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TEACHING SECRETS: MAKING MATH MEANINGFUL
Cossondra George, a veteran middle school math teacher with a background in special education, offers her ideas about how educators can engage ALL students in mathematics and help them become successful. Cossondra's Teacher Magazine article was last week's most-clicked story in ASCD SmartBrief newsletter. Her suggestions, she says, are aimed at helping "grow students who enjoy the processes of math, learn to appreciate the complexities of the subject, and find ways to relate math to their everyday lives."
THE POWER OF POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
Some educators discount relationship-building in middle grades and high schools as "fluff," writes Tara Brown in the August issue of Middle Ground, the NMSA magazine. But for "middle grades kids who are trying to gain some independence and figure out which way is up, relationships with classmates and teachers are crucial to success." Brown offers seven relationship-based strategies "that can transform your classroom into a positive learning environment."
EDUTOPIA'S BACK-TO-SCHOOL WEB 2.0 GUIDE
Edutopia boldly goes where many teachers still seem reluctant to journey with these updated back-to-school suggestions for integrating Web 2.0 and social media tools into daily classroom instruction.Start the year with tools that pack a lot of visual interest, like VoiceThread or Glogster. Experiment with Twitter, Edmodo or (gasp) texting. You'll find links to resources for incorporating "everything from infographics to citizen science projects." Sound like fun? Download the free PDF.
FIRES IN THE MIND
Fires in the Mind, the latest of several books written by Kathleen Cushman to bring more transparency to adolescent thinking, reports on an project that involved tweens in a deep exploration of the question: "How do you get good at something?" This review by sixth grade teacher Kathie Marshall shares highlights from the book (which would make a good faculty study in middle schools). Marshall, who provides links to dedicated teacher resources at the FITM website, says: "No matter what stage we're at as educators, I believe every teacher can mine this book for many helpful nuggets to support student mastery."
INNER LIFE OF THE CELL
We picked up this video clip from the Fires in the Mind website, where it was passed along as one example of teaching tools that can really grab the attention of students and create excitement around learning. "Fires" site minder Kathleen Cushman wrote: "A seventh-grade teacher said that 'The Inner Life of a Cell' -- a fantastic eight-minute animation from Harvard University -- had her students riveted with its mix of science and art." You'll see why.
VISUWORDS
If you're familiar with Visual Thesaurus, you'll have some idea of how the VisuWords online graphical dictionary displays information about a word or phrase you enter into the database. VisuWords uses color-coded connections to indicate relationships such as "is a part of" or "opposes" and parts of speech, such as "nouns", "verbs", or "adverbs". Mouse over synonyms to see pop-up definitions and an example of the word in a sentence. The no-membership-required website uses Princeton's WordNet dictionary and provides simple tips on how to get the most out of the display.
GIRLS UNINTERRUPTED
This New York Times story reports on a two-week summer program for female students ages 11 to 17 that promotes self-esteem and conflict resolution and helps tweens and teens navigate the unique social environment of "Girlworld." The Girls Leadership Institute was founded by author and school-bullying-prevention trainer Rachel Simmons. It's run by teachers and counselors who lead the girls in activities and classes that help them learn effective ways to deal with negative behavior at school.
SCHOOL, HOME & COMMUNITY
Thanks to educator and middle school parent Susie Merrick for reminding me to keep searching for the best ideas about building bridges among school, home and community. As I said to her in a note, I'm very aware of how important these connections are, since I began my work in education as a parent organizer. Follow the link above to read Merrick's own article about bridge-building. And check out this link to see the school/home resources we've featured.
Recent Weeks
BULLYING: HELP STUDENTS GET PROACTIVE
"Most of the time, 6th graders arrive in middle school feeling lost and scared, and it takes some time before the bullies and troublemakers have the nerve to separate themselves out from the pack. But last fall at our Los Angeles middle school, trouble was brewing almost from the start." So begins literacy teacher Kathie Marshall's frequently recommended story at Teacher Magazine about the strategies she used successfully to help her students put bullying in its place. For more tips about bullying, download this toolkit from Eyes on Bullying.
CREATIVITY ON THE DECLINE?
Ashley Merryman and Po Bronson, authors of the 2009 book "Nurture Shock," recently penned a Newsweek cover story called "The Creativity Crisis." They cite new evidence that American creativity is on the decline, but they also suggest that we can turn things around. In this interview with the Public School Insights blog, Merryman talks about some of the possible causes of decline, both societal and school-related. But what's really important, she says, is that "we know ways to increase kids' creativity. So leave what caused the decline to the scientists. What we can do is implement the things already known to increase creativity."
FAVORITE WEBSITES: DIGITAL HISTORY
Several years ago we invited subscribers to help us share "the good stuff" by sending links to some of their favorite teaching-learning websites, with a few sentences highlighting WHY they're favorites. Here's one we revisited recently, and it's better than ever. Middle school history teacher Melanie S. told us back in 2007 that she often turned to Digital History for teaching ideas and materials. "Lots of primary sources and multimedia -- even lectures suitable for snipping. There's also an online American history textbook and an interactive timeline. The Writing Guide area offers several short essays on how to write in history class."
THE BEST PRINCIPALS EMBRACE COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP
What do effective principals do make schools successful? A major new study from the University of Minnesota, commissioned by the leadership program of the Wallace Foundation, reports that high student achievement across a school is linked to ""collective leadership" -- the combined influence of principals, teachers, parents and others on school decisions. Effective principals, the researchers say, encourage others to join in the decision-making process in their schools. Read a summary of the study at Education Week, where you'll find a link to download the complete report.
LIBRARY OF MATH MANIPULATIVES
The extensive collection of virtual math manipulatives available at this website was developed by Utah State University with support from a National Science Foundation grant. USU is now beginning to offer a CD version for sale to support "ongoing development of new activities and functionality," but this web-based library is still open to the public at no charge. Just choose a category (numbers & operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, or data analysis/probability) and click under the grade level to reveal dozens of applets.
FOR NEW TEACHERS: DEALING WITH SASSY KIDS
Check out the advice in this and other articles at the "Empowering Parents" website and see if the insights of behavioral experts James Lehman and Robert Myers might be useful to you and/or to parents and guardians of your students. "As your child gets into adolescence, he'll start to find ways to push your buttons," says Lehman in this overview of sassy talk. "I personally think that the less you challenge it, the less you give it power. Remember, the less power you give it, the more it's going to die its natural death."
BIOLOGY ROCK
How do you put 'mitochondria' into a song? Middle grades biology teacher Keith Smolinski figured it out, and his collection of biology "learning songs" recently attracted the attention of the New Haven (CT) Register, which features a story and video. Does it work? Actually, Smolinski's opus is part of his doctoral research, which included a control group. Students who learned the songs scored higher on biology tests. There are 10 songs (including Bacteria Blues) in all, and the 7th grade teacher is putting together an album. Title? "Biorhythms," of course. (You'll find Keith's email in the comments to this article if you'd like to get in touch.)
GET YOUR ED POLICY NEWS FIX
If you enjoy keeping up with education reform and other state and national ed policy news, you will definitely want to add the no-cost PEN NewsBlast to your collection of email newsletters. The weekly report includes meaty analytical summaries of roughly 10 newsworthy developments each week, plus brief notes on 4-6 others and a popular list of "new grant and funding information." Follow the link above for a sample and subscriber info. If you have the stamina for a daily newsletter (M-F), I'd also recommend the ASCD SmartBrief, which stays abreast of the national ed-news scene.
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