“Round-Up” Of Recent Good Articles On School Reform
Here are some recent good articles and posts on educational policy issues: Flunking the Test is from The American Journalism review and is a commentary of mainstream media coverage of school issues. A Model Lesson: Finland Shows Us What Equal … Continue reading →
The Best Photos & Videos Of The Space Shuttles’ Final Flights
The Space Shuttles are being shipped to museums for display, and they’re arriving in spectacular fashion. I thought I’d bring together links to some great photos and videos. You might also be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About … Continue reading →
The Stories We Think We See Are Not Always The Real Ones
In 1944 two psychologists showed this video to 34 college students who were told to “write down what happened in the picture”: Of the 34, only one described it as showing geometric objects. The others told a story using humans … Continue reading →
TED Radio Hour Debut Today
Boy, TED is everywhere… I previously posted about their upcoming weekly radio show on NPR, and the first one aired today. Their show has its own feature page on NPR, which makes it easy to find. It’s nicely designed in … Continue reading →
The Best Displays Of Just-Released New York City Historical Photos
The New York City Department of Records has just announced online access to 870,000 historical images of the city. They’re great to show in class, though, in email correspondence I’ve had with them, any educational use of them in student … Continue reading →
The Value Of Student “Ownership”
Source: pinaquote.com via Larry on Pinterest Most teachers understand the value of students feeling “ownership” of their learning, and I’ve written a lot about how inductive learning, student autonomy and choice contribute to that happening. Of course, many others have … Continue reading →
PostRank, R.I.P.
When Google bought PostRank last year (see Bye Bye, PostRank? I Hope Not…) many of us feared they would be closing it down, and that concern is now real. PostRank just announced they were closing down on May 1st. No … Continue reading →
Arbor Day Resources
Today’s Arbor Day in the United States. You might be interested in The Best Sites To Learn About Trees.
The Best Resources For Learning About The Great Depression
As I did a couple of days ago with my “The Best…” list on World War I resources, I’m taking the lazy way out here and just copying and pasting my post on the Depression over at our United States … Continue reading →
Easily Make Your Own Unique (& Fake) CNN, NY Times, Etc. Website With “News Jack”
With News Jack, all you have to do is paste the url address of any website and you’re immediately given the tools to easily transform its homepage into looking however you want it to look. Without having to register, you … Continue reading →
April’s Best Tweets — Part Two
Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. Now and then, in order to make it … Continue reading →
Neat Timelapse Video Of Yosemite
Check out this neat timelapse video of Yosemite: I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Yosemite & Other U.S. National Parks.
The Best Resources For Learning About “Flow”
I’ve recently been spending some time thinking about what I can do to help my students enter into a “state of flow” — completely absorbed in a learning task. The idea of “flow” has been developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. … Continue reading →
Happy World Penguin Day!
Maybe he/she is celebrating World Penguin Day today? Learn more at The Best Sites For Learning About Penguins.
“Language Demands to Grow for ELLs Under New Standards”
Language Demands to Grow for ELLs Under New Standards is the headline of a lengthy article in Education Week by Lesli A. Maxwell. It’s part of a much larger special feature on Common Core and all the content areas. I’m … Continue reading →
“Additional Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively — Part Two”
I just posted Additional Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively — Part Two over at Education Week Teacher. It’s the second post in a three part series I’m doing on Social Studies. This post includes guest responses from … Continue reading →
Big News If You Work With Students Who Speak A Language NOT Supported By Google Translate — Especially Hmong
The quality of online translation systems is obviously dicey, but they can be very useful to teachers, students and parents. As I’ve previously posted, Google Translate (the most popular tool) has been found best for longer pieces, while Microsoft and … Continue reading →
More On New TED-ED Site
Here are some additional resources related to my earlier post, TED Talks Unveils New Interactive Education Website Tonight: The Atlantic has a good article on the new site. Chris Anderson from TED has written more about it here, as has … Continue reading →
TED Talks Unveils New Interactive Education Website Tonight
TED has just unveiled a new education website tonight, TED Ed, different from the YouTube channel with the same name that they launched last month (actually, the domain name of today’s new site is ed.ted). This new site, using the … Continue reading →
Smithsonian Magazine’s Most Popular Videos Of All Time
I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites (and books) that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites, … Continue reading →
“Parent to schools chief: ‘You don’t understand schools’”
Parent to schools chief: ‘You don’t understand schools’ is an excellent post about the recently announce bizarre restructuring of Philadelphia schools. In the post, parent leader Helen Gym makes some great points. Here’s an excerpt: You’re not speaking to me with this brand of disaster capitalism that tries to shock a besieged public with unproven, [...]
Parent Involvement Advocate To Meet Obama At White House Today
Myrdin Thompson, who has written some posts elsewhere that I’ve highlighted here on this blog, will be recognized at The White House today for her work in promoting parent involvement. She’s quoted as saying: “I would say to the President, help me in my work so that more families are involved in their child’s educational [...]
“Parental Involvement More Complex Than We Think?”
Parental Involvement More Complex Than We Think? is another good post from my Teacher Leaders Network colleague Renee Moore. I’d encourage you to make a point of reading it and checking out her entire blog.
What Are The Roles Of Parents, Teachers & Adminstrators In Parent Engagement Versus Parent Involvement?
Follow-Up: Parent Engagement vs. Parent Involvement is a new short post I’ve written at Education Week. It briefly explores the roles of parents, teachers and administrators in parent engagement versus parent involvement.
This Week’s Parent Teacher Chat On Twitter
Guest Post by Joe Mazza What is this “flipped classroom” people are talking about? What are the implications for parents, teachers and students? #PTchat, Wed., 4/25 9PM EST/6PM PST The “flipped classroom” is defined by Knewton in this cool infographic, as “inverted teaching methods, delivering instruction online outside of class and moving “homework” into the classroom.” For [...]
“Finding an End to the Parent-Teacher Wars”
Finding an End to the Parent-Teacher Wars is a nice piece by Jessica Lahey that appeared in The New York Times. She offers some good advice. Unfortunately, though, she cites Ron Clark as her sort of inspiration for the post. Ron Clark might be a very good teacher, but I certainly wouldn’t listen to any [...]
“Let’s Take the Sting Out of Education Cuts”
Let’s Take the Sting Out of Education Cuts is a video published by Educate Our State, a California parents group. I’ve previously posted about them.
“A Parent’s Guide to Twitter and Education”
Joe Mazza, who organizes the weekly #PTchat on Twitter, has just posted a useful piece at Edutopia titled A Parent’s Guide to Twitter and Education. It’s worth a look….