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College prep for students with autism - 02/21/2012
As thousands of young students diagnosed with autism and Asperger's syndrome approach high school graduation, many are now looking toward higher education. With the proper preparations, college can be a wonderful, enriching experience that will help the student better adapt to living an independent life.
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Students Creating Customized Majors - 02/16/2012
With the job market as competitive as ever and the cost of college increasing every year, more students are faced with the challenge of earning a quality education in a major that will help market themselves in a competitive workforce. Most of the time, students can do this by earning a traditional degree from a university that needs their basic needs; however, what happens to those students whose needs don't fit any of those traditional degrees? Now, a number of schools are offering students the opportunity to create their own customized major.
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Curbing Chronic Student Absenteeism - 02/14/2012
As school budgets come under greater scrutiny, many schools are looking at various ways to increase student attendance rates. Often schools' budgets are directly tied to attendance rates, and schools with low rates are in danger of losing critical funding. However, while budgetary needs are important issues, the student's needs ultimately take precedent as chronic absence, especially in young children, is a good indicator of troubles later.
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Teaching About Religion in Schools - 02/09/2012
In today's world, as it has for centuries, religion and daily life are inextricably linked. Religion permeates the political landscape, the business world and even the academic world. For a child to grow up into a functioning adult, they must have an understanding of the various religions represented around the world. And while teachers cannot, and should no, preach religion in schools, they should teach about religion.
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One Room Schools Still Successful - 02/02/2012
Rural schools have dealt with a number of hardships within the past several years. From budget issues, to closing down schools all together, it seems like the existence of small rural education is ending at an alarming rate. But, through all the hardships, people are still continuing to fight for the ability to keep small schools within their community and I believe it's time that we take a step back and look at the success that these educational institutions have had, especially one-room school houses.
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A Case for Preserving Arts Education - 01/31/2012
In a day and age where standardized tests scores seem to rule everything in schools, more often than not arts programs get shortchanged when it comes time to trim budgets. Schools around the country have been forced to cut back or even entirely eliminate arts programs seeing them as peripheral programs not necessarily needed.
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Why Using Non-Verbal Cues Is Effective - 01/31/2012
Non-verbal communication is all around us, even if we don't realize it. Non-verbal communication includes the ways we use our body and voice to communicate a message. So with non-verbal communication playing such a big role in our lives, why not have teachers use it as an advantage in the classroom?
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Schools Turn To Cell Phones For Lessons - 01/23/2012
Teachers are constantly pressured to find innovative ways to incorporate the technology that children use at home into the classroom. Education technology experts say that because children live in a digital world today, it only makes sense to have schools adapt to using more digital tools in technology as well.
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Lesson planning for sensitive subjects - 01/19/2012
Recently, an elementary school in Georgia came under fire for math problems that used examples of slavery in word problems. No less than a week later, another teacher came under fire for having a lesson plan on slavery that had students imagining what it would be like being a slave. While these two teachers most likely had the best of intentions tackling a sensitive, yet important subject, these incidents highlight the importance of being sensitive to the students.
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Anti-Bullying Law: What About the Bully? - 12/14/2011
This year, one of the dominating topics of discussion in both education and in the news has been responses to bullying. Whether it be about anti-bullying laws, celebrities showing support for victims, the effects of cyber bullying and so on, the general consensus is finding a way to stop bullying in elementary and high schools. However, many of the solutions are fixed on punishing the bullies, sometimes in rather dramatic fashion, and not on actually changing the behavior.
