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Good morning everyone. I can’t believe it’s already Thursday. Let’s celebrate the rapidly diminishing week with some links.
The Center for American Progress has a report on what we’ve learned from Race to the Top so far. Seems to have a mostly positive outlook on the program.
The nation’s snowiest cities got about 60 percent less snow this year, which means earlier summer vacations, according to USA Today.
The Wall Street Journal reports on schools that have issued guides to female students on what does and does not constitute appropriate dress for prom. Do any Iowa schools do this?
I’m glad to see more teachers embrace student feedback, but I think this Boston professor who hands out a feedback form after every class, as reported by the New York Times, may be going a step too far.
That’s it for today. If you have an interesting link or blog you’d like to share with Homeroom Period, why not pass it along?
Good morning everyone, I’ve got a big backlog in my RSS feed, so let’s get going with some education news and links.
What will and won’t be obsolete in teaching by the time we get to 2020? Mindshift asked the question to attendees at Big Ideas Fest and got the following responses.
Interesting story out of Des Moines about how one of the suburban middle schools there is attempting to integrate technology into all aspects of learning.
Along similar lines, the New York Times reports a sharp rise in sites providing tutorials on learning computer programming.
USA Today reports that the SAT and ACT are adopting new measures that require students to submit a photo ID to take the test, as well as provide a photograph of themselves for the testing records.
That’s it for today. If you have an interesting link or blog you’d like to share with Homeroom Period, why not pass it along?
Good morning, everyone. Our local school district is off this week for spring break, so this might be a slower week for us here at The Gazette. Let’s make up for that with some education news and links.
Education Week has an interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan where he appears to have changed his mind on whether teachers’ value-added evaluations should be released to the public. Draft legislation passed by the Iowa House two weeks ago specifically states that teacher evaluations are not public record.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution released the results of a massive statistical undertaking to analyze test score results from school districts across the nation for statistically-improbable gains, which can be a sign of possible cheating. Check out the results, they are more than a little disturbing.
The Quick and the Ed takes a look at some of the main arguments against the ongoing use of standardized tests in K-12 education, and what’s being done to remedy some of the concerns.
That’s it for today. If you have an interesting link or blog you’d like to share with Homeroom Period, why not pass it along?
TGIF! Let’s wrap up the week with the last bit of news and links for the week.
The New York Times has the story on a Brazil city that has spent $670,000 on American-made chips in student uniforms to track kids and see if they’re cutting school or not.
I’ve seen more schools and libraries holding events in anticipation of The Hunger Games movie than any other literary work, including Harry Potter. Meredith has a local wrap-up of UNI’s event over at Hoopla, and The Educated Reporter looks at some of the things happening nationally.
Iowa Future has an interesting roundup of a project undertaken at Spirit Lake this year called L.I.V.E. It sounds a lot like the January Academies I covered a few months back at Monticello.
Alexander Russo has a great op-ed on his blog today about why the various sides of education reform need to stop fighting and reach some compromises.
That’s it for today. If you have an interesting link or blog you’d like to share with Homeroom Period, why not pass it along?
Also from Solon, Shawn Cornally has a Chris Rock-style epiphany on open periods. He says they prey on students struggling the hardest with the traditional school system and he’s get plans for them in his upcoming scheduling experiment.
I didn’t get to cover it last week when Kennedy High School welcomed its Japanese exchange students, but the student journalists at The Torch are on the job.
That’s it for today. If you have an interesting link or blog you’d like to share with Homeroom Period, why not pass it along?
Higher education reporter Diane Heldt is at the Iowa Board of Regents meeting where regents are scheduled to make a decision on cuts at the University of Northern Iowa. You can follow her updates on Twitter.
Good morning Iowa. Sorry this is coming a little later than normal. I had an early morning assignment in North Liberty. Lets hurry up and get things going.
The Council on Foreign Relations has some things to say about education and national security. Despite the scary-sounding name, there’s not much new here. It looks as though the report is mainly based on already-known statistics, such as the 2009 PISA test results.
The reports’ authors, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and NYC school chancellor Joel Klein, spoke with PBS Newshour about the report.
While we’re on the subject of Klein, he was appointed to his post by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. New York is one of several cities where the mayor has control over school districts. The Educated Reporter asks if mayoral control is good or bad for the school district.
The New York Times reports that the amount of students taking the LSAT has dropped for the second consecutive year. I wonder if all those reports of there being too many lawyers are starting to sink in.
Here in the Cedar Rapids area, Grant Wood Area Education Agency is hosting a seminar in entrepreneurship for teachers.
That’s it for today. If you have an interesting link or blog you’d like to share with Homeroom Period, why not pass it along?
This is something I’ve wanted to start doing for a while. I’m going to start a series of interviews with people working at area education institutions where they can give more background on what it is they do and how it fits into the overall scheme of education in Iowa.
My first interview is with Nanci Young from Workplace Learning Connection which provides career readiness services for students of all ages over a seven county area of Eastern Iowa.
Nanci and I discussed job shadows, internships, financial literacy and more. The interview is about ten minutes long, and I should have a transcript up here shortly.
Ruthaivilavan and her husband (who is one of the Linn-Mar Technology Integration Coaches I wrote about earlier in the year) are heading to China to teach at the Shekou International School.
I was curious about how Iowa teachers go about getting jobs in China, so I sent Nicki I quick e-mail asking if she would share that story. Her reply below:
My husband was born and raised in Thailand, and his parents still live there. He really enjoyed his experiences living abroad and attending an international school with great cultural diversity. We’d love for our daughter to have a similar experience. In addition, along with financial advantages, living overseas also affords more travel opportunities.
We attended a job fair in Bangkok in January of 2011 with no success. This February we attended the UNI Overseas Fair and had an offer from a school in Korea. It wasn’t the best fit for us professionally, so we turned it down.
I had my heart set on starting our adventure, so I started looking for schools in Southeast Asia that still had openings for both of us (I currently teach 2nd grade, and my husband is a Technology Integration Coach here at Linn-Mar, and has previously taught 7th grade science). After sending out a few emails, we heard back from Shekou International School. After a series of Skype interviews over 3 weeks, we were offered jobs!
Congratulations to the Ruthaivilavans. I’m sure you’ll be missed at Linn-Mar
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