Education
Professors are right — taking notes by hand leads to greater comprehension, learning in class
Though banning laptops seems juvenile, taking notes by hand eliminates distractions, making lectures more conducive for learning It seems as though the age of laptops in classrooms came and went in the blink of an eye. To start off the school year, many professors have put their foot down and begun to insist that…
Read MoreThe Show Must Go On: Reflecting on the Difficult Decisions Heads Have to Make
Students at The Chicago Academy for the Arts have a long history of taking on challenging material. However, the school’s ability to handle controversial work was recently put to the test. ********* Winter break was a few easy days away when Ben Dicke, the chair of our theatre department, stopped by my office to discuss…
Read MoreThe Learning Curve: How We Learn and Rethinking the Education Model
(NOTE: Occasionally, we post articles about learning that we think will help parents evaluate their child’s experiences in school and enable parents to discuss education issues with teachers and school administrators. This article is one of those.) In the 18th and 19th centuries, various infections, often called childbed fever, were common causes of childbirth-related maternal…
Read MoreHelping Your Child Succeed in School
Many parents suffer from watching their son or daughter struggle in school. They often feel powerless to help. Daniel Franklin knows that parents can help. He believes that the relationship–the partnership–between a caregiver and child is the single most important factor in transforming struggle into success. He has written a book with the number-one goal…
Read MoreChanging the way we teach race
In the eighth grade I was asked if I wanted to step out of the room while the class learned about slavery. When I politely declined, I was allowed to sit with my classmates as we were taught the wonders of slave culture — the music and religions cultivated from a beautiful blend of two cultures,…
Read MoreResilience gets personal…
My best friend’s daughter killed herself last spring. Our families had grown up together. We were on vacation with her parents when it happened and got the news together. And no, we didn’t see it coming. I know we can’t stop kids from killing themselves, but I feel compelled to try, no doubt like every…
Read MoreThinking About Campus Transparency
To pass the science building at night is to wonder at the glow of lab tables and Smartboards, the white lab coats and goggles neatly hung, the textbooks and spider plants bathed in the light of energy-efficient dimmers. You don’t have to look closely to catch the faculty prepping the week’s lessons—or tending to something…
Read MoreA Teacher Opens Up About Becoming a Student in a MOOC
On the wall in the most inconspicuous and least traveled room in my house, two framed certificates from selective and expensive institutions of higher learning proclaim that I have completed a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Next to them hang two other certificates indicating that I have completed and passed two online MIT courses…
Read MoreGroup projects are horrible
There are a few things a professor can say that will automatically make me fear taking a class. For example, “This class is not curved,” or, “I expect half of you to fail or drop out of my course,” or the awful “The final is cumulative.” But in my opinion, nothing is worse than the…
Read MoreDigital Citizenship and Social-Emotional Skills Are Inseparable
Every school has its own unique culture. It is made up of all the ways in which students relate to one another and their teachers. In today’s world, digital devices in particular (and technology in general) have a huge effect on these relationships. For better or worse, communication is different now, and it has the…
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