Spiral Notebook Blogs
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Make Like a Goat: The Art of Distracting Unruly Students
by Ben Johnson
8/5/08I have 17 acres in south Texas, and half of the acreage is wooded. Particularly in the northern part of my property, there is an obnoxious vine in the lily family, called greenbrier, that grows everywhere.
Telling Our Stories: Students Recount Personal Tales
by Stephen Hurley
8/4/08The theme for this first year of our arts@newman program could best be expressed with the statement "We live storied lives." Throughout the year, we have been exploring how the arts can help us both understand our stories more deeply and express those stories to others.
Learning to Teach STEM: Teachers Bring Back New Knowledge to Their School
by Katie Klinger
8/1/08This is the second part of a three-part entry. Read part one.
In Hawaii, there will be eighty hours of training at science, technology, engineering, and math institutes during the school year. At these institutes, university professors will guide teachers in how to scale STEM projects to the appropriate grade level. The institutes will employ middle school math and science benchmarks and standards from the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards as the basis for what to cover.
Authentic Assessment: New Ways to Measure Student Performance
by Anthony Cody
7/30/08From an Edutopia reader comes this question: "With so many of today's schools focused on state achievement tests, many teachers are 'teaching to the test.' However, this does not adequately prepare students for life outside of school. Does anyone have any suggestions for the alternate assessment that this article was describing? I am looking for some way to increase student learning while maintaining state standards at the same time."
Play to Learn: The Scratch Programming Language Sneaks Serious Fun into the Classroom
by James Daly
7/28/08Everybody loves Toy Story, the animated buddy pic that Pixar released in 1995. But Mitchel Resnick thinks the filmmakers got something very wrong in the movie.
Seeding STEM: One School Designs a Grant to Break the Cycle of Poverty
by Katie Klinger
7/25/08Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, recently discussed a report from Public Agenda titled "Important, But Not for Me: Parents and Students in Kansas and Missouri Talk About Math, Science, and Technology Education." The report found that even though parents and students say that they understand the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, they don't see how it applies to them personally.
Pride of Profession: Striving to Become a Great Teacher
by Ben Johnson
7/23/08This is the second post in a two-part entry. Read part one.
In the first part of this entry, I discussed greatness in educators. One of the nice things about my current position is that I can go into the classroom and see this greatness all around:
Global Learning: Connecting the World with ePals
by Suzie Boss
7/21/08When teachers talk about how much they and their students gain by connecting with learners in other parts of the world, their enthusiasm is downright contagious. Yet for all the promise of learning across distances, these wonderful flat-world projects still seem to be the exception rather than the norm.
Picture Perfect: Make Your Own Motivational Posters
by Jim Moulton
7/18/08OK, I admit it. I have been known to leaf through the catalogs that live in the seat pockets on airplanes. I never find anything I have to have, but I always look at the motivational posters -- in part because I see a lot of these in the schools I visit.
Outstanding in Your Field: What It Takes to Be a Great Teacher
by Ben Johnson
7/16/08I am reading a book by Steven Covey called The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, which he wrote to help organizations and individuals find their voices. The premise of the book is that if you don't do this, you or your organization will not be able to achieve greatness. I highly recommend that you read it, and I will gladly lend it to you when I am done with it, but that is not the focus of this post.
