Group items tagged

Gil Sperling ’77, senior advisor for policy and programs at the U.S. Department of Energy, noted the urgency of creating a curriculum steeped in sustainability theory and practice. “We need to create incentives for teachers to take risks,” he said. “We’re at a tipping point [with climate change]. We do not have the luxury of open-ended debate. I've had 30 years [to work on this issue.] The kids graduating today don’t have that luxury.”

“Green as a simple concept has a short life, and society is evolving to see sustainability as a complex set of relationships,” said Thom Wallace ’99, communications director for the National Congress of American Indians. “Dickinson is really at the forefront of charting and understanding the complexities of sustainability.”

Rick Shangraw ’81, vice president for research and economic affairs at Arizona State University, noted that Dickinson is in an ideal position to shape national discourse. “We should spend time discussing the meaning of sustainability,” he said. “We can be a leader in defining it.”

we've come to associate standardizing with raising standards

It's not there to identify what individuals can do. It's there to look at things to which they conform.

contributed to a lowering of morale

“Do use our network to connect to other students and adults who share your passions with whom you can learn.” “Do use our network to help your teachers find experts and other teachers from around the world.” “Do use our network to publish your best work in text and multimedia for a global audience.” “Do use our network to explore your own creativity and passions, to ask questions and seek answers from other teachers online.” “Do use our network to download resources that you can use to remix and republish your own learning online.” “Do use our network to collaborate with others to change the world in meaningful, positive ways.”

Do some students watch the Kanye West dissing Taylor Swift video on YouTube when they should be doing their work? Of course they do. But this experience has shown me that THIS IS THE WAY students should be learning…

Brain simulates actions in stories as a person reads: study

What scientists discovered was that parts of the brain associated with certain activities described in the story would light up as the person read those sections.

This study suggests that readers do mental simulation when they comprehend a story,"

GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).

Only one or two students out of every 100 displayed the level of science mastery that the department defines as advanced

a smaller proportion of American 12th graders demonstrated proficiency in science than in any other subject that the federal government has tested since 2005 — except history

Twenty-one percent of the nation’s 12th graders scored at or above the proficient level in science on the 2009 tests, compared with 42 percent who demonstrated proficiency on the most recent economics exam, and 38 percent and 26 percent, respectively, on the most recent nationwide reading and math tests.

Here are my choices for The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks”:

Aren't we all emergent readers when we encounter new texts and mediums that push the boundaries of genre, form, format, and mode;on and offline? 

I have written about why I think blogging and commenting about blogs are an essential part of learning today in Kaia and Room 10 - Why Blogging and Commenting on Blogs Are So Important.