Amanda poses a question about block scheduling in high school

Block scheduling is a type of academic scheduling in which a student have fewer classes per day, but have those classes for  a longer period of time each day. This is in contrast to the standard one-hour class for eight or nine periods a day.  Students can either have four classes for half of a school year, and four classes the other half; or, the school can go on an A/B day rotation schedule which means that students will have each class every other day.

The argument in favor of block scheduling is that  block scheduling allows students to become more immersed in a certain subject because they have that subject for longer than a  forty-five minute period.  Block scheduling, it is assumed,  allows students to ask more questions and for teachers to go through a chapter more in-depth than if they were to breeze through it in just one class  period.  Further, many believe that block scheduling enables students  an opportunity to take better notes thus  tests can be more in-depth.  This allows the instructor  to truly check for student understanding on different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  Students are not pressured to understand an idea or concept in a short amount of time; they are given an hour and a half each time they meet in order to understand a topic.   This approach, many educators believe, boosts morale and motivation on the part of students.

However, there are disadvantages to block scheduling.  Many critics say that more time does not necessarily mean more learning.   In some cases,  teachers  find it extremely difficult to hold a class' attention for more than forty-five minutes.

What do you think?  Should high school students  have only four classes a day for a longer period of time or should we  stick to the traditional eight or nine periods one-hour per subject per day format?

Don shares some new ideas in assistive technology

I read an interesting article on www.smartplanet.com that talks about a new "app" that can be used on an iPad called AppWriter. This "app" assists students who struggle with speech and language to read and write better in the classroom. The software features Dyslexie, a font designed to help dyslexics read and write, as well as text-to-speech optical character recognition.  This is yet another feature designed to help users who have learning disabilities or visual limitations. The software can read all button and menu items aloud. The cool part about this "app" is that you take a picture of any handout, photocopy, textbook page, or whatever and the software syncs the document into the iPad and can actually read through the entire document. For users with learning disabilities, AppWriter offers a word prediction feature designed to help users construct sentences and make fewer grammatical errors. The Dyslexie font may help users to differentiate letters that look similar, making words and sounds easier to comprehend. The demand for assistive technology is growing fast among educators.

I want to know what you think about this article and how you can see programs like AppWriter being used in schools today.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/design-architecture/appwriter-brings-dyslexie-font-other-assistive-tech-to-ipad/5153

Elsie is pondering the Dharun Ravi decision

This week, a New Jersey jury handed down its decision in the Tyler Clementi invasion of privacy, bullying, harassment case.    The case again Dharun Ravi, Clementi’s roommate,  has been in the news for several months.  Ravi was found guilty by a jury of his peers on all but one of the counts against him.   He is awaiting sentencing that will take place next month.   According to New Jersey law,  Ravi could possibly receive  a ten-year prison sentence.   Some believe that this decision by the jury was an  important one for young people.   Ravi videotaped his roommate in an intimate encounter with another man and then posted that video on a Facebook page, urging his friends to look at it.   Was this an anti-gay act?  

A number of people agreed with the jury’s verdict and felt that the "kids will be kids" defense put forth by Ravi’s lawyer should not be accepted.   It has also been stated by some that “if the verdict had been different, young adults in this country would have gotten the signal that they can hire fancy high-paid lawyers to argue” that  their clients were “just being kids and didn't know what they were doing.”  Some feel that this defense, if accepted would have given young people “a  loophole out of every anti-bullying  law in the country."  Ravi’s attorney has stated that he plans to appeal the jury’s decision.   

What is your opinion on this issue?    Did the jury render the correct verdict in this case?  Or, is this a case of not one life being ruined, but rather two young lives being ruined?   Why do you feel as you do on this issue?      

John is linking math and music. What do you think?

Math and Music: Are They Connected?

            I found an interesting article online from The Washington Post written by Michael Chandler and found it to be very interesting.  It asks if music and math are connected and does it help students excel in math having a music background.

On one side, the article states after an interview with Frances Rauscher, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, she found that math test scores for preschool-age students rose for those who received instruction in piano, rhythm or singing.  The students who studied rhythm had the biggest gains, and she said she was not surprised. Rhythm is, after all, "the subdivision of a beat," she said. It's about ratios and proportions, the relationship between a part and a whole -- all material from math classes. 

On the other side, Michael interviewed Wayne D. Parker, director of research and evaluation at Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.  He has researched music instruction and math performance and found a negligible connection. He said he's not compelled by arguments that people should invest in music for the sake of math or reading. "You don't hear math people saying you should study calculus because it will help you be better at the violin," he said.

I personally feel that music has many benefits and everyone should be exposed to music  at some point.  I did a paper for my music history class relating music in schools to an increase in student development, their overall cognitive development (knowledge through experience and the senses), as well as an increase in their spatial temporal reasoning (logical thinking) and that is why I side with Frances Rauscher.  What do you think class? 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/x-equals-why/2008/11/math_and_music.html

Amanda wants to know if we retain more when we "Sing it."

I read an article recently entitled Sound and Sight: The Use of Song to Promote Language Learning which discusses the benefits of using song to teach concepts in other subjects, not just music.  Because songs are easily learned and memorized , studies have shown that when concepts are set to music, children absorb and learn the material.  With such a strong emphasis placed on standardized test scores, classes such as the arts take a back seat to main subjects like math and English.  This article suggests that higher test scores in math and English will come about if some concepts in those class are taught with the use of song. 

The article mainly talks of the education system in New Zealand, where it is part of the math and English curriculum to teach concepts like sentence structure, complicated vocabulary, grammar, times tables, and basic math concepts to elementary students using songs and jingles.  This, the writers suggest, allows for optimal results on standardized tests.  The article then  goes on to explain the cognitive benefits of teaching through music for elementary-aged school children and how young students find music to be fun, catchy, and engaging. 

My questions for you are as follows: What is your personal opinion on this matter? Do children learn through music in classes that are not music related? How could you, in your subject, use music and song to help your students memorize material?  Is this method only beneficial for elementary students, or can it be used in middle school and high school?  Would middle or high school students find songs in your class engaging or tacky? Please comment! I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter! Thanks!

Amy shares the changes being made to NCLB

The following article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/10-states-given-waivers-from-no-child-left-behind-law.html?ref=education talks about the Obama administration’s new approach to NCLB.  The Obama administration is now freeing 10 states, one being New Jersey, from the "No Child Left Behind Act" regulations in exchange for having that state embrace and encourage the administration’s perspective on the accountability and effectiveness of teachers. The federal Department of Education  wants to discourage teachers from teaching to the test and avoid labeling students as failures.  The Obama administration plans to do this by having schools set higher standards and then giving those schools the flexibility of choosing how they will reach those higher standards.   New Jersey state officials (NJDOE) are in the process of determining what evaluation instrument will be used in order to evaluate school growth and teacher accountability.  One possibility is to evaluate schools using an annual growth and progress criteria and then focusing time and money on the schools that fall into the lower percentage ratings in the growth area.  

 I would like to know everyone's feeling on the Obama administration’s recent policy change.  What are your opinions?  Is this the right thing to do?   Should we continue to have strong federal oversight of schools or should the state departments of education take the lead on education reform?   What do you think this means for teachers now and for us once we graduate? Do you think this change will benefit the school systems and teachers in New Jersey?   Do you have any thoughts that you would like to share?

Sara wants to know if a penguin can help rewire our brains.

I read an article this weekend about a program in a school that uses a program with a penguin called "Jiji." This particular program is intended to help students learn math through music.  The creators of the  program maintain that by using this program we can "re-wire" the children's brains and help them to think logically.  This program enables each child to learn at their own pace.  As they feel more confident about a particular math skill and as they pass certain test requirements, the student can move onto the next math skill.

I have mixed feelings about this program.  The great part of the program is that it is not only teaching them knowledge they will need for testing, but they are teaching the students to think for themselves and make real life decision.   For example,  if the students feels  comfortable enough to move onto the next topic they can do just that.  Another great aspect of this program, is that it appeals to all different types of learners and enables the students to move at their own pace.  The only thing that worries me about this program is that the teacher is not an integral part of their learning anymore.  The teacher receives print outs of each students progress and the computer tells him/her which students are struggling with which particular math skill.  

Do you think that this computer program is a good idea to have in a classroom?    Do you think that each student is learning basic skills through the use of a computer program? Do you think that computer programs like this make the teacher obsolete?   Do you feel that all students can learn in this manner………….using a computer program, that is?

In your estimation………………where does the teacher fit into all of this?    Let me know what you think!