Headbands created to collect information about student attending behavior are the latest trend. Adults monitor and gather information from students’ brains to see if they stay focused on schoolwork. Here’s the Vulcan Post that discusses Neeuro, from just one company jumping on the headband bandwagon. This falls into the social-emotional “good behavior” and “self-regulation” learning […]
Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles!
Social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools makes many parents and teachers nervous. We worry there’s an ulterior motive to collect behavioral data on how children think and act, and that the ultimate goal is to privatize public schools and track students. Talk about transforming our public schools away from cognitive learning to SEL is everywhere! Those […]
Showcasing Tolerance and Kindness in America’s Public School Students Through Their Writings
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. On this Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I thought it would be nice to promote children and teens around the country who have demonstrated tolerance and kindness through essays. Our public schools and public school teachers nurture that hope. Our children learn from […]
Special Education: How Has Teacher Preparation Changed?
Sometimes parents of students with disabilities will complain that teachers don’t know how to teach special education. This generalization is difficult to pin down. What specifically makes parents believe this? What is it about their student’s teacher that makes them so critical? With more student placement in inclusion classes, it also isn’t always clear if […]
Teach for America: Their Harmful Effect on Special Education
Since 1990, America has put many school children, usually poor, in classrooms with Teach for America Corps Members (CMs) who get five weeks of training. They’ve also placed novices in special education classrooms. Many corporations and individuals donate to this group, undermining professional teachers who commit to teaching as their choice of a career. There’s […]
How School Reform, Including Common Core, Has Devastated Children and Their Joy of Learning to Read
School reform has taken a toll on children starting in kindergarten (even preschool). There’s little doubt that children are being forced to learn to read earlier than ever before. The reading gap likely reflects the developmental differences found in children when they are forced to read too soon. Why are schools doing this? Forcing kindergarteners […]
Nineteen For 2019: Choose This, NOT That, to Save Public Education in the New Year!
1. Kindergarten NOT The New First Grade Kindergartners should be treated like the four and five-year-old students that they are and not pushed to be first graders. The activities and instruction for this age group are well established. Real educators should take charge and ensure that there’s much free play and age appropriate activities. 2. […]
Arne Duncan Continues to Push Dangerous Corporate School Reform
With Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, it might be tempting to see Arne Duncan as an educational expert, but Duncan has never formally studied education, or been a teacher. Duncan paved the way for DeVos. EdSurge recently brought us Arne Duncan’s 6 lessons about education. They are nothing but the same old corporate reforms that have […]
Technology or Books? The Right Book for Christmas and the Holidays
When I was a child, my aunt and uncle, who lived in Chicago, would always send me a cool present for Christmas. I would eagerly run home from school looking for that package attached to the mailbox. It would be wrapped in brown paper and string. The packaging paper would be removed on Christmas Eve, […]
What Santa Claus and Social-Emotional Learning Have in Common
You better watch out, you better not cry, Better not pout, I’m telling you why Santa Claus (and SEL assessment are) comin’ to town. ~Song lyrics to “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” by Songwriters: Haven Gillespie / J. Fred Coots (with alteration). Why is there such an intense push for social-emotional learning (SEL) involving young […]