Briefly, Why Taiwan's 1st in Math
Presenters Shu-Wei Wu and Mary Kay McGurl in the session, "Academic Excellence: Learning from Taiwanese Excellence," presented a compare/contrast of some of the defining qualities of U.S. and Taiwanese schools and education.
Notably, in Taiwan, parents pay for everything. Lunch, materials, uniforms, school--if they can pay, they do. If they can't pay, students are guaranteed an education from grades 1–9. Also, all K and preK learning must be arranged by parents through private institutions. In terms of curriculum, Taiwanese students don't take electives--it's all core curriculum, and subjects are not sequenced by categories. For example, math is taught as math, not algebra, geometry, and calculus.
Students in Taiwan overall have a strong work ethic, a lot of support from parents, excellent educational resources (facilities and materials), national standards, mentor-master teachers that follow them for several years, maximized learning time (9-hour days, longer school year), high
accountability (public rankings), a core curriculum with much repetition, year-round assignments, and individualized learning (for example, Cram Schools that focus on one area of learning).
So of these attributes that contribute to Taiwan's high PISA rankings, which might be readily incorporated into the ways schools work here in Bermuda?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Obama:Bad Teachers must be taken out
(taken from the Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — If the nation's schools are going to see improvement, President Barack Obama says there has to be a way to ease bad teachers out of the classroom.
Obama was responding Thursday to a question from a Philadelphia-area schoolteacher. The woman looked away and refused to answer when Obama asked if she'd seen any teachers whose work was so bad she wouldn't want her own children in that class.
Obama said some people just aren't meant to be teachers.
He also said there needs to be other ways to evaluate teachers besides standardized tests. He said those tests can't measure progress in a struggling school, and that they represent the biggest flaw in the No Child Left Behind program.
Obama said that if teachers are forced to teach based solely on a test, fewer students will be inspired to learn.
What is your opinion? Leave a comment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — If the nation's schools are going to see improvement, President Barack Obama says there has to be a way to ease bad teachers out of the classroom.
Obama was responding Thursday to a question from a Philadelphia-area schoolteacher. The woman looked away and refused to answer when Obama asked if she'd seen any teachers whose work was so bad she wouldn't want her own children in that class.
Obama said some people just aren't meant to be teachers.
He also said there needs to be other ways to evaluate teachers besides standardized tests. He said those tests can't measure progress in a struggling school, and that they represent the biggest flaw in the No Child Left Behind program.
Obama said that if teachers are forced to teach based solely on a test, fewer students will be inspired to learn.
What is your opinion? Leave a comment.
Technology in the Classroom-Is there room for it?
Many educators are of the mindset that every bit of technology should be banned from school and should not be used while the child is in school, read the following article:
Schools Seen as Inhibiting Student Tech. Use
Students are using personal technology tools more readily to study subject matter, collaborate with classmates, and complete assigments than they were several years ago, but they are generally asked to “power down” at school and abandon the electronic resources they rely on for learning outside of class, according to a survey of educators, parents, and teenagers.
Teachers, for the most part, are not taking advantage of the tools that middle and high school students have widely adopted for home and school purposes, according to the sixth annual report of the Speak Up National Research Project. Those students should be given a more formal role in determining how new technology—particularly mobile devices, such as smartphones, and Web 2.0 tools, like social-networking sites–can be tapped to improve schooling, a report on the survey findings
suggests.
click here for the complete read.
Some podacsts that you may find on iTunes, or someother podcast feed that you may find helpful in your classroom are:
-Moving at the spee of creativity
-SMARTBoard lessons podcast
-Teachers connecting podcast
- Podcast for Teachers (techpod)
Times are changing, there is soooo much that we can do as educators to incorporate technology in our classes which may, in turn, encourage more of our students, which tend to be more tech. savvy than ourselves to become a part of the class room learning process. Read the article, leave your thoughts.
Schools Seen as Inhibiting Student Tech. Use
Students are using personal technology tools more readily to study subject matter, collaborate with classmates, and complete assigments than they were several years ago, but they are generally asked to “power down” at school and abandon the electronic resources they rely on for learning outside of class, according to a survey of educators, parents, and teenagers.
Teachers, for the most part, are not taking advantage of the tools that middle and high school students have widely adopted for home and school purposes, according to the sixth annual report of the Speak Up National Research Project. Those students should be given a more formal role in determining how new technology—particularly mobile devices, such as smartphones, and Web 2.0 tools, like social-networking sites–can be tapped to improve schooling, a report on the survey findings
suggests.
click here for the complete read.
Some podacsts that you may find on iTunes, or someother podcast feed that you may find helpful in your classroom are:
-Moving at the spee of creativity
-SMARTBoard lessons podcast
-Teachers connecting podcast
- Podcast for Teachers (techpod)
Times are changing, there is soooo much that we can do as educators to incorporate technology in our classes which may, in turn, encourage more of our students, which tend to be more tech. savvy than ourselves to become a part of the class room learning process. Read the article, leave your thoughts.
Monday, February 9, 2009
What If We Also Set Up Teachers for Success?
In addition to the previous blog, here is an article that is rather thought provoking. Here is a piece of it:
The foundation of what we do as educators is a belief in the human potential to learn, to get better, to grow. How can we embrace that belief when it comes to our children, yet reject it as unrealistic when it comes to our colleagues?
I understand the dilemma. There is a sense of urgency. Students are failing at alarming rates. Do we really have time to give a poorly performing teacher the space and support to get better?
But what if we treated teachers the way we wanted them to treat students? What if our improvement plans, rather than being the last stop on the way to unemployment, set up teachers to be successful in the classroom? What if we held teachers responsible for raising student achievement but gave them the tools and the support to do so? What if we really did believe that all children--and all adults--could learn?
Hmmmmmm, makes you think huh? Click here to read the rest of this article.
The foundation of what we do as educators is a belief in the human potential to learn, to get better, to grow. How can we embrace that belief when it comes to our children, yet reject it as unrealistic when it comes to our colleagues?
I understand the dilemma. There is a sense of urgency. Students are failing at alarming rates. Do we really have time to give a poorly performing teacher the space and support to get better?
But what if we treated teachers the way we wanted them to treat students? What if our improvement plans, rather than being the last stop on the way to unemployment, set up teachers to be successful in the classroom? What if we held teachers responsible for raising student achievement but gave them the tools and the support to do so? What if we really did believe that all children--and all adults--could learn?
Hmmmmmm, makes you think huh? Click here to read the rest of this article.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Professional Development
This upcoming week provides for us, some professional development. Hopefully, those in charge have been planning this out, and have some thought out plans of action for their staff so that we can improve our craft, as it is of the utmost of importance. Many though, despite tha fact that our young schlars need the finest of instruction, will only have considered what they will present their staff on last week, and then scramble to get others involved. It is no surpirise, that many teachers have a negative approach to professional development here in Bermuda. When those putting it on take it seriously, it will trickle down and we as teachers will step up to the challenge. However, and hopefullly this is not the case, some may have found out on Friday that they have to present or be a facilitator for Monday. Are we takinhg this seriously? Do we realize that it is our job to improve our craft?
A recent U.S. study found that:
The time U.S. teachers actually spend in professional training largely continues to take place in isolation, rather than in school-based settings that draw on teachers’ collective knowledge and skills, the report says.
Despite some recent improvements in professional-training opportunities, “we’re way behind other countries that are high-achieving in terms of the time and intensive opportunity for deep learning they provide,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor who co-wrote the report with four colleagues at that university’s School Redesign Network. “We still see teachers engage in really short one- and two-day workshops rather than ongoing, sustained support that we now have evidence changes practices and increases student achievement.
It found that there needs to be ongoing development. First of all, we need to take it seriously, not approach it like, "oh yeah, I have to throw something together for next week." Then we need to consider what we need to work on, and then come up with a systematic approach to helping our staff members improve their craft. Click here to read the rest of the article.
A recent U.S. study found that:
The time U.S. teachers actually spend in professional training largely continues to take place in isolation, rather than in school-based settings that draw on teachers’ collective knowledge and skills, the report says.
Despite some recent improvements in professional-training opportunities, “we’re way behind other countries that are high-achieving in terms of the time and intensive opportunity for deep learning they provide,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor who co-wrote the report with four colleagues at that university’s School Redesign Network. “We still see teachers engage in really short one- and two-day workshops rather than ongoing, sustained support that we now have evidence changes practices and increases student achievement.
It found that there needs to be ongoing development. First of all, we need to take it seriously, not approach it like, "oh yeah, I have to throw something together for next week." Then we need to consider what we need to work on, and then come up with a systematic approach to helping our staff members improve their craft. Click here to read the rest of the article.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
In this day of reform and change, there is , and always seems to be a nagging problem of parental involvment. Even in this "new" day of reconstruction, many have said that this is the hundred dollar question. One that people have pondered and debated about for years.
Texas has found something that they are trying to use to involve parents a bit more:
Dallas parents with truant kids taught a lesson
Debbie Ballard left a Dallas County truancy courtroom a bit peeved. Her daughter had just pleaded guilty to being truant and been handed a $500 fine, suspension of her driving privileges for one year and 24 hours of community service.
"I'm not going to be able to pay it," said Ballard, standing outside the courtroom with her 16-year-old daughter, Brittany King. "My daughter does go to school. What they do inside the school, I don't know."
The number of Dallas parents being hauled into court because of their truant children has skyrocketed. click here to read the rest.
Interesting concept, something we should consider?
Texas has found something that they are trying to use to involve parents a bit more:
Dallas parents with truant kids taught a lesson
Debbie Ballard left a Dallas County truancy courtroom a bit peeved. Her daughter had just pleaded guilty to being truant and been handed a $500 fine, suspension of her driving privileges for one year and 24 hours of community service.
"I'm not going to be able to pay it," said Ballard, standing outside the courtroom with her 16-year-old daughter, Brittany King. "My daughter does go to school. What they do inside the school, I don't know."
The number of Dallas parents being hauled into court because of their truant children has skyrocketed. click here to read the rest.
Interesting concept, something we should consider?
Monday, February 2, 2009
Dogs Help Children to Read
It was a busy weekend, and we'll get to the events of the weekend in a bit, but in the meantime, here is an interesting article on using dogs to help children to build their reading confidence. Interesting concept.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
