The Educator's Notebook

NYT Invites Student Essays Connecting Their Studies To The World Today
New York Times - 12/6/18

“So you’re studying the Civil War — or Shakespeare, or evolution, or “The Bluest Eye.” Why? What does it have to do with your life and the lives of those around you? Why should you remember it once you’ve turned in that paper or taken that test?”
Both Technology And Traditional Teaching Have Value: It’s The Pedagogy That Matters
Bright - 12/5/18

“A belief in the power of technology is becoming akin to an article of faith among education decision makers and commentators — along with preferences found in progressive pedagogy, like student-driven learning over teacher-driven curriculum, cross-cutting skills over traditional subjects, Google over memorization. But what if introducing more technology, and turning away from traditional ways of teaching, is actually making education… worse? …When applied correctly to a specific set of problems, technology has proven to be a useful tool that can have positive impact. But it must be accompanied by an honest discussion about what pedagogy actually works.”

Coder Discourages Learning To Code, Encourages Problem Solving
Slate - 12/6/18
Parsing The Research On Arts Education
ASCD - 12/1/18

“We ask arts education to do something we seldom ask of other forms of education: justify itself in light of its effects on other fields. How often do we, for example, ask athletic directors to prove that playing baseball leads to better math skills or improves verbal skills? …Maybe instead of looking for research to prove or disprove the transfer of skills from the arts to something purportedly more important (or utilitarian), we should ask a different question altogether: What unique benefits does studying the arts provide students? Asking this question paints a different picture (pardon the pun) of arts education.”

Look At History To Assess Effectiveness Of Tech Innovations (“Reforms”)
Larry Cuban - 12/6/18

“In viewing technological innovations as a sub-set of curricular, instructional, and organizational reforms, then, teachers, principals, and parents can identify patterns and figure out possible consequences for the adoption of the innovation. They can track the journey as it goes from policy to classroom practice, and expect certain outcomes while being open to unanticipated ones as well.”
“Experts Predicting The Future Of Education Would Have Gotten An F”
Quartz - 11/28/18
KnowledgeWorks Releases 5th “Future Of Learning” Report
KnowledgeWorks - 11/27/18

On Bringing Music Further Into The Study Of History (More Than Just Hamilton)
History Tech - 12/4/18
Connect Past And Present: Questions, Themes, Events, Artifacts, People And More
New York Times - 11/29/18

“We suggest different methods teachers can use to easily facilitate these connections. Each method is illustrated with two examples, one from global history and another from United States history, and each ends with a classroom challenge. The goal is to help this kind of thinking become a habit of mind for your students.”
Teaching Suggestions For Making Connections Betw. World And Studies
New York Times - 12/7/17

“You can use the activities below whether or not your students are participating in the challenge. On their own, they can be an interesting way to end a unit or a semester. But you can also do them, individually or in sequence, to help students generate ideas for the challenge.”

Innovation Can Also Mean Looking To The Past, Not The Future
New York Times - 12/7/18

“Perhaps the best examples of rearward innovation are edible. The culinary story of the past several decades is dominated not by the scientific improvements we were promised, but by a return to food and drink’s more delicious past. Traditional cooking, craft beer, heirloom vegetables and grass-fed beef have brought food forward by turning back.”
"Why Teams Should Record Individual Expectations”
MIT Sloan Management Review - 11/30/18
“How To Run A Meeting” - Advice On Being Productive
Inside Higher Ed - 11/29/18
5 Characteristics Of An Effective School Team
Edutopia - 6/22/15

“For Safer Schools We Need More Hugs Not More Guns”
Hechinger Report - 12/4/18

“The CDC outlines four main pillars of school connectedness: adult support, positive peer groups, a welcoming school environment, and student commitment to education. Schools that choose to focus on these pillars reap the rewards.”

A Deep Dive, Accessibly Written, Into The Heart Of Google’s Code
New Yorker - 12/10/18
Mars Lander “InSight” Gets To Work, Slowly And Carefully
Digg - 12/7/18
Cyborg Plants: Yes, MIT Made A Robot Controlled By A Plant
MIT - 12/4/18

“Elowan is an attempt to demonstrate what augmentation of nature could mean. Elowan’s robotic base is a new symbiotic association with a plant. The agency of movement rests with the plant based on its own bio-electrochemical signals, the language interfaced here with the artificial world. These in turn trigger physiological variations such as elongation growth, respiration, and moisture absorption… Such symbiotic interplay with the artificial could be extended further with exogenous extensions that provide nutrition, growth frameworks, and new defense mechanisms.”
Machine Learning, AI, Deep Learning, What? A Flowchart Explains.
MIT Technology Review - 11/17/18

An Excellent Profile Of Edward Gorey And His Eccentric Minimalism
New Yorker - 12/10/18

“If you create something, you’re killing a lot of other things. And the way I write, since I do leave out most of the connections, and very little is pinned down, I feel that I am doing a minimum of damage to other possibilities that might arise in a reader’s mind.”
Nat’l Geographics Best Pictures From 2018: A Wondrous World
National Geographic - 11/26/18

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