3 Tips to Foster a Community of Growth Mindset Learners

Goals are best, to use Jim Collins' term, if they are big, audacious, and hairy!  They should come from the passionate center of those setting them. Teachers spend much of their time establishing the environment in which students can learn optimally. In that environment, they work with students who are present or not, learning or not, engaged or not. In the midst of the interplay among student, teacher, content and environment goals are established and are met or not. Teachers become…

Once upon a time long ago, the whole point of education was something called knowledge. The goal was to transmit this magical thing from the older generation to the new generation. And that was how we sustain civilization.

So if you are a new observer of K-12, the thing that will shock you the most is that knowledge is no longer a magical thing. It is a scorned thing. It is last century's fad and something we need not bother with…

The loss of civility on the campaign trail vacillates between being simply disappointing, to being disgusting, demeaning and frightening. The worse it gets, the more attention it is given and the larger the crowds watching become. Wasn't it just weeks ago that we heard "politically correct" discarded as a ridiculous constraint on expression and kindness take a back seat to the worst things that can be said as a way to enhance readiness for the presidency. And, all of this is inflamed…

Most often unable to change the stressors that the children bear, we design systems to ameliorate the distraction of those stressors and help refocus the children on to their job as learners. But drug use is not always something one can see or uncover when wondering why a student isn't doing well. Meetings can be held, even tutoring or counseling can be put in place, but unless the fact that drugs are in play is uncovered, time is wasting.  …

This debate has been raging in K-12 education for a century. 

 "Meaning from print" is the foundational sophistry supporting Whole Word, sight-words, and all other non-phonetic ways to read, or to teach reading.

 The big lie here is that you can look at print, not actually be able to read, but somehow get the meaning. (This is what we all do in foreign countries when we stare at a menu in a strange language.)

 I've been watching this debate for…

Help Student Writers Find the Best Evidence

BY MIDDLEWEB · 02/23/2016

5 Trends Impacting Middle Grades Leaders

BY MIDDLEWEB · 02/24/2016

There were two recent articles about STEM, one, in the New York Times, A Rising Call to Promote STEM Education and Cut Liberal Arts Funding by Patricia Cohen and, the other, in the Washington Post, entitled, …

How to organize your college essay properly

by Allan Green

While studying in college you will have to write essays a lot. But do not worry - a bit of planning, analysis and hard work - and you will be able to easily write any essay for college. Mastering the art of…

If we return to our raison d'être - to prepare children to know how to learn even beyond our reach, and to be ready, when walking across our graduation stages, to go on to college or directly into a career - then we have a responsibility to look at financial literacy as a part of the k-12 curriculum.

As early as the 6th grade, when percentages are taught, the concepts of credit and interest can be spiraled upward into other math classes. The economic…

Fewer black male teachers leading K-12 classrooms

Dive…