Monday, April 12, 2010

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Student rides political lessons to school board


Chris Barclay, left, vice president of the Montgomery County school board, chats with student member Tim Hwang at a budget meeting. (Susan Biddle For The Washington Post)














Even Megan Fox knows Calif. has an education crisis

You know that the crisis in California’s public education system is really severe when even the actress Megan Fox -- not exactly identified with intellectual pursuits -- knows there is a really big problem.
She and her boyfriend, Brian Austin Green, star in a short video for thewww.saynotocuts.com website, which tells the tale of massive budget cuts in California that have left many schools without nurses, janitors, librarians and counselors. Sports programs are now considered a luxury, and teachers are being laid off across the state in droves.
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Should high schoolers read aloud in class?

Recently I visited a history class at a local, low-performing high school where students read in turn from the autobiography of a famous American. The teacher was bright and quick. He interrupted often with comments and questions. The 18 sophomores and juniors seemed to be into it, but it was such an old-fashioned--and I suspect to some educators elementary--approach for that I decided to see what other educators thought of it.
I love spending time in classrooms, listening and watching. Often I see something new and surprising, or sometimes old and surprising like one young English teacher diagramming sentences. Was round robin reading (what educators usually call the read aloud technique I witnessed) bad or good? Was it a time-wasting throwback or a useful way to involve every student?
Yes and yes, teachers told me. That is the problem judging the way teachers teach. It all depends on the circumstances, the students, the object of the lesson, the style of the instructor and the judge. Read these and tell me who is right:
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Ed Buzz: The Nation