When a New Hampshire district found itself struggling with low test scores and high turnover, it made a radical decision: Flip the traditional model and let kids take over the classrooms.
Source: What Happens When Students Control Their Own Education? – The Atlantic
A multi year process, with a goal of more than just higher test scores.
For many middle– and high-school students, giving an in-class presentation was a rite of passage. Teachers would call up students, one by one, to present their work in front of the class and, though it was often nerve-racking, many people claim it helped turn them into more confident public speakers. “Coming from somebody with severe anxiety,…
Thinking takes real effort. It requires sustained attention. Scientists have known for some time that focusing your mind consumes considerable metabolic resources. But in our day-to-day lives, we discount the effort needed to pay attention and think because it doesn’t feel as physically strenuous as, say, lifting a 50-pound weight. Source: To Avoid Thinking Hard, We Will Endure…
In an open letter to Apple, two of its major shareholders, Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have raised concerns about research that suggests young people are becoming “addicted” to high-tech devices like the iPhone and iPad, and the software that runs on them. It asks the company to take a number of…
What do you do when you are stuck working the overnight shift at a hospital reception desk? You become an expert in Microsoft Paint. Turns out, sometimes our resistance to learn something new and master a new skill can lead to something pretty amazing. Pat Hines, who couldn’t be bothered to learn Photoshop and illustrated…
Think of it this way: Before heading down a ski slope, skiers see clear symbols indicating the degree of difficulty they’ll encounter, from green “beginner” circles to “check your life insurance first” double black diamonds. Wouldn’t it change the way parents saw schools and interpreted grades if they had a similarly simple indication of the…
During the 2015-16 school year, I visited schools across the nation to see how technology can transform teaching and learning. The changes I’ve seen have been exciting, meaningful, and more often than not, challenging to get right. The “digital divide” is still very real. In places like Eminence, Kentucky, we’ve seen how creative school leaders have found…