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 [...]

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.”.

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.

Strickland Touts education reform during visit to Valley

Gov. Ted Strickland, in town here Friday, touted the education reform package in the recently passed two-year budget as providing more money and more demand for increased accountability from public and charter schools.

Speaking to more than 100 students, parents, educators and Democratic supporters, Strickland defended his policies as moving the state forward during a time of economic recession.

The governor spoke at Western Reserve High School, which is in a district that has earned an excellent rating on the Ohio Report Card every year during the last eight years.

”There are states that are cutting back on their commitments to education,” Strickland said. “When I first was elected governor, the state’s financial share was 48 percent. Currently, Ohio is providing approximately 51 percent of their budgets. In 10 years, it will be 61 percent.”

Strickland said the state also is working to bring more accountability to charter and public schools.

”We want curriculum to be such that we emphasize the science, math and English, but also we want them to be able communicate effectively, engage in problem solving activities, think independently, collaborate and think creatively,” he said.

New Certification Program Validating Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills in Technology-Enabled Environments

Certiport and ETS Announce the Development of iCritical Thinking Certification Powered by ETS
New Certification Program Validating Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills in Technology-Enabled Environments Enters Beta Test Period for Slated November 2009 Launch.

In response to the growing need for digitally literate workers and students with in-demand, applied ICT skills, Educational Testing Service and Certiport—the acknowledged leaders in educational assessment and certification—have developed a new certification program: iCritical Thinking™ Certification powered by ETS.

The core of the iCritical Thinking Certification program is an outcomes-based examination that can be used to assess and validate critical thinking and problem solving skills in technology-enabled academic and workplace environments.

Netflix Competitors Learn the Power of Teamwork

A contest set up by Netflix, which offered a $1 million prize to anyone who could significantly improve its movie recommendation system, ended on Sunday with two teams in a virtual dead heat, and no winner to be declared until September.

But the contest, which began in October 2006, has already produced an impressive legacy. It has shaped careers, spawned at least one start-up company and inspired research papers. It has also changed conventional wisdom about the best way to build the automated systems that increasingly help people make online choices about movies, books, clothing, restaurants, news and other goods and services.

Lesson Plan – Teaches Problem Solving Skills to Kids

Brain Labs are fun game-based programs that teach ThinkFun’s problem solving philosophy called The Super Solver System. Your students will become “Super Solvers” as they develop thinking skills they will need to tackle problems in real life!

Through these Brain Labs, students learn the three fundamentals of the Super Solver System:

Super Solver Steps
Super Solver Strategies
Super Solver State of Mind.

These Brain Labs include step-by-step power points to help guide your instruction, and below are the slides that introduce our Rush Hour Brain Lab.

When Career Switching . . .

Career changers hoping for admission to a competitive alternative teacher-training program should worry less about academic and job accomplishments and more about the personal traits that helped them succeed. Problem-solving skills, emotional intelligence, a belief in the power to create change: these are a few of the elements that generate success in underprivileged classrooms.

Timothy Daly, president of the New Teacher Project, which helps career changers get teaching positions across the country and runs the New York City Teaching Fellows program, says he is looking for candidates who are “in it for the right reasons” and not, say, waiting for the current economic wave to pass.

He suggests career changers visit a classroom, observe good teaching and ask, “Is this something I really see myself doing?”

Reports show room to improve schools

Although Jackson-Madison County Schools is celebrating its improving status on a No Child Left Behind progress report, state reports reveal that instruction of students with disabilities, graduation rates and scores in reading and math need to be addressed for the system to achieve good standing with the state.

Last week, the Tennessee Department of Education released its annual progress report showing the system is still in corrective action, but with improving status.

The system will continue to receive state support, including the help of outside experts. After a school system or school has failed to meet state goals for three years, the state appoints exemplary educators – recently retired educators assigned to mentor, assist and make recommendations. Their recommendations include written reports that point out strengths and weaknesses and suggest changes the schools could make to help improve test scores and other performance measures.

Jackson-Madison County Schools has exemplary educators, or consultants, assigned to Liberty Technology Magnet High School, Jackson Central-Merry High School and the central office.

According to the exemplary educator reports filed over the past three school years, the system needs to improve how it teaches students with disabilities. The reports also stated that the system did not have enough special education staff.