Fight Temptation with Strong Willpower Muscles

In a study, hungry students who had to resist the temptation of eating chocolate chip cookies didn’t score as well on focus and self-control tests as students who didn’t have to resist the chocolate chip cookie temptation prior to taking the test. In the NPR article, “Resistance Training for your ‘Willpower’ Muscles,” author of the new book Willpower, John Tierney, explains each of us only has a set amount of willpower for they day, so we should do our best to conserve it for moments that really matter.

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Profile: Liz Murray’s Inspirational Story from the Streets to an Ivy League School

We all run into obstacles in our lives, but we don’t all react the same. Some people will find a creative way to maneuver past the challenge, and others will sit down and let the obstacle get in their way. Students might run into small obstacles to their success when they get a bad grade on a research paper or they might be dealt a huge obstacle, like their parent’s unemployment or a death in the family.

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Can Digital Curriculums Accelerate Closing the Achievement Gap?

It’s estimated that it will take 100 years to close the achievement gap between white and minority children and those of different economic situations in Washington state. However, education reformers think they can speed up the process if they get serious about incorporating technology into the curriculum.

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Should Students Use the ‘Best Colleges’ List to Choose a School?

US News & World Report released their Best Colleges list this week with Harvard and Princeton Universities in first and Yale in third. This is the second year in a row that high school counselors opinions have been included in the rankings. In The Chronicle of Higher Education article “US News Keeps Courting High-School Counselors,” Eric Hoover explains the inclusion of counselor ratings is highly controversial because it is believed these votes make the rankings list more of a “popularity contest” than offering a helpful perspective to inform college applicants.

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Can Giving Math a Real-World Application Improve Scores?

How do you answer the math student’s favorite question: When are we ever going to use this?

Mind/Shift writer Audrey Watters points to New York Times op-ed writers Sol Garfunkel and David Mumford who say if we want better scores and want students to be more interested, make math more applicable to the student’s life. Garfunkel and Mumford say it’s a fact that different careers need different math skills, and that our education systems should be adjusted to value this.

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A Digital Tool to Monitor Classroom Behavior

What does it mean to be emotionally intelligent?

Psychologist Daniel Goleman defined emotional intelligence as being self-aware. An emotionally intelligent person is someone who can recognize their feelings and the feelings of others. It’s also someone who knows how to manage emotions, like anxiety, anger, and sadness. Emotional intelligence is a must to succeed at school and work, in social circles, and with family.

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Fighting Illiteracy for a Peaceful & Disease-free World

800 million people are unable to read and write. Yesterday was International Literacy Day, an occasion created by the United Nations to increase awareness of the amounts of people affected by illiteracy and the harm it does to any advances made in improving poverty and sickness in nations around the world.

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Carson Carter, Abroad in Prague

By Carson Carter

Our program here in Prague shuttled four of us, who were arriving at the same time, by mini-bus into the city from the airport, and I was immediately thrilled about the views of the city and the apartment location. My roommates were outside flying through cigarettes when I disembarked, (quite the welcoming party, wish I had a photo!) but I’ve already gotten used to that as everyone here smokes in public/bars/clubs/restaurants. Thankfully, my roommates only smoke outside and are really courteous about it.

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Activity: Creating Community in the Classroom

Lessons on the events of 9/11 are not included in social studies standards forÂ more than half of American classrooms.Â As we approach the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, students will be hearing many stories about the tragedy on the Internet, radio or television, around the dinner table, or possibly in conversations with friends. These students have spent most or all of their lives in an America where terrorism is a real threat, but how much do they know about it and have they ever been taught how to cope with it?

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Remembering 9/11 with Your Family

By Maureen Breeze

Images, stories, and reflections of 9/11 will surround us as we approach the tenth anniversary of this tragic day. And how each of us discusses the topic with our children, especially our young ones whoâ€™ve grown up with this grave reality, will differ. Some families may pledge to never forget, some may turn away and focus on better times, while others still clamor for answers.

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