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A list of Tumblr blogs for and by teachers

cooperativecatalyst:

Education Blog Bundle curated by Shelly Terrell (Cooperative Catalyst blogger)

education
teaching
literacy
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What happens when you give Kindles to kids in Ghana? Results:

courtenaybird:

  • Kids learned to use e-readers quickly even though 43 percent of them had never used a computer before. Also, not surprisingly, they were quick to discover “the multimedia aspects of the e-reader, such as music and Internet features.”
  • Near-zero theft. Only two e-readers (out of 600) were lost in the whole study, partly because “community involvement was encouraged through e-reader pledges, community outreach programs, and support from community leaders.”
  • Kids got access to way more books. Before the study, primary-school students had access to an average of 3.6 books at home. Junior-high students had access to an average of 8.6 books at home and high-school students access to an average of 11 books. With the e-reader program, kids had access to an average of 107 book.
  • Primary school students’ test scores improved, but effects on older kids were less clear. The reading scores of primary-school students who received e-readers increased from 12.9 percent to 15.7 percent. But results for older kids were mixed.
  • Students sought out access to international news. “Amazon data revealed that students were downloading The New York Times, USA Today, and El País etc., demonstrating that students want to access a wide range of reading materials that were previously inaccessible.”
  • Kindles break too easily. Worldreader had not predicted how many Kindles would break: 243 out of 600, or 40.5 percent. 
  • The program appears cost-effective. Worldreader estimates that “for the years 2014-2018, using a calculation focused strictly on the provisioning of textbooks, the e-reader system would cost only $8.93-$11.40 more per student over a 4 year period [$0.19 to $0.24 per month] than the traditional paper book system.”
ghana
lit
education
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The New York City Department of Education issued its first guidelines for how teachers should navigate social media following a rise in the number of complaints involving school employees who inappropriately contact students through Facebook, texting and email.

Terry’s principal, Philip Weinberg, calls the guidelines common sense.

“As an old English teacher, even the language of that kind of interaction is problematic,” he says. “We know that we’re not our students’ friends as much as we love them and care about them in genuine ways. We need to establish specific boundaries about the kinds of interactions we have with young people.”

Friend Your Students? New York City Schools Say No : All Tech Considered : NPR

The school I’m going to does not have any policies on social networking and students. When I interviewed the cheerleading coach told me that she is friends with a lot of the kids on Facebook.

What are the reasons for a public school teacher to be friends with your students?

(via itssnix)

education
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theatlantic: Why Is General McChrystal Teaching an Off-the-Record Course at Yale? McChrystal, who formerly led special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and later became a senior American commander in Afghanistan, now teaches a class at Yale’s Grand Strategy Program, where he integrates his military experience with his studies on leadership. In the New York Times, McCyrstal is quoted as saying “the only reason I’m here to teach,” compared with “somebody who’s got a Ph.D., is because I’ve been through it.” McChrystal must have been through something ominous because, according to Elisabeth Bumiller’s  Times article, Yale University imposes restrictions on students who sit in McChrystal’s classes, demanding that they take notes on an “off the record” basis — i.e., not for attribution. Yale’s extraordinary act seems drastically out of place with notions of academic and intellectual freedom. At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where I teach history, intellectual freedom is fiercely encouraged and protected. In addition, there is also accountability. No matter what I say in my history classes - either about history or my combat experience — cadets are free to tell it to the world, critique it, or reject it privately or publicly. Restrictions on cadets don’t exist even for an instructor with direct ties to the U.S. military. Read more. [Image: Reuters]

theatlantic:

Why Is General McChrystal Teaching an Off-the-Record Course at Yale?

McChrystal, who formerly led special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and later became a senior American commander in Afghanistan, now teaches a class at Yale’s Grand Strategy Program, where he integrates his military experience with his studies on leadership. In the New York Times, McCyrstal is quoted as saying “the only reason I’m here to teach,” compared with “somebody who’s got a Ph.D., is because I’ve been through it.”

McChrystal must have been through something ominous because, according to Elisabeth Bumiller’s  Times article, Yale University imposes restrictions on students who sit in McChrystal’s classes, demanding that they take notes on an “off the record” basis — i.e., not for attribution.

Yale’s extraordinary act seems drastically out of place with notions of academic and intellectual freedom. At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where I teach history, intellectual freedom is fiercely encouraged and protected. In addition, there is also accountability. No matter what I say in my history classes - either about history or my combat experience — cadets are free to tell it to the world, critique it, or reject it privately or publicly. Restrictions on cadets don’t exist even for an instructor with direct ties to the U.S. military.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

free expression
academic freedom
education
yale
mcchrystal
war
military