Teacher Spotlight: Jessica Templeton
*This post is in partnership with University of Phoenix* Jessica Templeton grew up in Denver, Colorado and has returned to her roots as a third grade teacher at Gust Elementary School. She's been teaching third grade for 12 years and believes all students are able to succeed. *GOOD*:* How do you see the classroom atmosphere changing in the next five to ten years? How can teachers adapt to these changes?* *JESSICA TEMPLETON*: With information becoming more and more easily accessible, it seems that the classroom is becoming less about accessing information and more about applying i... more »
Teacher Spotlight: Jane Franko-York
*This post is in partnership with University of Phoenix* Jane Franko-York hails from Granite City, Illinois where she has been teaching for 29 years. She’s taught everything from HeadStart programs to the fifth grade, which she is currently teaching at Wilson Elementary School. *GOOD: **How do you see the classroom atmosphere changing in the next five to ten years? How can teachers adapt to these changes?* *JANE FRANKO-YORK*: In the next five to ten years, I see the classroom atmosphere changing both economically and technologically. Technologically, the teachers will have to ma... more »
Teacher Spotlight: Trisha Riche
*This post is in partnership with University of Phoenix* Trisha Riche has been a teacher for 8 years. She is an inclusion kindergarten teacher at R.L. Brown Elementary located in Jacksonville, Florida. She loves to think outside the box and encourages her kids to be who they are. *GOOD*: How do you see the classroom atmosphere changing in the next five to ten years? How can teachers adapt to these changes? *RICHE*: I hope it’s very very very far away from teaching to the test. I’d like to see more fun, hands-on activities. I’m an “inclusion kindergarten teacher” – I have specia... more »
Teacher Spotlight: Chris Hoeh
*This post is in partnership with University of Phoenix* Chris Hoeh is a teacher with more than 25 years of experience as an educator. He has been teaching second grade at the Cambridge Friends School in Massachusetts for the past 15 years. He is known for his year-long curriculum that follows the creation of cotton clothing from seed to garment. *GOOD: **How do you see the classroom atmosphere changing in the next five to ten years? How can teachers adapt to these changes?* *CHRIS HOEH*: It’s looking somewhat dystopic to me now. This past year in Wisconsin, we saw the attempts... more »
Teacher Spotlight: Terry Dougherty
*This post is in partnership with University of Phoenix* Winner of the 2011 Great American Teach-Off, Terry Dougherty of Galloway Township, New Jersey, teaches the third grade at Roland Rogers Elementary School. She started the program “Free Military Child Tutoring – They are Heroes Too!” in order to help children of military families better transition to their new schools. *GOOD*: *How do you see the classroom atmosphere changing in the next five to ten years? How can teachers adapt to these changes?* *TERRY DOUGHERTY*: Today's digital and information age has created a demand ... more »
The Tricky Calculus of Setting a Price for MIT's Online Courses
[image: MIT] Late last year, MIT announced the launch of MITx, a nonprofit online platform that will allow anyone in the world to take the school’s courses for free. Although the university emphasized that MITx isn’t a substitute for a traditional MIT degree, it said that students who completed the classes and demonstrated mastery of the content would be able to receive an official certificate—for a fee. Registration opened this week for the initiative’s first course, Circuits and Electronics, which is modeled on the traditional introductory class of the same name from MIT’s elect... more »
The Tricky Calculus of Setting a Price for MIT's Online Courses
[image: MITx] Late last year, MIT announced the launch of MITx, a nonprofit online platform that will allow anyone in the world to take the school’s courses for free. Although the university emphasized that MITx isn’t a substitute for a traditional MIT degree, it said that students who completed the classes and demonstrated mastery of the content would be able to receive an official certificate—for a fee. Registration opened this week for the initiative’s first course, Circuits and Electronics, which is modeled on the traditional introductory class of the same name from MIT’s elec... more »
What Does Teaching Creativity Look Like?
[image: lightbulb] Do you see yourself as a creative person? Our current standardized approachto teaching and learning tends to slot students students into silos—art-school types on one side and analytical thinkers on the fast track to law school on the other—so our society has a pretty limited understanding of what being creative actually means and what it looks like across disciplines. Creativity expert Michael Michalko, author of *Creative Thinkering: Putting Your Imagination to Work* has developed a list of 12 things most people aren't taught in school—but should be—about creati... more »
Final Week: Nominate a Teacher for the Great American Teach-Off
It's the last chance for you to help us find the next Great American Teach-Off winner! GOOD and University of Phoenix are proud to announce the launch of The Great American Teach-Off for teachers in grades 7 through 12. (Click here to see which elementary school teacher won last time). This contest is a nationwide competition to celebrate teachers who are making a positive impact in America's classrooms. Here's how it works: Click here to nominate an outstanding teacher for seventh through twelfth grade—it can be one you've had, your child's, or even yourself—by February 20.... more »
Most Students Who Should Be Taking AP Exams Aren't
[image: AP] The number of students taking Advanced Placement exams is up, but according to the latest report from the College Board, a significant numbers of students that should be taking AP tests aren’t. They analyzed the performance of 771,000 PSAT-takers from the class of 2011 and discovered that 478,000 students—over 60 percent—did not take an AP exam even though their test scores indicated they could do well on one. In particular, the College Board found that high scoring students from black, Latino, and Native American backgrounds are "much less likely than their white and ... more »
It's Time for Some Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education
[image: innovation] Technological innovations are placing information right at our fingertips for free when it used to only be available if you went to college; it's clear that we're on the cusp of a higher education revolution. But how do we figure out what new approaches are best for 21st century learners? At "Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education," a TEDxAshokaU event happening this weekend in Tempe, Ariz., more than 500 educators and innovators are coming together to share their big ideas. The event kicks off this evening with TED talks from several innovators like Dale St... more »
Harvard Looks Beyond Lectures to Keep Students Engaged
[image: harvard.gate] With some Harvard students saying they'd rather check Facebook in classthan listen to another dry lecture, the university's faculty have been clamoring for better ways to engage students. Unfortunately, professors with serious academic expertise sometimes don't know the best teaching methods. And, given the pressure to publish or perish, many are forced to emphasize their research over instruction. However, with the launch of the Harvard Initiative on Learning and Teaching(HILT), the nation's oldest university is proving that it's committed to catalyzing some ... more »
A Nonprofit Publisher Puts Another Nail in the $200 Textbook Coffin
[image: textbooks] In his latest State of the Union address, President Obama asked America's colleges and universities to get serious about making higher education more affordable. There are many ways to cut costs at colleges, one of which is lowering tuition fees. But part of easing the financial burden on students is reducing the amount of money they have to shell out every semester for textbooks. OpenStax College, a new nonprofit recently launched at Rice University, hopes to do just that. According to Inside Higher Education, OpenStax plans to compete with pricey $200 hardback... more »
A Design Team Rebrands the Teaching Profession
[image: teacher.rebranding] Could ditching the ubiquitous apples, one-room schoolhouses, and other uninspiring iconography associated with the teaching profession help reframe the way we think about educators? That's the goal of Teach, a rebranding effort by New York City-based design firm Hyperakt to create "a new visual vocabulary" that more accurately reflects the sophisticated work 21st century educators do. Hyperakt took on the redesign project after WNYC's Studio 360—which regularly asks firms to "rethink various cherished symbols"—received a request from Massachusetts tea... more »
Obama Turns the Spotlight on STEM Teacher Training at White House Science Fair
[image: science.fair] In 2009 President Obama pledged to give students who excel in science, technology, engineering, and math the same champion’s welcome that winning athletic teams receive from the White House. As host of Tuesday's second-ever White House Science Fair, Obama proved he’s following through on that commitment, applauding the accomplishments of over 100 science students from 45 states. The student projects that made it to the White House are pretty amazing. Angela Zhang, a 17-year-old from California, used "nanotechnology to eradicate cancer stem cells." An impress... more »
Project: Teach Us a Lesson
[image: GOODBikeproj] There’s something I’m really embarrassed about. Few would ever suspect that an organic-eating, sunshine-loving, walk-to-the-grocery-store girl like me wouldn't know how to ride a bike, but there it is. Blame it on my parents, blame it on me, but one way or another I managed to get to 26 without ever gliding down a sidewalk on two wheels. Don’t feel too badly. I have learned a few things in my time. I can pull out Virgil and read the original Latin. I can hula-hoop from all appendages. And, if I may say so, I can bake a mean cake. Last month, I was asked to b... more »
Want to Raise Young Leaders? Don't Hand Out Rewards So Easily
[image: happy.face] In my first year teaching I gave my students so much candy as reward for behaving that my class had a cavity epidemic. I was afraid that if I didn't bribe my students with candy they wouldn't participate. And I wasn't alone. Lots of teachers hand out small rewards, from candy to stickers, as a way of encouraging good work. But according to research from Allen Gottfried, a professor of psychology at Cal State Fullerton, receiving all those external rewards might actually stunt the development of a student's leadership abilities. In order to figure out what fact... more »
GOOD Video: Can Technology Help Students Become Compassionate Doctors?
*This post is in partnership with University of Phoenix* Renowned as one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world, the UCSF School of Medicine employs technology to help students and faculty learn more effectively. At the school's Kanbar Simulation Center, students record practice consultations and review the videos to improve each step of their patient interactions. Students also use iPads in labs, which makes training videos and resource material easily accessible at the point of practice. For Catherine Lucey, Vice Dean of Education at the School of Medicine, int... more »
Only Four Percent of College Students Are Black Males
[image: black.male] Less than half of black males graduate from high school, and they represent only 4 percent of college students—dire statistics that are nothing new to those familiar with America's black male achievement crisis. But what enables some black males to overcome significant obstacles and go on to attend—and graduate from—college? The inaugural National Black Male College Achievement Study, the largest ever qualitative research study of its kind, seeks to shed some light on what's working for those black men who become high achievers in order to replicate their succ... more »
@GOOD Asks: What's the Difference Between a Good Teacher and a Great Teacher? The Community Responds
Yesterday on Twitter and Facebook, we asked our friends: What's the difference between a good teacher and a great teacher? GOOD and University of Phoenix are proud to announce the launch of The Great American Teach-Off for teachers in grades 7 through 12. Last time, we found amazing teachers who taught in grades kindergarten through sixth grade, so now it's the chance for middle school and high school teachers to get involved! (Click here to see which elementary school teacher won). We pose a question to our Twitter and Facebook faithfuls once a day, so if you’re not yet a @GOOD ... more »
