Carol’s Summary:

Does more time in the classroom lead to better test scores? Elementary schools nationwide are cutting down on the number of recesses in the student’s day in hopes of doing just that. As the number of obese children rises, the amount of social interaction declines with technology, and more schools get criticized for not teaching to creative and critical minds, the elimination of recess becomes more of a highly debated topic among teachers and parents. Just as adults are required to take breaks throughout their day, a child especially needs that time to release balled-up energy from sitting in class. It seems time would be spent more efficiently if students were rewarded with more frequent breaks so they could return to class with a more focused attitude and the knowledge that their hard work leads to another deserved break.

It is hard to imagine taking more free minutes away from students will encourage them to work harder or enlarge their capacity to absorb more information. Eliminating recess shows the test score is the priority, not the student. A child’s school experience should be designed for the human mind with socializing, running, creating and breathing. Without these activities a child goes to school to get programmed like machinery to pass a test. We need to think very carefully about finding the balance between structured space and allowing enough playtime to roam and open a child’s mind. A successful student and member of society possesses both analytical and creative skills.

Carol’s Summary:

Beverly Woods Elementary school was recognized last year as a “National School of Character” by the national nonprofit Character Education Partnership for their character program. The school’s success has school officials wanting to spread the program statewide. At Beverly Woods, teachers select a group of 4th and 5th graders to be peer-mediators to solve conflicts between two people or small groups. After the session, the mediators respect the understood confidentiality and shred all paperwork linked to the session. Peer-mediation is usually a method used in middle or high school, but educators at Beverly Woods strongly believe their students need to learn conflict-resolution skills now so they are prepared to deal with the bigger issues they will inevitably encounter in 6th-12th grade.

Character programs are being placed in more and more schools to reduce discipline problems and bullying and encourage students to advocate for themselves. Systemwide, North Carolina schools choose to focus on one character trait for a month, such as respect, responsibility, and honesty studied so far this year. However, each elementary school has the freedom to implement the program in the best way they see fit for their individual school.

Technology has done amazing things for the student, like give them more information at their fingertips than ever before, but it has also caused new problems other generations haven’t had to deal with like cyber-bullying and the disconnected communication carried over social networking, texting, and IMing. Character education breeds a human connection that has become so rare, and builds a safe community only achieved in a physical environment that encourages interaction between peers. LifeBound helps students become emotionally intelligent through developing specific skills to learn about themselves, understand peers’ actions, strengthen their ability to make friends, and manage stress in People Smarts for Teenagers. For more information, please visit our website.

Article: Character program may go statewide

Officials from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction recently observed – and applauded – Beverly Woods Elementary’s Character Education program and would like to find ways to expand the concept to schools throughout the state.

Carol’s Summary:

What is the impact of surface learning verus in-depth or higher order learning? Author and teacher, Kelly Gallagher, comments on school standards and their reflection on student and teacher adequacy in his Education Week article, “Why I Will Not Teach to the Test.” Gallagher quotes one social studies standard to illuminate his point: “Compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.” This is a complex standard that has the potential to exercise the student’s critical thinking abilities and strengthen their problem solving skills for use in and out of the classroom. But how deep is the student required to think in their response? Most likely, the class will be taught to memorize the answer so they can move on more quickly to cover more standards and accomplish more surface learning.

A study from the journal Science Education researched high school science students to find the effects of surface learning versus more in-depth learning. The study compared two groups of students: one group spent less time on more material; the other spent more time on less material. At the end of the year, the group that spent less time on more material did score higher on state tests than those who went deeper into less material. However, the group that spent more time on less material earned higher grades than the other group when they entered college.

Students must be involved in the learning experience to succeed in higher education and the world outside of the classroom. Critical thinking gives students the ability to analyze and make connections between what they know and new information. The critical thinking skills a student acquires in school when comparing and contrasting revolutions in history will undoubtedly reappear in their life as a professional when they are required to deal with conflict, be accountable and lead a team.    There is a high cost to “surface” thinking and there is great upside to each student personally and professionally if they develop deeper and more sophisticated learning skills. LifeBound’s “Critical and Creative Thinking for Teenagers” promotes learning for school, career and life by addressing  problem solving techniques, the importance of teamwork and collaboration, risk taking and many more skills. To learn more about LifeBound’s books, please visit our website.

Article: Why I Will Not Teach to the Test

In the midst of controversy surrounding “value added” teacher assessment, which flared recently following the Los Angeles Times’ public teacher rankings, the real issue is often overlooked: The state tests being used to evaluate student progress—and, in turn, the effectiveness of teachers—virtually ensure mediocrity.

Read the full article at: edweek.com

Today is Veteran’s Day.  It is a time to give thanks and pay homage to all of the people who have served this country—past and present.  We owe our freedom as a nation to these brave individuals who have made huge personal sacrifices on our behalf to preserve our liberty.  I’ll never forget the first time, as a college student, I walked through Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day as a rising junior in college.  I was awestruck with the number of individuals who were buried there and I was equally as touched seeing the eternal flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

A few years ago, I had the chance to visit friends in Manila, Philippines.  We went to the WW II gravesite where thousands of soldiers were buried.  This was especially bittersweet for me because my own dad, who survived his service on a destroyer, the USS Dyson,  had died fifteen years earlier.   But, unlike the people here, his life as a young person was spared.

I often think about the returning veterans from our current war and how much more we need to do to integrate them into college, when they return, and society as a whole.   The best way to honor the many millions who served and died too young is to create opportunity for young people who, like my dad, returned from service with barely two nickels to run together.   If there is a way for you to make a difference with a vet—through your volunteer tutoring, through your church or place of worship, or through your local community college—it will make a difference.  This Veteran’s Day, we can all honor those who gave their lives by honoring in real time those who are rejoining our society and deserve every advantage, dignity and opportunity that we can offer.

I just saw the movie, “Waiting for Superman,” last night.    There were many issues raised, including how poorly we are serving low-income urban students.    If they are lucky enough to have a parent or loved one—grandparent, aunt, uncle—who is involved in their lives enough to fight for resources for them, like getting into the lottery to go to  a charter school, then their chance for success is great.  Frankly whether those students get into the charter school or not, they are still more likely to succeed because the parents have an expectation of their success and they will  uphold that high bar for the child to reach.

In many urban areas, the neighborhoods surrounding the schools and the schools themselves are in grave disrepair.  These places are often referred to as, “Drop Out Factories,” if they fail to graduate less than half of their students.   Another factor which contributes to low performing schools is low-performing teachers who can’t be fired because of their Teacher’s Union Contract. So, the most outstanding teachers get paid what the lowest performing teachers get paid.  Some school systems, like New York City’s, pay to keep their lowest performing students away from kids –sitting all day in a room each day—to the tune of over a million dollars a year.

This movie is a must-see for all Americans to understand the issue at stake right now in public education. Since public education is the single most important indicator for economic and financial success of the future, we need to know more and be creative in finding better solutions.   Geoffrey Canada is certainly such an individual.   There are many teachers in public schools who are doing an exceptional job.   We need to find more ways to find the things that are working, recruit more parents to be involved, get more at-risk students involved in after-school activities and at least two to three hours of homework each night so that they begin early to cultivate success habits.    Obviously, this is a complex issue.   But the more that we as Americans are informed, the more we can use our ingenuity to solve this situation and, in so doing, create a bright future as we middle-agers go into our later years.

Carol’s Summary:

The Temecula Valley Unified School District is giving parents the option to keep track of their students’ attendance and grades through the web-based program Pinnacle. Pinnacle will alert parents by email when their child is absent, if they miss an assignment, when there is an upcoming assignment or if their grade drops.

The district was able to pay for the $186,000 program through technology vouchers. District officials believe it is the most effective way to spend their money, since it will make parents more involved in their child’s education and significantly cut-back on the time it takes teachers to scan grades.

Technology is giving parents the ease of being able to keep tabs on their child’s academic life through logging in to a single program, but what other important indicators might this technology also afford both parents and school personnel?  In addition to attendance and grades, other success indicators include:  involvement in one or more activities in school or the community; working with a tutor in academic areas of weakness; holding down a part-time job, etc.  Parents should use their heightened awareness of a student’s life to reveal weaknesses and get them involved in supplementary programs that can prevent those weak areas from becoming liabilities. It is important for a parent to know what is happening in school, but for a student to succeed in school, career and life they also need skills and abilities which will allow them the well-rounded qualities for success in school and beyond.

Article: Service helps parents monitor school grades

The Temecula Valley Unified School District is offering parents a tool to help them keep tabs on their students’ attendance and academic progress.

Read the full article at: pe.com

Sometimes we put things off because we’ve lost sight of our priorities. Or the job is so big that we don’t know where to start. Here are some tips to help you break the cycle of procrastination so that you get the job done.

1. Revisit priorities - What are your career goals at this point in life? Have your priorities shifted? If you’ve encountered any major changes recently, such as the birth of a child, moving to a new neighborhood, or loss of a loved one, then you may need to redefine your life’s values and mission.

2. Post reminders of your life’s goal - Tack up a few sayings that are personally inspiring to you or write one of your own. Put them by your phone, your car, and your mirror, or use them as screensavers, to help you gain perspective and get moving.

3. Delegate - If you’ve got a deadline to meet, identify tasks that you could delegate to someone else. If you’re mentoring a coworker, allow that person the opportunity to take on a new responsibility that will lighten your load.

4. Acknowledge each success - Major projects are accomplished in small increments. To curb procrastination congratulate yourself for each step that leads toward your overall objective. Focusing on progress, no matter how small, can help to keep you moving forward.

5. Compile your resources - What resources will you need to accomplish your assignment? Begin compiling them. Move systematically through the list until every aspect of the project is covered.

6. Hire a career coach – If procrastination has become a lifestyle, you might need someone to help you break the cycle. A career coach can help you determine your life and career goals, as well as create a plan for how to achieve them.

7. Create boundaries – To do the things you really want, you may have to say no to other activities.

8. Establish new patterns – Take a different route to work or eat vegetables for lunch and skip the meat. Establishing new patters in something relatively simple can carry over into other areas of life and help lift you out of a rut. The main thing to remember is this: Change is possible.

9. Build anticipation - Imagine how you’ll feel, or how your company will benefit, when you can cross the huge project off your to-do list.

10. Reinforce a sense of accomplishment - When you’ve completed an assignment or project, do something nice for yourself to reinforce a sense of accomplishment. Plan a mini-vacation, indulge in a massage, or go for a walk. Choose an enjoyable activity that says congratulations. You stopped putting things off, and it shows.

Carol’s Summary:

As the world becomes more complex, people lose their jobs and technology changes, professionals are returning to school. Experts say, today’s professional will change jobs five to seven times in their career. Professionals are furthering their education in a variety of ways, from attending state colleges to private graduate programs and from earning certificates to degrees in new careers.
More education will give the professional a more competitive edge. Furthering education doesn’t necessarily mean professionals need to go through another degree-seeking program but rather they need to take courses that increase skills needed in today’s technological world of work or earn certificates that will build a resume and make the professional an expert in a specific area.
Cathy A. Sandeen, dean of continuing education at U.C.L.A., suggested, “Look at trends in your field. Look at your current skills and what do you need to augment your skills to make you more relevant and more attractive in your field.”

This, however, is only advice for those who have jobs that are still stable in economic crisis. Sandra Marrin was a supervisor for a Jeep Grand Cherokee production line who took a buyout from Chrysler. Now, she works as a certified nurse’s assistant making one-third of what she once made because she knew she could find employment immediately in the medical field. Her plan is to become a registered nurse, followed by getting her master’s in nursing, which would have her making more than she did at Chrysler. Others who lost their jobs due to the state of the economy have returned to school for the built in networking opportunities with students and professors. When thinking through how to pay for future schooling and balance a reduction in income, create a solid financial plan for yourself. This will help you to be realistic about the short term sacrifices for the long term opportunity.

Versatility is a highly regarded skill for a professional, whether it shows itself within their original field or gives them the capacity to change their career halfway to retirement. Stay strong within yourself as you explore the many options ahead where you can use your gifts and talents.

Article: Learning curves on the career path

“Every day we know less and less about more and more,” said Ray Caprio, vice president for continuing education at Rutgers University.

Read the full article at: nytimes.com

Carol’s Summary:

A recent poll by Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation questioned 1,000 members of the public, parents, teachers and school administrators on pre-K students and learning disabilities. The results were contradictory. More than two-thirds of parents think specific signs of learning disabilities, like the inability to hold a pencil, rhyme words and make friends, are something their 2-4 year old will grow-out of, and therefore don’t seek early intervention. However, 78 % of those polled are aware that early intervention for learning disabilities is important. Most also believed children with disabilities have normal or above normal intelligence – but 80 % wrongly associated disabilities with mental retardation and autism.

Learning disabilities are neurological disorders not a cognitive impairment. This means the student’s disability is in how they process information not their capacity to learn information. Early intervention is important because, once recognized, a learning disability can be managed and halted so it does not follow a student to elementary and beyond. New initiatives are emphasizing the importance of early intervention and requesting to use Response to Intervention (RTI), an approach used in primary and secondary grades, in pre-k programs. The concerns surrounding the RTI approach in pre-K are: teachers will have the responsibility of diagnosing students with disabilities and may not have the expertise to effectively do so; money will be going toward this not-yet certain approach and away from current programs; and RTI needs to undergo more research before it is used as a tool to diagnose students.

Even so, this poll shows most parents are unaware of what a learning disability is and are in denial about the possibility of their child having one. Parental fear and the teacher’s inability to diagnose is causing a dangerous pause in a child’s early education. Early intervention brings the possibility of discovering a child’s unique learning ability before it’s defined as a feared learningdisability.

LifeBound encourages students to discover how they are unique in GIFTS AND TALENTS for teenagers. This book can help middle school kids identify their unique strengths whether it is baking cakes, digging ditches or conducting research.

Article: Identifying and Addressing Learning Disabilities in Preschoolers

More than two-thirds of parents think specific signs of learning disabilities* are something a 2-to-4 year-old will “grow out of” and are therefore more likely to delay seeking professional help, according to poll results released this week. At the same time, 78 percent of respondents recognize that early intervention is important.

Read the full article at: earlyed.newamerica.net

Carol’s Summary:

In Portland, Oregon, 54 Lincoln High School students volunteered to participate in a technology fast, which meant turning off the Internet, video games, music devices and cell phones for the entire school week. English teacher, Jordan Gutlerner, came up with the challenge as a way to increase student awareness on how technological devices play a role in everyday life. He asked his students to use these five days of silence to question why it is they use their chosen devices and whether they need to continue using them when the fast ends.

On day three of the fast, one student reported she felt anxious being disconnected from social networking sites because she felt she was missing out on something. Others felt that silencing the buzz of technology gave them the opportunity to see new things in their daily rituals. At the end of the fast, Gutlerner said most of the students will probably go back to their normal usage. However, some did say they were logging off Facebook and MySpace for good, after learning it’s not always bad to be alone.

Article: Students at Portland’s Lincoln High School unplug, experience life without technology

For four days this week, Elise Cramer didn’t pick up her cell phone. The 17-year-old Lincoln High School senior didn’t check Facebook or turn on the television, either.

Read the full article at: oregonlive.com