As most of our readers would know, 46 states have signed on to develop a “Common Core” of educational standards, which means of course…that national standards have now arrived.
And…in the age of accountability…you know what comes next…some form of testing those national standards.
Which means that there is some consternation about what those standards will look [...]
Entries from July 31st, 2009
Do “Common Core Standards” have to be developed openly to be “common?”
July 31st, 2009 1 Comment
Tags: accountability · Achieve Inc. · ACT · common core · curriculum · education · national standards
Jim Horn explains the “mumbo jumbo to the dumbos!”
July 30th, 2009 1 Comment
Over at Schools Matter, Jim Horn explains to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, what all that teacher education mumbo jumbo is about.
Governor Daniels has never been fond of public education, but now he wants to revamp teacher education programs in Indiana by requiring students to take more content courses in the subject area that teachers want to be [...]
Tags: Arne Duncan · learning · Mitch Daniels · teacher colleges · teacher preparation · teaching
Recharging the batteries!
July 28th, 2009 2 Comments
Teaching in the public schools is one of the most challenging and difficult professions there is. This summer we were interviewing prospective Masters Degree students and one of our candidates addressed the group regarding how difficult his new job as elementary teacher was. He said it was way more difficult than his previous position as policeman. [...]
Tags: pictures. Rockies · summer · summertime · vacation
What does America REALLY want in an educated student?
July 26th, 2009 2 Comments
There is a great disconnect it seems, between what America says it wants from its students, and the short sighted policies passed by policy makers.
How else could we end up with standardized test mania in an age where creativity and passion were never more important!!
Listen to Yong Zhao explain in this video. Click here to [...]
Tags: standardized testing · Yong Zhao
Educational Video Games
July 24th, 2009 No Comments
Here is a great post from Scott McCleod over at Dangerously Irrelevant about graphics in educational video games.
Looking at the video examples he posts you have to see the difference in real video game graphics and what passes for graphics in educational video games.
His post is titled, “Do educational video games suck?” Probably the answer is [...]
Tags: educational games · gaming · video games
Blog is back up!
July 18th, 2009 No Comments
Our apologies to all readers!! As you know the blog has been down for awhile due to technical difficulties with the servers.
We are back up and running now. Not sure what all the IT folks had to do to make it work but so far so good.
The next few days I will be up in [...]
Alan Blankstein on the national scene
July 1st, 2009 2 Comments
SAN DIEGO— On July 2, Alan Blankstein, president of the HOPE Foundation and award winning author of Failure Is Not an Option, will be the featured speaker following Education Secretary Duncan at the National Education Association’s (NEA) 2009 Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly in San Diego, Calif.
HOPE—Harnessing Optimism and Potential through Education—has documented success [...]
Tags: Alan Blankstein · Arne Duncan · HOPE · NEA
