post

Are we still “A Nation at Risk” after 30 years?

April 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Thirty years ago the Reagan administration released a ground breaking report called “A Nation at Risk”. 30 years later, what has changed and are will still a nation at risk. The Fordham institute took at look and talked with Bill Bennett about what has changed and what still needs to be done.

Watch this video looking back on the release of “the single most influential document in the history of American education.”

Link

Thirty years ago, A Nation at Risk sounded alarm bells on the state of our nation’s education system. Since this pivotal paper was issued, what has changed in American education and American society—and what still needs to happen?

Watch former U.S. education secretary William J. Bennett, eminent author, social and political commentator, talk about our schools, our culture, our past three decades, and our future.


Link

h/t The Fordham Institute

Filed Under: #EdReform Tagged With: , , , , , ,
post

Study: Homeschool Students Sleep Better

March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Interesting article about sleep habits for students in high school, it turns out that getting up later is better for teens and that homeschool students who do get up later learn better. Read the full story at the National Jewish Health website.

Research supports later start times for high school

DENVER, CO – March 6, 2013 — In the first study of its kind, researchers have determined that teens who are homeschooled benefit from healthier sleep habits than those who go to most private and public schools. The findings provide additional evidence of teens’ altered biological clocks and support an argument for starting traditional high school later in the morning.

“We have a school system that is set up so that the youngest children, who are awake very early in the morning, start school latest, and our adolescents, who need sleep the most, are being asked to wake up and go to school at a time when their brains should physiologically be asleep,” said Lisa Meltzer, PhD, a sleep psychologist at National Jewish Health in Denver, and lead author of the study.


Link

Filed Under: #EdReform Tagged With: , , , ,
post

Asenath Andrews “You don’t need shoes, you need wings” #SXSWedu

March 18, 2013 By 2 Comments

I had the privilege of seeing Asenath Andrews speak this year at #SXSWedu in Austin Texas. She is an inspiration and an ongoing reminder that all children should have the opportunity to succeed. Watch the video and/or scroll down to see some of the nuggets I tweeted during her speech.

Keynote: Asenath Andrews – SXSWedu 2013 from SXSWedu on Vimeo.

Filed Under: #EdReform Tagged With: , , ,
post

Get Parents Engaged via Text Messages

February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In today’s edSurge newsletter there was a short piece on Kikutext, a simple text messaging tool to help teachers communicate with and engage parents. It’s great seeing companies coming up with more solutions and tools to help with parental engagement in the classroom.

Here is my favorite quote from the EdSurge report. Emphasis mine.

The three co-founders–all Teach for America teachers–adamantly contend that parent engagement is critical to student success. “We’re don’t want teachers to use the ‘uninvolved parents’ line as an excuse to not perform,” says co-founder Mr. Mark McDonald. So teachers can ping reminders to parents, who get to write back–all done without revealing real numbers, of course.

From the Kikutext website.

It’s clear that engaged parents are critical to a student’s success in school. For this reason, we believe it should be as easy as possible for teachers and parents to maintain a clear line of communication. Kikutext was built with this simple purpose in mind – to make it easy for teachers to share student updates with parents.

Watch the Kikutext presentation and try it out for free.

Filed Under: #EdTech Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts