Thursday, February 2, 2012

The President Takes on Dropouts

"Obama's call for youths to stay in school till 18 good, but not enough, Duke professors say"


Read the whole article here.


The best quote comes at the end of the article. As is so often the case: "[Raising the age limit of compulsory education] is a good idea, but I worry about cash-strapped states finding the money to finance the extension," Ladd said. "So the question is, would the federal government simply mandate that all states raise the compulsory education age, or would the government provide financial incentives?"

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Irrational Numbers


The Future of Education? I Hope So!

Textbooks are static, outdated, expensive, heavy... the list of reasons against using them goes on and on. "There is no reason today to assume that kids have to use the same tools that they used in 1950. In fact, to do so is to prepare them for a world that's already passed."


Check out this awesome video about interactive textbooks on the iPad! Is this the future of education? I certainly hope so!

Click here to learn more about iBooks textbooks for iPad!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Matt Damon's Clear-headed Speech to Teachers Rally

Here is the speech that actor Matt Damon gave today to thousands of teachers, parents and others who attended the Save Our Schools march on the Ellipse near the White House to protest the Obama administration’s education policies that are centered on standardized tests.


Click here to see the rest of the article about his speech.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

"If you think dogs can't count, 
try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket 
and then giving Fido only two of them." 
~ Phil Pastoret ~

Saturday, November 5, 2011

High School Homework: Are American Teenagers Overworked?

This morning I read an interesting teen-written article about homework:







The article is fairly well-written, and at the very least gives some good insight into the mind of a seventh grader.  But the teen also makes some good points.  Among them:

  • According to guidelines endorsed by the National Education Association (NEA), a student should be assigned no more than 10 minutes per grade level per night.
  • A student who receives excessive homework "will miss out on active playtime, essential for learning social skills, proper brain development, and warding off childhood obesity," according to Harris Cooper, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University.
  • A Duke University review of a number of studies found almost no correlation between homework and long-term achievements in elementary school and only a moderate correlation in middle school. "More is not better," concluded Cooper, who conducted the review.
  • In countries like the Czech Republic, Japan, and Denmark, which have higher-scoring students, teachers give little homework. The United States is among the most homework-intensive countries in the world for seventh and eighth grade, so more homework clearly does not mean a higher test score.
  • Practicing dozens of homework problems incorrectly only cements the wrong method.
  • Teachers who assign less homework will be able to check it thoroughly. In addition, it allows a teacher time to focus on more important things. "I had more time for planning when I wasn't grading thousands of problems a night," says math teacher Joel Wazac at a middle school in Missouri. "And when a student didn't understand something, instead of a parent trying to puzzle it out, I was there to help them." 


However, in response to the author's question, "Is homework really necessary?," the answer is yes.  The following information about homework can be found in Chapter 3 of Robert J. Marzano's "The Art and Science of Teaching:"
  • Schooling occupies only about 13 percent of the waking hours of the first 18 years of life, which is less than the amount of time spent watching television.  Thus, homework is valuable because it extends learning opportunities beyond the school day.
  • Homework has less effect at the lower grade levels, but homework for young children helps them develop good study habits, fosters positive attitudes toward school, and communicates to students the idea that learning takes work at home as well as school.
  • Homework has a positive effect across all grade levels when student achievement is measured by unit tests covering the content actually taught.
  • It is not time, per se that has a positive effect on student achievement.  Rather, it is the proportion of homework completed that appears to produce the strongest achievement gains.  By inference, small amounts of well-structured homework may be beneficial.


In summary, students SHOULD be given homework.  However, homework should be limited to 10 minutes per grade level per night, and should be carefully checked over.  Practice may not make perfect, but it does make permanent, and teachers should ensure that students are practicing the correct way.


Thursday, November 3, 2011

Prime Numbers

“Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.” 

 Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time