BOCES Faculty Promotes New Approach To Education

Faculty from the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES joined dozens of teachers from throughout the region to promote new educational approaches that incorporate cutting-edge technologies to meet the needs of a rapidly changing society. At the fourth annual High School’s New Face conference in Ellicottville, four E2CCB teachers presented on four different topics that addressed the same [...]

Block Party: Legos in the Library

Go ahead, say it. Toys don’t belong in the library. That’s probably what some of you still think. But my library outside Philadelphia was having such a hard time attracting boys who had outgrown storytime that we decided to try something new. So we started a Lego club. Since our June 2008 kickoff, we’ve been [...]

Developing math strategies can help your student learn to think for themselves

“According to international standardized tests, American students lack math aptitude and problem solving skills” says Raj Shah, owner of Math Monkey of Powell. “This is due in part because we tend to just teach kids how to execute a solution instead of encouraging the student think for themselves. Here is a typical example: The teacher shows a problem and then demonstrates the solution, while students follow along. Next, the students practice a couple similar problems, using the same solution, followed by homework to reinforce it. What’s missing, according to Shah, is the opportunity to use and build their own critical thinking and problem solving skills first before providing “the solution”. This makes them poor problem solvers.”.

New Education Commissioner: set, achieve bold goals

The new state commissioner of education encourages local school officials to keep their eye on the goal—educating students.

Commissioner Chris NiCastro’s first speech is to about 700 administrators representing Missouri’s 500-plus school districts. She has quoted Harry Truman’s teacher, Margaret Phelps, who said education “should cultivate every faculty of the mind.”

“It’s a tall order,” said NiCastro, and it gets taller every year. She encouraged school administrators to work to instill a passion for learning and problem-solving in their students.

She said Missouri has a track record of putting practical ideas, such as the nation’s first Kindergarten program and the first Parents and Teachers program, to work. She encouraged administrators to set and establish bold goals

Make the investment

As capitalists, we understand and appreciate that things are valuable to individuals and that purchasing them is valuable to society. Perhaps because we are capitalists, we tend to define “things” as entities that are immediately and unequivocally responsive to the senses.

As a result, although “fair market value” has become the benchmark for assessing worth, it is conceptually inept as a measure of those “things” that are most important in our lives, among them faith, love, security, education. Yes, education.

What Do School Tests Measure?

According to a New York Times analysis, New York City students have steadily improved their performance on statewide tests since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the public schools seven years ago. While statewide passing rates on the tests have risen in every grade on English and math tests, New York City’s scores have gone up [...]

Two-minute press

Dan McClarin, of La Luz, doesn’t just teach tools like drills in his shop classes at Tularosa Middle School.

He teaches tools for living, “something they can take in their education and put it to a practical use,” he said.

Assisted by wife, Jennifer, he has boosted the family finances with his own inventions, building a new house and putting two daughters through college at the University of New Mexico.

“What he is really doing is encouraging problem-solving, which will help students down the road,” Jennifer said during an interview at their four-acre family farm.

“He’s a wonderful teacher. His students adore him,” said Ruth Sanchez at Tularosa Middle School.

McClarin’s latest invention is a pomegranate press. He made it from a 12-quart stainless-steel pasta pot and basket, and an adjustable press plate jack that can produce up to two tons of pressure.

Philanthropist and UW-Madison join to develop new-generation leaders

The Grand Strategy Program is a new multi-course curriculum that traces U.S. foreign policy since 1901 to provide a foundation for interdisciplinary study, strategic problem-solving and leadership in a changing global landscape.

Secondhand rudeness impacts workers

You’ve heard of the dangers of secondhand smoke. Now researchers at the University of Florida say rude behavior at work affects more than the person slighted.

A UF study found that even those employees who simply witness disrespectful behavior in the workplace can be bogged down by its effects.

The study, conducted by UF management professor Amir Erez and Christine Porath, a management professor at the University of Southern California, found that exposing individuals to rudeness smothered their creative abilities and even produced destructive thoughts.

Pupils to sit for Aptitude Test on last day of UPSR

PETALING JAYA: All Year Six pupils will have to sit for an Aptitude Test on the last day of their Primary School Assessment Test (UPSR) beginning next month.

The one-and-a-half hour IQ test would have 60 multiple choice (objective) questions based on three areas — thinking skills, problem solving and decision-making, and interests.

“The Aptitude Test grade will be listed in the UPSR slip but will not count towards the final result,” Education Department director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom told The Star.

“There is no need for pupils to attend any additional classes or tuition for the Aptitude Test as this is based on what they already know,” he said, adding that a letter on the test had already been sent to schools.