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 This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: teaching, teaching profession, and curriculum.
Classroom Technology
Educators Making Summer Connections
The U.S. Department of Education has declared that August is Connected Educator Month, a "celebration," as the website says, that is part of the Office of Educational Technology's Connected Educators initiative to support online professional learning. During the next four weeks, the department will bring together 100 education organizations to highlight professional online communities and networks of relevance to educators, the goal being to "broaden and deepen educator participation in online communities" and allow for more teacher collaboration, according to a department press release. The Connected Educator Month website provides a listing of the events offered this month, including webinars, forums, workshops, book clubs, and contests.
Teaching Profession
TNTP Findings Resonate With Teachers
Miss Eyre, a unionized teacher, surprises even herself by reacting favorably to the new report on teacher attrition by TNTP, a group that has been critical of policies supported by the unions.
Science
Is Climate Change the Next Battleground for Science Teachers?
In an interview with the MinnPost, Dr. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group the National Center for Science Education, says that science teachers are increasingly coming under fire for teaching about climate change.
School & District Management
Anatomy of a Khan-troversy
Our latest Storify gives some context to the ongoing media coverage of the Khan Academy. At first almost exclusively heralded as having the potential to be an education game-changer, the videos—and Salman Khan himself—have recently come under fire for what some say is questionable pedagogy. Read more here.
School & District Management
Teacher-Retention Tip: Lose the 'Martyr Mentality'
In a post last month on an Atlanta Journal-Constitution education blog, a Fulton County, Ga., high school teacher named Jordan Kohanim wrote about her decision to leave the classroom on account of what she felt were unsustainable and deteriorating working conditions. In a follow-up post published today, Kohanim offers some thoughts on what schools and communities could do to stem departures like hers.
Curriculum
Will Assessments 'Short-Circuit' the Common Core?
Middle school teacher Jose Vilson says that, as a teacher, he finds it difficult—if not pointless—to form an opinion about the Common Core State Standards without knowing what the assessment components will look like.
Teaching
New Ideas for Improving Teachers Instead of Firing Them
Ray Fisman, a professor of social enterprise at the Columbia Business School, points to recent research suggesting that—pace the heated rhetoric of some school reformers—'there may be perfectly viable ways to improve overall instruction in schools without firing low-performing teachers.
Teacher Preparation
Demystifying the 'Unconference'
While I've seen signs for "unconference" sessions at some of the large organizations' annual conventions, I have never attended one. In fact, I admit that I wasn't even sure what an unconference entailed until reading this illuminating post by Monique Flickinger, a director of instructional technology for schools in Fort Collins, Colo.
Teaching
Is Blended Learning a Threat to Doug Lemov?
I'm going to venture to say that not too many teachers are reading Forbes.com, because otherwise this post would be steeped in teacher comments. ...
College & Workforce Readiness
Software Co. CEO Has 'Zero Tolerance' for Poor Grammar
Last month, we highlighted a story on the reported decline of grammar skills in the workplace. Now we can add Kyle Wiens, CEO of the online-repair-manual company iFixit, to the list of executives who believe this is not merely an academic issue.
Teaching Profession
Grow-Your-Own Teacher Program Not Growing Very Many
In November, I wrote about a seminar at the left-leaning Center for American Progress where researchers and educators advocated for expanding local grow-your-own teachers programs to increase the numbers of minority teachers. Grow-your-own programs take local community members and help them become teachers, so that the demographics of the teaching corps better reflect that of the student body. A program-manager for an Oakland program in its third year touted early retention rates. But while the panelists agreed that increasing diversity among teachers is beneficial to students, they also conceded that more research was needed on the effectiveness of these programs.
Federal
Rhee 'Olympics' Ad Sports a Questionable Message
In a new ad attempting to illustrate the decline of U.S. schools, the nonprofit advocacy group StudentsFirst, founded by former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, plays off both the wave of excitement about the upcoming summer Olympics and the arguably overdone "fat man dances" slapstick routine. Take a look:
Curriculum
Is Encyclopedia Brown Young-Adult Literature?
The passing of Donald J. Sobol, the author of the popular Encyclopedia Brown series, recently prompted the editors of Flavorwire to dig up some of their favorite book series and post their version of the 10 greatest young-adult series of all time.
Teaching
Using Social Media to Facilitate Class Community
In Inside Higher Ed, Jonathan Golding, a psychology professor at the University of Kentucky, recounts a successful experiment in using a Facebook group page as a kind of community hub for one of his larger classes. Though skeptical at first, Golding says he was impressed by how enthusiastically his students took to the page and, without much prompting, began using it to exchange ideas and help one another in the course.