Archive for the ‘Public Education’ Category

I’m increasingly conscious of the gap between the urgent calls for more effective math education in the U.S., and the seemingly low expectations some parents have for their own child to advance in math. It’s as if the pressing national need has nothing to do with us on a personal level. I hear parents talk [...]

When we conceived the idea for DreamBox Learning online math games, we knew that homeschoolers would be people we understand and relate to. After all, we have a lot in common. Homeschoolers believe in taking no chances with their kids’ education. DreamBox agrees. Homeschoolers believe that hands-on, individualized learning is crucial. DreamBox agrees. While these [...]

In the seemingly infinite blogosphere it can be a huge investment of time to figure out which education blogs are most worth reading. Luckily, DreamBox has done the work for you, reading many education blogs on the internet to tell you about some of the very best. When we created this blog round-up, we looked for [...]

Someone recently asked me whether better math education would have avoided our current financial crisis. My immediate response was, "Unfortunately, no!". Our current financial woes are due to a so many complex, interacting factors, including (just to name a few) lack of regulatory oversight and regulations that only applied to part of the financial ecosystem, corporations' insatiable need to maximize quarterly earnings, the very human tendencies of some people to get ahead by taking advantage of others, and the very human tendencies of many people to believe in things that are "too good to be true" (such as housing prices that can't go down, and mortgages that people can't pay for).

Let me begin by encouraging you to read this Washington Post article on the failings of homework. For those who want the CliffsNotes, the net is that rote, unimaginative, repetitive, grinding and brutally boring homework doesn’t help. To the contrary, it actually hurts students across several fronts.

Recently I wrote about one of the key issues in the recent Bellevue teacher strike: the mandated scripted curriculum. But this is a complex issue and I think there’s a larger point to be made about this: the connection between the standardized curriculum and standardized testing. To be clear about this, Bellevue teachers didn’t strike against standardized tests. But standardized curricula are being implemented to improve standardized test scores. And what is being sacrificed in order to improve scores?

The Bellevue, Washington teachers have thankfully settled their strike and are back in their classrooms. At DreamBox we followed their issues with heightened interest, not only as parents of elementary kids and educators, but as citizens of a society that badly needs children who grow up to be smart, serious, and engaged problem-solvers. A key issue for teachers was the curriculum instituted in the past decade. The district is considered one of the best in the state, as measured by test scores and a high level of college attendance, and four of its schools are in the top 100 high schools in the country according to Newsweek’s 2008 ranking. So what’s the problem?

It’s almost Fall and pumpkin season is coming alive. I’ve seen signs for corn mazes, harvest festivals, and of course, Halloween candy out in the shelves at the store. I love this time of year! One thing I love to do in my classroom is explore the anatomy of pumpkins with my students. Even though [...]

I always say I learn everything the hard way. By that I mean I don’t learn a lesson as well when I hear about someone else’s mistake as I do when I make it myself. Experience really is the best teacher. I came across an article today about some high school students who worked on estimating by getting out of the classroom, going to a football stadium, and figuring out how to estimate the total number of seats in the stadium! (Read Learning Math Outside Class Helps Students Understand It by going here: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/aticle?AID=/20080912/NEWS05/809120403.)

Because of rising fuel costs, some rural schools with long bus routes are considering shortening the school week to stay on budget. I remember a similar discussion when I was a kid during the 70s oil embargo. I dreaded the thought of my Mom (the omnipresent teacher) loading me to the gills with rote exercises and makeshift homework while all my friends would be outside playing (can’t you just envision them waving their tongues and moose-horn hands at me).