Is Stress Helping or Hurting Your Chlid?

This week’s “Education Article of the Week” addresses the topic of stress in children’s lives, and whether this is a motivating or destructive concern. Published in The Washington Post on April 23, 2019 this article is timely and insightful:

From the article:

“Healthy stress is motivating, focuses attention, and primes our minds and bodies to face new challenges, be it taking a test, speaking in front of an audience or standing up to a bully at school. Stress turns unhealthy when it feels bigger than our ability to cope with it, fills our minds with worries and hijacks important cognitive resources that could be better spent mastering the challenge at hand.”

Don’t Worry About Your Child’s Everyday Stress.  It May Be Helping.

 

 

 

Education Articles of the Week: Productive Struggle, Sense of Belonging

Education Article of the Week   You Do, We Do, I Do:  A Strategy for Productive Struggle ASCD, December 13, 2018   From the article: “Use this strategy to keep students actively engaged, intrinsically motivated, and ready for the future beyond your classroom.”   Trendbook Excerpt:  A Sense of Belonging Can Drive Up Engagement 2018-2019 NAIS Trendbook   From the article: “By making more efforts to increase feelings of belonging, schools may not only engage students more now but also improve student achievement and rates of well-being later.”

Homework!

Education Article of the Week

 

The Cult of Homework

The Atlantic, March 29, 2019

 

From the article:

“Given that homework’s benefits are so narrowly defined (and even then, contested), it’s a bit surprising that assigning so much of it is often a classroom default, and that more isn’t done to make the homework that is assigned more enriching.”

 

“Many parents’ own history with homework might lead them to expect the same for their children, and anything less is often taken as an indicator that a school or a teacher isn’t rigorous enough.”

For more information about independent school life, visit http://www.Bolles.org.

Articles About Movement, Breathing, Frustrations

Please enjoy these Education Articles of the Week!

 

Movement and Breathing Breaks Help Students Stay Focused on Learning
Mind/Shift, March 3, 2019

 

From the article:

“For many kids, sitting still all day in school is a big challenge, which is why movement breaks are good practice, whether it’s in elementary school or high school.”

 

Frustrated at Work?  That Might Just Lead to Your Next Breakthrough

New York Times, March 8, 2019

 

From the article:

“Frustration is the feeling of being blocked from a goal. Although it sounds like a destructive emotion, it can actually be a source of creative fuel. When we’re frustrated, we reject the status quo, question the way things have always been done, and search for new and improved methods.”

For more information about how successful independent schools operate, visit http://www.Bolles.org.

Education Article: Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities

We hope you enjoy today’s Education Article of the Week. It’s from the February 28, 2019 issue of Time magazine and the title is, “There is a Better Way to Teach Students with Learning Disabilities.”

From the article:

“This knowledge of the brains’ continual potential to change has led scientists and educators to take a wholly different approach to students with disabilities. Instead of working around areas of weakness, scientists now identify brain areas in need of support, then strengthen them, building much-needed pathways.”

The link is below:

 

There Is a Better Way to Teach Students with Learning Disabilities

 

To learn more about independent school life and learning, visit http://www.Bolles.org

 

Education Articles on Quizzes, Grading

We have two education articles for you this week!

The first is from Edutopia, published on December 14, 2018. From the article:

“While multiple-choice quizzes can be useful for gauging how well students understand a topic, they can interfere with learning if poorly designed, according to a review of recent research.”

Enjoy this article here:

5 Tips for Designing Multiple-Choice Quizzes

The next is from the January 23, 2019 issue of Education Week. From the article:

“When teachers collapse academic proficiency, soft skills, behavior, attendance, and effort into a single letter, it is impossible for anyone to discern the student’s particular strengths and weaknesses in each of these aspects.”

Enjoy the article here:

What Traditional Classroom Grading Gets Wrong

For more information on independent school education, visit http://www.Bolles.org

 

 

Shaping Language

We hope you enjoy this Education Article of the Week:

• Let’s Give Our Teaching Language a Makeover

Cult of Pedagogy Blog, February 3, 2019

From the article: “There are so many big things to pay attention to, it’s no wonder we spend very little time on small details like how we ask students to get back to work. But to truly master this craft—a craft that requires us to talk constantly—we need to cultivate our ability to shape language to achieve a desired effect.”

 

For more information on independent school learning, visit our website, http://www.Bolles.org.

Education Article of the Week

We hope you enjoy this education article of the week! This time, we are sharing a link to a piece from Edutopia, published January 31, 2019:

• Decoding the Teenage Brain (in 3 Charts)

From the Article:

“The brain scans seem to indicate that the limbic system—the brain’s reward system—is mature and firing on all cylinders in teenagers, while the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for things like self-control, planning, and self-awareness, is still busy developing.”

“It’s not youthful irrationality or a flair for the dramatic at work; teenagers actually experience things like music, drugs, and the thrill of speed more powerfully than adults do.”

“That’s good news—and a clear signal that the teenage brain is by nature more receptive to learning… Adolescent animals simply ‘show faster learning curves than adults,’ and we retain the capacity to improve even fundamental attributes like our IQ well into our teenage years.”

To learn more about learning, visit http://www.Bolles.org.

Interesting Articles to Peruse

Take a moment to reflect on these interesting stories about student note-taking and memory. Great takeaways!

• Mixed Results on Note-Taking by Hand or Laptop
  Inside Higher Ed, February 7, 2019

From the article:

“Further, a meta-analysis of the research found small (nonsignificant) effects favoring longhand.  Based on current results, the new study says, ‘concluding which method is superior for improving the functions of note-taking seems premature.'”

• Ask the Cognitive Scientist: What Will Improve a Student’s Memory?
  American Educator, Dan Willingham, Winter 2008-2009

From the article:

“Let’s take the broad question, what will improve a student’s memory?, and break it into three more manageable parts: (1) How can I commit things to memory? (2) How can I avoid forgetting the things I have committed to memory? (3) How can I be certain that I have actually committed to memory the things I want to know?”

 

For more information about resources for student success, visit http://www.Bolles.org

Assessments Good for Students, Teachers

Enjoy this story from NPR. From the article: “Assessments create feedback for teachers and students alike, and the high value of feedback – particularly timely feedback – is well-documented by learning scientists.”

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/52904/how-assessments-can-support-not-just-measure-student-learning

 

For more information on learning specialists, visit http://www.Bolles.org.