The Teaching Now blog explored the latest news on the teaching profession, from practical classroom tips to raging policy debates. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: teaching, teaching profession, and curriculum.
School Climate & Safety
Disengaging From the 'Teacher Wars'
Weary of her participation in the "teacher wars," Cindi Rigsbee resolves to de-stress in 2011.
Reading & Literacy
Muslim-American Kids Face an Absence of Stories
With a growing Muslim student population, Minnesota schools are struggling to fill their shelves with books these students can relate to.
Equity & Diversity
Teaching 'Huck Finn' Without the 'N' Word
In part to counteract its gradual disappearance from school reading lists, the publisher NewSouth Books plans to release a version of Mark Twain's Adventures Huckleberry Finn that eliminates the "n" word.
Teaching Profession
Get Involved
Ariel Sacks, an English teacher in New York City, says that, despite what you might think, the time is ripe for teachers to be heard on education policy issues:
School & District Management
How Lady Gaga Is Helping to Teach the French Revolution
Two teachers in Hawaii have found a way to make lessons about centuries-old people and events relevant to their high school students: Teach them to the tune of Lady Gaga.
Teaching Profession
Meme Watch: Teachers as 'Interchangeable Widgets'
Several weeks ago, we reported on a wonkish panel discussion in D.C. in which Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in proping up the performance pay idea, lamented that school systems currently treat teachers like "interchangeble widgets."
Federal
Duncan: NCLB Needs More Flexibility, Better Tests
In an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan highlights several areas where Democrat and Republican lawmakers should be able to agree when it comes to revamping the No Child Left Behind Act.
Assessment
Administrators Tackle Cell Phone Cheating Problem
Recognizing it had a cheating problem, with students covertly texting each other answers from their pockets during a state exam, the Mississippi Department of Education paid a company to analyze tests using "data forensics," according to the New York Times. The result? Cheating went down 70 percent, said a state ed department director.
Education
Teaching Now's Top 10 for 2010
This year, blog posts about teacher pay, test scores, and 'Superman," as well as alarming videos and sarcastic headlines, got our teacher-readers' attention.
Curriculum
Wiggins: Proposal to 'Ban Fiction Books' Was a Hoax
Grant Wiggins, the blogger who created a stir by writing that all fiction books should be banned from the English curriculum because boys find them boring, says his proposal was meant to be sarcastic.
Education Funding
South Korea Turns to Robot Teachers
South Korea has recently deployed 29 robots to teach in around 20 elementary schools.
Student Achievement
The Art of Reading Instruction
The New York Times< reports on a nonprofit after-school visual and performing arts program that appears to be boosting some struggling students' reading skills as well as unleashing their creativity.
Education
Is It Still Cheating if Students Learn?
The Washington Post's Jay Mathews pushes for "eliminating rules and practices" regarding cheating—such as those prohibiting collaboration on homework—"that frustrate learning."
Student Achievement
A Great Unit Plan Goes Out the Window
How much do project-based learning and independent student work presuppose a mastery or knowlege of basic content knowledge and academic skills?