Education is a means of shaping an individual’s life, whether in the classroom or outside of it. It imparts historical, societal, and cultural knowledge, as well as critical thinking skills, and, often, an improved ability to approach unfamiliar situations and subjects rationally and with an open mind. Throughout history, scholars and philosophers have debated the … Continue reading “History of Education: The Purpose of Education (A Reflection)”
Tag: classroom
Improving Reading and Writing Skills
In a recent Education Week post, Mike Schmoker described three key elements for teachers to use to impart core literacy skills to their students: purposeful reading, discussion, and writing. He advocated for 90-120 minutes engagement each day, spread throughout the curriculum. To understand just what this means for classroom instruction, let’s examine the three skills, … Continue reading “Improving Reading and Writing Skills”
How Journalists Can Strengthen Teacher-Oriented Reporting
There’s no question that journalists can influence public perception by what they report and how they report it. Public Agenda, a democracy-focused research and action organization wanted to understand how journalists have portrayed teachers over the years and if those portrayals have changed. To accomplish this, they analyzed a random sample of over 2,300 news … Continue reading “How Journalists Can Strengthen Teacher-Oriented Reporting”
Technology Trends in the Classroom
Common Sense Education released their report “The common sense census: Inside the 21st-century classroom” in 2019. Their results were based on a survey of 1,200 US K-12 teachers to explore “what it takes to support teachers and prepare students as schools navigate the growing presence of technology.” The completed report breaks down how teachers, primarily … Continue reading “Technology Trends in the Classroom”
Home Is Where Children’s Reading Skills Start to Develop
The On Track study performed at the Norwegian Reading Centre at the University of Stavanger found a strong connection between a child’s home reading environment from the time they’re very young and the progress that child makes in learning to read and learning to read better when they’re in school.[1] Study researcher Vibeke Bergersen indicated … Continue reading “Home Is Where Children’s Reading Skills Start to Develop”
Savvy Strategies for Integrating Technology into the Classroom
In a past blog post, we described the efforts of teachers trying to integrate technology and technological tools into their classrooms. Then came the pandemic, with an abrupt shift to distance learning that, by definition, was technology-dependent and a game-changing experience. Now our knowledge of educational technology has skyrocketed, along with a host of strategies we … Continue reading “Savvy Strategies for Integrating Technology into the Classroom”
Challenges Facing Returning to In-Person Instruction
In its August 3, 2021 blog post, Education Week asked a number of teachers the following question: “What do you think will be some of the challenges for teachers who might be returning to the physical classroom for the first time in a year and a half, and what are your ideas for how they … Continue reading “Challenges Facing Returning to In-Person Instruction”
eLearning and Knowledge Acquisition
eLearning, while once a limited force in education, has moved into the mainstream, and is poised to become a leading part the future, in large part because of the necessity of remote instruction during the pandemic. Students are also becoming more immersed in the online environment outside of the classroom, with increasing social media outlets, … Continue reading “eLearning and Knowledge Acquisition”
Teaching Reading in a Digital Age
Reading has changed dramatically over the past decade or so, with the inclusion of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, eBooks, multimedia websites, and social media. The big questions are, though, has the way we teach reading changed with their introduction, and what should teachers be doing to help prepare students for the complexity of modern … Continue reading “Teaching Reading in a Digital Age”
Learning when to Change Your Mind and when Not To
All knowledge builds upon knowledge that came before, and new knowledge often requires a change of thought. For example, the status of a scientific theory must change and grow when new data become available from additional tests of that theory. In her article “Learning Means Changing Your Mind,” Katherine Burd argues that, in the classroom, … Continue reading “Learning when to Change Your Mind and when Not To”