Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

The roll-out will begin this year (2009) with all public high school teachers having a laptop by 2012. The roll-out to teachers complements the laptop program for the state's 197,000 senior high school students. It means that students and teachers will use the same type of laptop, giving teachers compatibility in planning and delivering lessons electronically. The Department of Education and Training is currently assessing tender submissions for the supply of laptops in NSW public high schools. It expects to award a contract by the end of February 2009. As part of the $44 million package, primary schools will receive 20,000 more computers over four years. This will provide students and teachers with access to the most up-to-date technology in the early school years.

New analysis also shows the cultural profile of schools often at odds with that of the suburbs in which they're located. New research showing a pattern of 'cultural polarisation in schools across the board' has been released, bringing the 'white flight' phenomenon back into the spotlight. Analysis of My School 2.0 and census data by Chistina Ho of the University of Technology Sydney claims Anglo-Australians may have abandoned public schools in many areas.

teachers are being deskilled, unceremoniously removed from the process of school governance, largely reduced to technicians or subordinated to the authority of security guards. Underlying these transformations are a number of forces eager to privatize schools, substitute vocational training for education and reduce teaching and learning to reductive modes of testing and evaluation.

Creativity in designing schools. "When people talk about how hard it is to change our public schools, they're usually referring to curriculum reform or employment contracts. But there's another area where change is difficult: design. When a proposed school building doesn't look exactly like what folks think a school should look like, officials freeze. "

The ABC's Four Corners program last night 'A Revolution in the Classroom', was a genuine attempt to re-focus public attention away from the old public vs private school debate and on to the core challenges of schooling.  I don't believe quality learning and teaching in public, private or independent schools is a revolution but rather a necessary requirement in today's world. 

Gates says his foundation is currently focusing on using private funds to inform and redirect how public education dollars are spent, specifically in the form of research.- my note "agreeable findings" concern as "research" can then rapidly influence policy.

The question of equity extends far beyond the well-worn "public v. private" controversies, as important as they are. The new problem is that public education too is becoming less equitable. There are Federal Partnership Programs that pour vast sums into some schools, while passing over others, on a competitive selection basis. Academic selective schools are streaming off the highest achievers and putting some of the best teachers in front of them. The result is that some students in the public system are receiving a great deal more resources than are others who have the same or greater levels of need. Such inequita

IMAGINE AN assessment system in which teachers had a wide repertoire of classroom-based, culturally sensitive assessment practices and tools to use in helping each and every child learn to high standards; in which educators collaboratively used assessment information to continuously improve schools; in which important decisions about a student, such as readiness to graduate from high school, were based on the work done over the years by the student; in which schools in networks held one another accountable for student learning; and in which public evidence of student achievement consisted primarily of samples from students' actual schoolwork rather than just reports of results from one-shot examinations.

"This video highlights the growth and development of a Google Doc as an Elementary School student in Edmonton Public Schools takes us on a journey of how she collaborates with classmates and her teacher to create a finished piece of writing."

On 31 August 2011, the Review of Funding for Schooling panel released a Paper on Commissioned Research and four research reports, seeking feedback from the general public. It is important to note that these research reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the panel.

"This video highlights the growth and development of a Google Doc as an Elementary School student in Edmonton Public Schools takes us on a journey of how she collaborates with classmates and her teacher to create a finished piece of writing."

"Integrity1 My daughters class flip chart list to describe Integrity. Can you name a few people around you, or in the public spotlight, that seemed to have missed that day in first grade? Promises Mrs. Dillon's first graders are well aware of the power of keeping promises. They know that promises are a contract between two people. One person expects things when that promise is made. Multiple kept promises, those smart kids know, helps build trust. They feel comfortable making friends with those they trust. In class they know it is much easier to finish things together if the other kids keep their promises. The really bright ones know that promises and promises kept are the deposits and withdrawals into and out of the account of collaboration, effort and success. Things get better when you manage that account- you know, positive change. Truthtelling Those little ones know early on what it means to not lie, to lie and to be dishonest. What Giordan's class has figured out is that being aware of the truth and revealing it, even if you know the result might be hard to deal with, is a good thing. The one who added this to the list might have done something wrong, separate from a lie, felt bad and fessed up. Smart he/she was to know that those consequences were much less severe than the ones that follow silence. Mistakes These kids are 7. I will let you figure out who, in the public limelight in those years, might have made mistakes and never admitted them- despite resounding evidence to the contrary. They have some negative role models. On their own level they know there is lots to be learned from having to explain a mistake, from gathering the courage to do so and from the connection that gives you to better future decision making. altruism First grader, kids in general, have a knack for the real kind of black and white. The kind where you know if someone might get hurt, you know if you might get hurt and you just feel what is right or wrong. They al

826 National, TED, and Hot Studio worked together to create Once Upon a School

The findings, published August 16 in Public Library of Science One, document the minute-by-minute interactions and locations of 232 children aged 6 to 12 and 10 teachers.

A post from a public school principal who is doing just that. On May 19th New Milford High School Principal Eric Sheninger will explain how to move from banning to embracing technology and social media.

ideally place students at the centre of learning.

Every Australian student will study the arts from their first year of school under the new national arts curriculum, which was released today for public consultation.

Today, thousands of public school teachers are on strike after the Victorian Government reneged on its election promise to substantially increase their salaries. The inconvenience to families is regrettable, but the reality is that attacks on teachers' working conditions ultimately hurt students.