Advanced Placement courses are on the rise in American schools. There are 37 courses in 22 subjects sponsored by the College Board being offered in high schools around the country as well as internationally. More than 450,000 students passed at least one AP course in 2009. The College Board boasts that Advanced Placement courses help students get a jump on college-level work and [...]
"For much of the last century, educators and many scientists believed that children could not learn math at all before the age of five, that their brains simply were not ready." When I read this in a recent New York Times article I was somewhat surprised to learn that this was the common belief among educators. Fortunately there is a rapidly growing base [...]
Growing up, my parents enforced the idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. One reason for that is that it is difficult to perform tasks, both physical and mental, without sufficient energy—which can come in the form of food. Even now, I have difficulty being productive if I have not had enough breakfast. But regardless of breakfast, the human [...]
My dad is an English teacher. He’s been teaching since the day I was born. When my dad started his career, things were different for both teachers and students. After nearly 30 years as the Andover High School English Department Head (yes, the very high school I attended), a move across the country and a short-lived “retirement phase,” my dad began teaching again. [...]
Classroom response systems (CRS), otherwise known as “clickers”, are gaining popularity in the K-12 market place. When they first hit the market, the higher ed space was targeted and textbook publishers bundled the clickers with individual textbooks. Now, these systems are being sold as site licenses and other custom arrangements to make it affordable for K-12 classrooms. Clickers are promoted as a way [...]
Is social networking harming students’ grades? The quick answer might be yes, because it distracts students from studying. And in fact, a 2009 study at The Ohio State University found that students who admitted logging onto Facebook several times a day to check status updates, correspond with friends and relatives, or join common-interest groups, had a GPA as much as a grade lower than non-users. [...]
A recent phenomenon known as the "Glee Effect" is taking this country’s school music programs by storm. Show choirs—song-and-dance troupes that saw their beginnings in the Midwest years ago—are quickly becoming the new groups in schools that everyone (or almost everyone) wants to join. These music groups have been gaining in popularity at many high schools across the country as a result of the popular [...]
I can still remember the packets elementary teachers handed out to us on the last day of school. Along with our report card, we were each given a long list of books, separated by grade level with a cover page: “Suggested Summer Reading.” Although other kids usually threw theirs into the garbage, or onto the floor of the bus, or simply left them [...]
The dip in the U.S. economy is having an effect on class sizes. As state revenues go down, the number of students in an average classroom is going up. As a result, classrooms across the country will be more crowded when school starts in the fall. A recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that 44 percent of school districts [...]
I only graduated high school two years ago, but my learning experience has already become outdated. In a classroom at Emerson College this past year, I was asked to use social media, much to my bewilderment. My professor set up a crowdsourcing website—a form of media I had never even heard of—for us to compile each day’s notes. Crowdsourcing has been used for many [...]