Category: schoolreform
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Oklahoma Legislators: Don’t Repeal Common Core Standards, Instead Reject High Stakes Testing
If you are an Oklahoma legislator, please watch the following 6 minute video and thoughtfully consider this message about Common Core State Standards. There is a great deal of public anger in Oklahoma today regarding education and education policy, and it is important to both understand and constructively respond to these emotions. As an elected…
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Why Are Thousands of Oklahoma Teachers Protesting Today at the Capitol?
Today will be a historic event in Oklahoma education history: Thousands of Oklahoma teachers, parents, and others are gathering for a rally on the steps of our state capitol in Oklahoma City. According to today’s Tulsa World article, “Education funding rally: Thousands of Oklahomans expected to descend on Capitol, press for more school dollars,” State…
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Educational Vouchers are a BAD Idea for Oklahoma Students and Families (HB 3398)
Update 21 Feb 2014: Please see the clarifications in the comments to this post. A federal NCLB waiver is needed instead of a state waiver, as I thought when I wrote this post. Also there are important reasons why PT specifically would be hampered rather than helped/supported by the same regulations which govern public schools…
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Academic Publishing and Relevance
Since finishing my PhD I’ve applied for five different tenure-track faculty positions. I’ve been invited to interview for just one of those. I may apply for another position sometime down the road, but I’m currently very happy teaching 4th & 5th graders as a STEM teacher, occasionally teaching teachers as an educational consultant/speaker, and regularly…
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You Must Watch This: We Need Educational Change But Not High Stakes Accountability
You must watch this video. In it, Ethan Young, a senior at Farragut High School, in Knox County, Tennessee, concisely, cogently, and persuasively explains why the high stakes accountability focus of Common Core is the WRONG path for educational improvement in the United States. I agree with Ethan and applaud his courage as well as…
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Podcast411: Going 1:1 – Planning for Success by Jake Heister
This audio podcast is a recording of Jake Heister’s presentation on December 4, 2013, at the Interactive Learning Institute in Norman, Oklahoma, titled, “Going 1:1 – Planning for Success.” The ILI Conference is sponsored each year by the K-20 Center at the University of Oklahoma. The official session description was “Many well-intended 1:1 initiatives fall…
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Great STEM Rube Goldberg Video – Girls Love Making Stuff!
Take a couple minutes and watch the now-viral video, “GoldieBlox, Rube Goldberg, & Beastie Boys “Princess Machine” (a concert for little girls).” It’s a delightful Rube Goldberg project, but it makes a larger point about how engineering and MAKING isn’t just for boys! Girls love making engineering projects too! Thanks to Chris Simon, STEM Coordinator…
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Roadmap to Blended Learning (October 2013)
Today in Canandaigua, New York, I presented a morning session titled, “Roadmap to Blended Learning” at an event sponsored by Lightspeed Systems and The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education (NYSCATE). My presentation slides from the session are available on SlideShare, and I posted a “lightly-edited” audio recording of the session…
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Oklahoma Innovation Task Force Education Survey
If you are an Oklahoma educator, please take a few minutes to complete this 29 question survey for Creative Oklahoma. The past couple of years I’ve attended several meetings of this task force (both in person and on the phone) and believe the work they are doing is important. We need to place much more…
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Getting it WRONG: The Economist on Educational Technology, Testing and School Reform
Where do I begin? Two articles published in The Economist‘s print and online magazines at the end of June 2013 are filled with errors and misleading statements concerning educational technology, testing, and school reform. The articles, “E-ducation: A long-overdue technological revolution is at last under way” and “Catching on at last: New technology is poised…