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POPSAftershock rattles China quake zone Friday May 16th 2008
The government said it would investigate why so many school buildings collapsed in the quake and severely punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction. Officials in at least six provinces promised to tear down dangerous school buildings to protect students, state media reported. The quake destroyed about 6,900 classrooms, not including those in the hardest-hit counties. China's education system is chronically underfunded. Building experts said the problem here, as in many other parts of the world, was a lack of commitment by governments to improve the quality of school buildings. "Schools should never collapse, and hospitals and fire stations should never collapse. These are all civic structures that are needed in a disaster," said Roger Bilham, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "So when I hear a school has collapsed, I point the finger at politics." More than 4 million apartments and homes were damaged or destroyed in Sichua
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POPSUK educator decries domination of education by management-oriented language An Oxford professor examines the gradual takeover of all policy writing on education by the language of business management: "efficiency," "providers," "audits," "performance indicators," etc. This kind of thinking, he says, has gradually obscured any legitimate answer to the question of what education is really supposed to accomplish.
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POPSCongress Direspects Teachers, Students, and Parents...Again It is amazing how pointed the disrespect with which teachers are held by Congress really is...they speak out of both sides of the mouth. Congressmen say they want teacher comments, but they waited until August 27, 2007 to send out a 11 page draft of a bill that the House Ed Committee hopes to present to Congress shortly after Labor Day. That gives any teacher who wants to look at it about a week to read and analyze the draft summary and to write a comment. Congressman, can you spell, N'er Do Well? It just makes you wonder why citizen approval ratings of Congress are so low, doesn't it? LORL
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POPSReading Party ideas to get Students to enjoy reading Beach Party: Encourage students to bring in rubber rafts, inner tubes, beach blankets, and beach chairs, and to dress in beach clothes. Then invite them to read "in the sand." 101 Dalmatian Party: Celebrate "101 Reasons to Read" with a Dalmatian Celebration. Read for 101 minutes then write songs, poems, and stories about dogs. Invite a local veterinarian or dog trainer to be your special reading guest. Mystery Party: Invite students to come dressed as their favorite detectives -- and armed with a mystery book to read. Article by Linda Starr Education World® Copyright © 2006 Education World 04/21/2006
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POPSDoes early schooling harm children? I think it is the format of the teaching and learning that could harm the kids the most- if they are subjected to very structured lessons and tests before they are ready, I can foresee psychological harm done to them, especially in the areas of confidence and dealing with anxiety and stress. 5 year olds are supposed to be in "Kindegarten"- "Children's garden"- a Kinder classroom should have places for the students to explore and learn; most do best in play. Frankly, almost everyone does best, learning-wise- at play :)
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POPSPenmanship takes a back seat in elementary schools Handwriting and even printing has gotten worse and even more disasterous in some cases over the past 10 years- I have definitely seen how how the printing looks takes a huge backseat in the upper grades. It is as if teachers of upper grades no longer care about how the students' work looks and they just assume that the student(s) could write nicer if they really had to. While I am all for daily practice in handwriting, I recommend that the cursive handwriting does not officially start in schools until about grade 5... students aged 5 to 9 should focus on basic printing first- if you rush it, all their writing will morph into illegible messes. They can't all be doctors!
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POPS$100 Laptop Production Begins From the page: "The innovative design of the XO machine has also drawn praise from the technical community. Using open source software, OLPC have developed a stripped-down operating system which fits comfortably on the machine's 1GB of memory. "We made a set of trade-offs which may not be an office worker's needs but are more than adequate for what kids need for learning, exploring and having fun," said Professor Bender."
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POPSMath as a Civil Right The ubiquity of computers makes abstract, quantitative reasoning skills critical to a wide range of job opportunities. "Information age technology put math on the table as a literacy requirement in the same way that industrialism made reading literacy a requirement," says Moses. For that reason, he says, the country needs to raise math education standards for all students.
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POPSSex education debate in the US: start in Kindergarten? I hope that voters will actually remember this story when the real election time comes around- It's funny to see a campaigning politician rant and rave, trying to make his opponent look bad, only for reporters to easily point it out. But sadly the truth will all be forgotten, conveniently for the politicians.
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POPSAutodidacticism - self-education I guess clipmarks could be defined as Autodidacticism ,although with all I've learned I still can't pronounce it, maybe it's a test of intelligence
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POPSWhy paying students to study won't work Fascinating. NYC's schools plan to offer modest financial incentives to high-performing seventh-graders. Schwartz, a psychologist, shows that this is likely to undermine the intrinsic motivation to learn. Via {{ashleystar}}'s tumblelog (http://snipr.com/1nrcq ).
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POPSAppeal to All Americans-Support the Arts For all Americans concerned about the quality of education in general, & of arts education in particular (dance, visual arts, music, theatre) I'd encourage you to support the following principles espoused by these educators. Statistics show that nations who have the arts & especially music at the core of their curriculum are doing a whole lot better in their academic achievement than those who don't. It's really sad to me that some in authority have removed the arts from the curriculum when just a little investigation into history reveals the ancients & most if not all great ancient cultures saw all science & art interwoven & needed for a well rounded education.
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POPSMusic Instruction Increases Math & Reading Scores Another case for the need to put music & its concepts at the core of education. Music, math & I'll be so bold to assert numerology are languages inextricably connected to one another. Here's a quote by one mathematician regarding this statement, "Music is a secret arithmetical exercise and the person that indulges in it does not realize that he is manipulating numbers."- G Leibnitz
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POPSTo Standardise Lesson Plans or Not? In China for most of its" modern" history (that is after 1949) a national standardised lesson plans has always been the only way to go,but as of now a similar reformation is being carried out to make lesson plans more flexible and localised with less control directly from the centre department. seems China and the U.S. are interestingly going in opposite directions,I just hope they find the balance and don't go too far.
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