public education.[…] Continue Reading »
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