Xpeditions a National Geographic website with an interactive “museum” that takes you on geography journeys. Here you’ll climb a mountain, hover over the Earth, speed across Europe, visit an archeological dig, and even order sushi—plus games, animations, and more!
Thinkfinity.org is the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation's literacy, education and technology initiatives. Their goal is to improve student achievement in traditional classroom settings and beyond by providing high-quality content and extensive professional development training. This free, comprehensive digital learning platform is built upon the merger of two acclaimed programs Verizon MarcoPolo and the Thinkfinity Literacy Network.
Lifestyle will introduce children to the wonderful world of writing with four websites they will have fun exploring.
Articles to Read
Retaining Teacher Talent This article contains research from Learning Point Associates about teacher effectiveness. The studies probe teachers for their views on what makes and effective teacher.
Moms' Depression in Pregnancy Tied to Antisocial Behavior in Teens is a Science Daily article about a study with some surprising findings.
Physical Education to Valuable to Sacrifice to Budget Cuts an article by Besty Hurd from Saginaw Michigan explaining the importance of PE to a community that just cut those programs from their school.
Convergent Education (You have to subscribe to be able to read this article) is a special report from ESchool News about the growing schism between students use of technology and the way schools want them to learn.
In short, students no longer are limited to learning only in classrooms under the tutelage of certified instructors during designated school hours–and this change has profound implications for educators.Thoughts From Yrisarri
There has been much in the news lately about evaluating teachers as a core principle for educational reform. Much of the discussion is politically driven as part of an effort to challenge educational unions and some of it comes from corporate effectiveness models. All of this discussion leads one to believe the schools are full of bad teachers that we can not get rid of and that effective teachers have students with high test scores. Evaluating teachers is an important aspect of the job and I have certainly met some who should not be teaching. That does not mean we should develop narrow prescriptive tools for evaluation purposes.
But what is an effective teacher and who determines which teachers are effective?
Our new policy makers want to create a one size fits all test for effective teachers, student achievement on standardized tests. If your students aren’t performing well on those tests you lose your job; if they are doing well you get a bonus. This seems to me to be a narrow approach to a complex situation. If that is all it takes to be an effective teacher let us just put all the kids on computers and let them study for the tests!
Teaching is a combination of skills and artistry that takes time to develop and should be measured in a more responsible manner. Teachers must motivate groups of children and differentiate their learning to match their developmental needs. Students are not products to be formed in molds but individuals with unique needs and wants to be counseled and given guidance. The effective teacher connects with their students and helps each one to reach their potential.
Measuring a teachers effectiveness has to be done in the context of the community. This does not mean we should not hold all learners to high standards, just that what is a high standard to some is not perceived to be so by others. Expectations need to be realistic from student to student, school to school and community to community. Teachers should not be judged in isolation, but as part of a team. All the teachers who teach a child are responsible for his or her education, not just the teacher being evaluated.
If the aim of education is to develop learners into effective and productive citizens, you may not be able to evaluate a teacher until the students are adults and in the workplace. Shouldn’t we expect our schools to develop healthy, happy adults who love to learn? That is what I expect. How do you measure a teachers ability to do that?
Sometimes things teachers do are not immediately learned. How do yo measure the effectiveness of teachers who plant seeds that do not grow right away? There are teachers who develop the social emotional skills of their students, those are just as important for their future as academics, but not easy to measure. Are those bad teachers?
Why not allow the evaluation of teachers to be done by their customers, the community they serve? What if parents were allowed to choose their children’s teacher or even their children’s school? Wouldn’t that be a pretty good indicator of what the community views as a good teacher? How about allowing for peer review and student input? How about improving that the process for hiring educators to insure that dedicated competent individuals become our children’s teachers. Why not guarantee that a teacher can advance in salary and responsibility to insure better schools? There are many ideas for measuring and improving teacher effectiveness. Why do policy makers seem to be stuck on the narrow measure of teacher effectiveness based only on standardized testing?
Unfortunately education is under attack and has become highly politicized at the national and state levels. Fears about the future, wars against unions, calls for narrow agendas, and misunderstanding about what teachers do all contribute to a climate that causes us to look for scapegoats for what is perceived to be a deteriorating education system.
Evaluating our teachers is too important to allow policy makers and bureaucrats to create narrow systems of evaluation that measure only one aspect of a teacher’s work. If we want better schools, then we must expand the discussion about how we will evaluate the job our teachers do.
