Great Books For Middle Schoolers | Chicago Public Library | BiblioCommons. Happy Mother's Day! 7 Research-Backed Ways to Raise Kids Right. I’ve posted about the research behind happy families and solid marriages, but what does science say about good parenting skills? Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman do an excellent job of rounding up the latest research in their book, NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children. Here are my highlights: 1) Praise Kids For Effort, Not Smarts Praise kids for something they can easily control — the amount of effort they put in.
This teaches them to persist and that improvement is possible. Via NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children: “Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control,” she explains. But praising too often can be a problem. If a child’s persistence is based only on rewards like praise; when the praise stops, the effort stops. Best thing to do? “The key is intermittent reinforcement,” says Cloninger. 2) Make Sure They Get Their Sleep Losing an hour of sleep reduces your sixth-grader’s intelligence to that of a fourth-grader. The effect was indeed measurable—and sizeable. ABET - Short Film ‘Just Breathe’ Helps Kids Deal with Emotions | Amy Poehler's Smart Girls. We all live, first and foremost, on the inside of our human bodies. But that doesn’t mean that rich inner life we all have doesn’t project itself outward into the everyday world. Quite the opposite: our emotional responses are hard to navigate at any age.
Figuring out how and what you are physically feeling is particularly challenging when you’re feeling things like rage, sadness, disgust, and confusion for the first time. Heck, this particular Smart Girl is 29-years-old and I still have a hard time understanding what it all means. Sometimes, though, the best thing to do is just breathe. Which is exactly what’s at the heart of the matter in this short from filmmakers Julie Bayer Salzman and Josh Salzman titled “Just Breathe.” The Science of Why Compassion Works: It’s in the ACE’s | Academic Coaching, Tutoring and Teen Life Coaching.
The Center for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente ran the initial ACE study from 1995-1997, and the results were astounding. More than 17,000 middle and upper-middle class people from San Diego answered 10 questions about childhood stressors they had experienced, and their results showed an undeniable correlation between childhood toxic stress and adult chronic diseases. The ACE study showed that the more Adverse Childhood Experiences a person had, the higher their rate for a shocking array of negative health consequences as an adult, such as: heart diseaselung cancerdiabetesobesityautoimmune diseasesdepressionviolencebeing a victim of violencesuicide What are Adverse Childhood Experiences?
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are toxic stressors in childhood that include experiencing any of these things before age 18: verbal abuse • physical abuse • sexual abuse • emotional neglect • physical neglect • abandonment (including parental divorce) Brandon likes things - Bill Nye the Science Guy. The Corrosive Cult of Compliance in Our Schools. Kayleb Moon-Robinson is a 12-year-old boy who lives in Virginia. One day at school, he kicked a trash can and was charged with disorderly conduct in juvenile court. A few weeks later, he disobeyed a new rule (made just for him) that he stay behind in the classroom while his peers left. When the school resource officer (SRO) arrived to take him to the principal’s office for disobedience, Kayleb reportedly struggled and swore.
The officer allegedly slammed the boy down on a desk and handcuffed him. Kayleb is now being charged with felony assault on a police officer, and his future is very much in doubt. Kayleb is autistic and African-American. Kayleb’s story has become national news, thanks to a new report from the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Center for Public Integrity. These cases of arrest and restraint are just the ugliest and most visible ways that children who are different get excluded. There are two major factors at work. Charles A. 12 Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free. By: Marc Chernoff All education is self-education.
Period. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a college classroom or a coffee shop. We don’t learn anything we don’t want to learn. Those people who take the time and initiative to pursue knowledge on their own are the only ones who earn a real education in this world. Take a look at any widely acclaimed scholar, entrepreneur or historical figure you can think of. Formal education or not, you’ll find that he or she is a product of continuous self-education. If you’re interested in learning something new, this article is for you. Note that some of the sources overlap between various subjects of education. Science and Health MIT OpenCourseWare – MIT OpenCourseWare is a free web-based publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT. Business and Money History and World Culture Law Computer Science and Engineering. Why kids are getting more aggressive on the playground. Letter from PS 321 Teachers. And then, using these numbers, any teacher who is rated ineffective two years in a row can be fired.
Liz might have no say in this. So what might that do to PS 321? Realistically, many of us could be fired. Every year. Here’s something parents need to understand. That may sound patently absurd. If Governor Cuomo’s evaluation proposals come to pass, it might start to happen more and more. That is why so many schools in NYC spend so much time prepping for the tests. Faced with these changes, we’ve already been hearing from so many of our colleagues from across the city and state who will be forced to do more test prep. The Lowdown on Longhand: How Writing by Hand Benefits the Brain. My Catholic school third grade teacher was extremely tough on me. Her biggest gripe was my handwriting, which looks more like an EKG scan than penmanship. For years, I harbored not-so-fond memories of her, but now I know that her strictness about penmanship was actually helping my brain develop. Recently, scientists have shown that longhand writing benefits the brain.
Today, cursive writing is becoming a lost art as note taking with laptops becomes more and more prominent in classrooms. There has been much debate on the use of laptops for note taking in classrooms. So in this age of technology, I'm suggesting that students take notes with paper and pen. A Plea for Penmanship When students take notes with their laptops, they tend to mindlessly transcribe the data word for word, like speech-to-text software. Now, I'll be the first to say that longhand writing is so 19th century. The Pen is Mightier All this begs the question of how we can incorporate longhand in a digital age. Student Has Amazing Breakthrough By Doing What Teacher Says | Throwcase. John Man is a young violinist who has been struggling for years to overcome his limitations as a musician.
Though graced with some talent and a degree of innate musicality, Man has always found it difficult to play with the sort of polish and professional mastery shown by his colleagues. “I tried just playing the way I want over and over and over again, hoping that it would get better,” he said. “It never did! It was like, the more I played it the same way the more it would sound the same. What could I do?” Finally, out of sheer desperation, Man started doing what his teacher had been telling him to do in every lesson for the past five years. We spoke to Man’s teacher, Dorothy Schnupsky, whose teaching philosophy revolves around a concept she calls The Job. Man also took inspiration from his roommate Bob Guy, who is studying to be a doctor. Man is very pleased that he no longer needs to use his old system of learning things, which he called The System.
A veteran teacher turned coach shadows 2 students for 2 days – a sobering lesson learned. The following account comes from a veteran HS teacher who just became a Coach in her building. Because her experience is so vivid and sobering I have kept her identity anonymous. But nothing she describes is any different than my own experience in sitting in HS classes for long periods of time. And this report of course accords fully with the results of our student surveys. I have made a terrible mistake. I waited fourteen years to do something that I should have done my first year of teaching: shadow a student for a day.
This is the first year I am working in a school but not teaching my own classes; I am the High School Learning Coach, a new position for the school this year. As part of getting my feet wet, my principal suggested I “be” a student for two days: I was to shadow and complete all the work of a 10th grade student on one day and to do the same for a 12th grade student on another day. The schedule that day for the 10th grade student: 7:45 – 9:15: Geometry 10:55 – 11:40: Lunch. How Reading Logs Can Kill The Love Of Reading.
It is well documented that the benefits of regular reading are profound. Studies have shown that reading improves everything from a person’s language, academic, speech, communication, and writing skills to reducing stress, improving concentration, expanding vocabulary, and allowing us to be lost in another world. Reading is relaxing entertainment that grows brains! Given the power of this one activity to significantly change a person’s life, it is not surprising that teachers try to encourage their students to read by asking them to complete reading logs. Unfortunately, though, with a teacher’s good intentions notwithstanding, forcing a person to complete a reading log can actually do the opposite of what it is intended to do.
Reading logs can make children want to stop reading. Here’s why. There’s this phenomenon that happens in a person’s mind called counterwill. Counterwill is a resistance force—it makes us do the opposite of what we are being told to do. Firstly, don’t force it. Defending the Early Years | Working to support and nurture the rights and needs of young children.
Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today. The Centers for Disease Control tells us that in recent years there has been a jump in the percentage of young people diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD: 7.8 percent in 2003 to 9.5 percent in 2007 and to 11 percent in 2011. The reasons for the rise are multiple, and include changes in diagnostic criteria, medication treatment and more awareness of the condition. In the following post, Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist and the founder of TimberNook, a nature-based development program designed to foster creativity and independent play outdoors in New England, suggests yet another reason more children are being diagnosed with ADHD, whether or not they really have it: the amount of time kids are forced to sit while they are in school.
This appeared on the TimberNook blog. State-based Prevalence Data of ADHD Diagnosis (2011-2012): Children CURRENTLY diagnosed with ADHD (Centers for Disease Control) By Angela Hanscom. The 6 Worst Things People Say to or Around Kids - My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me - Karl Taro Greenfeld. What happens when a father, alarmed by his 13-year-old daughter's nightly workload, tries to do her homework for a week Charles Gullung Memorization, not rationalization. That is the advice of my 13-year-old daughter, Esmee, as I struggle to make sense of a paragraph of notes for an upcoming Earth Science test on minerals.
“Minerals have crystal systems which are defined by the # of axis and the length of the axis that intersect the crystal faces.” Esmee is in the eighth grade at the NYC Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies, a selective public school in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Some evenings, when we force her to go to bed, she will pretend to go to sleep and then get back up and continue to do homework for another hour. I wonder: What is the exact nature of the work that is turning her into a sleep-deprived teen zombie so many mornings? I decide to do my daughter’s homework for one typical week. Monday So I am relieved when she tells me she doesn’t have much tonight. Scientists Say Child's Play Helps Build A Better Brain : NPR Ed. Deion Jefferson, 10, and Samuel Jefferson, 7, take turns climbing and jumping off a stack of old tires at the Berkeley Adventure Playground in California.
The playground is a half-acre park with a junkyard feel where kids are encouraged to "play wild. " David Gilkey/NPR hide caption itoggle captionDavid Gilkey/NPR Deion Jefferson, 10, and Samuel Jefferson, 7, take turns climbing and jumping off a stack of old tires at the Berkeley Adventure Playground in California. The playground is a half-acre park with a junkyard feel where kids are encouraged to "play wild. " David Gilkey/NPR This week, NPR Ed is focusing on questions about why people play and how play relates to learning. When it comes to brain development, time in the classroom may be less important than time on the playground. "The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain," says Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Learning From Animals. 5 Simple Office Policies That Make Danish Workers Way More Happy Than Americans.
You will often see Denmark listed in surveys as the "happiest country on the planet. " Interestingly Danes are not only happy at home, they're also happy at work. According to most studies of worker satisfaction among nations, the happiest employees in the world are in Denmark. The U.S.? Not so much. Here's just one data point: a recent Gallup poll found that 18% of American workers are actively disengaged, meaning they are "emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive. " The same number for Danish workers is only 10%. But why are Danish workers so happy compared to their American counterparts?
1: Reasonable working hours I once talked to an American who had gotten a job as a manager at a Danish company. Some non-Danes wonder if Danes ever work. The difference in the U.S. is stark, and many American companies celebrate overwork as a sign of commitment. 2: Low power distance In the U.S., if your boss gives you an order, you pretty much do what you're told. Summary Path to a Better Future.pdf. This 14-Year-Old Girl's Already Got Colleges Asking After Her, All Thanks To Her Unexpected Hobby.
Are Multiplayer Games the Future of Education? - Melanie Plenda. A new classroom approach tries to bring more competition into the classroom. It was just supposed to be a quick trip to Beijing, a touristy group thing to take in the sights. It wasn't supposed to go down like this. There wasn't supposed to be a lost manuscript; the travelers weren't supposed to turn on each other. The only good, if any, to be found in this godforsaken quest, this unholy mission, was that by the end of it, they would all know how to speak Mandarin. This intricate Maltese Falcon-like story will unfold each day, over the course of semester, as a multiplayer game at Renssalear Polytechnic Institute in New York.
It is being designed as a language-learning exercise by Lee Sheldon, an associate professor in the college's Games and Simulations Arts and Sciences Program. Sheldon is the founder of gamification, a new movement that essentially takes all the things that make video games engaging and applies them to classroom learning. Sheldon discovered gamification by accident. Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today. Can Free Play Prevent Depression and Anxiety In Kids? For Students, the Importance of Doing Work That Matters. Can Free Play Prevent Depression and Anxiety In Kids? One third of adults with dyslexia report they were physically abused during their childhood. Heavily Decorated Classrooms Disrupt Attention and Learning In Young Children, According To New Carnegie Mellon Research-Carnegie Mellon News.
I Knew Education Was Important, But This Blew Me Away. Education Week. Embracing a Different Way to Learn | Jonathan M. Brand. A Fascinating Way to Put a Stop to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Black Children. New York Has the Trippiest Reading Exams. The Overprotected Kid. The Power of a Mindful Minute in Schools (and at Home)
Public Libraries Are Better Than Congress, Baseball, and Apple Pie, Say Americans - Robinson Meyer. College Home Pages. The Operating Model That Is Eating The World — on management. He Operating Model That Is Eating The World — on management — Medium. The Worry That Your Unschooler Isn't Learning What He Should Be Learning. Unschoolery. Two decades of work at Yale prove emotions matter in the classroom. The Surprisingly Simple Change That Totally Turned One School Around. Want To Create A Great Education System? Just Do The Opposite Of What America Does. By the Numbers: Dropping Out of High School | Dropout Nation | FRONTLINE.
The secret to fixing school discipline problems? Change the behavior of adults « ACEs Too High. My 6th Grade Science Teacher Hated My Guts -- Study Shows Yours Probably Did, Too. Doodling Is Good For Your Noodle. Listening to music in the classroom. 5 Things It Turns Out You Were Right to Hate About School. Effects of Bullying Last Into Adulthood, Study Finds.
Education Web tools. Huge Education Websites. Education politics. College & careers. Poetry. Positive Discipline. Iphone ipod education apps. Grammar. Study websites. Cal Newport. 10000 hours. Learning from Wonderful Lives - N. V. K. Baylis. Younglives.com - "How to achieve your goals in life and how to enjoy the journey." Video shows how Walla Walla, WA, high school integrates resilience into school discipline « ACEs Too High. Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — expulsions drop 85% « ACEs Too High.