A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like

As the article below iterates, some schools nationwide are forming reading workshops which allow students the freedom to select their own books rather than the traditional approach of assigning a classic that the entire class reads together. Critics of this approach are concerned that children won’t be exposed to classic literature because they’ll gravitate toward books that are trendy or popular.

This debate begs the question: What is the goal of reading in school and for that matter what is the goal of educating our children? Educational reformer John Dewey said, “The most important attitude that can be formed is that of a desire to learn and go learning.” As most educators agree, a passion for learning isn’t something you have to inspire kids to have; most children are innately curious. Author Alfie Kohn writes, “Anyone who cares about this passion will want to be sure that all decisions about what and how children are taught, every school-related activity and policy is informed by the question: “How will this affect children’s interest in learning, and promote their desire to keep reading, and thinking and exploring?”

Several months into the experiment, the English teacher at Jonesboro Middle School in a south Atlanta suburb says, â€œI feel like almost every kid in my classroom is engaged in a novel that theyâ€™re actually interacting with. Whereas when I do â€˜To Kill a Mockingbird,â€ I know that I have some kids that just donâ€™t get into it.â€

Perhaps a middle-road approach could be implemented where children are allowed to choose books, and so is the teacher. It’s best to teach reading in a way that mixes free choices with great literature. We want to trust students enough to give them some leeway in making decisions at school, which might help promote a lifelong love of reading while also exposing them to some of the reading â€œgreatsâ€ from throughout time.

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ARTICLE:
A New Assignement: Pick Books You Like
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: August 29, 2009
The New York Times

JONESBORO, Ga. â€” For years Lorrie McNeill loved teaching â€œTo Kill a Mockingbird,â€ the Harper Lee classic that many Americans regard as a literary rite of passage.

But last fall, for the first time in 15 years, Ms. McNeill, 42, did not assign â€œMockingbirdâ€ â€” or any novel. Instead she turned over all the decisions about which books to read to the students in her seventh- and eighth-grade English classes at Jonesboro Middle School in this south Atlanta suburb.

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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What Do Electronic Textbooks Mean for the Educational Publishing Industry?

Todayâ€™s story about digital textbooks comes from the front page of the New York Times. According to the story, many educators and pundits predict the complete demise of traditional paper textbooks within the next decade.Â California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger calls traditional textbooks â€œantiquated, heavy (and) expensiveâ€ and hopes to implement electronic texts for many math and science classes in his state.Â Given the advent of online textbooks, the publishing industry needs to adapt and evolve â€“ whether e-textbooks constitute 10% or 100% of books used by students in the future.

But how can publishers react to such a fundamental shift in the business model?Â To compete, publishers need to be able to create electronic textbooks that address the issues that educators have with the print version: high cost, static learning tactics and inability to engage all types of learning styles.Â In addition, publishers must consider the practical aspects of teaching: will these e-texts free up instructor time or make it possible for colleges to hire fewer educators?Â If not, then the true goal of interactive online texts has not been reached.

Upon closer examination, perhaps the benefits presented by the e-text format make the challenges look less bleak.Â If publishers can become proficient at creating high quality, high interaction e-texts for students, their variable cost per unit sold will essentially drop to zero â€“ no more printing costs, no more ink, simply the creation of an e-delivery system or an inexpensive CD-ROM.Â Additionally, the advent of electronic texts will allow publishers to be much more nimble â€“ facts, statistics, activities and other content can be updated with a quick software fix or a simple adjustment to units sold going forward.

Â In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History

In California, high school interns try out digital “flexbooks” created by the CK-12 Foundation.

By TAMAR LEWIN

At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use computers provided by the school to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachersâ€™ science lectures.

Down the road, at Cienega High School, students who own laptops can register for â€œdigital sectionsâ€ of several English, history and science classes.

And throughout the district, a Beyond Textbooks initiative encourages teachers to create â€” and share â€” lessons that incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials they find by sifting through reliable Internet sites.

Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet, but many educators say that it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions â€” or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.

â€œKids are wired differently these days,â€ said Sheryl R. Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish school system in Lake Charles, La. â€œTheyâ€™re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And they think of knowledge as infinite.

â€œThey donâ€™t engage with textbooks that are finite, linear and rote,â€ Dr. Abshire continued. â€œTeachers need digital resources to find those documents, those blogs, those wikis that get them beyond the plain vanilla curriculum in the textbooks.â€

Teaching: The New Job of Choice for Career Switchers?

Today’s Washington Post article describes how many employees who have chosen or been forced to find new jobs are seeking employment as teachers.Â Â While some contend that these new teachers will be in over their head, they bring valuable job experience and subject matter expertise to the classroom.Â In fact, these newly-minted educators can have a profound impact on education – especially if they focus on the following:

Â Preparing students for the world of work:Â Educators that were recently employed by corporate America have a valuable perpective on what employers look for in new hires.Â These insights are valuable to students at every level of education, no matter what their career dreams are.Â The earlier we start preparing our students with solid networking skills, an entrepreneurial spirit and an understanding of how to succeed in the world of work, the better.
Bringing professional development to the classroom: Many companies promote valuable leadership frameworks, 360 degree feedback reviews and strengths-based assessments for their employees.Â Imagine the impact of teaching students to evaluate their actions based on the framework provided by Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge, or asking them to analyze a company based on the Good to Great model.Â Students would certainly benefit a great deal by receiving regular feedback from their teachers and classmates on their attitude, their commitment to excellence and their leadership behavior.
A sense of humility: Following the economic shake-up of the past year, many individuals impacted by layoffs, bankruptcies and other setbacks can communicate a valuable message to students.Â These new teachers can help students avoid a sense of entitlement, learn how to make themselves irreplaceable in their internships and extracurricular activities and encourage them to evaluate how to make their future employers stronger and more recession-proof.

Business Is Brisk for Teacher Training Alternatives

By Michael Alison Chandler

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 31, 2009

The high unemployment rate has provided an unexpected boon for the nation’s public schools: legions of career-switchers eager to become teachers.

Across the country, interest in teacher preparation programs geared toward job-changers is rising sharply. Applications to a national retraining program based in 20 cities rose 30 percent this year. Enrollment in a career-switcher program for teachers at Virginia’s community colleges increased by 20 percent. And a Prince George’s County resident teacher program increased enrollment by 40 percent.

In many places, there are more converts to teaching than there are jobs, except in hard-to-fill posts in science, math and special education classes. But the wave of applicants might ease teacher shortages expected to develop as 1.7 million baby boomers retire from the public schools during the next decade.

The newcomers come with a host of unknowns, including how much training they will need before they can handle a classroom full of rowdy or reluctant students and whether they are likely to stay in a profession that is struggling with low retention rates.

About one-third of new teachers graduate from 600 so-called alternative certification programs developed to bring people with no education background into classrooms. The programs vary widely, including two-year graduate degrees and online courses. President Obama (D) is proposing to devote more than $100 million in his 2010 budget to programs that recruit and train skilled mid-career professionals, particularly in poor schools and math and science classes.

Some alternative programs have proven to be “excellent recruitment engines,” said Sharon Robinson, president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. But training must continue to be retooled, she said, so new teachers are not put “in the deep end of the pool” right away. “It’s not fair to them and certainly not fair to the students they encounter,” she said.

Career-changers are considered desirable because they bring maturity and outside experiences into classrooms. They also help solve a perennial problem in public education, particularly in math and science: Too few teachers have a solid grasp of the subject they teach.

Schools of Conscience

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

In the article below, the topic of student conscience and civic engagement is explored in the context of courageous individuals who have quietly helped Holocaust survivors and others in need. The author raises the important perspective that what matters most in our learning is what KIND of students are reading the books and doing the math? The piece of educational emphasis about being a good person, making ethical choices, contributing to the world beyond your own needs is central to human development, but often left out in school. Arguably, these â€œhumanâ€ skills are the most important abilities for college, career and life fulfillment and success.

Several schools in Michigan have taken on a hunger initiative. Their students learned that 18,000 people die each day from hunger and 850 million people go to bed hungry each night. How do you think those statistics motivate apathetic students? Research shows that working with real problems facing the worldâ€”hunger, health, education, injusticesâ€”have the ability to motivate and call forth some of the most dispassionate students. We can all learn a lesson from the model of Michigan and begin to apply this â€œperspectiveâ€ to how we teach students to understand themselves and the world that they are preparing to enter.

In our new book, CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING FOR TEENAGERS, we explore the worldâ€™s greatest problems through each element of critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and conscious action. Write us for a copy and start now to empower your students through compassion and purposeful life choices.

ARTICLE
Educational Leadership
Charles Haynes

Education’s highest aim is to create moral and civic habits of the heart. At a time when the United States faces unprecedented challenges at home and abroad, public schools must do far more to prepare young people to be engaged, ethical advocates of “liberty and justice for all.” Yes, reading and math are important. But what matters most is what kinds of human beings are reading the books and doing the math.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/GC0N1

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A Changing Student Body: Report Shows Record Enrollment, More-Diverse Population

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

As the Washington Post article below indicates, the demographics in America are changing:

Â· 44% of the nationâ€™s students are minorities

Â· Performance among 17-year-olds has been stagnant since the seventies

Â· Achievement gaps between low income students and high income students continue to widen

Â· Our nation will see record enrollments between now and 2018, when there will be 53.9 million students

Â· In 2007, there were 1.5 million home-school students

Â· Private school attendance is down

Â· Numbers of students earning Bachelorâ€™s degrees has increased 30%.

What will we have to do in K-12 to prepare students in the lowest economic status for success?

What can turn around success for our nation’s 17 year olds?

How can we look differently at K-12 learning to set a world-class standard for performance?

ARTICLE:
By Maria Glod

Public school enrollment across the country is hitting a record this year with just less than 50 million students, and classrooms are becoming more diverse, largely because of growth in the Latino population, according to a new federal report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102229.html?sid=ST2009060100036

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46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Our nation is on the verge of a transformational new movement to define educational standards for all grade levels through high school. As the article below states, 46 states are now in agreement that we need to adopt national curriculum standards to help make our countryâ€™s workforce more globally competitive. These states are no longer content to watch ill-prepared students get by in school by passing tests that fail to meet national educational expectations. The outcoming national standards hope to balance the discrepancy between what students score on state versus national tests, and to narrow the widening achievement gap between the United States and the world.

LifeBound offers programs that can help smooth the transition for students all the way from elementary school through high school. Even more importantly, LifeBound works to supplement the traditional educational system with critical life skills and strengths-based materials. Along with the new educational standards due to be released in July, LifeBound will help prepare the next generation of students with the persistence, self-awareness and confidence needed to succeed in our global economy.

ARTICLE
By Maria Glod
Washington Post

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools.

To view entire article visit

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102339.html?wprss=rss_education

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Texting May Be Taking a Toll

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Yesterday and today, we worked with a school district, training teachers and administrators from elementary through high school.Â When we asked them what characterizes some of their challenges working with todayâ€™s students, they cited texting and cell phone use as a huge problem.Â The article below is right on with their concerns.Â

Too much texting at school, out of school and in class has caused major problems in focusing and being attentive, teachers say.Â Â Â If studentsÂ are continually distracted by responding to everyone who texts them ( American teenagers sent an average of over 2,000 text messages a month) then they arenâ€™t able to set and maintain boundaries which can allow them to concentrate and follow-through when they need to do that.

Parents and teachers need to work with students on critically analyzing the pros and cons of technologyâ€”especially texting which is the most prevalent Â means of communication among young people. Â Many teens say they would rather text than make a phone call or have an in-person conversation.Â Not only is too much texting an issue of attention, it can also be addicting for students, sucking them into texting all the time at the expense of their own mental and emotional health.Â Â Texting has also fostered an unabashed language of sexual innuendos and trash talk which hamper personal and interpersonal self-respect.

If we really want to help young teens develop their emotional intelligence, as parents and educators, we need to model more attentive interaction ourselves, engage in honest discussions about pros and cons of technology and the basics of how to manage oneself with increasingly complex choices.Â If we are honest about this problem, we can give students the tools to listen to themselves, be brave enough to turn off distractions when needed and say â€œnoâ€ at the right time.

ARTICLE:

New York Times

By KATIE HAFNER

They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.

Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company â€” almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier. Â

To view entire article visit

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html?emc=eta1

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Invoking the Sputnik Era, Obama Vows Record Outlays for Research

CAROL’S SUMMARY:Â Obama made a huge commitment to science funding from grade school through corporate American, as stated in the article below.Â Innovation, Â strides in science, health and industry will not only help solve some of the worldâ€™s leading problems, it will also help us to create jobs and industries which can sustain our economy and the global economy for years to come.Â Â Â Currently, at the high school level America is number 27 in science compared to other developed nations.Â This focus and funding will help to turn around waning scores in science and math as we prepare students for the suite of competitive skills they will need as adults.

ARTICLE

New York Times

By Andrew C. Revkin

In a speech on Monday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, President Obama presented a vision of a new era in research financing comparable to the Sputnik-period space race, in which intensified scientific inquiry, and development of the intellectual capacity to pursue it, are a top national priority.

To view the entire article visit

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/science/earth/28speech.html?_r=1&ref=education

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Large Urban-Suburban Gap Seen in Graduation Rates

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

A report by America’s Promise finds that one in four students in the U.S. drop out of high school, but some large cities are bucking the trend and improving their dropout rates. The report also found that some districts such as Philadelphia’s have graduated more students by focusing on ninth-grade achievement, creating smaller freshman classes and easing teens’ transition into high school. These schools show what is possible for all schools in the U.Sâ€”urban or ruralâ€”when clear programs are set forth and measured in the areas of academic, emotional and social intelligence, teachers are mission-driven to make this happen, and parents and community members participate with schools to buttress these efforts around smaller, focused communities of learning.

LifeBound offers books, trainings and services which can coalesce a school and schools within a district to set new standards for student learning, awareness, ambitions, achievement and readiness for the rigors of college and the world of work. Working with ninth graders is just the beginning and it is crucial, but the real opportunity is in better preparing students starting in elementary school and working with them in each of these areas as they progress to graduate from high school.

ARTICLE
New York Times
By SAM DILLON

It is no surprise that more students drop out of high school in big cities than elsewhere. Now, however, a nationwide study shows the magnitude of the gap: the average high school graduation rate in the nationâ€™s 50 largest cities was 53 percent, compared with 71 percent in the suburbs.

To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/education/22dropout.html

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Gossip Girls and Boys Get Lessons in Empathy

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Spoiled behavior among young adults has long been a problem, but schools are tackling those problems first-hand by developing programs and classes to teach students empathy. LifeBound publishes a book and a program called People Smarts for Teenagers, which focuses on teaching students what Daniel Goleman terms “emotional intelligence.” Goleman argues that your EQ is more important than your IQ in college, career and life. People Smartsâ€”and EQâ€”is all about how you understand and manage yourself, relate to and work with others, and handle life disappointments and setbacks. These qualities go into someoneâ€™s personal gristâ€”and those are some of the greatest indicators of life success.

ARTICLE:

By WINNIE HU
Published: April 4, 2009

SCARSDALE, N.Y. â€” The privileged teenagers at Scarsdale Middle School are learning to be nicer this year, whether they like it or not.
Readers’ Comments

English classes discuss whether Friar Laurence was empathetic to Romeo and Juliet. Research projects involve interviews with octogenarians and a survey of local wheelchair ramps to help students identify with the elderly and the disabled. A new club invites students to share snacks and board games after school with four autistic classmates who are in separate classes during the day.

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