"Effort to survey Indianapolis teachers meets resistance"
Scott Elliott, Indystar.com, October 8, 2012

"A national education nonprofit has chosen Indianapolis to pilot a survey of local teachers that aims to go beyond test scores and offer information about such things as whether a school is clean and safe, whether it encourages creativity and independent thinking and how well its staff communicates with parents.

"The point, says GreatSchools.org, is to give parents valuable information to help them navigate the fast-growing public, private and charter school options.

"Sound like good news? Not to Marion County school superintendents, who have become increasingly suspicious that such efforts are nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to erode public schools and steer parents and students to private and charter schools.

"In fact, almost no Marion County school districts are cooperating with GreatSchools.org’s survey effort, which is backed by the Indiana Department of Education, Mayor Greg Ballard and the United Way.
...
"Jacob Pactor, a Speedway High School English teacher who filled out the survey, was glad to have the opportunity to say great things about his school.

"“I was excited as a teacher to have somebody ask for my opinion about the school that I’m working at,” he said. “We brag about it internally, and we should brag externally.”

"The state’s A to F grading system for schools, Pactor said, simply can’t capture important dimensions such as whether a school is safe and nurturing. The climate survey can supplement the grades.

"“It’s hard to judge anything,” he said, “if you judge based just on test scores.”"

"The Writing Revolution"
Peg Tyre, Atlantic Magazine, October 2012

"For years, nothing seemed capable of turning around New Dorp High School’s dismal performance—not firing bad teachers, not flashy education technology, not after-school programs. So, faced with closure, the school’s principal went all-in on a very specific curriculum reform, placing an overwhelming focus on teaching the basics of analytic writing, every day, in virtually every class. What followed was an extraordinary blossoming of student potential, across nearly every subject—one that has made New Dorp a model for educational reform."
"...
"...  And so the school’s principal, Deirdre DeAngelis, began a detailed investigation into why, ultimately, New Dorp’s students were failing.
"...
"According to the Nation’s Report Card, in 2007, the latest year for which this data is available, only 1 percent of all 12th-graders nationwide could write a sophisticated, well-­organized essay. Other research has shown that 70 to 75 percent of students in grades four through 12 write poorly. Over the past 30 years, as knowledge-based work has come to dominate the economy, American high schools have raised achievement rates in mathematics by providing more­-extensive and higher-level instruction. But high schools are still graduating large numbers of students whose writing skills better equip them to work on farms or in factories than in offices; for decades, achievement rates in writing have remained low.
"Although New Dorp teachers had observed students failing for years, they never connected that failure to specific flaws in their own teaching. ...
"... Some teachers wanted to know how this could happen. “We spent a lot of time wondering how our students had been taught,” said English teacher Stevie D’Arbanville. “How could they get passed along and end up in high school without understanding how to use the word although?”
"...
"Back on Staten Island, more New Dorp teachers were growing uncomfortably aware of their students’ profound deficiencies—and their own. “At teachers college, you read a lot of theory, like Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, but don’t learn how to teach writing,” said Fran Simmons. ...
"... Teachers stopped giving fluffy assignments such as “Write a postcard to a friend describing life in the trenches of World War I” and instead demanded that students fashion an expository essay describing three major causes of the conflict."

"A Painter at the Chalkboard: "Old School Tools" in the Classroom"
Lisa Michelle Dabbs, Edutopia, September 25, 2012

"How important are technology tools in the classroom? And what if I don't have access to them to use with my students? How can I possibly keep up with the rest of my colleagues around the country that do? I get asked those questions a lot when I’m consulting or in webinars. There really isn't an easy answer. What I like to say, however, is that it's not about the tool, it's about how you support your pedagogy with the tools you have, based on principles of good practice.
...
"That said, whether you're a new teacher or an experienced teacher that doesn't have access to all the tech bells and whistles, let's look at three ways that you can still teach great content using some "old school tools."

"1) Use Paper to Teach Blogging
"2) Use Folders as Apps
"3) Use the Chalkboard as Social Media"

"Young, Gifted and Neglected"
Chester E. Finn Jr., New York Times, September 18, 2012

"It’s time to end the bias against gifted and talented education and quit assuming that every school must be all things to all students, a simplistic formula that ends up neglecting all sorts of girls and boys, many of them poor and minority, who would benefit more from specialized public schools. America should have a thousand or more high schools for able students, not 165, and elementary and middle schools that spot and prepare their future pupils."

So Many Hands to Hold in the Classroom
Lynda C. Lambert, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 17, 2012

"Over the 17 years I've taught writing at the college level, I used to occasionally have a student who was afraid to choose a topic for an essay, or even to ask a question, because she didn't know what was "right." One young man chose not to turn in an assignment at all, because he didn't understand the instructions and was afraid to say so. Now, instead of the occasional student in this condition, I'm getting classrooms full.

"So many of them are so unused to thinking on their own that they cannot formulate an opinion without being told what opinion they are supposed to have. And if someone shares his opinion, he is obviously—as far as many students are concerned—trying to foist it on others rather than offering them an opportunity to challenge that opinion and debate it.
...
"This should not be a surprise, of course. The types of assignments they became accustomed to in elementary and secondary schools were not subjectively graded but were rooted in a behaviorist system that, intentionally, does not challenge students to think or be creative. Instead it tells them what result they should have and then offers them the map to it.

"Unfortunately, following a map may teach them how to navigate, but it does not teach them how to drive. Few students seem to be able to find their way through their courses anymore without that map. And, interestingly, they hold the instructor responsible for their lack of learning if she does not provide GPS coordinates."

"Making the Connection: Incorporate The Arts Into Every Subject"
Ann Whittemore, Lesson Planet, September 5, 2012

Why should you incorporate the arts into your curriculum? The arts are a fantastic vehicle for housing any subject, from literature to science. They provide an opportunity for learners to express or engage in what they know in a multi-sensory way. They fully engage multiple parts of the brain at one time and can also facilitate learning for a variety of intelligences. Art therapy or art mediums have been used in Special Education for years and are so versatile that they needn’t be isolated from everyday curriculum, but fully incorporated. "

Visual Arts ... 
Music and Movement ... 
Drama ... 

Read the full article to find a ton of great ideas!

'Children Succeed' With Character, Not Test Scores
NPR Staff, NPR.org, September 4, 2012

"A child's success can't be measured in IQ scores, standardized tests or vocabulary quizzes, says author Paul Tough. Success, he argues, is about how young people build character. Tough explores this idea in his new book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character.

"On how schools are focused on scores rather than noncognitive skills

""Right now we've got an education system that really doesn't pay attention to [noncognitive] skills at all. ... I think schools just aren't set up right now to try to develop things like grit, and perseverance and curiosity. ... Especially in a world where we are more and more focused on standardized tests that measure a pretty narrow range of cognitive skills, teachers are less incentivized to think about how to develop those skills in kids. So it's a conversation that's really absent I think in a lot of schools, to the detriment of a lot of students.""

"Over-parenting's faulty logic"
Madeline Levine, SF Gate, August 10, 2012

"Counterintuitive as it seems, the very things we're doing to secure our children's futures can end up compromising them. Pushing and over-scheduling prevent them from becoming competent adults capable of the resilience, perseverance, motivation and grit that business leaders say they'll need to compete in tomorrow's workforce. Just as importantly, it interferes with the ability to cultivate healthy relationships and to feel that life is meaningful.

"Many parents have significant misunderstandings about how children learn and what circumstances are likely to drive success in them. Our (culturally sanctioned) faulty thinking is pushing us to do, in many cases, the exact opposite of what kids need to thrive.
...
"Studies show that kids enrolled in academic-based preschools actually tend to fall behind their peers who attend play-based preschools by the fourth grade.
...
"Self-directed play is the work of childhood. It's a classroom in which kids develop a whole set of skills that really matter in life. Consider what happens in a simple game of chase: Kids must agree on the game and cooperate with each other. They must determine who will be the leader, who will be the follower and when it's time to renegotiate. When we fill their days with classes, practices and games, there's just no time left for learning these critical lessons.

"Most experts agree that kids should have twice as much unstructured free time as structured playtime. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends at least 60 minutes a day. If they can get that 60 minutes outdoors - climbing trees, chasing fireflies or playing baseball in an empty lot - so much the better."

"In Defense of Algebra"
Jessica Lahey, New York Times - Motherlode, July 31, 2012

"I know precisely where I lost my battle with math, the moment I was informed clearly and unequivocally that I simply wasn’t “a math person.” My seventh-grade math teacher, an otherwise lovely man, called each of his students up to his desk one by one in order to write a “1” (for the honors track) or “2” (for the standard track) on the school’s official math placement forms. As I watched from over his hunched and courduroyed shoulder, he wrote a beautiful, decisive and neat “1” on my form.

"There it was, in permanent ink. I was good at math.

"“Jess, could you come back up here for a minute?” he asked as I floated back to my seat.

"He reclaimed my form, and carefully overlaid that beautiful “1” with a dark, clumsy “2,” pressing hard with his black pen in order to make sure the ink obliterated any evidence of his indecision.

"And from then on, I wasn’t good at math anymore.

"From the moment I was relegated to standard math, I knew I was never going to be an engineer. I went through the motions of my math education, but never put any heart into the subject. My teachers didn’t push back very hard because the evidence was in: I just wasn’t a math person. I’d make it through to the day I could opt out of math forever, and I would never look back.

"Except, I did. For years, I have eyed my colleague Alison Gorman’s math classroom with wary suspicion. I peek in on her class when I hear laughter, wondering what could possibly inspire mirth in algebra class. I have watched with wonder during recess when her MathCounts students show up with their lunches, willing to spend valuable leisure time challenging each other to think through math problems."

"Voices: Remember the joy of learning?"
Jessica Cuthbertson, EdNewsColorado.org, July 30, 2012

"Aurora teacher Jessica Cuthbertson has a joyful learning experience and it has nothing to do with filling in bubbles, getting graded or working quietly and alone. 
...
"We engaged in a collaborative, authentic learning experience.  And as a result, we left the second day committed to creating and constructing authentic learning experiences with our own students in August.
...
"We didn’t take tests – though the facilitators frequently assessed and monitored our needs as learners.  We didn’t bubble anything in or respond to prompts or read passages written to meet the criteria of a certain “level” or to “measure” our comprehension.  We didn’t sit silently and passively.  We didn’t receive nor were we expected to arrive at the “right” answer.  We didn’t work in isolation.  We didn’t feel inadequate or invisible because we read a text differently or because we brought (or lacked) certain experiences or background knowledge.  We didn’t face interruptions or distractions.  We didn’t worry about receiving a grade or even if we would receive professional learning “credit.”

"Instead, we experienced the joy of learning. 

"Today’s teachers and students are part of a national culture that values quantifying the unquantifiable.  We are so busy “racing to the top” that it is easy to lose sight of the journey along the way. Authentic learning is the journey. It is hard to measure or quantify a chorus of “oh’s” and “a-ha’s” — the murmurings that fill a room after a rich discussion. It is difficult to measure the transformation of a furrowed brow that turns into a spark in a student’s eye when they see a text, a concept, a problem or an issue in a new way.  Learning is full of such moments — the internal and external dialogue that is at the heart of authentic learning."