My colleagues and I at the University of British Columbia studied over 110,000 public school students. We learned that students involved in extended music engagement (between grades 8 - 12) do one full year better academically than non-music peers, particularly when engaged in instrumental music sustained over years of schooling.
Read MoreIf remote schooling is working for you and your child, then, by all means, keep going. But if you find the expectation to facilitate schooling at home with your child problematic, you have the right to opt-out and opt-in to something better.
Read MoreWith schools closed due to COVID-19, communities are scrambling to provide students with meals and supplies and meet other needs. For education researcher Samantha Keppler, these closures offer a chance to reflect on the many services besides teaching children English, math and other core subjects that schools provide.
Read MoreAfter all these years of corporations throwing apps at us and well-meaning administrators providing us with devices and philanthrocapitalists pumping billions of dollars into ed tech first academic schemes, we can all see now that the emperor has no clothes.
Read MoreMaybe they don’t notice, or didn’t see coming, how they promoted charters at the expense of public schools. Perhaps they didn’t mean to criticize the teaching profession by meddling with their teacher effectiveness initiative, and supporting Teach for America types. Didn’t they realize the hubbub they’d create wanting to collect massive amounts of data on children?
Read MoreWith most U.S. schools closed for the rest of the school year due to the COVID-19 outbreak – and uncertainty surrounding the decision to reopen them in the fall – parents may be tempted to try out home-schooling.
Read MoreWhile there are terrible inconveniences to families in these trying times, children’s brains are not becoming addled by a few months of freedom from being “taught.” If kids read a bit, count birds or estimate the heights of blossoming trees outside their windows, they might learn more than they would in school.
Read MoreMercedes Schneider, Ph.D., is an author, blogger, classroom teacher and researcher. Garn Press just published her fourth book, “A Practical Guide to Digital Research”. Mercedes blogs at Deutsch29 She and I conducted the e-interview below as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc far and near in late March.
Read MoreIt’s okay if a few children die to start up the economy. That is literally the opinion being offered by media influencers and policymakers as Coronavirus social distancing efforts continue passed the 30-day mark.
Read MoreTeachers are having a rough time. Many in this country don’t like teachers and blame them for all the problems in the world. Teachers like to see students return to visit, or hear from them so they can see how they turned out. Help turn it around. Support your public school teachers.
Read MoreIf I had one bit of advice to anyone seeking a school for a child it would be, “Find a school where there is much singing, listening to and playing of music all day long, in and out of the classroom.”
Read MoreTo foster the most effective writing teachers—and thus to foster students-as-writers—a few key approaches are warranted.
Read MoreThe best way to protect children from experiencing anxiety is to keep life as normal as possible. Even though children are no longer following their usual school day routines, you can establish and follow a new routine at home.
Read MoreA friend and fellow teacher asked me how she might help her students to have a better senior year. What she is really asking is if there is some way to redeem the senior year– some way to reclaim it despite the impact of the pandemic Yes. Yes, there is. Let me offer a few suggestions.
Read MoreContinuing our three-part video series featuring author Steven Nelson on education, “Cultural Education” and “Bridging Geographical and Cultural Differences”. Learn more about Steve Nelson’s book First, Do No Harm: Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk.
Read MoreThe importance of sight words is well understood in the literacy field. Children need a goodly store of sight words in order to smoothly and fluently process text. They need to know many words by sight because so many frequently occurring words (of, was, any, they, said) are irregularly spelled. Sight words also provide an "anchor" for beginning readers learning one-to-one word correspondence in a line of print.
Read MoreInstead of being forced to step up their reliance on phonics, we believe teachers should use a comprehensive approach and understand an individual child’s strengths, previous knowledge and experiences, languages, ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds and other relevant information.
Read MoreThere is a common perception that children are more likely to read if it is on a device such as an iPad or Kindles. But research shows that this is not necessarily the case.
Read MoreThe oral language that children bring to school is a critical factor supporting their growing literacy ability. It is therefore also critical that teachers plan to help children expand or develop that language so that they may be successful literacy learners.
Read MoreWhenever I ask a group of teachers to identify areas that seem to cause difficulty for struggling readers, lack of background knowledge is sure to be near the top of the list. This is not surprising since a rich background knowledge has shown to be one key to skilled comprehension.
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