The Educator's Notebook

"Skim Reading Is The New Normal. The Effect On Society Is Profound.”
Guardian - 8/25/18

“Many readers now use an F or Z pattern when reading in which they sample the first line and then word-spot through the rest of the text. When the reading brain skims like this, it reduces time allocated to deep reading processes. In other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own.”
“Science Of Adolescent Learning”
Alliance for Excellent Education - 8/1/18

“The report recommends ways education practitioners and policymakers can support adolescent learning for all students, including historically underserved populations.”

"A Surprisingly Simple Way To Help Level The Playing Field In… Admissions”
New York Times - 8/27/18

“Underrepresented students are less likely to take admissions tests more than once. Encouraging them to retake tests — as many of their high-income, white and Asian-American peers do — could close a substantial portion of the income and racial gap in enrollment at four-year colleges. That’s the conclusion of a working paper released on Monday”

“Kids Turn To Screens To Cope With A Chaotic World”
Futurity - 8/31/18

“The study also outlines new theory, called sensory curation theory, that posits people use media devices to construct temporary “environments within environments” to create a comfortable sensory space for themselves… “Children for the most part do not get to choose where they eat, sleep, play, or learn. These are some of the only tools they have to modify sensory input,” says lead author Kristen Harrison.”

Do We Need An AP Ethnic Studies Class?
Education Dive - 8/29/18
3 Lessons From Riding The Public Bus To School
New York Times - 8/28/18

“I used to be ashamed about what it took for me to get to school every morning. Now I realize it was an education of its own.”
“Review: ‘America To Me’ Is A Searing Lesson In School Inequity”
New York Times - 8/24/18

“The school has a faculty conscious of diversity and reflective about bias. But for all the good intentions, students of different races find themselves on different tracks, in different classes, with different outcomes… “America to Me” is full of moments like this, where you see how racial imbalances are perpetrated by people who don’t see themselves as perpetrating them. It just somehow happens, they believe. Technically. The film, however, is more empathetic than damning.”

J. R. R. Tolkein’s Final Final Novel: "The Fall Of Gondolin”
Smithsonian - 8/29/18
In Defense Of The Romance Novel (And A History Of The Word “Romantic”)
LA Review of Books - 8/27/18
Extraordinary Visualization Of How America Uses Its Land
Bloomberg - 7/31/18

“The data can’t be pinpointed to a city block—each square on the map represents 250,000 acres of land. But piecing the data together state-by-state can give a general sense of how U.S. land is used.”

Is Free Play In Childhood The Solution To Our Partisan Politics?
New York Times - 9/1/18

“The constant presence of adults is intended to keep children safe, but what are its likely effects? How might kids deprived of opportunities for free play, risk-taking and self-governance differ from previous generations when they leave the nest? We would expect two main areas of difficulty.”
“5 Proven Benefits Of Play”
NPR - 8/31/18
One Method For Convening Class Discussions Of A Text
Cult of Pedagogy - 8/26/18

“When they arrive in class, students get into small groups, where they have 15 minutes to share thoughts, lingering questions, and epiphanies (TQEs) they have about the reading… By the time the 15 minutes is up, each group needs to choose their top 2 TQEs from the group and write them on the board… Thompson then moderates a whole-class discussion of the reading, using the TQEs that have been written on the board. This takes about 40 minutes of class time.”
"The Best Experts Sometimes Make The Worst Educators”
New York Times - 8/25/18

“It wasn't that they didn't care about teaching. It was that they knew too much about their subject, and had mastered it too long ago, to relate to my ignorance about it.”

“Reading With A Pencil” - A Tribute To Marginalia
Austin Kleon - 8/30/18
How To Write Well (Laden With F-Bombs, Interjections, And Shade)
Medium - 5/3/18

“You want credentials, I ain’t got em. If you want an MFA program or an editor or a publishing house, you’ll have to look elsewhere. But: I write. And, if I may be so bold, I do it halfway okay.”

Deep Dive: The Mars Rovers
Quartz - 8/30/18
"Silicon Valley Takes A (Careful) Step Toward Autonomous Flying”
New York Times - 8/28/18
“Female, Minority Students Took AP Computer Science In Record Numbers
USA Today - 8/27/18

“This year, 135,992 students took advanced placement (AP) computer science exams, a 31 percent increase from last year… Females and under-represented minorities were among the fastest growing groups. African-American students taking AP computer science courses rose 44 percent to 7,301, Hispanic and Latino participation gained 41 percent to 20,954 and female participation rose 39 percent to 38,195.”

Lego Wants To Remake Its Bricks Out Of Sustainable Materials
New York Times - 8/31/18

“It wants to eliminate its dependence on petroleum-based plastics, and build its toys entirely from plant-based or recycled materials by 2030.”

A Reminder That Pixar Got The Office Plan Right (Closed, Connected)
Inc. - 8/29/18
More On 4-Day Weeks: Schools Save Money, And Pedagogy Changes
PBS - 8/28/18

“It’s great for teachers. They love it. And why wouldn’t they? But I see a lot of grandparents and relatives seemingly a little overwhelmed and burdened.”
A Brief Look At The Benefits And Costs Of Block Scheduling
Larry Cuban - 8/26/18

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