I distinctly remember taking the ACT my junior year of high school. I had signed up late, so my dad and I had to drive to a school nearly an hour away because it was the only available testing site left. I was exhausted from all the ordinary stresses of junior year, and I was sick with a head cold that made everything [...]
When I was in high school, I had a forensics teacher who spent a majority of his time nagging the administration to implement a new system for learning. It involved giving each student a laptop. “Too costly,” they would say, “This plan isn’t good enough, detailed enough, etc.” I know this because he used to vent to our class about the situation, and [...]
Growing up in the Midwest, I took some form of state assessment every year from third through eighth grade and another set of tests throughout high school. My peers and I knew how we ranked against each other in almost every subject—but only within the state of Kansas. Our assessments were different from those given in any other state, making it difficult to [...]
What constitutes a genius? Is it someone who can think and discover revolutionary theories, like Albert Einstein? Or is it someone who can paint and sketch legendary conceptions and ideas far beyond their time, like Leonardo da Vinci? One thing seems to be clear: Genius necessitates creativity, and creativity can be found in everyone. In schools, a creative concept called “genius hour,” an integrated [...]
As a child, I spent almost every day at the library, especially during the summer. While part of it stemmed from my addiction to reading, the main draw for me was the library’s many programs. Each summer, the library followed a theme that included a suggested reading list for all ages, fun raffle prizes and programs that ranged from the usual sing–alongs and [...]
For hundreds of years, students in the United States who didn’t quite fit the mold often received no education at all or were even institutionalized. Even after the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA or EHA) in the 1970s, many youngsters slipped through the cracks and did not receive an adequate education. Overhauls in recent years, most notably No Child Left Behind [...]
Education was very important in my house when I was growing up. My mother went to college and was a first–grade teacher. My father went into the US Navy and then became a machinist, eventually owning his own machine shop. Nevertheless, even though one parent was a college graduate and one was not, there was never any question in our household that my [...]
Zombies! What comes to mind? AMC’s The Walking Dead? The Resident Evil franchise? Education? Personally, I imagine the rotting flesh and deep groans of humans who now walk the Earth (extremely slowly) as the undead—acting on one impulse: to satisfy their ravenous appetite for human flesh. But, surprisingly, it is scenarios like this that are proving essential in teaching college classes about survival and human preparedness [...]
Rachael Barron is a science teacher at Wakefield Memorial High School in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Rachael teaches AP Biology, Honors Genetics and Microbiology, College Prep Anatomy & Physiology, and College Prep Introduction to the Physical and Life Sciences. Rachael holds a bachelor of science in biology with a minor in education from Brandeis University. She earned her master of arts in teaching biology from [...]
It has now been over a year since the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were finalized in April 2013. While 26 states actively participated in the development of the standards (the NGSS official site calls them “lead state partners”), the adoption process has been slow and controversial. As of March 2014, the District of Columbia and just eleven states have accepted the standards: [...]