Five links that made us think this week:
Just when I thought I was ok at math, I’m reminded it’s all relative. Google researcher Niel Fraser recently visited schools in Vietnam and learned that Vietnamese students in the 5th grade perform at the same level as U.S. students in 11th grade. Vietnamese students in the 11th grade are able to solve math equations that Google would use as their top three hardest questions for an interview. After observing the advancements and discipline among Vietnamese students, Fraser believes that “the state of American computer science education is striking in comparison.” I wonder what innovations in science, math, and engineering are we missing out on if we’re not giving everyone access to a top-rate education like in Vietnam?
Photo by Alessio Damato via WikiCommons
I recently was in Austin to attend year two of SXSWedu, the education-focused cousin of the wildly fabled annual SXSWinteractive where startup dreams hope to come true or catch fire. Like its more established cousin, SXSWedu generated buzz about secret film screenings, budding entrepreneurs, and big names like Gates (Bill as well as the Foundation).
Standing still for a moment in a hallway at SXSWedu, I was surrounded by entrepreneurs abuzz about their upcoming releases and how many kids and teachers will benefit from their tools. Many are teacher-preneurs, such as Dan Carroll (Clever), Tess Brustein (SmarterCookie), Nicole Tucker Smith (LessonCast), Scott Messinger and Robbie Earle (Common Curriculum), and Daniel Yoo (Goalbook), who felt specific pain points and are on a mission to alleviate them. They are convinced that had they had their own solution in years past, they would have been more effective teachers through engaging learning opportunities or would have simply saved time. In my opinion this is the energy and spirit that will drive this phase of education innovation to impact.
There were also large initiatives such as InBloom that seeks to solve big data problems by building the infrastructure, or the “plumbing,” through which data analytics and technology come together and in so doing personalize learning for all students. Amplify Tablets also made a splash as an “all-in-one” solution for monitoring and managing students while providing learning content.
Photo courtesy of Nihal ElRayess. The author, second from right, at SXSWedu with, from left to right, Mark Hurty (TFA’s IT Solutions team), Dan Carroll (Clever), and Kevin Tame (TFA’s Admissions team)
Recording artist and philanthropist John Legend has won nine Grammy® Awards and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. In 2007, he launched the Show Me Campaign (ShowMeCampaign.org), an organization that works to break the cycle of poverty through education. John sits on the boards of Teach For America, Stand for Children and the Harlem Village Academies. He has received the 2010 BET Humanitarian of the Year Award, the 2009 CARE Humanitarian Award for Global Change, and the 2012 Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year Award.
I remember my high school English teacher, Mrs. Bodey. She saw potential in me and pushed me to excel. I write songs for a living now, but I didn’t believe that writing was one of my strengths until I spent a year with her. She helped me unlock my creativity and gave me the courage to write with passion and clarity. Mrs. Bodey encouraged me to aim high and, with her support, I ended up at the University of Pennsylvania.
I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her.
This post originally appeared on BVP Musings. We have reblogged it with permission.
My eyes slowly scan the black, metal shelves. A shadow of uncertainty floats through my mind. I am totally crazy, I think, running my fingers along the spines of the books, boldly marked Level U. Suddenly, I see it. My hand hesitates for a moment – but then, I grab the seven copies of The Tale of Desperaux, written by Kate Dicamillo, tuck them firmly under my arm, and tiptoe out of the room.
Photo by Vita Thomsen via WikiCommons
Five links that made us think this week.
I attended a large public high school where our school’s police officer was always on hand. I rarely had any personal interaction with him beyond the passing “hello” in the hallways, but this article got me thinking about the role he played in my high school experience and how officers across the country can be used in positive (or negative) ways around the schools they protect.
If you have any doubt as to the ability of our nation’s children to be the STEM innovators and problem solvers of the future this article will put it to rest. The projects these Intel Science Talent Search finalists are working on are truly exceptional. Across the country, kids have the ideas and the potential to do what these remarkable students are doing. We need to provide the education and resources to help them grow.
At Teach For America, we’re constantly thinking about kids, but if you’re like me, we often forget it’s OK to act like one too. This week I’m remembering to take moment to destress with some kid-inspired activities or one of these relaxation techniques from around the globe.
Photo by Effeietsanders via Wikimedia Commons
On November 1, 2012, I was a nervous wreck at the Georgetown library waiting for Teach For America’s admittance decision. Factors working against me: I am older than anyone I’ve ever met in TFA and I have no classroom teaching experience. Factors working for me: I genuinely like motivating other people and I like problem solving.
Check mail, check mail, check mail. There it was, “Congratulations and welcome to the 2013 corps!”
The author in Thailand with the Peace Corps (photo courtesy of Josie Duckett)
You can follow Teach For America's new co-CEOs Elisa Villanueva Beard and Matt Kramer as they cross the country. They’ll be posting comments and photos on Twitter (@TeachForAmerica, @villanuevabeard, @kramer_matt, #TFAlisten), Facebook, and here on Pass the Chalk.
We kicked off our Listening Tour in the sunshine and cool air of Columbia and then Orangeburg, South Carolina, but quickly escaped the brisk coastal breezes and spent the next 10 amazing hours indoors, listening to students, parents, school leaders, corps members, Teach For America staff, community partners and elected officials talk about the issues that mattered most to them. Spending the day listening is a great privilege and we are grateful to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us.
Photo provided by Teach For America
In a time of sequester, streamlining and of scrambling to do more with less, and even as increasing competition, expectations and demands put the pressure on communities to seize all opportunities for progress, we are missing an incredible opportunity as a country. There are tens of thousands of college-ready students who, for lack of access and because of pervasive low expectations, graduate high school without gaining entry to the training programs, community colleges and universities for which they are eligible.
This is the provocative conclusion of a largely unmentioned study conducted by Sarena Goodman of Columbia University and University of California at Berkley. Picked up by only a few education blogs and publications in the last four months, the study looks at the effects of mandatory ACT testing in states that have implemented the test as a graduation exit requirement.
Some conclusions aren’t surprising: in states where mandatory ACT testing is in place, the number of test takers increased (particularly among those who historically had the least access to the exam). On the flipside, the average school/ district/ state scores decreased as more historically low-achieving students took the exam.
Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid via WikiCommons
Today’s post is in recognition of AmeriCorps week and originally appeared on the Americorps Alums blog. It has been reprinted with permission. For more information about AmeriCorps, visit www.americorps.gov.
When I was an undergraduate at Wheaton College in Illinois, I there was a “type” of person who went into a service field after graduation—and I was pretty sure it wasn’t me. I was obviously going to do something more important. But when college graduation rolled around, I realized that there weren’t too many open positions for inexperienced twenty-one-year-olds in the White House or the New York Times. Apprehensively, I made the decision to join the Citizen Schools National Teaching Fellowship in Boston, Massachusetts.
My first year of teaching was tough. I can’t help but shudder when I recall my scripted lesson plans and my awkward behavior management. For quite some time, I operated under the mentality that I was “giving service a try” but it “wasn’t really my thing.”
In my second year at Citizen Schools, two eleven-year-old Moroccan boys in my classroom changed everything. Believing Sif and Abdellah deserved much better than the failing school they were attending, I worked with the boys’ mothers to transition them to a local charter with some of the highest test scores in the region. It was through this action that I experienced my personal epiphany: “service” wasn’t about fitting myself into a prescribed, do-gooder mold; it was about harnessing my personal passion to drive transformation in others. I cared deeply about ensuring that my students were connected to existing services in the community, and I was proud to have the insight and opportunity to lead them there.
Photo provided by the Americorps Alums blog
Today’s special edition of the Friday Five is focused on spreading awareness of the collateral damage to education caused by the war in Syria. Today’s story is the children of Syria.
While some students in the U.S. go to air-conditioned schools, eat organic lunches, and work on electronic books, there are students in Syria who haven’t been to school for over two years since the Syrian War began. UNICEF released a report on Tuesday to help spread awareness about the damage the war is doing to the education system in Syria. Here were some of the findings:
Photo by James Gordon via WikiCommons
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