The Learning Curve Archives - WebTalkRadio.net

In January 2012 till August 2012 Philadelphia engaged in a widespread reform of its educational system.Subscribe with your favorite podcast playerAndroidRSS Dr. Leroy D. Nunery II was a major driver for that project. Leroy is a former Acting Superintendent and CEO and Deputy Superintendant/Deputy CEO of the Philadelphia School District, so he had inside real-life experience of what had to be addressed . . . and he was able to earlier do so as an outside consultant. Today, Leroy is the Founder and Principal of PlusUltre LLC and is an Educational Advisor to the Gilfus Education Group. In today’s Learning Curve with Roger and Virginia you’ll hear what situations had to be addressed, what changes had to be implemented and how they affected the renaissance of the school system. The Philadelphia School System had many “challenges” among which were: Low graduation rates Aging buildings Many changes to its curriculum The Philadelphia Renaissance Schools initiative, under then Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, aims (and definition) for the turn-around were: Ensure every child had equitable access to resources Close facilities that were to old and too expensive to maintain Reorder the staffing in schools Many options were explored including external management through Charter School enterprises. Hear how Leroy navigated and handled the political delicacy of all this. Much was learned including the point that no one single solution would work in every school district across the US. Hear how Leroy combined and blended several other cities programs for use in Philadelphia. Hear how parental engagement was crucial to the turn-around. Learn why schools need to have a “customer service attitude” towards their “clients”; the parents and children. And parents need to become informed “consumers” of the services on offer to them and their children and not accept anything less than the best. In this broadcast of the Learning Curve you’ll hear about the changes that were introduced to upgrade and affect the renaissance of the system in Philadelphia. One of our favorite implementations was that of “Hybrid Learning technology.” The benefit of this system is that each child can learn at their own individual rate on a curriculum tailored to the needs of the child. The other is the recognition that access to information is crucial for students and particularly for parents if the system is to work to the benefit of the “consumer.” Roger and Virginia at The Learning Curve The post The Learning Curve – The Philadelphia School System Renaissance appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Today’s Learning Curve with Roger & Virginia explores the many aspects of the ways in which children can be gifted and how you can benefit your child by knowing this: and what to do about it.Subscribe with your favorite podcast playerAndroidRSS Our expert guest and friend today is Francie Alexander, the Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Scholastic Education. This is a return appearance for Francie; her last show with us addressed how to prevent your child from losing recently learned material in what is referred to as the “summer slide.” Francie reveals there are many different areas in which a child can be gifted. A parent needs to appreciate this and the various many ways in which the child can express it. Parents can too often be concerned that their child “is not academically gifted” and fail to see what particular gifts the child has and work to facilitate and strengthen those gifts. Is your child gifted academically, socially, physically, artistically? If academically, what particular part or subjects? Learn how parents should focus on their child’s strengths and enhance them; not overly fret over apparent “below expectation” levels of skill or ability. Validating what the child does well actually lifts all other aspects of the child’s endeavors. But stressing and fretting over the child’s apparent lesser abilities only drags down the child’s confidence and self esteem and damages their overall achievement. Learn why and how parents should keep their gifted children engaged and moving forward. Learn about the extensive resources available at Scholastic, Inc., for parents to use with their variously gifted children. Be alert to the possibility that your gifted child may have difficulty collaborating with other children; and that fact that gifted children need to be taught just as much as “regular” children. But most important: let your gifted child follow the line of interest it has its attention on. Learn the traits of gifted children: Language development Questioning and probing Integrating advance words into their conversation Focus on the pursuit of a purpose They love to learn Physically, they have good eye-hand coordination Love to play and excel at a sport Able to take any object (crayon, pencil, clay, cloth, etc.,) and create something from it Roger and Virginia at The Learning Curve The post The Learning Curve – Gifted Children — But Gifted in What Way? appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Wonderful results have been achieved by implementing the simple idea that if teachers visited parents in their homes, both could work together more productively to benefit the child student.Subscribe with your favorite podcast playerAndroidRSS Carie Rose is the Director of The Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project This simple, wonderful idea is now a nationwide activity achieving great results. Since 1998, the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project non-profitmembers have created stronger home/school partnerships that support students and transform schools. Home visits lead to increased parent involvement, reduced disciplinary problems, improved attendance, and increased student achievement. Home visits also lead to trusting, respectful relationships between parents and teachers, creating the foundation for understanding and cooperation between home and school that is critical to every student’ssuccess. Families report greater understanding of graduation requirements, student status and available site based resources — if needed. Educators report greater understanding and connection totheir entire school community and each student’s individual learning needs. Studies of successful home visit pilots have documented the many benefits of home visits, including: Home Visits Create Partnerships: Increasing parental involvement Developing trust and understanding among parents and teachers Identifying common goals for students Helping parents learn how to better help their children Home Visits Improve School Climate: Reduced absenteeism Fewer suspensions and expulsions Improved communication between home and school Shared accountability Home Visits Increase Student Achievement: Improved test scores Higher school-wide API scores Improved accountability for students, parents, and teachers Home visits work with schools and districts in eleven states having adopted our model. Home visits work for parents. They work for educators. And, most importantly, they work for students. For more information about Home Visits contact: Carrie Rose, Director, TheParent-Teacher Home Visit Project Or email: [email protected] Phone: 916/448-5290 Roger & Virginia at The Learning Curve The post The Learning Curve – The Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project—What a Wonderful Idea This is! appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

That’s what Virginia and I were left wondering after this interview with Dr. William Schmidt, the author of the exciting new book: INEQUALITY FOR ALL: The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools.Subscribe with your favorite podcast playerAndroidRSS No, it’s not about rich versus poor or disadvantaged versus privilege. It’s a revelation of the fact that our schools, even within the same districts, cities and States do not have comparable curriculum content and standards on the same critical science and math subjects. And the greatest variations are in middle-income school districts; and it happens even within the same school. In other words there is no equivalence between classes of the same Grade on the same subjects. And this results in many kids being short-changed or otherwise graduating with different knowledge than other kids who’ve done the “same” subject Grade classes elsewhere in the system. Dr. Schmidt reveals that some teachers are not properly equipped or competent to deliver the math and science curriculum—and that is part of the problem. Compared to this, the nations that are bettering us overseas have national standards of common core material that all kids are exposed to. By “common core standard” is meant what is to be taught: not how it is to be taught. Parents will ask: what to do? The answer is go to the Common Core Standards website http://www.corestandards.org/ and see what their child should be learning at each grade, and take the action needed to have the material delivered to your child. This is important because math is the language of technology and the information driven society we now live in. Click here for more information on INEQUALITY FOR ALL: The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools. If that link doesn’t work go to http://promse.msu.edu/ and look in the “what’s New” section. William H. Schmidt is University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University and co-director of the Education Policy Center. Roger & Virginia at The Learning Curve. The post The Learning Curve – Why Can’t We “Get it Together”? appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Nowhere is the adage: “If you don’t use it, you lose it” more accurate than in the case of young minds and the reason behind the “summer slide.”Subscribe with your favorite podcast playerAndroidRSS In today’s Learning Curve Francie Alexander explains how you can protect your child’s learning and advancement. Learn how you can easily prevent the “summer slide.” Francie Alexander is Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Scholastic Education. Francie has taught at all levels, was a district reading consultant for Pre-K through high school, and has authored professional articles for educators as well as 25 “Books Kids Can Read” for children. In today’s Learning Curve we reveal: What the “Summer Slide” is. The fact that teachers typically need 4 to 6 weeks in the fall to re-teach material students have forgotten! The importance of “summer reading in beating the summer slide.” The wonderful treasure trove of tools and resources available at the scholastic.com website. Learn of the many initiatives and tools Scholastic has made available to you so you can beat the “summer learning loss” and also help your child in everyday learning. Scholastic Summer Challenge a program where students can win prizes by logging their reading minutes online or using a new mobile app. called The Scholastic Reading Timer. Scholastic Reading Timer kids can set personal reading goals, using the built-in stopwatch to reach their target number of reading minutes. Storia® is a free eReading app specifically designed to support kids’ reading Sushi Monster, Scholastic‘s newest free math fact fluency game available on the iPad. Summer book packs for all age groups. Get tips for parents from Francie on how to keep kids learning over the summer For teachers, the Scholastic website is an equally wonderful resource. Their website has been set up to serve as the content and e-Commerce hub for everything a teacher needs most for use in the classroom. Each week, more than 1.6 million visitors to Scholastic.com access over 100,000 pages of free content and teaching resources. This show is one of the most enjoyable Roger & Virginia has done on the Learning Curve. And the material it makes available to parents, teachers and students is truly valuable and quite amazing. Scholastic, Inc., is a publishing and educational industry service company whose mission is stated as: “The corporate mission of Scholastic is to encourage the intellectual and personal growth of all children, beginning with literacy, the cornerstone of all learning. With more than 90 years of experience supporting the learning lives of children, today Scholastic remains committed to providing quality, engaging educational content in digital and print formats for the next generation of learners, and the families and educators who guide them.” But the big surprise to Roger is that Scholastic are also the people behind bringing the Harry Potter series to America! So it’s not all serious academics at Scholastic. Roger and Virginia at The Learning Curve. The post The Learning Curve – Did You Know Most Kids Lose a Lot of What They Recently Learned in School While on Summer Break? Teachers Call it the “Summer Slide.” appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.