"5 ways you'll use algebra in your career"
Sonia Acosta, CareerBuilder, September 18, 2012 

"Remember that time during an already painful adolescence, when tears slowly fell on the pages of your evil algebra book, and you scratched your head thinking, "When will I ever use this in real life?" Whether as a teen, college student or parent trying to help kids with homework, most of us are guilty of cursing the creator of linear inequalities, quadratic equations and functions.

"Guess what? Algebra is actually quite useful, and it can be especially valuable in the workplace. Here are five ways you'll use algebra in your career."

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."

"Pathways to research: Problem-solving"
Daniel Strain, Science News for Kids, September 9, 2012

"Young researchers can become local heroes for taking on projects that help their friends and neighbors"

"Many young researchers get their start by trying to solve a problem or fulfill a need in their own communities. When students dedicate themselves to finding a solution that may benefit their community, “a passion is ignited,” says Wendy Hawkins, executive director of the Intel Foundation, which sponsors Intel ISEF. “Finding that passion and fostering it can be the key to many students’ future success,” she says."

Why Can’t School Be More Like Summer?
BARBARA ROWLEY, New York Times, September 6, 2012

"From their perspective, the worst thing that happens to my two daughters at the conclusion of each summer is that they have to leave their friends and their joyous days of exploration at their mountain summer camp and come home. The next worst thing that happens to them is that they have to immediately start an experience — school — that feels almost exactly the opposite. The onset of camp-sickness is immediate.
...
"Happiness is embedded in the summer camp business plan, and is central to what they do. If children  aren’t happy; they won’t come back. Many camps report annual return rates of 75 percent or more. Not every child is happy at camp, and it goes without saying that not every child’s family can afford camp, or wants to send them. But schools could learn a lot about student retention and achievement by taking a page from the summer camp happiness playbook.

"This is especially true right now. Driven by a culture, which, rightly or wrongly, too often fails to recognize teachers with respect and economic rewards, teacher unhappiness seems more prevalent than ever. Yet in all the talk about education reform, happiness rarely seems to make the list, even though there’s plenty of evidence out there about what an improved school environment might mean for learning and test scores, not to mention student attitudes and drop-out rates.

"Put simply, nobody likes working for an unhappy boss. Schools can’t be enjoyable for kids if teachers aren’t happy. For schools to be more like camp — to be more fun — our education establishment has to put emphasis on hiring positive-minded staff and preaching the importance of exuding happiness in the classroom as well as making the necessary changes in the work environment that will make their happiness genuine.
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"I realize that fun may sound like a frivolous goal in the face of the education crisis we face in our public schools, and happiness an extra we can’t afford given our middling rankings among global competitors. But as I grudgingly send my girls back to school this week, I can’t help wishing — just as they do — that school would learn just a little from summer."

"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.
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"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.
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"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."

"Raising Successful Children"
Madeline Levine, New York Times, August 4, 2012

"HANGING back and allowing children to make mistakes is one of the greatest challenges of parenting. It’s easier when they’re young — tolerating a stumbling toddler is far different from allowing a preteenager to meet her friends at the mall. The potential mistakes carry greater risks, and part of being a parent is minimizing risk for our children.

"What kinds of risks should we tolerate? If there’s a predator loose in the neighborhood, your daughter doesn’t get to go to the mall. But under normal circumstances an 11-year-old girl is quite capable of taking care of herself for a few hours in the company of her friends. She may forget a package, overpay for an item or forget that she was supposed to call home at noon. Mastery of the world is an expanding geography for our kids, for toddlers, it’s the backyard; for preteens, the neighborhood, for teens the wider world. But it is in the small daily risks — the taller slide, the bike ride around the block, the invitation extended to a new classmate — that growth takes place. In this gray area of just beyond the comfortable is where resilience is born."

"Study: Kids' Friends — Not Grades — Lead To Adult Well-Being"
Anna North, BuzzFeed, August 2012

"Stories of parents pushing kids to succeed in school above all else have been making headlines lately, but new research has found that social relationships are a much better predictor of adult well-being than a kid's grades.

"They found that social connectedness was highly correlated with adult well-being. Academic achievement, however, was not. The authors noted that they might have seen more of a connection if they'd included factors like job satisfaction in their measure of well-being, but they left these out on purpose. Their goal was to study not the traditional markers of success, but instead to look at peoples' "positive emotional functioning, sense of coherence, social engagement and character values." And as it turns out, kids' social lives seem to have a greater effect on the development of those qualities than their test scores do.

"This came as no surprise to John Stanrock, psychologist and author of the textbook Adolescence. He says there's a general feeling among some child development experts that in an age of No Child Left Behind and constant standardized testing, "the social world of adolescence has totally been neglected." He adds that schools don't spend enough money on counseling services, which can help kids with difficulties fit in 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."