Pages

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Education News: July 11, 2010

July 8 | Education consultant draws attention to an alternative to using students' standardized test scores to judge their schools' effectiveness: using students' writing and application-oriented projects, a system already being used successfully by 28 schools in New York City -- Washington Post

July 8 | MI opens its first teacher-led school: teachers run it (without a principal and without having to follow the usual bureaucratic steps required to purchase materials or repair equipment), and they accept only those students whose parents agree to be involved -- Detroit Free Press

July 7 | OH middle school teacher writes grant requesting a classroom set of iPads that could be updated and controlled using one central iMac computer, eliminating the need for textbooks and enabling students to use current technology in their daily learning -- Journal-News

July 7 | WA school contacts truant students and drop-outs via social networking sites, using MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter to reach out to them and encourage them to return to school -- T.H.E. Journal

July 7 | Writer identifies five "common-sense steps" taken by schools that have raised their students' standardized test scores and closed the gap in scores between subgroups of students -- Los Angeles Times

July 6 | VA school installs electronic whiteboards in every elementary classroom despite research showing minimal improvement in achievement for students taught using them; district asserts that it's necessary in order to create a school-wide culture of technology and insure that everyone has access to the same tools -- Virginian-Pilot

July 5 | Schools draw on sleep research in teens to justify later start times for their school days, and positive results include better moods, better attention, less depression, and improved attendance overall -- HealthDay

July 5 | Research shows that the more "screen time" a child has (watching TV, playing video games, or using the computer), the higher the likelihood of his/her developing attention problems in school and into adulthood -- Yahoo! News

July 4 | Experts share their (differing) opinions about how best to identify and serve gifted and talented students, a group sometimes under-served in schools striving to raise test scores of average and struggling students -- New York Times

July 3 | President of National Education Association calls for creation of Commission on Effective Teaching to put practicing teachers in charge of new teacher training, licensing, mentoring, evaluation, and professional development -- Education Week

July 3 | Schools in MO switch from grouping students by grade or age to grouping them by ability level, allowing gifted students to advance when ready rather than remain behind until the end of a term (and allowing students who need extra time or instruction to receive it without "failing") -- Google

July 2 | Blogger shares an idea for helping students--whose first urge, when researching, is to use whatever site a Google search yields--to use the search engine's timeline feature to refine a typical general search into something useful for research (and a blog commenter shares this resource) -- Edutopia

July 2 | TX math teacher wins award for voluntarily mentoring her colleagues, sharing with them the new teaching methods and learning strategies learned at workshops she had attended, including having her math students maintain journals to organize and retain their learning -- Taylor Daily Press

May/June 2009 | Edutopia flashes back to three popular resources from its Digital Generation-themed issue last year: "How to Build a Technology-Based Curriculum," "How to Teach with Technology: Science and Math," and a video interview of a professor of design and technology speaking about "the value of games and the empowerment of play" in the learning process.

No comments: