For the fall of 2014, 49.8 million students were predicted to have attended public elementary and secondary schools in the United States. Of these students, all were expected to be absent on the same day: Thanksgiving. In other countries, of course, this was to be a normal school day. But different holidays aren’t the only variances that can be seen between school days [...]
Remember high school yearbook superlatives? Almost everyone had a classmate who, even if they weren’t voted “Most Likely to Succeed,” everyone knew would become a millionaire before the ten-year reunion. Mine was Ben Drucker, founder of Valet.io, a fundraising platform. In high school, his business ventures were always being written about in our school newspaper. Wouldn’t it have been great if he could [...]
In classrooms across America, teachers are being confronted with challenges to accommodate all students. According to a study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the average primary education classroom has more than 21 students. In recent years, the aid of assistive technologies has been brought into the classroom to ensure that all students can keep the same pace—specifically, students with disabilities. Kevin [...]
Real-world applications are improving the teaching of mathematics across the United States. During the 2013–2014 school year, a research study was conducted that tested more innovative ways to increase student engagement in mathematics. The University of Chicago’s Urban Education Lab and 100Kin10 selected the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and Mathalicious—both winners of the 100Kin10 Research Design Competition—to be their partners in this [...]
Picture a dimly lit room with music playing. A chair pulses with the beat. A swing hangs from the ceiling. A lava lamp bubbles in the corner. Images of leaves, balloons and fireworks are projected on the wall. Everything in this room waits to be interacted with and morphed. This is one of the many sensory rooms being installed in schools across the [...]
A Common Core–aligned website has taken on the uniquely twofold endeavor of getting students interested about current events while using a text-leveling process to ensure they’re meeting grade-specific reading standards. Newsela, founded by Matthew Gross, was launched in June 2013, and it publishes dozens of popular news articles daily. Topics include health, science, arts, sports and law. With the help of staff editors, current [...]
As someone who has only been out of high school for three years, I can attest to the fact that students get distracted by their smartphones. I remember all the old tricks: texting while your phone was in your bag, sending covert Snapchat pictures from under your desk, asking to go to the bathroom so you could use your phone. Now, some schools [...]
As a child of the mid-nineties, I have had the joy of experiencing both the “old” and “new” sides of technology. In elementary school, I would store school assignments on floppy disks; in middle school, I made the transition to flash drives; and in high school, I started using cloud storage. I have lived the experience of wandering around my school’s library searching, [...]
Though we rely on computer code nearly every hour of every day, many of us take programming for granted, thinking that since we’re computer literate and can use software, that’s all we need to know about it. But those working behind the scenes are the ones making our computer literacy possible, and there is a growing need for them in our technologically advanced [...]
Is America’s school system equipped to appropriately challenge both native English speakers and English language learners (ELLs) alike? Statistics on United States student enrollment indicate that, in the 2011–12 school year, the number of ELLs in the public school system made up 9.1 percent of total students. Likewise, the number of ELLs grew by 53.2 percent from 1997–2008 [PDF link]. Furthermore, it is nationally projected that [...]