5 Ways Apple’s Culture Can Improve Your Classroom has advice such as “Let good ideas Breathe” to “Encourage Wrong Answers.” Interesting read for school administrators.
School Scheduling – Making Time for What Matters is an excellent article on prioritizing the vision and needs of your school and then having the schedule reflect those values. While the article is written for high school, the ideas can be adapted to any school level.
11 Ways to Improve Schools from the Mobile Home on Main Street blog is a great list of suggestions for educators from preschool through high school.
Using Twitter in the Elementary Classroom is an excellent article by Jeff Kurt posted on Coalition of Essential Schools web.
Ted Talks are a huge collection of informational and inspirational videos from some of the most influential thinkers of our age. The best part — they are not blocked by our filter!
Jefferson County Schools Publishes Academic Vocabulary Tied to New Standards
The state has now updated the academic vocabulary list for each grade level to reflect the new standards. A big thank you to Jefferson County for having the lists posted and game/flash cards ready to be printed.
Standards Based Report Card Research
ASCD examines the movement toward standards based report cards and includes research from Marzano.
More research at Principals Partnership and ASCD Seven Reasons for Standards Based Grading
Time for School Series on PBS This two-part series airs Wednesday September 2 and September 9, 2009
WIDE ANGLE’s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, returns in 2009 with visits to seven classrooms in seven countries to offer a glimpse into the lives of seven extraordinary children who are struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education. We started filming in 2002, watching as kids first entered school in Afghanistan, Benin, Brazil, India, Japan, Kenya and Romania, many despite great odds. Several years later, in 2006, we returned to film an update — and now, three years later, we travel to check in on our young teenagers who are making the precarious transition to middle school. Among the highlights: in Afghanistan we reunite with 16-year-old Shugufa, who resolutely remains in school despite the Taliban’s recent acid attacks on young women her age. “If they continue attacking schools, our country won’t progress. Without an education you can’t get anywhere,” says Shufuga, whose own education was delayed when her family lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan during years when the Taliban ruled her country. We also visit the biggest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where 15-year-old Joab’s mother has died and his father has abandoned the family. We watch as, incredibly, Joab manages to stay at the top of his class while also raising and feeding his two younger siblings. And in the blazing desert of Rajasthan, India, we encounter Neeraj, 15, only to learn that she has been unable to realize her dream of making it to 10th grade: since our last visit her night school has closed, and she now helps support her family by grazing the livestock full-time while her brothers continue their education.
These children’s stories put a human face on the shocking fact that more than a hundred million children are currently out of school; of these, two thirds are girls. One in four children in developing countries does not complete five years of basic education, and there are nearly one billion illiterate adults — one-sixth of the world’s people. WIDE ANGLE plans to continue revisiting all the children, and their peers and families, through 2015, the year they should graduate — and, not coincidentally, the U.N.’s target date for achieving universal education, a Millennium Development goal endorsed by all 191 members of the United Nations.
While each child in Time for School 3 has a unique story, taken together their lives tell an epic tale, shedding light on one of the most urgent and under-reported stories of our time.
Four Pillars of Technology Integration is an excellent article for any educator wanting to infuse a culture of seamless technology integration into the learning process. (from the blog Nashworld)
