It’s estimated that it will take 100 years to close the achievement gap between white and minority children and those of different economic situations in Washington state. However, education reformers think they can speed up the process if they get serious about incorporating technology into the curriculum.
Lessons on the events of 9/11 are not included in social studies standards for more than half of American classrooms. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, students will be hearing many stories about the tragedy on the Internet, radio or television, around the dinner table, or possibly in conversations with friends. These students have spent most or all of their lives in an America where terrorism is a real threat, but how much do they know about it and have they ever been taught how to cope with it?
Schools have a lot of challenging decisions to make. Cut the PE program to save academics? Switch to merit-pay? Ditch the books and embrace technology? Budgets are limited for schools across the nation and many are aware of how their students’ test scores could be the key to unlocking the extra dollars that may hold students’ future, their teachers’ futures, their school’s future and the future economic health of the United States.
So why would anyone consider making changes that could adversely effect student scores and therefore funding? Because, like most risks,  it might also be the answer.
The summer after my junior year of college, I had an internship in Washington, D.C. I arrived Memorial Day weekend and was fortunate enough to have an older brother with whom I was able to live for the summer while he was between undergraduate school and law school. On Memorial Day, he took me to Arlington Cemetery where hundreds of people who served our country were buried. White headstones as far as the eye could see anchored each honored person to those like me who stood with awe and humility in the midst of their memories. I stood quietly in front of the Kennedy’s grave and watched the eternal flame remembering the courage his leadership provided to our country at a time of such unrest. The Tomb of Unknown Soldier made me realize how many people have been lost in battle, unidentified, unrecognizable or unknown because they were not part of families who could mourn for them.
It’s not uncommon for people to associate earning a college degree with increased wages and employment opportunities. According to the U.S. Census Report “The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings,” over the span of an adult’s working life, high school graduates can expect, on average, to earn $1.2 million; those with a bachelor’s degree, $2.1 million; and people with a master’s degree, $2.5 million.
But despite the numbers, this school of thought has been losing followers. The recent New York magazine article “The University Has No Clothes” addresses the Obama administration’s goal to increase the number of people attending college and what this is doing to increase debt, dropout rates, and grads who are underprepared for the workforce.
According to a study by Sallie Mae, 84 percent of students strongly agreed that higher education was an investment in their future. However, when asked if they would attend college for the experience, not for monetary gains, only 32 percent strongly agreed they would.
Students haven’t always thought of a college education as a ticket to success. The Huffington Post article “What’s Wrong With American Higher Education?” looks back at how enrollment rates have changed over the last 60 years. In 1950, 2.6 million people – less than two percent of the population — were enrolled in college. By 1990, the number of people enrolled rose to 13.2 million, which was more than five percent of the overall population. Then, between 1997 and 2007, the enrollment rose by 25 percent.
This spike in enrollment is an enormous change in the structure of the university, says professor Jane Robbins. Unintentional growth has lead to a system that is both rife with inefficiencies and extremely powerful.
Should students attend college with the motive to gain knowledge and experience? Or do students gain just as much when motivated by a dollar sign? Is there a fine line? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
References: What’s Wrong With American Higher Education? -Â http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/25/whats-wrong-with-american_n_853640.html#s246451&title=Focus_on_Elite
For many students, the last day of school is just around the corner and summer learning probably isn’t the first thing on their minds. Get tips on how you can make the long summer days fun and educational by joining recognized expert in student success and parent engagement, Maureen Breeze, for the live, interactive webinar, Promoting Summer Learning: Fostering Analytical, Practical, and Creative Intelligence.
Multitudes of research show that students experience learning losses when they are not engaged in educational learning during the summer months. According to Ron Fairchild, Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning:
Yet many students need a break from the rigor and structure of daily school. During this webinar, LifeBound presenter, Maureen Breeze, will discuss why summertime is great for fostering multiple types of intelligence and will discuss ways you can ignite your child’s curiosity while promoting analytical, practical and creative learning.
This webinar is recommended for parents, educators, counselors, and administrators who want to improve their effectiveness with students in 5-12 grade through a summer of learning. Click on the links below to register for a session.
| Morning Session | Evening Session |
| Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | Tuesday, May 10, 2011 |
| 11:00 am – 11:45 am Eastern | 9:00 pm – 9:45 pm Eastern |
| 10:00 am – 10:45 am Central | 8:00 pm – 8:45 pm Central |
| 9:00 am – 9:45 am Mountain | 7:00 pm – 7:45 pm Mountain |
| 8:00 am – 8:45 am Pacific | 6:00 pm – 6:45 pm Pacific |
Neurologist and teacher Judy Willis recently blogged on why and how video games can be among the best learning tools in the classroom. First, she explains the gamer is motivated by dopamine. Before video games, the brain was hardwired with a dopamine-reward system to act as a survival mechanism. So when humans made a  “successful prediction, choice or behavioral response” they were rewarded.
When dopamine is released at high amounts, it flows to other parts of the brain where people get a “powerful pleasure response.” That’s the science behind the feeling you get when you answer a question right, chose the right path, or advance another level in a game. This reward tells the brain to keep going so it can be further rewarded.
However, because the dopamine-reward system was a survival mechanism, there is no reward if there is no risk. Video games create the perfect scenario for students to not only tap into the dopamine-reward system, but for them to mark and recognize their progress. As they slowly advance through each level, they get markers that tell them they are succeeding in the form of points and other tokens. But the big pay off is when they advance to a new level. Once students know the satisfaction of their progress, Â they willingly work harder for another reward. This motivation is known as intrinsic reinforcement.
But what if the challenge is at a level that is too low or too difficult for students? If the brain perceives that it will have no problem succeeding, the brain won’t waste its energy charging up the dopamine-reward circuit. Same goes for a task that is too difficult. This is why for video games to be a successful tool in the classroom they must provide an individualized achievable challenge level. Willis writes:
“When learners have opportunities to participate in learning challenges at their individualized achievable challenge level, their brains invest more effort to the task and are more responsive to feedback. Students working toward clear, desirable goals within their range of perceived achievable challenge, reach levels of engagement much like the focus and perseverance we see when they play their video games.”
Have you tried using educational games in the classroom or at home? Tell us about your experience.
References: A neurologist makes the case for the video game model as a learning tool, by Judy Willis MD -Â http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-student-engagement-judy-willis
Ben Johnson, educational technology expert and blogger, recently wrote a blog on active learning and its effect on memory and engagement in the classroom. Johnson uses his observations of a class that was learning multiplication to illustrate how active learning looks. The teacher he was observing gave students a bag that held several paper dinosaur nests and egg-shaped candy. She then gave them a variety of scenarios to figure out, like:
“One stegosaurus laid three blue eggs and one white one in one nest, and three blue ones and one white one in another. How many eggs total did she lay? How many white eggs did she lay? How many blue ones.” Johnson claims that after a lesson of stegosauruses, triceratops, numbers, and nests the kids were not only having fun, they understood multiplication.
This increased level of learning occurs because when the body is involved it increases memory. Johnson gives the example that this is why you can type without looking at your fingers or drive without looking at your feet. The idea is that for the body to move, your brain usually has to tell it to do so. It works the other way, too. If you’re body is moving, then your brain is active. “Connect motions with concepts and the body becomes a literal extension of the brain,” says Johnson.
In a writing class for high school seniors, Johnson observed most of the students resentfully scribbling away to fulfill a descriptive writing prompt. Then the teacher told them they were going to be publishing a school newsletter and their attitudes shifted from unenthused to excited. Johnson uses Bloom’s Taxonomy to show the importance of using writing as an active lesson. Writing is classified as an active behavior because the brain tells the hands what to do, which is low on Bloom’s. However, if you’re writing with a purpose, the brain is working to decide what to write, why to write and determining if it is the best thing to write, which is high up on Bloom’s Taxonomy, says Johnson.
What are some ways you can break the monotony and incorporate active learning into your curriculum?
(References: Active Learning Means Using the Body, by Ben Johnson http://www.edutopia.org/blog/mind-body-learning-activities-ben-johnson?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_content=pdf&utm_campaign=activelearningmeansusingbody&utm_campaign%3Futm_source=facebook)
On April 19, recognized expert in student success and parent engagement, Maureen Breeze will present a live, interactive webinar entitled Promoting Summer Learning: Fostering Analytical, Practical, and Creative Intelligence.
Multitudes of research show that students experience learning losses when they are not engaged in educational learning during the summer months. According to Ron Fairchild, Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning:
Yet many students need a break from the rigor and structure of daily school. During this webinar, LifeBound presenter, Maureen Breeze, will discuss why summer time is great for fostering multiple types of intelligence and will discuss ways you can ignite your child’s curiosity while promoting analytical, practical and creative learning.
This webinar is recommended for parents, educators, counselors, and administrators who want to improve their effectiveness with students in 5-12 grade through a summer of learning. If you are unable to make the webinar on April 19, Maureen will be presenting the same webinar live on May 10. Click on the links below to register for a session.
| Morning Session | Evening Session |
| Tuesday, April 19, 2011 | Tuesday, April 19, 2011 |
| 11:00 am – 11:45 am Eastern | 9:00 pm – 9:45 pm Eastern |
| 10:00 am – 10:45 am Central | 8:00 pm – 8:45 pm Central |
| 9:00 am – 9:45 am Mountain | 7:00 pm – 7:45 pm Mountain |
| 8:00 am – 8:45 am Pacific | 6:00 pm – 6:45 pm Pacific |
Cameras from the Raptor Resource Project made it possible for over 10 million viewers to witness three Decorah Eagles hatch in a nest 80 feet in the air all from the comfort of their computer chair. The videostream continues as the mother and father eagle care for their young and the fragile newborns get precariously close to the edge of the 1.5 ton nest.
The parents of these newborn birds have been together since the winter of 2007. They hatched 2 eaglets in 2008, 3 in 2009, and 3 more in 2010. If you you’re interested in knowing which is the male and which is the female, it’s easiest to decipher when they are in the nest together. The female is larger than the male, has a ridge around her eyes that runs further down her nose, and her eyes have a greyish shadow surrounding them.
The first hatch of 2011 was on April 2, the second on April 3, and the third on April 6. Click on the dates to watch the abridged videos of the hatching eaglets.
The Raptor Resource Project is a non-profit that specializes in preserving falcons, eagles, ospreys, hawks, and owls. You can catch the live stream 24/7 on www.ustream/tv/decoraheagles and participate in their live chat from 8am – 8pm daily.
Are you teaching your students about spring, birds of prey, family, wildlife or just need something different to show the class? Check out these videos and join in the live chat to ask experts your questions.
For more information on The Raptor Resource Project, visit www.raptorresource.org