Five Hallmarks of Good Homework by Cathy Vatterott
Homework shouldn't be about rote learning. The best kind deepens student understanding and builds essential skills.
6 wild ideas for ideal schools
Education columnist Jay Mathews shares six examples from his readers of schools that work. Among them is an example submitted by ASCD's Katie Test of a public high school that focuses on students' academic and emotional needs. Students at Quest Early College High School in Houston have wellness plans, speak regularly with educators, begin taking college-level courses in their first year and complete community-service projects. Mathews notes that the six schools highlighted by readers focus on close teacher-student contact, collaboration and projects.
Early Achievers Losing Ground
A US study shows that many top students are losing ground as they transition from elementary to middle school and middle to high school. Researchers with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute said the findings raise questions about whether federal education policies aimed at helping low-performing students are harming those who are high achievers. "We've been making good progress for kids at the bottom and for poor and minority kids -- that's important," said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president. "It just can't be the only thing that we do."
Other Reading
Twenty of My Biggest Teaching Blunders by Todd Finley
We teachers make 0.7 instructional decisions per minute, according to research summaries by Hilda Borko and Richard Shavelson. We make them in contexts that shift from hour to hour in overstuffed portables with finicky projectors, after grading, without enough time to collaborate, without enough information and with too much. We look confident when we’re not, look enthusiastic during second period when demoralized by first. We speed up for the majority when a few need us to slow down. We make decisions about what’s important on festive days and during dark ones, such as 9/11, when raw grief and disorientation filled America’s classrooms like hurricanes of ash...
This is your brain on YouTube
Neuroscientists found a way to peek inside people's brains with MRI scanners and create images of what they see. Researchers showed subjects a succession of YouTube clips, and were able to create watchable, recognizable versions of the clips based only on data gleaned from the scans. "We are opening a window into the movies in our minds," said study leader Jack Gallant
The Alot is Better Than You at Everything
This is a funny, interesting blog post by a true stickler for the English language. Fellow sticklers will enjoy
"Any subject can be made interesting, and therefore any subject can be made boring." --Hilaire Belloc, French-born British writer and historian
