1st+Assignment

Assignment one: keeping current

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Pay it forward! A great concept that works. =**As School Exit Tests Prove Tough, States Ease Standards**= New York Times, By [|IAN URBINA]Published: January 11, 2010 []

Value: To question why lawmakers are imposing huge taxes on Americans to provide exit exams, when in reality, that's what teachers are supposed to do.

A law adopting statewide high school exams for graduation took effect in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with the goal of ensuring that students leaving high school are prepared for college and the workplace. But critics say the requirement has been so watered down that it is unlikely to have major impact.

States are spending a lot of money on exit exams, but they are so watered down, that they do not confer graduates with the distinctions of having learned much, yet it has the deleterious effect of lowering graduation rates. Some states have watered down requirements.

In PA students have the opportunity to take the tests up to three times, and then get remedial work.

Opinion: I am skeptical of this because teachers are trained to teach. They know if a kids is failing or passing, but they no longer have the authority to fail a kid.

=Music is instrumental in teaching=

Learning program is a hit with students, teachers
By Anne Krueger, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. [|www.signonsandiego.com]

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Every few years, educators again "realize" that teaching music has a strong correlation with math. So they develop another curriculum that pairs the two and children are taught rudimentary music. This article focuses on teaching kids piano on a synthesizer.

Why is music not valued for its own sake? There is never a goal to get a child into an orchestra, or jazz band, just to raise his score on a math test. The children do not learn names like Mozart, or cannot distinguish between Bernstein and Gershwin.

=President Obama Proposes Eliminating Federal School Library Funds= []

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal,02/01/2010
In his FY2011 budget proposal to Congress on Monday, Barach Obama completely eliminated the Improving Literacy for School Libraries grant program, designed to boost academic achievement by providing students with access to up-to-date school library materials. During the Bush years, this initiative was funded at $19 million/year. Congress has the power to act on the budget before it is passed. The Digital Divide threatens all of us. Let's make sure we educate every child. “Something’s obviously wrong if we weren’t able to convince [Obama and Duncan] that state-certified school libraries are fundamentally important to learning,” Barnett says. Obama’s budget consolidates federal monies for school libraries into a number of DOE programs, basically wiping out any federal funds earmarked for media centers. Parents are concerned that their students will not have access to the crucial information that is taught in a library.

= What I Learned from Teaching Adult Learners Online = [] By Denise A. Blake, Shenandoah University

December 29, 2009 Today, the vast majority of students seeking a higher education are working adults who balance families and jobs. As early as the year 2000, 43 percent of postsecondary students in the U.S. were adult learners (age 25 years and older), and about 60 percent of all U.S. higher education students were classified as non-traditional (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, 2000, citing in part the National Center for Educational Statistics). It's estimated that by 2014, there could be a shortage of 9 million qualified workers because many future jobs will require a postsecondary degree—that's the main reason adults are now studying for a postsecondary degree (Chao, DeRocca, & Flynn, 2007). Adults have not only gone back to school, but are also active computer and Internet users, which makes it easy for them to consider an online course of study a viable option.

Opinion: Learning online offers possibilities that were not available,especially as I can be home with my kids and save gas. However, it baffles me how the administration of LIU has webct, blackboard, and moodle and our own personal wikis. I would like to learn new applications and information, not be saddled with a bureaucracy of websites.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 27, 2009
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In the spring of 2008, a teacher at Mt. Hope High School (RI), was proctoring the 11th-grade New England Common Assessment Program science test. The majority of students could not write the open-ended essay questions. The school responded by adding a writing component to every class: shop, art, music in addition to the traditional English classes. The hard work paid off, and the school has improved its percentage of students who can write. All sophomores are required to take writing tests in 4 subjects for their portfolios.

WRITE on! Finally a school that is tackling a basic skill deficiency.