The New York Times offers up a piece about a New York City school that has put building background knowledge at the heart of its curriculum. P.S. 142, a school in lower Manhattan hard by the Williamsburg Bridge “has made real life experiences the center of academic lessons,” the paper notes, “in hopes of improving reading and math skills by broadening children’s frames of reference.”
“Experiences that are routine in middle-class homes are not for P.S. 142 children. When Dao Krings, a second-grade teacher, asked her students recently how many had never been inside a car, several, including Tyler Rodriguez, raised their hands. ‘I’ve been inside a bus,’ Tyler said. ‘Does that count?’”
This is not a Core Knowledge school, but the teachers and staff clearly understand the critical connection between background knowledge, vocabulary and language proficiency. The Times describes the schools “field trips to the sidewalk,” with children routinely visiting parking garages and auto body shops, or examining features of every day life.
“In early February the second graders went around the block to study Muni-Meters and parking signs. They learned new vocabulary wor
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It’s been a while since I done did write me a blog post but I swear I have a good reason.
Common Core. I’ve been diving in like a tourist at the Great Barrier Reef with a tank full of oxygen and a new pair of fins.
Wow, is there a lot to digest.
To begin with, I want to officially go on record stating that I am a BIG FAN of Common Core. My reasons will come – probably via a conversation that will take place through blog posts over the course of the next few, well… years, if ya really want to know – but let’s get it out there right now.
If Common Core had a Facebook page, I’d hit the “like” button. (Note: It appears Common Core does have a few FB pages… but none of them appear to be “official sites”.)
Now, do I have issues with CC? Yep, sure do. However, would it ever be possible for such an undertaking as this to become manifest if the designers of CC had to wait until everyone and their uncle was onboard? Of course not.
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When KCET site editor, Zach Behrens, wanted to expand his site’s geographic coverage range, he personally asked UC Riverside creative writing professor, Susan Straight, to write a blog. Not only is Straight the author of eight novels and numerous other publications, she holds a widely recognized interest in the history and culture of the Inland Empire, where she was born and has spent most of her life.
The blog title “Notes of a Native Daughter,” inspired by Straight’s interest in the works of Joan Didion and James Baldwin, hits the heart of what Straight’s blog actually is. From sheep to murals to oranges, her work contains the thoughtful images of someone who cares very much about her home and seeks to record its essence. Her articles are inspired by events in her own life—random bits of information she picks up on and chooses to investigate, childhood memories, sporadic drives around the desert—but the pieces come together to form an image of the Inland Empire itself and the people who live here. One article, “Twilight Gardening and Kite Fighting”, is based primarily upon a haphazard conversation with a neighbor, while another, a favorite of Straight’s (Agua Mansa), is predicated upon an old story, brought to mind by the chance comment of a friend. The blog provides a
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Great news emerged this week for elementary- and middle-school teachers who make gains in their students test scores. While the teachers themselves may not be pulling down big salaries, their efforts result in increased earnings for their students. In a study that tracked 2.5 million students for over 20 years, researchers found that good teachers have a long-lasting positive effect on their students’ lives, including those higher salaries, lower teen-pregnancy rates, and higher college matriculation rates.
I’m a practical person. I understand that we spend billions of dollars educating our children and that the taxpayer deserves some assurance that the money is not being squandered. Accountability matters. I get it. Still, as a teacher, it’s hard not to feel a little bit wistful, perhaps even wince a little, reading this study.
It’s important to remember that its authors, Raj Chetty, John N. Freidman, and Jonah E. Rockoff, are all economists. Their study measures tangible, economic outcomes from what they call high versus low “value-added” teachers. This “value-adde
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This hall recalls previous Olympic Games and will include the flag of the 2012 Games in London.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – When officials in Greece began assembling a team to create a museum dedicated to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, they knew whom they wanted to design the project: Haibo Yu, a professor of theatre at the University of California, Riverside.
Yu, who is known internationally for his theater set designs, was the chief designer of the Olympics museum in Beijing, on which construction began in summer 2011. He spent the summer creating concepts and technical drawings for nine rooms that will comprise the first phase of the Olympic Museum of Athens, which will be housed in the neoclassical Zappeion building in the heart of Athens. The structure currently is used as a national conference center.
Officials at Cleverbank, the Greek strategic consulting company that developed the master plan for the 2004 Olympics Organizing Committee, told Yu it was important that the museum reflect the spirit of Athens as the birthplace of the Olympic spirit, its role as host to the 1896 Games – often described as the first Olympic Games of the modern era – and the “Welcome Home” theme of the 28th Olympiad.
“They gave me a script, a list of what they wanted,” Yu explained. “As a designe Read more…