Our Membership in Groups: How do we fit in?

In the “Basic School” Dr. Boyer writes that the early school child learns they do belong to groups and communities, from the time they are born. There is family, extended family and the community that their family lives in as well as their community at school. These subjects are revisited at the start of every school year. For, as each year goes by increased numbers of groups are available to students or are there for them to become aware of.

The “Goal” for all students should be to understand that everyone is a member in any number of groups. Of course this starts with the family. Students will understand how groups or organizations shape our lives, but also and as importantly – how they can shape and change these organizations. By the time one leaves the basic school there is an understanding of what it means to be a meaningful member in society, or a good citizen, and living productively with a voice, within this greater organization.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “We do not make a world of our own, but fall into institutions already made and have to accommodate ourselves to them.”

Membership in Groups, the third of eight commonalities, outlined in the basic school, guides kids to explore a host of questions. “Which groups did I get born into?” “Which groups do I belong to?” “Why do we join groups?””Can I leave a group?” “Why are groups important?” “Does the group make me do things I don’t want to do?” “How do groups help my life?” “What does it mean to be a citizen?”

Starting with the family, which many believe is the center of civilization. Kids will understand the family unit’s importance in society, and their own lives. They will talk about informal groups, often times more important to kids; neighborhood groups, even cliques, sports etc. What is the importance of community groups, service organizations, and religious groups? Why do folks come together in these ways, and how can they help their community.

With a spiraling curriculum older kids may journal about the groups they belong to, list them and keep an inventory of the social relationships they belong to, and consider the ways in which the groups they move in and out of affect them. By the end of their schooling students will investigate Civics, at the municipal, state and federal level. They will investigate documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. By the end kids should have a firm understanding of the groups that they belong to – the expectations and rights that they have within these organizations. They will gain respect for the organizations at local, state and national levels. Kids will also gain respect for the democratic traditions and good citizenship within their school and society as a whole.


From "The Basic School" by Dr. Earnest Boyer. Excerpts by Matt Emery

Can we untangle Education's History in U.S.?

I’ve been writing about education more than 25 years. It’s been a fascinating but puzzling journey.

So much in education is counter-intuitive. We would expect that there are quicker, more pleasant ways to do any task; conversely, there must be slow, inefficient and unsuccessful ways to do everything. It’s the second kind that our elite educators (the ones who run the system) gravitate toward. How can we explain this? It’s almost as if our educators merely pretend to believe in universal education. What they seen more deeply committed to is universal mediocrity.

When you consider all the studies, statistics, reports, and books, you realize that they all paint the same bleak and depressing picture. We spend more and billions every year but SAT scores fall. Our better students do not compete well with the better students from other countries. The general public seems to know barely enough to read a daily newspaper. Can most Americans find Idaho on a map? Never mind Japan? And then there’s the really big mystery: 50 million functional illiterates. How could this happen?

To answer all these puzzles, I researched further and further back in history. I tried to understand how the early educators, a century ago, looked at life, at their country, at children, and at this new field they had created. You want to know what’s really funny? These people in fact were not primarily interested in education as most of us understand that term. They were obsessed with ideology, psychological breakthroughs, and cultural transformations. They saw the school as a tool. Education was the factory in which they intended to build a new society. Note that nobody asked them to do this; they arrogantly appointed themselves our saviors. They didn’t do us any favors.

At this point I have more than 120 articles on the web trying to explain how and why our educators got off track. I’ve been especially fascinated by the reading war, which is far and away our biggest, dumbest scandal and a blazing paradigm for everything else. As I understood the damage caused by bogus reading methods, I began to have a clearer sense of what we need to do across the board: simply enough, get rid of all the failed ideas.

Oddly enough, we are engaged in a war with our own educators. I want to persuade people that this is an intellectual war; and we must fight the bad ideas with good ideas. So I’ve collected my 50 favorite articles in a book titled THE EDUCATION ENIGMA (What Happened To American Education). Partly it’s a history book. It’s also a guidebook to the toxic nonsense in American schools. Most importantly, it’s a map to a better future. It’s also entertaining. What other book talks about Pavlov, Mick Jagger, the Tao, John Dewey and robots?

My thesis is that we have no hope of improvement unless we understand exactly what happened to American education: our schools were made dumb by design. Then we have to identify and deconstruct all the gimmicks that have been smuggled into the system. Throwing more billions of dollars at the problem won’t help. Writing more glowing policy recommendations won’t help. Giving money to so-called best practice won’t help. Our educators are set in their ways; they often seem addicted to worst practice. We need an intervention.

So our first job is simply this: we have to grasp that our house is dirty and then clean it. We have to get rid of the overhyped “progressive” innovations that turn out in practice to be destructive and regressive. For example, Whole Word, Reform Math, Constructivism, Self Esteem, Cooperative Learning, Fuzzy Anything, and much more. We need to restore basics and academics to their proper prominence.

Many people are comforted by the idea that our educators are clumsy, inept, or befuddled by fads. No, I’m afraid you really have a much better sense of what happened to us if you imagine a bunch of guys like John Dewey gathered around a table discussing their philosophical goals, devising strategies, and trying to figure out how to keep the public from interfering. I know people who shy away from the word conspiracy. But let’s be realistic. This track record goes back nearly a century. Let’s show respect for those 50 million functional illiterates who spent their lives in a twilight zone thanks to John Dewey and his pals. You can’t create this kind of disaster in a few years or by accident. No, the perpetrators have to keep plugging away, decade after decade.

I should mention by the way that I never criticize teachers. I’m concerned only with the top educators, people with Ph.D.’s at Teachers College and such. These people are responsible for what happens in American education. Teachers are as much their victims as children are.

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For a short, hard-hitting but entirely intellectual critique of American education, please check out THE EDUCATION ENIGMA (on Amazon; or any store can order it for you). The ideas in this book can save our public schools. Please also visit Improve-Education.org.

Bruce Deitrick Price

Can we improve simple math computational Skills?

Three years ago I tried to pay attention to importance of simple mental calculations for success in school math. Now it must be not only attempt, it must be an appeal to all who worried about the future of mathematical education.

My last studies show that the skills of pupils are getting worse and worse. Last year I have tested 106 final-year pupils of primary school in mental addition and subtraction (within the limits of 20), multiplication and division (within the limits of 100). Standard tables including 64 elementary operations on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were used for determination of the level of the skills. You can see specimens of the tables at my site Prevention of Failure in School Mathematics (Improvement of Elementary Computational Skills, Tables).

The results turned out worrying: 52% of the sample has failed in addition and subtraction; 75% of the sample has failed in multiplication and division. In comparison with the data which had been obtained five years ago there is considerable deterioration (25 – 30 %). My earlier investigations show that all of these pupils have no chances to understand and master more complicated topics. If the trend will not change, very soon school math will turn into “knowledge for minions of fortune” and will become a sort of magic for other pupils.

Can we improve the situation? My answer is yes. I have chosen one class (20 pupils) with next results:

on addition: good – 2, uncertainly – 8, bad – 10;

on subtraction: good – 2, uncertainly – 7, bad – 11;

on multiplication: good – 5, uncertainly – 1, bad – 14;

on division: good – 4, uncertainly – 1, bad – 15.

During half a year we worked with standard tables. In total the pupils have completed eight tables on each arithmetical operation. Besides that the tables were constantly used as homework. In February the class has implemented a control test. Here are the results:

on addition: good – 16, uncertainly – 2, bad – 2;

on subtraction: good – 14, uncertainly – 5, bad – 1;

on multiplication: good – 10, uncertainly – 5, bad – 5;

on division: good – 9, uncertainly – 5, bad – 6.

Success on addition and subtraction is evident. You may say that on multiplication and division the results are not so good. But we must take into consideration that such a work must be implemented much earlier – at the second and third grades. Teachers of secondary school have not enough time to improve simple mental computational skills. It is a job of primary school.

If we want the greater part of our pupils will understand math in future, we must teach them some simple things in present. The first of these things are simple mental computations.

Comment: Great job Victor, but how are we improving these skills?? Matt

Victor Guskov, a teacher of mathematics, Ph.D. Pedagogical Sciences.
http://www.edarticle.com/k-12-subject-areas/mathematics/can-we-improve-simple-mental-computational-skills.html

Symbols, What are they Good For?: the 2nd commonality

The Use of Symbols the second Commonality:

The objective of this second commonality in the “Basic School” is that all students understand that all humans communicate through symbol systems. First they look at the genesis of language. They come to understand the reasons for communicating. There is the technology that moves this communication along; and sometimes degrades its purpose but other times enhances it. In the end kids realize that integrity is of the most importance in human interaction.

Well, following the commonality of life, communication and language naturally follows – as kind of a secondary miracle, if you will. Grade school kids are taught the mechanics and the windings of the different parts, grammar, spelling, parts of speech and writing in blocks of sentences and finally paragraphs. However, not often are they asked to step back and make connections as in a social setting, and how language connects us to others. This is very important.

In this commonality it is important that language history in its many different forms and cultures are touched upon. The who, what, when and where. How many languages are there? Where did they come from? How did I learn to speak? When did writing begin, what symbols did people use back in history? Do languages change? - How do I know if someone is being truthful? Are the impressions I’m being bombarded with real?

Younger students focus on the other materials used to make symbols in other times and cultures; smoke, drums, primitive paper etc., and realize that other life forms use their own symbols to communicate. The dolphins, bees, birds all send messages to each other.
The older students get higher learning exposure and questions such as what are the reasons for communicating, as in, to inform, persuade, entertain and inspire! They think about how words can heal and hurt. They consider different dialects, idioms, and colloquial expressions.

Before kids leave the Basic School they are exposed to Mass Communication and how mass media of all types effects their own lives, and begin to distinguish between the “Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. When the Basic School education is complete, students will have learned not only how to use words, but how to think about them. They’ll have an understanding of the history, social significance and the ethics of language.

The Basic School, Ernest Boyer - Excerpts by Matt Emery

The Life Cycle: an Integrated Curriculum

Little kids coming to school naturally want to know why? And it has been shown that somewhere around the 4rth grade, they begin to ask, “Is this going to be on the test?” This occurs largely because the lack of interconnectivity in the disciplines that kids are exposed to when young. We now know that learning separately, however expertly; our distinct academic subjects are not enough to be educated. There are the vital connections that exist between all the basic subjects that are vital to children’s learning and loving to learn. You see, when you walk in the woods on a fall day you are not subject to the individual subjects of botany, biology, weather, geology, geometry etc., in a vacuum. No, far from it the young mind is exposed to these and other subjects in an interconnected manner that reflects the real world; something that our classrooms, all too often, do not.

We know that teachers and students over time have not been satisfied with the separate treatment of subjects and curriculum. Frustrated teachers have often begun their own integrated units utilizing themes such as space exploration or trips across the Oregon Trail. However, if we as a system are to do right “The Basic School” believes that the cross connecting curriculum that crosses the borders that exist in nature and the real world can be categorized into commonalities that should be followed and in fact should envelope all the subjects being taught. The eight commonalities referred to are: The Life Cycle, The Use of Symbols, Membership in Groups, A Sense of Time and Space, Response to the Aesthetic, Connections to Nature, Producing and Consuming, and Living with Purpose. Within these commonalities the core curriculum can exist and thrive!

The goal of The Life Cycle: That all basic school kids understand that human life has a beginning, a growth period and an end. While gaining an appreciation for and the basic knowledge of the body’s needs and functions; they develop personal habits that further wellness. They develop an appreciation for how special life is, and understand how life perspectives and experiences differ from culture to culture. This commonality as are the next seven is a spiraling one. As the appropriate age is reached the age appropriate lessons are integrated into the Basic School curriculum.

Matt Emery: From The Basic School by Ernest Boyer

It's good to be involved in your kids education, Ya' think!

Why is parental Involvement Important in Children's Education?

Numerous research has been done to conclude that parents who are involved with their children's education are building the foundations for a better educated child. These children will be better adjusted to school which can lead to more education. In addition, parents are sending a message to their children that education is important.

In addition, parental involvement is important because parents who are part of their children education will understand the importance of reading. These parents will read to their children beginning at a young age. Also, this parent will make sure that their child can read on the right grade level throughout the educational process. Since reading is a big problem in our country, the reading foundation that the parent are developing will assist the child in its future educational endears as well as life goals. For more on this article....

Developing "Characters" in our Kids

Every parent wants their child to develop positive character traits. One way to supplement your child's character education is to act as a filter for the movies and television shows your child watches, and to review the books your child reads.


The following categories are modeled after "The Book of Virtues for Young People," an excellent book for children in its own right, written by William Bennett. When developing a curriculum of character education for your child, it's helpful to review each children's book, television show, and movie for both positive and negative examples of each of the ten virtues outlined in "The Book of Virtues for Young People." The stronger the message, the more it will contribute to your child's character education.

Following are some ways in which the virtues can manifest as character traits in children's books, movies, and in television shows:

Self-Discipline: A character discusses his feelings of anger rather than impulsively striking out. Or, a character gets his chores done before he goes out to play.

Compassion: A character understands the pain or suffering of a friend, and steps in to help, even when it means she can't attend the party she was looking forward to.

Responsibility: A character admits it was his baseball that broke the window, and offers to pay for a replacement. Or, a character keeps her promise to babysit her younger sister, even though she'd rather go to the movies with her friends.

Friendship: A character stands up for her friend in front of her peers, even though it's not popular. Or, a character befriends the class bully in an effort to get him to change his ways.

Work: A character approaches her job with a positive attitude, and does her very best even when her boss is being unfair. Or, a character makes up a game to get through an unpleasant task, and takes pride in her work even though it goes unnoticed.

Courage: A character is afraid of the raging waters, but takes the risk and dives in to save her family. Or, a character stands up for what he believes in, even though it's unpopular.

Perseverance: A character continues to strive to make the basketball team, even though he's a foot shorter than the other players. Or, a family works together to keep their home, even though the father has lost his job and the mother is ill.

Honesty: A character admits to himself that he isn't trying his hardest. Or, a character talks to an adult about a friend in trouble, even though the friend will get angry at her.

Loyalty: A character sticks with his losing soccer team in the hope of helping them become better, rather than joining a winning soccer team. Or, a character stays at her friend's side during a serious illness or hardship.

Faith: A character reaches out to God to help him in his time of need.

When evaluating character traits and virtues in kids' books, movies, and television shows, also look at negative behavioral influences. Ideally, these influences will be minimal. Consider, for example:

Violence: Does the character hurt himself, another person, or an animal through his words or actions, and does he act without remorse?

Profanity: Does the character use foul language, sexual language, or take God's name in vain?

Nudity: Does the movie, television show, or book show or describe suggestive styles of dress or partially clothed or nude characters?

Sexual Content: Do the characters engage in implied or overt sexual behavior, or do they engage in aberrant sexual behavior?

Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobacco: Do the characters use or abuse legal or illegal substances?

Scary Elements: Are the scenarios depicted gratuitously frightening?

Negative Behaviors: Does the character show disrespect to his parents? Or, does he neglect his homework? Or, does he frighten other children?

By evaluating both the positive character traits and negative behaviors of movies, television shows, and books, and selecting those that reinforce the values and virtues that are important to you, you'll go far in developing your child's character education.

By Brent Sitton: http://www.discoveryjourney.com/bookchild.htm

Nestle helps in the fight against Child ....Advertising

The Better Business Bureau is an unbiased non-profit organization that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. In November 2006, the BBB launched the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative to shift advertising targeting children to encourage healthier dietary choices and healthier lifestyles. There are currently 15 food and beverage companies participating in the Initiative, and the latest company to join the effort is Nestlé USA.

Nestlé has pledged that as of January 1, 2009, 100% of its advertising directed to children under age 12 will be only for products that meet nutritional guidelines of the initiative. Nestlé will no longer advertise WONKA brand candies to children younger than 12 years old. With this announcement, Nestlé will be the fourth candy company in the BBB Initiative to stop advertising candy to this age group. In addition, Nestlé USA will not target any advertising to children younger than 6, regardless of the product’s nutritional profile.

"Nestlé has agreed to only advertise foods to children that meet nutritional guidelines, which means that one of their best selling brands, WONKA candies, will no longer be advertised to kids under 12 years old," said Elaine D. Kolish, Director of the Initiative. "Nestlé USA has shown a serious commitment to promoting healthier foods for kids not only in the types of products they produce-including milk and juice- but also in their willingness to curb advertising candy to children under 12."

The company will only advertise Nestlé Juicy Juice 100$ juice, some varieties of Nestlé Nesquik ready-to-drink flavored milk, Nesquik chocolate flavored powder for milk, and Nestlé Push-Up frozen dairy desserts to children between ages 6 and 12.

"Nestlé USA is pleased to participate in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative and further affirm our commitment to healthier food and beverage choices," said Scott Remy, senior vice president, Communications, Nestlé USA. "This important initiative is also consistent with our global commitment to nutrition and responsible advertising to children."

Nestlé USA’s guidelines for healthier dietary choices are based on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Those guidelines, first published in 2005, include the following requirements for foods advertised to children 6 to 12 years of age:

* A juice product must be 100% fruit and/or vegetable juice and the serving size will be limited to no more than 8 fluid ounces and no more than 170 calories
* A ready to drink flavored milk must be portion controlled at 100 calories and contains no added sugars
* Chocolate powder flavoring for milk must be either 25% reduced in sugar or contain no added sugars and
* A frozen dairy dessert must be limited to no more than 100 calories and be an excellent source of a nutrient.

In addition, as provided by the terms of the Initiative, Nestlé USA will:

* Restrict the use of third-party licensed characters in advertising primarily directed to children under 12 to products meeting nutrition criteria
* Refrain from advertising food and beverages in elementary schools
* Not pay for, or seek out, product placement in media primarily directed to children under 12
* Limit the use of food and beverages shown in interactive games primarily directed to children under 12 to products that meet its nutrition criteria

The company’s advertising on TV, radio, print and third-party Internet sites that is primarily directed to children under 12 will be exclusively for products that represent these healthier dietary choices. Company-maintained Web sites directed to children under age 12 will be modified and updated no later than June 30, 2009.

The 15 participants of the Initiative are Burger King Corp.; Cadbury Adams USA LLC; Campbell Soup Company; The Coca-Cola Company; ConAgra Foods, Inc.; The Dannon Company; General Mills, Inc.; The Hershey Company; Kellogg Company; Kraft Foods Global, Inc.; Mars, Inc.; McDonald’s USA, LLC; Nestlé USA; PepsiCo, Inc.; and Unilever United States. A report on the progress made by Initiative participants was released in July 2008. This report, as well as the pledges made by the participating companies, is available online at www.us.bbb.org/advertisers4healthykids.

By Buzzle Staff and Agencies: www.buzzle.com

The Artist in Me

When children start pre-school, it begins. They dabble with construction paper, finger paints, and glitter. They bring art work home nearly every day and we proudly plaster it across the refrigerator. But once most children start elementary school, the deluge of childhood masterpieces slows to a trickle, or in some cases, simply disappears. Thanks to shrinking budgets, many school systems have drastically reduced art instruction or eliminated it completely. So, if your child isn't taking art classes in school, how can you be sure their inner artist doesn't waste away?

Art teachers are quick to explain that art is more than just a fun outlet for students; it's an essential element of learning. According to the National PTA, art cultivates self-expression, imagination and creativity, as well as critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

"If kids don't have the opportunity to be, it's not going to dawn on them to suddenly start thinking in new ways when they're older," says Gragg. "Kids who have artistic outlets are more likely to be successful adults because they see things differently. As business people, they'll be able to apply creative solutions and think beyond the basics."

While many parents want their children to excel in the basics, students who struggle with math, reading and science often benefit from artistic expression...

edited by: maui4456

Check out the Full Article: www.edarticle.com

How Broad is Language Really ?

The Basic School, an ideological school theorized but detailed heavily, in a book by the late Dr. Earnest Boyer, by the same name is the only book one needs to read as a parent in order to decide what type of school you want to send your children to. In addition, if you are not a parent but can’t understand why most of the country’s large school systems seem to have major failures in their programs, not the least of which is high drop-out rates, you should read The Basic School as well.
d:/data/matt/My Pictures/Picasa Exports/2007-07-21/Amanda Art Work_08.jpg
I am going to write a little bit about the commonalities as Dr. Boyer called them in his book. He states that there are 8 or them. Theses commonalities tie together a curriculum and environment that I believe, and obviously so did the author, are essential for an ideal teaching environment. Language is the obvious place to start. In the basic school however, besides the goals of children learning to write and speak clearly and listen effectively, language is broadened to include mathematics and the art as well as words. So now you have three “symbol systems” being learned not just in a vacuum, and that has their own unique characteristics, but is also intertwined intimately with each other.

If you think it odd to suggest that math, art and language be grouped into the same punch bowl consider this. There is the quilt that grandma made, consisting of pictographs of cultural meeting places, heart warming words with phrases that ring true, all put together with the skilled use of geometric shapes to make it whole! … Are you getting the picture yet? The opera with its song, story and musical time signatures; Even the magnificent double helix of genetics, in all of its complexity, has that element of beauty.

Apparently the great Scientists, Poets, Musicians and Mathematicians have always understood just how closely words, math and the arts were connected. I quote directly from The Basic School: When world renowned physicist Victor Weisskopf was asked “What gives you hope in troubled times?” he replied, “Mozart and quantum mechanics.”

Anyhow, language covers a broad spectrum in the basic school. The language of words, math and art, while taught separately are also seen to connect, in important ways by the students. Words are used to convey meaning in both math and the arts. The arts can be explored through math prescriptions. It is all about coherence throughout the children’s experience. Kids learn to be verbal in expressing math and the arts.

In expressing my own opinion about this commonality reasoning, and being an educator myself, I have to say that not as much need to change in what we are teaching children, rather it is important for teacher’s emphasis to change towards making the connections Earnest Boyer points out in his book, between all facets of language.

Matt Emery: From The Basic School a Community of Learning by Earnest L. Boyer

For the Love of Teaching...

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) position paper (1997) detailing how to assess children’s learning and development, assessment “recognizes individual variation in learners and allows for differences in styles and rates of learning” (p. 14) and “decisions...such as enrollment or placement are never made on the basis of a single assessment or screening device, but are based on multiple sources of relevant information...” (p. 14).
While many teachers aspire to achieve such a holistic and individualistic view of a child’s learning, 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) has created an enveloping and invasive standardized testing environment which necessarily tunnels an early childhood educator’s vision, from kindergarten readiness in preschool to the actual test administration commencement in third grade. The cost of this ever-earlier pressure manifests itself as a direct and often schizophrenic tension between policy-makers’ goals for public education and teachers’ hopes for their individual students (Hargreaves, Earl, and Schmidt, 2002).
As a result, children are “taught to the test” in order to receive state money. Funding, which is often the “high stakes” in high stakes testing, cannot compensate for what else is at stake: the children’s (and teacher’s) love and desire for lifelong learning and participation (Kohn, 1999). If true joy of the learning process is lost, the newest, most aesthetically beautiful school building in the US won’t buy it back. This brief paper attempts to explore why standardized testing is largely ineffective as an assessment, how the focus on testing and results harms true learning, and how DAP-informed childhood educators can help our nation’s schools through alternative assessments.


The Need for Alternative Assessments: Re-creating the Bar

The first question one must ask when designing assessments is, “What is [the assessment] measuring?” (Kohn, 1999). For the state standardized tests required by No Child Left Behind, the answer is students’ “command of foundational processes” in math, reading, and science content areas (Noddings, 2005). The standardized, preferred way to show said command is by simply filling in bubbles. Experts agree that such superficial displays of learning encourage shallow understanding and application soon forgotten after the test (Kohn, 1999; NAEYC, 1997). Indeed, the product vs. process-oriented nature of these tests make students focus on the possible reward of high scores and lose interest in the process they experience in order to obtain those numbers (Kohn, 1993). State scores may indeed increase, but the purpose, to show “command” (defined as thorough understanding) of the information in our democratic and increasingly international society, isn’t fulfilled (Noddings, 2005). Thus, the raised bar and increased scores become meaningless.
In order to stimulate students’ complex, sometimes messy, and meaningful understanding of concepts and facts, ...

Conclusion

While standardized test scores continue to rise, the quality of and desire for learning seemingly decreases (Kohn, 1999). It leaves one to wonder, “What good is producing a society that knows how to take a test, but doesn’t want to know about the world around him and challenge assumptions?” Thomas Jefferson once said that a democracy depends on the education of its citizens. Considering the current lack of critical thinking skills on our tests which evaluate educational success, it makes one shudder to think what the future might hold. DAP holds the key to a more engaged youth; it’s up to practitioners to unlock minds.

For the complete article by Stacey Langley: http://www.edarticle.com/alternate-education/for-the-love-of-learning-the-importance-of-alternative-assessments-in-education.html

Thinking of you...

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Choose the images you need and Created by Amanda will do the rest transforming them into high gloss, 4 by 6 note cards;and mailing them to your door, at $1.69 per card, or 10 for $13.99. Having These images of original artwork on hand will assure that "you are never at a loss for words." Created by Amanda will donate 20% of revenues to the local animal shelters in Mecklenburg County, NC.: Orders at maui4456@gmail.com

Sometimes we need to check our egos at the door

Children and Self-Esteem

As children go through the rituals of final exams, term papers, graduation ceremonies, piano recitals, talent shows, tryouts for the swim team and so on, parents must keep in mind the importance of nurturing self-esteem. Because you can't feel good about yourself if your child lets you down.

That's why the slogan in my house is Don't Sully The Family Name. When building a strong emotional foundation in a child, it is good to begin with shame. I don't expect them to be perfect, just far, far better than average. The occasional "B" is acceptable, so long as the child agrees to testify in a lawsuit against the teacher who is so stingy with the grades.
A "C" is grounds for permanent estrangement and disinheritance.



The kids understand that their own failures can be forgiven if they've made an effective effort to bring their friends down to their level. Merit is relative: Children must be taught that what really matters in life is not "winning," but making the honest effort to suppress the achievement level of the broader generational cohort.

My progeny grasp the concept that, when desperate, they can always play defense. Sometimes we watch hockey games together and admire the beefy, toothless dude whose only function is to come off the bench and slam into opposing players. We have found that the goon approach to life works wonders during the tension of a piano recital. I've trained them to go for the fingers.

Joel Achenboch

For more visit washingtonpost.com

Understanding learning with "The main Muscle".

The dynamic by which the human brain orchestrates its various networks to come up with thought and action remains largely unknown. However enough is known about its component lobes, circuits and interactions to provide a fairly useful template for educators interested in maximizing student performance. To make things clear, the writer will use an arbitrary but reader-friendly term to describe this template...the staircase method. It signifies that in teaching to the brain the educator must climb symbolically a four step cerebral staircase representing the collective, functional minds of his students.

Brain Dynamics...This story can be found in its entirety on edarticle.com

The 7 Great Things...

7 Things GREAT Teachers Know, Understand, and Do to Motivate Students to Learn Without Using Punishments or Rewards.

1. Great teachers understand that they are in the relationship business. Many students—especially those in low socio-economic areas—put forth little effort if they have negative feelings about their teachers. Superior teachers establish good relationships AND have high expectations.

2. Great teachers communicate and discipline in positive ways. They let their students know what they want them to do, rather than by telling students what NOT to do.

3. Great teachers inspire rather than coerce. They aim at promoting responsibility rather than obedience. They know that OBEDIENCE DOES NOT CREATE DESIRE.

4. Great teachers identify the reason that a lesson is being taught and then share it with their students. These teachers inspire their students through curiosity, challenge, and relevancy.

5. Great teachers improve skills that prompt students to WANT to behave responsibly and WANT to put effort into their learning.

6. Great teachers have an open mindset. They REFLECT so that if a lesson needs improvement they look to themselves to change BEFORE they expect their students to change.

7. Great teachers know education is about motivation.

Unfortunately, today's educational establishment still has a 20th century mindset that focuses on EXTERNAL APPROACHES to increase motivation. An example of the fallacy of this approach is the defunct self-esteem movement that used external approaches such as stickers and praise in attempts to make people happy and feel good. What was overlooked was the simple universal truth that people develop positive self-talk and self-esteem through the successes of THEIR OWN EFFORTS.

If you follow the advice above and in my book "Discipline without Stress, Punishments or Rewards" and you will promote education and social responsibility in a positive learning environment.

What Teachers Know...

Young people today come to school with a different orientation than past generations. Traditional student disciplining approaches are no longer successful for far too many young people. For example, a parent related the following to me after a discussion of how society and youth have changed in recent generations:

The other day, my teenage daughter was eating in a rather slovenly manner, and I lightly tapped her on the wrist saying, "Don't eat that way."

My daughter replied, "Don't abuse me."

The mother had grown up in the 1960s and volunteered the point that her generation tested authority but most were really afraid to step out of bounds. She related that her daughter was a good child and added, "But the kids today not only disrespect authority, they have no fear of it."

And, because of rights for young children—which we should have—it's hard to instill that fear without others claiming abuse.

So, how can we discipline students, so we as teachers can do our jobs and teach these young children who refuse to learn?

In many cases we resort to punishment as a strategy for motivation. For example, students who are assigned detention and who fail to show are punished with more detention. But in my questioning about the use of detention in hundreds of workshops around the country, teachers rarely suggest detention is actually effective in changing behavior.

Why detention is an ineffective form of punishment

When students are not afraid, punishment loses its effectiveness. Go ahead give the student more detention that he simply won't show up to.

This negative, coercive discipline and punishment approach is based on the belief that it is necessary to cause suffering to teach. It's like you need to hurt in order to instruct. The fact of the matter, however, is that people learn better when they feel better, not when they feel worse.

Remember, if punishment were effective in reducing inappropriate behavior, then there would be NO discipline problems in schools.

The irony of punishment is that the more you use it to control your students' behaviors, the less real influence you have over them. This is because coercion breeds resentment. In addition, if students behave because they are forced to behave, the teacher has not really succeeded. Students should behave because they want to—not because they have to in order to avoid punishment.

People are not changed by other people. People can be coerced into temporary compliance. But internal motivation—where people want to change—is more lasting and effective. Coercion, as in punishment, is not a lasting change agent. Once the punishment is over, the student feels free and clear. The way to influence people toward internal rather than external motivation is through positive, non-coercive interaction.

Here's how... For more information and the seven steps, stay tuned for the second submission of this article or visit edarticle.com and look for author: Marvin Marshall

Thinking of you...

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John Walsh: The Waiting is over.

A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, police in Florida said Tuesday. The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.

"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over."

Walsh's wife, Reve, at one point placed a small photo of their son on the podium.

Police named Ottis Toole, saying he was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him to the killing. They declined to be specific about their evidence and did not note any DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Walsh long contended.

"Our agency has devoted an inordinate amount of time seeking leads to other potential perpetrators rather than emphasizing Ottis Toole as our primary suspect," said Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner, who launched a fresh review of the case after taking over the department last year. "Ottis Toole has continued to be our only real suspect."

Toole had twice confessed to killing the child, but later recanted. He claimed responsibility for hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he killed Adam.

Wagner acknowledged numerous missteps in the investigation and apologized to the Walshes.

"I have no doubt," John Walsh said. "I've never had any doubt."

Many names have been mentioned in connection to the case in the years since the killing, including serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, but Toole's has persistently nagged detectives. John Walsh has long said he believed the drifter was responsible, saying investigators found at Toole's home in Jacksonville a pair of green shorts and a sandal similar to what Adam was wearing.

Toole died in prison of cirrhosis in 1996 at the age of 49. He was serving five life sentences for murders unrelated to Adam's death.

The Walshes, who appeared Tuesday flanked by their other children, long ago derided the investigation as botched. Still, John Walsh praised the Hollywood police department for closing the case.

"This is not to look back and point fingers, but it is to let it rest," he said.

Adam Walsh went missing from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away two weeks later. The rest of his body was never found.

Authorities made a series of crucial errors, losing the bloodstained carpeting in Toole's car — preventing DNA testing — and the car itself. It was a week after the boy's disappearance before the FBI got involved.

"So many mistakes were made," John Walsh said in 1997, upon the release of his book "Tears of Rage," which harshly criticized the Hollywood Police Department's work on the case. "It was shocking, inexcusable and heartbreaking."

For all that went wrong in the probe, the case contributed to massive advances in police searches for missing youngsters and a notable shift in the view parents and children hold of the world.

Adam's death, and his father's activism on his behalf, helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox flyers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.

"In 1981, when a child disappeared, you couldn't enter information about a child into the FBI database. You could enter information about stolen cars, stolen guns but not stolen children," said Ernie Allen, president of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, co-founded by John Walsh. "Those things have all changed."

The case also prompted national legislation to create a national database and toll-free line devoted to missing children, and led to the start of "America's Most Wanted," which brought those cases into millions of homes.

What it also did, said Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran, is make children and adults alike exponentially more afraid.

"He ended up really producing a generation of cautious and afraid kids who view all adults and strangers as a threat to them and it made parents extremely paranoid about the safety of their children," Moran said. This courtesy of Yahoo! News - read more below

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Concrete Knowledge

In a school where kids learn problem solving math, there will be an understanding that nothing new can ever be learned in a vacuum! One can only hope to build on whatever understanding already exists. In other words, what experience the child already has, will to a large degree, determine where you can take he or she from there. This is where a child's developmental readiness also comes in. It is for instance why you'll have trouble teaching a 1st grader subtraction and a second grader division. Developmentally they are just not ready. In fact there are 4 developmentally significant stages that a child needs to learn in before real understanding of math concepts and equations can take place, according to Dr.'s Piel and Green of Charlotte's University of North Carolina. They are as follows: The Concrete, the Representational, the Transitional and finally the traditional or Symbolic.

If you are like my daughter Amanda and me, any visit to any mathematics stage, needs to be preceeded by a visit to Davidson Chocolate!

Now strictly speaking the child probably needs to visit all 4 stages before it can be said that they've learned a new math concept. The Concrete stage will involve some sort of manipulative objects that help hands on learning of the concepts desired and are the basic tools responsible for say, 2nd and 3rd graders executing pre-algebra problem solving!

The Representational stage is simply a bridge between being able to handle and manipulate objects in order to develop conceptual strategies, and solving only pencil and paper math equations. Representation of objects perhaps with pictures of the same manipulates (but not necessarily the same ones) just used, is the norm during this stage of learning. Pictures, diagrams and drawings help further develop conceptual and number oriented understanding.

Transitional. Typically this stage give students an alternative method of solving a math problem, to the traditional. After all, most of our traditional methods for solving, for instance, multiplication or division problems, involve tricks or short cuts, that don't divulge the actual math involved, and therefor require the child to memorize steps and procedures that have no relationship to their conceptual understanding of the pre-requisite ancestors of addition and subtraction!

Last but not least is the Symbolic or Traditional stage. What most learning systems consider the final destination. But what if you get to this "holy grail" of solving equations as they are written in every text book, with the yoke of having memorized a lot of neat tricks and procedures (that are based on good math, the student never gets to see unless he/she takes apart the process - this never happens!). What if! - well, all but the strongest math minds will be cut off from the learning tree when they are maxed out in terms of mastering and retaining, not to mention regurgitating, memorized formulae and their excess baggage. This is why a high number of students leave math completely once they leave their high schools for the ivy walls of university or college.