Web Watch

Do you know anyone with A.D.H.D.? According to The New York Times, most kids now say they do: Michael Phelps. The Olympic superstar has become a point of pride for students and families who are affected by attention problems. As Harold S. Koplewicz, director of the New York University Child Study Center explains, "There is a special feeling when someone belongs to your club and the whole world is adoring him."

Many patients, doctors, educators, and parents indicate that the present understanding of A.D.H.D. as a deficit leads to low expectations and low self-esteem. Instead, they contend that A.D.H.D can be seen as beneficial—that endless energy and the ability to hyper-focus are often positive qualities. Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist and author who has the disorder himself, says, "I have been treating this condition for 25 years and I know that if you manage it right, this apparent deficit can become an asset. I think of it as a trait and not a disability."

However, some parents, such as Natalie Knochenhauer, founder of an A.D.H.D. advocacy group and mother of four children with the disorder, think otherwise. "I would argue that Michael Phelps is a great swimmer with A.D.H.D., but he’s not a great swimmer because he has A.D.H.D." Dr. Koplewicz also says, "I worry when we say A.D.H.D. is a gift, that this minimizes how real it is."

Posted by Liana Heitin at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Math for America, a non-profit that recruits math teachers, believes teachers could learn a thing or two about classroom management from stand-up comedians, according to New York magazine. Comedians, like teachers, struggle in front of tough crowds and their bad jokes can flop just like a lesson plan, but a good comedian knows how to get a laugh. In order to help math teachers connect with their audiences, the non-profit is offering after-school classes in improv comedy taught by an alum of Second City—the improv comedy troupe that launched the careers of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Amy Poehler.

For 7th grade teacher Liz Yockey who is taking the course, learning to talk in gibberish and pantomime the tango with a midget helped advance her comedy stylings in the classroom. “It’s a tragic mistake to try sarcasm with a class full of 7th graders…Some just aren’t there yet,” she explains. Teacher Annie Lerew understands the best comedic performances are those that are deliberate. “Say I have chalk on my face, or my fly is down—that’ll make the students’ day. …this helps you be intentionally funny.” Eighth grade teacher, Jason Tsui, agrees, “You want them to laugh with you, not at you.”

Posted by Jeff Lambert at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Teens and children may not be wasting their time on social networking sites after all, according to a recent study from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Though young people aren’t learning the quadratic equation or the cause of the Civil War from sites like Facebook and Myspace, researchers found that they are “picking up the basic social and technical skills they need to fully participate in contemporary society,” reports news Web site DailyMe.

"It is not a waste of time for teens to hang out online," Mizuko Ito, the lead researcher for the 3-year, $3.3 million study, told the site. She said that kids are using the Internet to become "competent citizens in the digital age."

What that means, according to the study, is that kids are using the hours they spend on social networking sites to develop existing friendships, acquire technical skills, and learn Web 2.0 skills from each other. With all those benefits, parents might rethink the limitations they set on their children’s computer use in efforts to wrench them from the glare of the screen.

"It's not just about stranger danger and predators. We need to have conversations about concrete strategies and practices" to help kids set priorities when online, Ito said. "Simply banning them (from the computer) is not going to help."

Posted by Jeff Lambert at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The decision by the Newton, Mass., school district to add two additional early release days to the school calendar—beyond the existing four—has some parents upset and worried, reports The Boston Globe. The school says it needs the time for teacher professional development. The parents say their children are being robbed of valuable lesson time.

Sharon DeCarlo, executive director of instructional programs in Newton, explained that teachers need planning time in order to provide quality teaching. “This is not time when teachers are off doing their own thing,” said DeCarlo. “The purpose [of the professional development] is for teachers to be planning high-quality learning environments."

Many parents complained that the extra early release days conflict with work schedules and leave children without supervision in addition to the reduced learning time.

Newton schools still meet the state required 180 days of class and 990 hours of instruction time, even with their students leaving 45 minutes early every Tuesday.

Financial constraints play a role in the early release days. Keeping full instructional time while adding professional development time would require longer hours and increased pay in contracts. The current economic climate keeps that from being possible.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Disparate teacher dress codes within Jefferson Parish, La., have some public school teachers in an uproar, according to the Times-Picayune. While a number of principals allow teachers to wear jeans and capris to school, others forbid denim and require pants that cover the ankle.

Meladie Munch, secretary treasurer of the Jefferson Federation of Teachers, opposes the inconsistency. "We're one school system, and all employees need to be treated the same."

The current district code states only that clothes should be "neat, laundered, properly fitting, and appropriate to the job," leaving principals to determine their own specific rules. "At one school, there was a policy where your shoes had to match your outfit," Munch said. "Fortunately, we were able to work through that."

In many cases, principals became more lenient after Hurricane Katrina, which forced many teachers to replace destroyed wardrobes. "Everybody just seemed to get more relaxed in their dress," says Munch. Many, but not all, schools have maintained liberal guidelines for apparel.

The union contends that denim should be permissible at all schools as long as it is "neat, clean, and appropriate." After hearing the union’s concerns at a recent meeting, school board members directed the Jefferson Parish regional superintendents to draw up a more detailed clothing policy.

Posted by Liana Heitin at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The embattled Dallas Independent School District has come under fire for assigning fake social security numbers to newly hired foreign nationals for at least four years, The Dallas Morning News reports. Adding to the controversy is the fact that 26 of the numbers assigned were already in use by real people living in Pennsylvania.

An internal report issued by the district in September described the process of assigning fake numbers to speed up the hiring process, mostly of bilingual educators from Spanish-speaking countries. The fake numbers were replaced once employees got real Social Security cards.

“You can’t just arbitrarily issue Social Security numbers,” said DISD Human Resources Chief Kim Olson, who phased out the practice this summer when she learned about it. “Even if your intention is good, it’s not legal.”

The report also shows that the district continued the practice even after the Texas Education Agency, acting on an anonymous tip, told officials that the practice was illegal in 2004. Officials were unsure how long the district had been giving out fake numbers, and how many had been issued.

Posted by Jeff Lambert at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Math teachers can now point their students to a new role model and say, "See, math does pay off!" Surprising election-season standout Nate Silver, the insanely accurate statistician behind election polling Web site FiveThirtyEight.com, was obsessed with math as a child, reports The New York Times.

Mr. Silver started FiveThirtyEight (named after the number electoral votes up for grabs in a presidential election) in March of 2008. His predictions were remarkably accurate. He was within one percentage point of the popular vote and correctly called 49 of 50 states and all of the resolved senate races. Before his foray into political analysis, Mr. Silver worked as a baseball statistician, bringing in new techniques for analyzing old statistics and predicting new ones.

Mr. Silver was a math nerd long before anyone was paying him to be, however. According to The New York Times, “By kindergarten, he could multiply two-digit numbers in his head. By 11, he was conducting multivariate analysis to figure out if the size of a baseball stadium affects attendance (it doesn’t). By age 13, he was using statistics to manage a fantasy baseball team.”

Why would a statistician make a good role model for teachers to use in a field that’s struggling to engage students? Mr. Silver’s mathematical prowess landed him guest-analyst spots on MSNBC, CNN, Fox, and The Colbert Report. He also served as an election night analyst on Dan Rather Reports.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Children who practice their musical instruments may outperform their peers in a number of fields, according to a Harvard-based study. Science Daily reports that the study showed students who have played a musical instrument for three years or more scored higher on tests measuring verbal ability and visual pattern completion—skills not normally associated with musical instrument training.

Researchers Gottfried Schlaug and Ellen Winne compared 41 eight- to eleven-year-olds who had studied an instrument to 18 children who had not. Both groups participated in general music classes at school, but the instrumental group received additional private lessons. The instrumental children did better in tests of auditory discrimination and finger dexterity—skills sharpened by playing an instrument—and surpassed normal students in a vocabulary IQ test and visual pattern completion. The longer the children had studied their instrument, the better they scored on these tests.

Schlaug and Winne said that more studies were necessary to examine the causal relationships between instrument music training and cognitive enhancements. Based on the initial results, though, teachers may think of turning their students on to a musical instrument to improve standardized test scores.

Posted by Jeff Lambert at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This election season electrified Americans like no others in recent memory. Adults showed up to vote in record numbers, but perhaps most noticeable was the enthusiasm seen in young people--even those too young to vote. Students around the country held mock elections, ran mock campaigns, and even volunteered their time for real campaigns. Teachers used their excitement as a jumping off point for lessons in politics, race relations, and civic engagement. Now that President-Elect Barack Obama has won the election, the media is seeking student reactions.

Local 12 in Cincinnati, Ohio spoke to students at St. Francis de Sales school. Eighth grader Cammey Clay said, "I feel happy, because I know that for African Americans, anything we put our minds to, we can do it, and Obama put his heart out there and he went for it and he became president. He gave his all and he gave his best."

In Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Booker T. Washington high school, political science students discussed the social implications of electing Mr. Obama.

"I think it's going to motivate me to do better," one student said to ABC Oklahoma affiliate KTUL. "Like I already knew before, but now this is like a push, like if he can do it, anybody can do it. It's so corny, but it's true."

The students’ teacher, Anthony Marshall, is also feeling motivated by Mr. Obama’s victory.

"I slept maybe one or two hours because I was up re-doing lesson plans because it's raised my bar,” Mr. Marshall told KTUL. “Raised my standards, even as a teacher."

Posted by Josh Cohen at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A member of the Texas State Board of Education is accusing Barack Obama of sympathizing with terrorists. In her November 2 post on the Christian Worldview Network Web site, Cynthia Dunbar wrote that "those with whom Obama truly sympathizes" are plotting to "take down" America. Dunbar further alleges that Obama has no respect for the Constitution and will institute Martial Law once the "planned effort" is underway.

The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group that monitors the board, released a statement on Monday asking Dunbar to retract her comments. Dunbar responded, "I don’t have anything in there that would be retractable. These are my personal opinions and I don’t think the language is questionable." The president of TFN, Kathy Miller, said, "It’s stunning that a board member who helps decide what Texas children learn in their public schools would say something so disgusting and reprehensible. She should be taking refresher courses in civics and good citizenship, not deciding what Texas kids learn."

In 2009, Dunbar and the other members of the Texas State Board of Education are expected to revise the state's social studies curriculum and make a determination on including creationism in the science curriculum, according to the Chronicle.

Posted by Elizabeth Rich at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The 30-year-old classrooms without walls experiment might be coming to an end in Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reports. Born out of the progressive cultural shifts of the 1970s, classrooms without walls were part of a movement to rethink the traditional structure of schools and to encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary learning.

But today the experiment is being looked at as a "failed relic" out of keeping with new academic objectives and mandates. Many teachers and students simply find the open space loud and distracting.

Several Maryland counties are advocating an end to the program and are allocating funds for the major renovations needed for that to happen. "The bottom line is: They're not, in my opinion, a good environment for learning," said one county school board member. "“We tried that experiment. It didn't work."

Despite the frustrations with the lack of walls, however, there is no strong correlation between open spaces classrooms and poor student performance. According the Sun, "more than 90 percent of the students at Crofton Elementary [an open space school in Anne Arundel County] have consistently performed as either proficient or advanced on the annual Maryland School Assessment."

Posted by Josh Cohen at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)