A weekly collection of education-related news from around the web.

Educator’s Notebook #118 (February 14, 2016)

    • Atlantic
    • 03/01/16

    Many of these programs—especially the camps, competitions, and math circles—create a unique culture and a strong sense of belonging for students who have a zest for the subject but all the awkwardness and uneven development of the typical adolescent.”

    • New York Review of Books
    • 02/25/16

    Our transformation into device people has happened with unprecedented suddenness. The first touchscreen-operated iPhones went on sale in June 2007, followed by the first Android-powered phones the following year. Smartphones went from 10 percent to 40 percent market penetration faster than any other consumer technology in history. In the United States, adoption hit 50 percent only three years ago. Yet today, not carrying a smartphone indicates eccentricity, social marginalization, or old age.”

    • Vox
    • 02/12/16

    Most of the survey questions show that today’s teenagers are among the best-behaved on record. They smoke less, drink less, and have sex less than the previous generation. They are, comparatively, a mild-mannered bunch who will probably shoo away from your lawn quite respectfully (and probably wouldn’t dare set foot on your lawn to begin with!). This is different from what adults typically expect.”

    • New Yorker
    • 02/11/16

    “From a young age, resilient children tended to “meet the world on their own terms.” They were autonomous and independent, would seek out new experiences, and had a “positive social orientation.” “Though not especially gifted, these children used whatever skills they had effectively,” Werner wrote. Perhaps most importantly, the resilient children had what psychologists call an “internal locus of control”: they believed that they, and not their circumstances, affected their achievements. The resilient children saw themselves as the orchestrators of their own fates. In fact, on a scale that measured locus of control, they scored more than two standard deviations away from the standardization group.”

    • EdSurge
    • 02/08/16

    Already, the U.S. Department of Education has approved three states—Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire—to use the SAT as a high school assessment for federal accountability purposes… With the transition time and resources that ESSA provides, educators have an optimal moment to consider whether college prep tests can play the role of a national testing standard—or there should be a national testing standard at all. In fact, Tony Wagner brings it back to what the students, teachers, and districts want. “I think the whole area of testing is ripe for a radical redesign,” he says.

ADOLESCENCE

ASSESSMENT

ATHENA

CHARACTER

CREATIVITY

CURRICULUM

DIVERSITY/INCLUSION

EARLY CHILDHOOD

HIGHER ED

HUMANITIES

LEADERSHIP

LEARNING SCIENCE

    • Washington Post
    • 02/09/16
    • Washington Post
    • 02/07/16

    There seems to be a never-ending stream of research reports about attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD — the most commonly diagnosed neuro-behavioral disorder in U.S. children — and how it affects young people…. Yet while ADHD is a popular subject for the research community, many teachers and parents still do not understand the condition and all the ways it affects young people at home and in school.”

MINDFULNESS

READING/WRITING

STEM

TECH

WORKPLACE

Z-OTHER

Issues

Every week I send out articles I encounter from around the web. Subject matter ranges from hard knowledge about teaching to research about creativity and cognitive science to stories from other industries that, by analogy, inform what we do as educators. This breadth helps us see our work in new ways.

Readers include teachers, school leaders, university overseers, conference organizers, think tank workers, startup founders, nonprofit leaders, and people who are simply interested in what’s happening in education. They say it helps them keep tabs on what matters most in the conversation surrounding schools, teaching, learning, and more.

Peter Nilsson

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