Student Success
Homework Hassles
By Guest Blogger on April 8th, 2013
My sister is conducting her own personal rally against homework. I don’t blame her one bit. Most of my working-parent friends pick up their children after 5:30 p.m. By the time they get home and eat dinner, they may have one-and-a-half hours of quality time left with their child. Then the homework monster rears its head, which often consists of the parent helping to clear up incorrect concepts. My niece did her share of complaining about homework too. I thought the United States was making headway in educational practices, but from her comments, it seems that rote practice is normal. Are we still in 1900? Continue reading
Where Can I Get Some Grit?
By Guest Blogger on March 25th, 2013
Photo Credit: http://blog.elementsofcinema.com/2010/12/true-grit-on-tcm/
All the cool kids have it, or at least the successful kids. This ability to keep battling in the face of challenges seems to be the talk of the education industry. Paul Tough is talking about it in his new book. Angela Lee Duckworth is talking about at TED. Brian Williams is even talking about it on Rock Center. Apparently it’s the secret sauce. But where do I get it? Because I’d like to soak my son in it.
I understand the concept of teaching kids perseverance, self-control, and the importance of struggle in the learning process, but that’s not easy stuff for a fourth-grader and I need him to learn from his mistakes now, before I make another trip to the emergency room. Continue reading
Researching Student Success
By Guest Blogger on February 11th, 2013
In the spring of 2012, Dr. Brian Marchman, Dr. Matthew Ohlson, and Kathryn Haber conducted extensive research to examine the leading indicators of student success at Florida Virtual School.
The study examined the mathematics performance of more than 5,000 high school students over a three-year period. The initial hopes were to determine the factors that led to student success including communication with the teacher, participation in help sessions, length of time in the course, and student/teacher demographics. Continue reading