tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7186797.post8405943128812256961..comments2023-12-29T05:24:43.830-06:00Comments on Kay Brooks: Education 2.0Kay Brookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06073075957511329333noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7186797.post-6306289758467067772007-01-02T01:01:00.000-06:002007-01-02T01:01:00.000-06:00The cost per pupil is rising, but that is due to i...The cost per pupil is rising, but that is due to inflation. Reading scores are rising slightly; there is progress. So, what's the problem?<br /><br />Most of the problems that educators and parents face are the negative media influence upon the lives of students. Although parents are responsible for their child's media intake, many parents are also negatively influenced by media. Therefore, there children continue the cycle of juvenile delinquency while media giants such as Viacom make money.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7186797.post-33054474171635550492006-12-19T17:09:00.000-06:002006-12-19T17:09:00.000-06:00This proposal is exciting. These kinds of proposal...This proposal is exciting. These kinds of proposals won’t only shorten a “jail sentence” by 2 years, but can transform the educational system to one that students find more relevant and meaningful. This is a great plan in many ways.<br /><br />Here’s a take from Time magazine’s article about the report:<br /><br /><i>For the past five years, the national conversation on education has focused on reading scores, math tests, and closing the “achievement gap” between social classes. This is not a story about that conversation. This is a story about how the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction of our children get “left behind” but about whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak another language than English…. While that report includes some controversial proposals, there is nonetheless a remarkable consensus among educators and business and policy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 21st Century. </i><br /><br />It is all thinking outside the box… and that box at the top of your entry, while relevant, becomes part of the problem with the hyper focus on standardized, minimal skills testing. The measures have their place, to be sure, but when the measurement itself becomes the goal as it has in the last decade, (and when the measurement itself is an easily manipulated, poorly constructed minimal skills assessment), I can understand why many students feel like they are in a jail sentence. <br /><br />This report, if heeded, will get educators to focus on authentic learning, which includes reading, but much more, and can be more individualized, so fewer students get bored waiting for the laggards. We need to prepare students for the rest of their lives, not merely for a multiple choice test. This group gets that. These reforms are going to be tough for those who get their understanding of public education from the boxes in The Tennessean, but if more educators can start thinking outside the box, shouldn’t we be able to expect the rest of the public to as well?<br /><br />This is what many of us have been waiting for, and it reminds me of something I read recently:<br /><br /><i>in insisting that achievement not be gained at the cost of real learning: learning that is both challenging, lasting, and fun. School should be a positive and nurturing environment where children learn to love learning, and where teachers are given the resources and the freedom they need to foster that kind of environment. </i> <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nashvilleptotalk/">1</a><br /><br />I’d tell you <a href= "http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EGSPC&t=my">why</a> I disagree with my national union’s president on pensions being the only retirement package option, but I’ve got to go write some test questions. Maybe you’ll blog specifically on that sometime and I’ll get a chance to respond.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com