Monday, April 22, 2013
I am here, as a high school student, to deliver a response to an essay written by Suzy Lee Weiss called To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me in The Wall Street Journal. The main point that Ms. Weiss is trying to make in her editorial is that colleges are hypocritical because they tell students that they should “be themselves,” while in truth they only accept certain students who are of a high level of academic level and who have done extraordinary things while in High School. I personally disagree with her, as I think that when it comes down to it, it is essentially the students fault for not succeeding and not the schools’ fault for not accepting them. I think that the mentality that Ms. Weiss has is what failed her, and not what the colleges told her.
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
For as long as there have been schools, teachers have given homework to students for them to complete out of class. However, it is clear that homework, especially when teachers give it in excess, is unnecessary for the students. Recent studies performed by experts at Penn State University as well as the Curry School of Education have pointed to the fact that more homework does not correlate with better grades. In fact, some studies showed that homework is useless because of all the stress it puts on the young students that it is given to.
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Sometimes it’s hard to see how our beliefs confine us or funnel us in a certain direction, especially when those beliefs are widely shared. Like invisible tracks our unexamined beliefs about all kinds of things lead us inexorably to preconceived …
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
My graduate research and my teaching interests have focused primarily on the intersections of public writing and rhetorical theory. Specifically, I am interested in the disconnect between school writing and public writing and how our students and off-campus communities can …
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
- If you’re teaching about the 57th presidential inauguration click here for questions and answers with Smithsonian experts.
- Click here for a panel session with Smithsonian educators about interactive and ready-to-use resources for the classroom that explore the role of
…
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Wednesday, November 14, 2012
As a student with a learning disability, confidence has always been half the battle. It has proven time and time again to be the difference between success and failure. I’ve seen my fair share of both. Most times, this confidence …
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Tuesday, May 1, 2012
One of the challenges I face as an English teacher is teaching critical thinking skills to my students, as opposed to merely assessing for comprehension. Ultimately, texts are understood through a reader’s interpretation of the larger organization structures signaled by …
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Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Both learning disabilities and giftedness are socially constructed paradigms that fail to educate the student to his full potential while treating him or her as a holistic person with strengths and weaknesses. …
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Monday, April 2, 2012
We’re still enraptured here at LearningDiversity.org by the Finnish school model, which emphasizes early interventions and individualized support as key components for academic success. …
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012
High School Sophomore April Ferguson reports on Apple’s iBooks 2 app, its significance to education , and especially its potential to help students with learning differences.
On January 19, 2012, Apple changed the way people view education with the
…
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Monday, November 7, 2011
Last week we encountered a highly unusual situation; in fact, it was one that I had not anticipated whatsoever: a week-long power outage. As a teacher at a boarding school, one thing you must know is that the show must …
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Monday, October 17, 2011
It’s been a while since we’ve posted a Resource Round-Up here on Learning Diversity, so we figured what better time than now to present you with the best links on the web to help your student, child, or yourself!…
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Friday, September 16, 2011
A recent study published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research has found that teacher credentials are unrelated to student achievement. This particular study has widespread implications, as often in public schooling salary and tenure is based upon certification, degrees, …
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Dr. Don Elwell, Director of the Greylight Theater in Illinois, recently published an article at The Alternative Education Resource Organization entitled, “What World of Warcraft Taught Me About Education.” In it, he writes the following:
“This article was …
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Monday, April 11, 2011
A couple of recent posts by my colleagues Sara and Sean (here and here) commented on Susan Engel’s recent article in the New York Times “Let Kids Rule the Schools.” Like Sean I also suspect that implementing this …
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Sunday, April 10, 2011
The ongoing debate about the increasing importance of uniform educational standards in the public school system often centers on pedagogical issues. Paul Thomas, in his “A Case Against Standards,” offers a political perspective. Siding with those who construe …
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
In her recent entry, Sara Kaplan recounts with some surprise her students’ mixed—and in some cases resistant—reaction to an idea raised in a New York Times article by Susan Engels: to “let kids rule the school” by shaping their …
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Monday, March 28, 2011
In his latest book, The Same Thing Over and Over: How School Reformers Get Stuck in Yesterday’s Ideas, educator, political scientist, and author Frederick Hess explains why it’s imperative that we thoroughly rethink schooling in light of current goals …
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Regardless of which paradigm of learning differences and ADHD you subscribe to (medical model or diversity model) you can’t deny that our educational system is inequitable. Some students–regardless of intelligence– will be more successful than others. As a teacher I …
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Thursday, March 17, 2011
MIT OpenCourse Ware recently launched 5 new courses specifically designed for independent learners who have few additional resources available to them. This is a significant new approach to sharing educational resources with a mission reminiscent of Kahn Academy. These …
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