Author: news-dunia@2022

Amy Whitewater didn’t start a book club with social emotional learning goals in mind. It came from her own passion for reading. Whitewater taught English language arts for 10 years and later became a school counselor. When she got the idea for a student book club in 2013, she enlisted support from other staff members at her middle school, advertised the club to students, sought community donations and scheduled monthly meetings. She led the charge for six years until leaving for a new job.
Over those years, the club did more than build a culture of reading. Whitewater, who spoke about the club’s success at an American School Counselor Association conference, noticed the social and emotional benefits of the club, including:
Cutting across cliques. Each year, 20 to 30 students joined the book club. “They were kids from all different backgrounds, all different socioeconomic statuses, kids who didn’t always interact with each other,” Whitewater said. “And so it was nice to bring them tog..

How does a revolution start? Sometimes, it’s a simple question. For Sarah Powell, an associate professor of special education at the University of Texas at Austin, the question was this math problem: Donna and Natasha folded 96 paper cranes. Donna folded 25 paper cranes. How many did Natasha fold?
In a study, Powell posed that question to children at the end of third grade, when they should have been able to answer it easily. Instead, most couldn’t solve it. One underlined 11 words in the question but didn’t attempt any math. Another jotted down the number 96 and gave up. A few wrote down random numbers that had nothing to do with the problem. More than half the students added the numbers 96 and 25 together. Only two children out of 15 she showed me got the correct answer: 96-25=71.
“I could send you hundreds of these,” Powell said. “It’s heartbreaking. How did we let it get to this? These are kids that just get passed from one grade level to the next. You shouldn’t let a kid get to ..

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Data analysis for this story by Thomas Wilburn and Kae Petrin.
After New York City’s public libraries last week averted deep cuts that would have significantly reduced hours, some parents and educators are raising alarm about the state of libraries in the city’s public schools.
For years, advocates have warned that many students do not have access to a library or a certified librarian on their campus. The nation’s largest school system, with 1,600 schools, has roughly 260 certified school librarians, education department officials said.
And according to a Chalkbeat analysis of school budget item lines for librarians, a larger share of high-poverty schools had no librarian on budget. (Other schools may employ librarians whose salaries are paid outside of school budgets, like through a school’s PTA, which may not be reflected in the data.)
It’s an issue that’s developed over years,..

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.
In 2019, Minnequa Elementary in Pueblo was on the brink of closing because of low test scores and declining enrollment. Today, the school is off the state’s “watch list,” has the state’s top “green” school rating, and recently won a $50,000 award for exceptional growth in math.
So, how did a school where only 8% of students scored proficient on state math tests in 2019 change course?
Principal Katie Harshman says it was a combination of factors, including a good math curriculum, regular coaching for teachers, constant data analysis, and a shift to having some upper elementary teachers focus only on math, while others teach reading and writing. Using state grants and federal money the school receives because it serves many students from low-income families, Minnequa also tapped outside experts, including the Relay Graduate School of Education and a math consulting group called 2Par..

This post was originally published by Parenting Translator. Sign up for the newsletter and follow Parenting Translator on Instagram.
As parents, our short-term goal is to get our children to listen to us and follow the rules and limits we set for our family. Yet, our long-term goal is to raise children who truly understand why we have created these rules and limits and develop an internal motivation to be kind and do the “right” thing. In other words, we want them to follow rules because they care about being a kind, moral person, not just because they are scared they might get in trouble. In research, this is referred to as internalization. So how do we make sure we are working towards this long-term goal? Could our short-term discipline strategies be interfering with this long-term goal?
A recent study addressed this question. The researchers found that when parents used specific discipline strategies they were more likely to have children who showed early signs of internalization..

From the book “Your Brain on Art” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Copyright © 2023 by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. Reprinted by arrangement with Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Think of how much is learned in the early years of a life: crawling, walking, talking. These learned skills are sculpting the circuitry of the brain though plasticity. As you get a little older and begin to practice skills, neurons connect and those activities become easier. Practice a song, and soon you know it “by heart,” which, technically speaking, is “by brain.” Learn a dance, and soon you can perform its steps without consciously thinking because the neurons connect to dendrites and over time that builds a habit.
Your unique life circumstances and surroundings also help to form your brain connections. The brains of humans are born immature for a reason. By delaying the maturation and growth of brain circuits, initial learning about the environment and the world ..

Excerpted with permission of the publisher Jossey-Bass, a Wiley brand, from “Teaching Fiercely: Spreading Joy and Justice in Our Schools” by Kass Minor. Copyright © 2023 by Kass Minor. All rights reserved.
It is important to distribute equitable responsibility within the community to nourish teachers with time and space for planning, thinking, reflecting and collaborating. When this labor is centered on one entity, like “school leadership” or “grade team leaders” or even one person like “the principal,” the likelihood that an authentic and intentional thought sanctuary for teachers will come into fruition is minimal. One way to think about this movement is through the concept of “community-up,” meaning that community growth is connective, lateral and moves upward, together.

The cylindrical model shown below is an example of a community-up model, and supports organizing within a school community. I learned about the cylindrical model from Indigenous educator Cinnamon Kills First duri..

One of the few replicated findings in education research is that daily, individualized tutoring during the school day really helps kids catch up academically. The problem is that this kind of frequent tutoring is very expensive and it’s impossible to hire enough tutors for the millions of American public school students who need help.
In theory, educational software could be a cheaper alternative. Studies have shown that computerized tutoring systems, where algorithms guide students through lessons tailored to their individual needs, can be effective when kids use them. But kids are tired of learning over screens and the kids who are the most behind at school are the least likely to have the motivation to learn independently this way.
What if you were to marry humans with technology? Could you substitute some of the tutoring time with time on ed tech without sacrificing how much students learn? That’s exactly what a team of University of Chicago researchers tried with 1,000 students ..

Something remarkable is happening at Nora Forester Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, in teacher Patrice Bravo’s STEM lab — a wonderland of technicolor gears, tools and laboratory doo-dads, all overseen by STEM’s playful patron saint: Albert Einstein, poking out his tongue from a poster on the back wall.
“If the wind is going against your hand, what’s your hand going to do?” Bravo asks, blowing dramatically against her open, upright hand. Today’s lesson: aerodynamics.
“The wind is strong! It makes your hand go ‘Whoa!,’ like this.” Her hand quivers like a sail. “But! If your hand is like this,” she asks, pointing it into the wind, “like an airplane wing?”
The second-graders giggle and chirp their predictions.
Bravo asks student Christopher Olivarez to help by being the wind, and together they perform a playful duet between wind and wing, student and teacher.
This is the remarkable part. While Christopher is a student, he is taller than the other second-graders, his voice deep..

Brandy Smith is grateful her students are among the youngest on campus.
Too young to question why she has them stand up against the wall, out of sight of the classroom door, on drill days. Too young to ask why they do active shooter drills at all.
Smith is a pre-K teacher for Metro Nashville Public Schools. It can be an extra burden to teach such young students, though. They are often left out of school safety conversations – and young children can’t advocate on their own.
In the weeks since a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville left three adults and three 9-year-olds dead, Smith said she’s had many “ups and downs.”
“It’s a lot of emotions,” Smith said. “I’ve gone from scared and terrified, to kinda just really pissed off. So mad that I could kinda just punch anybody.”
Smith said she is “a lover, not a fighter” though. So as Tennessee lawmakers have debated – and largely failed – passing gun control legislation in the wake of The Covenant School shooting, Smith h..