You know how sometimes you’re really busy and you see a whole bunch of things that seem blog-worthy and/or shareable, but there’s not quite enough there to merit a full post? Not enough meat, not enough new thinking or (more likely) not enough time to write the whole thing up? So you end up with a lot of bookmarks and notes with no coherence? Yeah. That’s what I’ve got for you today. Consider it my own Big Block of Cheese Day.
First up, if you haven’t been following A Year At Mission Hill- what the heck’s wrong with you? It’s a breath of fresh air in a sea of fetid edubabble. Plus you can visit the IDEA Blog to read my posts on each chapter!
Second, after spending a week of my life trying to write 1500 words on how our Critical Skills Program helps teachers with the Common Core (which is akin to writing 1500 words on why water is wet), I was thrilled to read the Next Generation Science Standards. As Edcamp CEO Dan Callahan wrote:
Thirdly, I know we all love a good Ted talk. This one from Sam Chaltain on The Art and Science of Great Teaching is worth 14 minutes to takes to watch it.
On a slightly more academic note, this piece about the benefits of Social and Emotional Learning programs (like our own Critical Skills Program) from the Social and Emotional Learning Group the grabbed my attention while I was conducting a lit search for a grant I’m working on. What really caught my attention was this:
The positive results the study found do not come atthe expense of performance in core academic skills, but rather enhance academic achievement.
(The full article was published in Child Development)
And finally, just to end on a lighter note, there’s this piece from the Answer Sheet on an 8th Grader in Saranac Lake, NY who wrote her own standardized test. And they say kids don’t get satire anymore…
The Critical Skills Classroom 