Teacher Training’s Low Grade
June 19, 2013
“The National Council on Teacher Quality has long promoted over-hauling U.S. teacher preparation” says a recent article in the WSJ. Here is their recent study: http://coe.unm.edu/research/usnwr-nctq.html
Following up on my previous musing on the Common Core’s lack of professional development being a prime cause of poor student performance, the Council’s report said that “fewer than one in nine programs for future elementary reachers, and just over one-third of high school programs, properly prepare teachers to teach the Common Core Standards and about 75% aren’t preparing graduates to teach reading to youngsters. Let there be no confusion or surprise about why children and teachers are not poised for success with this dismal piece of information.
The Common Core Standards and reality collide.
June 15, 2013
Who’s Minding the Schools, (NYT) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/the-common-core-whos-minding-the-schools.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 exposed some of the problems implementing the Core standards and offers a valuable perspective. The current partisan political climate in the US is not helpful to understand the benefits, merits and detriments of the Core. In addition, the Common Core is essentially “an invisible empire, with no public office, no […]
Does reading fiction make you a better person?
June 2, 2013
“Does Fiction Civilize Us?” — http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/01/does-great-literature-make-us-better/—caused me to ponder what is the purpose of reading literature? Most of us assume that exposure to challenging works of literary fiction is good for us. Does reading about Anna Karenina, the good folk of Middlemarch and Marcel and his friends expand our imaginations and refine our moral and social […]
A tribute but not a farewell to Bernard Waber
May 20, 2013
Bernard Waber, the creator of Ira Sleeps Over and Lyle the Crocodile, died on May 16. He was 91 years old. How many kids experienced their first sleep over, clinging to a bare thread of confidence with the belief that if Ira could do it, they could too! Waber had the ability to depicts common childhood […]
A Mother’s Love
May 12, 2013
All children should be so lucky—to have a mom that leads the way Make Way For Ducklings, lives on!
