Group items tagged

On the first question, research shows that teachers are the most important in-school factor determining students’ academic performance. But they are not the only in-school factor: class size and the quality of the school principal, for example, matter a great deal. Most crucially, out-of-school factors—family characteristics such as income and parents’ education, neighborhood environment, health care, housing stability, and so on—count for twice as much as all in-school factors. In 1966, a groundbreaking government study—the “Coleman Report”—first identified a “one-third in-school factors, two-thirds family characteristics” ratio to explain variations in student achievement. Since then researchers have endlessly tried to refine or refute the findings. Education scholar Richard Rothstein described their results: “No analyst has been able to attribute less than two-thirds of the variation in achievement among schools to the family characteristics of their students” (Class and Schools, 2004). Factors such as neighborhood environment give still more weight to what goes on outside school.

This award recognizes music educators throughout the U.S. for their accomplishments in teaching music in public schools.

We talk a lot in schools about wishing we were somehow more supported by our communities, but schools also need to be more encouraging of that relationship. To address this, Zolt envisioned, and made real, In2Books, ePals’ flagship literacy program. In a nutshell, In2Books selects a carefully screened volunteer, let’s say a business exec from AOL, and pairs that professional with a student to discuss books through letter writing that is teacher-guided and teacher-approved. It’s as simple as that. It’s book buddies brought into the 21st Century.

What do we want each student to learn? How will we know when each student has learned it? How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

In today’s digital marketplace, students of all ages can create experiences tailored just for them. When a teenager searches for movies to watch, an online film site can provide suggestions based on past viewing history. Music lovers can create personalized playlists for everything from a workout in the gym to a study session. And when children play video games, they can choose a variety paths—based on their interests and skill levels—toward slaying a dragon or defeating an enemy. Then many of these same students walk into their classrooms and sit at their desks to absorb one-size-fits-all lessons or, if they’re lucky, instruction aimed at the high-, mid-, or low-level learner. And in many cases, there is little, if any, technology integrated into those lessons.

Title: What's New? What's Good: Exploring Digital WritingDescription: Folks often speak of engagement when they talk about writing in online spaces. But is the "writing" that's occuring in these new spaces any good? Is it worth doing? Is it better than what came before? In this session, we'll discuss where and how you're writing in digital spaces, and we'll take a look at some resources created by the National Writing Project to explore what digital writing is, or isn't.Presenter: Bud HuntEmail & Other Links: budtheteacher@gmail.com NWP's Digital IS

Trying to prepare students for their future without interactive Web 2.0 technologies in school would be like trying to teach a child to swim without a swimming pool. However, it is exceptionally important for schools to carefully consider what technologies they will embrace.

My school rewards kids that read 20 minutes per night for a month with an assembly. It's your average chaotic school event: Ice cream, raffles, cheap useless prizes, etc.A student returned from his first reading reward party last Thursday, beaming. His eyes were just about popping out of his sockets and the creases in his forehead were cavernous. He cornered me and rambled for some time about what he was going to read next, and how there's no way he'll miss the next party, and other such "And then...and then...and then..." fourth grader speak.On the way out the door, shortly after, he said to me, "You know, I'm not in it for the prizes." I smiled, thinking what was coming would be a brownie-point winning, "I'm in it for the enjoyment of reading," or "I just like to read."Instead, he finished, "I'm in it for the ice cream."Sigh. Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss.

The Framework for 21st Century Learning stated, “We believe schools must move beyond a focus on basic competency in core subjects to promoting understanding of academic content at much higher levels by weaving 21st century interdisciplinary themes into core subjects” (2007). 21st century skills bridge the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of students from the core academic areas to real life application.

Technology has completely changed the way that we communicate and interact, the way that we learn and use information. However, our educational system still has not reflected this fundamental change, and remains reliant on what Renzulli calls “to-be-presented knowledge,” with teachers and textbooks as the gatekeepers of this knowledge. However, this doesn’t reflect how our society and our information structures work today. Renzulli argues that our educational system needs to adapt to the skills and technology that we have developed as a society in order to prepare our students for 21st-century jobs and for rebuilding America’s reputation as a birthplace for creativity, leadership, innovation, and development of new technologies. This can be done through using technology to improve the way that we deliver education, as well as what we are teaching students, and improving students’ engagement in the educational process.

States score a significant portion of Race to the Top points by opening up charter schools and pegging teacher pay to student performance—two features that are common in New York and D.C., but are virtually nonexistent in Iowa.

uthentic leader