The New York Times today has an interesting story on a new teacher training school in New York, the Relay Graduate School of Education, that emphasizes practical techniques over pedagogical theory.
Heres a quote from Relays future provost, Brent Maddin:
“To make a crude analogy, if I am learning to become a blacksmith, I also don’t learn how to be a pipefitter,” Mr. Maddin said of Teacher U’s focus on pedagogical technique. “I also don’t read a ton of books about how to shoe a horse. What I do is I show up and shoe horses.”
But does such an approach that is light on graduate level and faculty scholarship make teaching less professional?
The debate mirrors a larger concern nationally, which is that by treating teaching as a trade instead of an art, and permitting new teachers to run their own classrooms from the first day, alternative education programs will, in the long term, reduce the quality of America’s teaching force. A great teacher, cri
Read full article…
Can a 140-character tweet really be worth a free ride?
Instead of a second essay, the University of Iowa is asking prospective students to . The best entry will net that student a full scholarship to the university’s Tippie College of Business MBA program.
The aim of this Twitter contest: making students get to the point quickly and improve their social media skills.
Students can answer the “essay” question, “What makes you an exceptional Tippie full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire?” using links to their blogs, Facebook pages, videos or anything else they can fit into Twitter’s 140-character limit.
This isn’t the only way students can use Twitter to net them financial assistance. Other examples
Read full article…
On Wednesday, several new laws take effect in Arizona.
There’s a new law that makes schools shore up efforts to stop bullying.
FOX 10’s Kristin Anderson explains.
Bully Police USA Grades AZ’s New Anti-Bullying Law
Recent donations to the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at California State University, Fresno, have created the largest collection of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning) themed books for young readers in any U.S. library.
Three donations of nearly 500 books started when Michael Cart of Columbia, Ind., gave several hundred books. Cart, former director of the Beverly Hills Public Library, is well-known as an author, editor and leader in the American Library Association.
His gift inspired a donation of books from his friend Kathleen Horning, director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Another of Cart’s friends, Nancy Silverrod of the San Francisco Public Library, pledged additional books from her personal collection. She is a former youth services librarian who has compiled several LGBTQ bibliographies.
Angelica Carpenter, curator of the Arne Nixon Center, said many LGBTQ titles are not available in school or public libraries or face battles to be kept in circulation once they are acquired.
The announcement by the Arne Nixon Center comes as California prepares for implementation on Jan. 1 or a
Read full article…
PHILADELPHIA – Utpal Sandesara, who is pursuing a medical degree and doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, will present archival research and first-hand accounts of India’s 1979 Machhu Dam disaster at the Penn Bookstore at 36th and Walnut streets Friday, June 17, at 5 p.m.
Sandesara, the son of a Machhu flood survivor, is co-author of “No One Had a Tongue to Speak: The Untold Story of One of History’s Deadliest Floods.”
As a Harvard Frederick Sheldon Prize Fellow, he worked as a researcher for Peru’s Ministry of Health, preparing a report on the integration of prenatal care with testing and treatment of HIV and syphilis in the national health system.
While pursuing degrees in Harvard University’s social studies program, Sandesara and his co-author, Tom Wooten, traveled to India, where they did the field research that is the foundation of this book.
The talk is free and open to the public.