The Air Force Collaboratory Why Is It So Hard to Change How We Teach Math? Teaching Strategies Educators have been talking about changing the traditional way of teaching math for a long time, but nothing seems to change. Elizabeth Green’s New York Times Magazine article digs into why it has been so hard for U.S schools to effectively implement changes to math pedagogy, and just how far American students have fallen behind as a result. A lot of it comes down to ensuring teachers are comfortable with the new methods, she writes: “In fact, efforts to introduce a better way of teaching math stretch back to the 1800s. Related Explore: Common Core State Standards, math
Freebies for Science Teachers GeneEd Added: Jul 14, 2017 Revisit the National Library of Medicine’s GeneEd for new resources. To access the new materials, click on the Topics tab, go to Top Issues in Genetics, and select the links Genetics, Behavior and Identity, or Precision Medicine. Students most effectively math working on problems that they enjoy, not drills or exercises Students learn math best when they approach the subject as something they enjoy, according to a Stanford education expert. Speed pressure, timed testing and blind memorization pose high hurdles in the youthful pursuit of math. "There is a common and damaging misconception in mathematics – the idea that strong math students are fast math students," said Jo Boaler, a Stanford professor of mathematics education and the lead author on a new working paper. Boaler's co-authors are Cathy Williams, cofounder of Stanford's YouCubed, and Amanda Confer, a Stanford graduate student in education. Curriculum timely Fortunately, said Boaler, the new national curriculum standards known as the Common Core Standards for K-12 schools de-emphasize the rote memorization of math facts. While research shows that knowledge of math facts is important, Boaler said the best way for students to know math facts is by using them regularly and developing understanding of numerical relations. Role of the brain
Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains iStock By NPR Staff Teens can’t control impulses and make rapid, smart decisions like adults can — but why? Research into how the human brain develops helps explain. In a teenager, the frontal lobe of the brain, which controls decision-making, is built but not fully insulated — so signals move slowly. “Teenagers are not as readily able to access their frontal lobe to say, ‘Oh, I better not do this,’ ” Dr. Jensen, who’s a neuroscientist and was a single mother of two boys who are now in their 20s, wrote The Teenage Brain to explore the science of how the brain grows — and why teenagers can be especially impulsive, moody and not very good at responsible decision-making. “We have a natural insulation … called myelin,” she says. This insulation process starts in the back of the brain and heads toward the front. “The last place to be connected — to be fully myelinated — is the front of your brain,” Jensen says. Interview Highlights On why teenagers are more prone to addiction Copyright 2015 NPR.
Americans’ increasing distrust of science — and not just on climate change Albert Einstein delivers a lecture at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the auditorium of the Carnegie Institute of Technology Little Theater at Pittsburgh on Dec. 28, 1934. (AP) Eight in 10 Americans believe science has made life better for most people, but they still don't trust scientists — and/or aren't aware of their consensus — on many of the most important science-related issues of the day. And that goes for far more than just climate change. And it includes plenty of Democrats too. A new Pew study comparing the attitudes of scientists and the public shows wide gaps between the two when it comes to climate, food that uses genetically modified organisms and pesticides, research using animals, and also the threat posed by the fast-growing world population. There's an even bigger gap when it comes to GMOs. Chris Mooney has more details. And actually, on some of these issues, Republicans are more in line with scientists.
Failing Forward: 21 Ideas To Use It In Your Classroom Failing Forward: 21 Ideas To Help Students Keep Their Momentum by Terry Heick “Failing Forward” is a relatively recent entry into our cultural lexicon–at least as far has headlines go anyway–that has utility for students and teachers. Popularized from the book of the same name, the idea behind failing forward is to see failing as a part of success rather than its opposite. So what might this look like in your classroom? Failing Forward In The Classroom: 21 Ideas To Help Students Keep Their Momentum 1. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “Your design work on the app blueprint is coming along nicely. 2. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “Your first two drafts didn’t work so well, huh? 3. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “How did your audience respond to your ideas? 4. How does this promote failing forward? 5. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “This essay was well-conceived; loved the clear purpose here, so you got full points for your initial execution.
For Students, the Importance of Doing Work That Matters MartinaK15 By Will Richardson We’re halfway to school when my 14-year-old son remembers a homework assignment he forgot to do for biology class. “Something big?” It’s happened before, many times, in fact, that “it doesn’t matter” response when it comes to work both of my kids are doing in school. That’s an especially frustrating reality for me because in my travels to schools around the world I see lots of examples of “work that matters”; high school kids in Philadelphia designing solar panels for hospitals in the African bush; middle school kids in San Diego writing books about their local ecosystems and selling them in local stores; primary school kids designing a new classroom wing being built at their school outside of Melbourne, Australia. “Work that matters” has significance beyond classroom walls; it’s work that is created for an authentic audience who might enjoy it or benefit from it even in a small way. Are these kids outliers? Still, we can start small, can’t we?
What Students Really Need to Hear | affectiveliving It’s 4 a.m. I’ve struggled for the last hour to go to sleep. But, I can’t. Yet again, I am tossing and turning, unable to shut down my brain. Why? Because I am stressed about my students. This is what students really need to hear: First, you need to know right now that I care about you. Here’s the thing: I lose sleep because of you. Before I tell you why, you should understand the truth about school. The main event is learning how to deal with the harshness of life when it gets difficult — how to overcome problems as simple as a forgotten locker combination, to obnoxious peers, to gossip, to people doubting you, to asking for help in the face of self-doubt, to pushing yourself to concentrate when a million other thoughts and temptations are fingertips away. It is your resilience in conquering the main event — adversity — that truly prepares you for life after school. But, you shouldn’t be worried about the fact that you will face great adversities. So, do yourself a favor: Step up. – C.
Are Your Students Engaged? Don’t Be So Sure By David Price It might be time we re-thought student engagement. Are we measuring the right things? Are we taking disengagement seriously enough? January is a time for resolutions. Perhaps educators, in 2014, need to resolve to better understand student engagement, challenge the myths around it, and make it a higher priority in their relationships with students. Let’s deal with the issue of the importance of engagement first. But for these findings to translate into actions, we have to re-think what we mean by engagement. Myth #1: “I can see when my students are engaged.” Don’t be so sure. “But why didn’t any of your teachers spot this?” He replied, “I learned how to fall asleep with my eyes open.” Students are learning to modify their behavior in class so that they appear to be engaged while, in reality, they’ve intellectually checked-out. Myth #2 : “They must be engaged — look at their test scores!” Myth #3 : “They must be engaged — they’re having fun.”
Feast Your Eyes on This Beautiful Linguistic Family Tree 552K 18.4KShare337 When linguists talk about the historical relationship between languages, they use a tree metaphor. An ancient source (say, Indo-European) has various branches (e.g., Romance, Germanic), which themselves have branches (West Germanic, North Germanic), which feed into specific languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian). Lessons on language families are often illustrated with a simple tree diagram that has all the information but lacks imagination. Also worth checking out is the page before the tree, where she gives a comparison chart of words in the Nordic languages, and illustrates what an outlier Finnish is with the concept of “meow.” You can order a poster version here. October 23, 2014 - 5:00pm ©2016 Mental Floss, Inc.
Save Teacher Weekends: 6 Ways to Spend Less Time Grading Essays Recently, one of the teachers on our Facebook page asked the age-old question: "How do y'all deal with grading papers?" It's hard to get through even two-page papers quickly when you have 80 of them. Or 100. It's never going to be a walk on the beach, but it can get easier, especially with a little advice from experienced middle and high school teachers. #1 Focus, Focus, Focus. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Ten Websites for Science Teachers We all know that the web is full of excellent web resources for science teachers and students. However, unless you live on the web, finding the best websites can become quite a challenge. This isn't a "Top Ten" list -- instead, it is a list of websites that I either use on a regular basis or just find interesting. From teaching resources for the nature of science and authentic field journals to wacky videos about numbers, I am sure that you will find something in the following list the works for you! Please share your favorite science web resources in the comment section! 1) Understanding Science UC Berkeley's Understanding Science website is a "must use" for all science teachers. 2) Field Research Journals The Field Book Project from the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Archives intends to create a "one stop" archive for field research journals and other documentation. 3) Evolution 4) PhET Simulations 5) Earth Exploration 6) EdHead Interactives video