A new report shows aggressive efforts to lower the high school dropout rate between 2001 and 2009, only made a 3.5 percentage increase. The organization America’s Promise Alliance has a goal to raise the high school graduation rate to 90% by 2020. In 2009, 75% of students graduated high school, which translates to one in four, according to the CBS story “Report: US Makes Modest Gains in Graduation Rate.”
Can you remember what it felt like learning new concepts in your college lecture classes? How many new concepts did you master in the duration of a one-hour lecture? How much did you remember about those concepts a week later? A year later? A decade later?
Cognitive researchers began making breakthroughs in understanding how the human brain processes and retains information in the 1970s and 80s, according to the article “Don’t Lecture Me: Rethinking How College Students Learn.” When studying how much students learned in a lecture, they found people had very limited short-term memory that didn’t allow them to process all the information presented in a typical lecture. However, it’s 2012 and many college students are still attending lecture-based classes that require them to memorize facts, not understand concepts.
As a leader during the modern American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. accomplished more toward racial equality in his 13 years of leadership than had happened over the previous 350 years, according to The Martin Luther King Jr. Center. His nonviolent movement was inspired in part by his Christian faith and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. While others saw violence as a way to be heard, King used peaceful protests to bring attention to poverty, international conflicts, and equality. There is a wealth of information on King’s amazing social accomplishments on the website www.thekingcenter.org.
If you or someone you know is in debt, has a foreclosed home, or is struggling to pay the bills due to unemployment, you may have wondered how life would be different had lessons in financial literacy been handed out instead of endless lines of credit.
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Emotionally intelligent people are aware of what they do and who they are. Many issues young people have can be alleviated with the knowledge of the people around them and the feelings of others. This awareness makes for successful students, professionals, and members of society and it can thwart or redirect bullying or other inappropriate behaviors. In the recent article “10 Ways to Enhance Your Emotional Intelligence,” Dr. Norman Rosenthal explains there are two schools of thought surrounding emotional intelligence: your EI is an inborn characteristic or you can improve your EI with guidance and practice. Dr. Rosenthal is a believer of the latter, and offered the following tips to “enhance your emotional intelligence” in his article:
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Walter Dean Myers, the author of the best-selling young adult novel Monster and hundreds of other titles, is being sworn in today as the 3rd US ambassador for young people’s literature. In an interview this morning on NPR’s Morning Edition, Myers said the theme of his 2-year ambassadorship will be “Reading Is Not Optional,” in an effort to get more youth interested in reading and prepared to have a career in the changing world-of-work, especially those from urban and oppressed areas such as Harlem where he was raised.
In the first week of 2012, there have been a number of articles dedicated to predictions on how technology will continue to influence education this year. Much of the discussion surrounds what digital tools will be used in classrooms or for independent learning and the inevitability of a changing learning environment. Yesterday, Mind/Shift posted the article “The Power of Play in Learning” by Aran Levasseur, the Academic Technology Coordinator at San Francisco University High School, where Levasseur explains the benefits of digital play for both students and adults.
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After indulging in all the goods of the holiday season, it might not be a surprise that on January 1 getting fit and losing weight will be the number one resolution, according to a survey by Goals Guy. Getting healthy is great, but how many people made that same resolution last year and the year before?
Giving, whether of time or money, has the power to be therapeutic and impact another life. This holiday season, instead of being worried about money, family, employment, or gifts, take a minute to stop and give back.
Every year we usually throw a holiday party at LifeBound. However, this year we decided to celebrate with a day of service instead. If you’re still looking for a way to make a difference, consider using our service day as inspiration for ideas on how you can take a breather from the hectic pace of the holidays and put a smile on someone’s face.
What can professional development mean for your school? Successful teachers, successful students, and a successful learning environment.
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