“Pick out any book you want.” These are the words my preschool tutor said to me when I was seven years old and still couldn’t read. My mom had already tried everything: flashcards, bedtime stories and several programs promising increased literacy in young children. But all of them ended with me sitting on the floor still trying to pronounce banana while flashcards and [...]
Question everything is a principle to live by--and to learn by. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) promote inquiry-based education, thrusting students into a hands-on relationship with their education. This is a great power and responsibility, but luckily the students have help. Every school has a secret resource, trained to support students and teachers alike. Who is this mysterious superhero? The school librarian, [...]
In the third grade my understanding of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien boiled down to a shoebox diorama of Smaug the dragon sitting on his pile of treasure. At nine years old, I had no idea of the enduring success of this epic tale and the trilogy it spawned. Back then I was busy imagining a [...]
It’s 8 a.m. and you’re teaching to a room packed with 60 students. Most of them are hiding in the back with slumped bodies and eyes that you still haven’t made contact with because they’re nearly closed. As you try to engage them in talk that they’re not even going to remember about a war or scientific discovery, some of the students are [...]
Back when I was in middle school, some fancy Texas Instruments 83 calculators were purchased for our math classes. The best thing about these calculators was that they had a bigger screen than other calculators along with a keyboard setting. Naturally, my friends and I spent more time passing notes on our calculators than we did graphing functions. Today, math students at Lincoln [...]
Tablets are used in many classrooms today, as they can put a number of highly effective learning resources literally at students’ fingertips. The versatility and mobility of the device allows it to supplement most educational environments. Tablets can provide access to global content, allowing teachers to show students on a more interactive level the content of their lessons—perhaps a history teacher can pull [...]
In a world that is becoming increasingly dependent on technology and the Internet, it should not come as a surprise when parts of our lives that we take for granted become more computer based. When I was in elementary and middle school, I used computers only for very basic things, such as games and word processing, and I hardly used our dial-up Internet [...]
One of my most powerful memories from my childhood is of going to the doctor for my preschool checkup, where a nurse pricked my finger for a blood test. The room was cold, the nurse was less than friendly, and I have since developed an intense fear of medical professionals. An article in The New York Times reports that I am not alone in my [...]
Actors turned singers, turned models, turned . . . authors? There are several names in Hollywood that have become associated with the world of literature, including well-known actors such as Steve Martin, Woody Allen, Carrie Fisher and, as a previous blog on this topic covered, Julie Andrews. Working at a bookstore has allowed me to discover a fair share of actor-authors, some presumably [...]
While health problems have been the major concern of recent studies in childhood obesity, new issues have begun to surface. Several research teams have come to the general conclusion that obese students, particularly girls, are more likely to achieve lower test scores or be held back a grade and are less likely to go on to college than peers at a healthier weight. [...]