Schools of Thought for reading on education

CNN’s Schools of Thought blog covers education from a variety of perspectives that include policies, practices and people. From pre-kindergarten through college, for parents, teachers, students – and anyone who has ever been a student - Schools of Thought offers food for thought in the national conversation on education. It’s edited by Donna Krache, Jamie Gumbrecht and John Martin, with contributions from CNN journalists and those with an interest in education. (from the CNN Schools of Thought blog)

Granted, there are many, many sites devoted somehow to education. Here's CNN's offering.

Mergers in education

The education industry accounted for an estimated $10 billion in mergers and acquisitions last year, with K-12 technology responsible for the second-largest annual increase in transactions of any education sector, a report from an investment banking firm says. (Jason Tomassini at Education Week)

Note: Education Week is an excellent source for news about education. Part of the content on the site is only available at a cost; still there's free content for the reading. 

Aviary provides online tools

Aviary is a suite of powerful creative applications that you can use right in your web browser. We're on a mission to make creation accessible to artists of all genres, from graphic design to audio editing. Let Aviary and Worth1000 artists perform design services for you. Sign up for an account today to start creating, sharing, and collaborating with our community of artists.

To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text.

Using LiveBinders to organize online resources

Bookmark While you Browse with "LiveBinder It"

LiveBinder It Bookmarklet Tool

To create your own LiveBinder all you have to do is add the 'LiveBinder it' bookmarklet tool to your favorite browser.
When you browse the web, everytime you find a link you want to save, click on 'LiveBinder it' and save directly to an existing or new livebinder.

The above comes from the LiveBinder website. To learn more, click here. 

Award winning books to consider

Newbery Medal
"Dead End in Norvelt," written by Jack Gantos, published by Farrar Straus Giroux
Newbery Honor Books
"Inside Out & Back Again" written by Thanhha Lai, published by HarperCollins Children's Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers
"Breaking Stalin's Nose" written by Eugene Yelchin, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Caldecott Medal
"A Ball for Daisy" illustrated and written by Chris Raschka, published by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc. (from the Association for Library Service to Children website)

To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text.

US students connect with the world

Across the United States, students are teaming up with classrooms around the world, using videoconferencing equipment, social media, and other technologies to learn about current events, historic milestones, economic trends, and cultural norms. Educators say the collaborations, which lend themselves to co-curricular projects, foster deep and meaningful conversations, whet a thirst for knowledge that textbooks cannot offer, and show that people in different countries have a lot more in common than many assume. (Robin L Flanagan at Education Week)

Amazing resource

Free Technology for Teachers is really the go-to place online for resources. In a recent post, Richard Byrne, the Free Technology for Teachers man himself, profiles Pearltrees.

Take a look:
A few months ago I wrote Playing With Pearltrees - A Great Way to Organize the Web. Last night I was exploring Pearltrees again when I came across a Pearltree titled Free Technology for Teachers. While the name is the same as my blog, I did not have anything to do with creating that particular Pearltree. That said, many of the resources cataloged in the Free Technology for Teachers
Your best bet is to click the above hyperlinked text and go from there.

Comparing countries to states

As concern over America's competitiveness abroad intensifies, education officials in the U.S. are beginning to consider using individual states and districts—not just the nation as a whole—as the units against which to measure their international peers.
In everything from population demographics to curriculum adoption, a country like Finland may be more comparable to an individual state like Minnesota than it is to the heterogeneous expanse of the United States—leading some policymakers and researchers to reason that such state-to-country comparisons can better highlight educational practices. (Sarah D. Sparks at Education Week)

Library of Congress and its Teaching With Primary Sources program

The Library of Congress collaborates with school districts, universities, libraries, and foundations to help teachers use the Library's vast collection of digitized primary sources to enrich their classroom instruction. These partnerships build on the success of the Library's previous outreach initiatives, particularly the American Memory Fellows and An Adventure of the American Mind programs, which reached more than 10,000 teachers.
The Library of Congress has two types of institutional partners: TPS Educational Consortium members and regional grantees.
Members of the TPS Educational Consortium assist in the design of the TPS program and offer TPS professional development on an ongoing basis, year round. There are currently 28 Consortium members in 17 states: California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The professional development that these organizations offer include workshops, online courses, graduate courses, and mentoring that meet the same goals as the professional development offered in Washington, DC at the Library of Congress.(from the Library of Congress website)

A chance to win while learning

The purpose of Teaching with Contests is to assist educators in finding contests that can be used in the classroom to motivate students. We are here for the student and the teacher not the promotion of products or company public relations. Our goal is to select contests and programs whose primary goal is education and secondarily business/product promotion.

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide a safe, entertaining and educational contests for kids 6 to 18. TeachingWithContests.com searches for educational, motivational, and reinforcing contests/challenges for students and educators alike.
TeachingWithContests.com offers challenges and activities while teaching important lessons such as good research, teamwork, creativity and the importance of doing your best. (from the "about" page at Teacher with Contests)

More on NCLB

Ten years ago this month, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, setting the stage for a new—and more aggressive—phase of accountability in American education.

The United States isn't alone in promoting accountability in elementary and secondary education. The notion in recent years has become a global phenomenon among nations looking to improve their school systems. (Eric W. Robelen at Education Week)

American and its comparisons to other countries

Americans learn a bit more every year about the strengths and shortcomings of the education systems in other countries, thanks to a steady raft of international test data, academic scholarship, and analysis arriving from home and abroad.
Sometimes, what they learn inspires them. Sometimes, it confuses them. And sometimes, to judge from the collective angst on display, it alarms them. (Sean Cavanagh at Education Week)

Optimists essay information

Teachers and parents – here is a great opportunity for your students!  Kids ages 10-18 can enter the 2012 Optimists International Essay Contest and have a chance to win prizes.  This year’s topic is “How My Positive Outlook Benefits my Community.” 

To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text.

Reminder

Where young writers can find literary magazines to read, places to publish their writing, and legitimate contests. A select list of children's, teen, and young adult publications in print and online that have open submissions with guidelines, an editorial selection process, and a regular print cycle. Some publish only young writers, some publish all ages for young readers. For more specific submission guidelines, visit the publication's website. (from New Pages' Young Authors Guide)

New Pages' Young Authors Guide does get periodically updated, so it's worth checking from time to time.

Read Write Think strategies for the New Year

Looking for new teaching strategies or interested in brushing up on the strategies you are already using in your classroom? Strategy guides define and provide examples of effective literacy teaching and learning strategies and offer a wealth of related resources to help sharpen your instruction. (from Read Write Think)

To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text.

Reading for free

The entire text of all new Stenhouse books is available for free online reading. Click on a title you're interested in and then click on Preview the Book Online to see the entire book. For older titles, at least one chapter of nearly every Stenhouse book can be read for free online. For videos, click on a title to watch sample clips.
To look for books and videos by author, title, topic, or ISBN, visit our search page. Or browse books, videos, and e-books by using the links to the left. 

Yes, Stenhouse Publishers is a for-profit publisher of education books; most certainly having entire books online does help Stenhouse sell such books. Still the online books are great resources for teachers. And you can read them for free.

Ten year anniversary of NCLB

Ten years after President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law on Jan. 8, 2002, NCLB is now overdue for reauthorization in Congress. Bipartisan in its origins but controversial in its execution, NCLB, which is the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, expanded the federal role in education and targeted improving the achievement of disadvantaged students.

To reflect on the law's anniversary, the Education Week Commentary editors asked a range of K-12 education leaders, politicians, teachers, and child advocates for their thoughts. This package also includes links to Education Week's coverage over the decade, readers’ comments, and a glossary of selected NCLB terms. (from Education Week)

Physical activity linked to academic success

Children who participate in physical activity also tend to benefit in the classroom, according to a new systematic review of 14 studies from the past few decades.
The review, published online Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, sought to discover a potential link between childhood physical activity and improved academic performance.
The review authors, based out of the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, examined 10 observational and four intervention studies, mostly from the United States and mostly focusing on physical education or school sports. (Bryan Toperek at Education Week)

Note: the Monday referred to is January 2, 2012.

Vocabulary and adolescents

A strong vocabulary, both written and spoken, requires more than a dictionary. In fact, it requires an educational commitment to overcoming four obstacles: the size of the task (the number of words students need to learn is exceedingly large), the differences between spoken and written English, the limitations of information sources including dictionaries, and the complexity of word knowledge (simple memorization is not enough). Learn more about these challenges to acquiring the 2,500 words a student needs to add each year to their reading vocabulary. (from All About Adolescent Literacy)

To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text.

What is a Socratic seminar?

The Socratic method of teaching is based on Socrates' theory that it is more important to enable students to think for themselves than to merely fill their heads with "right" answers. Therefore, he regularly engaged his pupils in dialogues by responding to their questions with questions, instead of answers. This process encourages divergent thinking rather than convergent.
Students are given opportunities to "examine" a common piece of text, whether it is in the form of a novel, poem, art print, or piece of music. After "reading" the common text "like a love letter", open-ended questions are posed.
Open-ended questions allow students to think critically, analyze multiplemeanings in text, and express ideas with clarity and confidence. After all, acertain degree of emotional safety is felt by participants when they understandthat this format is based on dialogue and not discussion/debate. (from StudyGuide.org)


To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text.