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Are You a First
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Expert Feedback on Science
TEKS
Teacher Planning Aid Discounted
for TSTA Members
Rapid Resources is available to NEA members on a 30-day, free-trial basis. After that period, the subscription automatically continues for an additional 12 months for the special NEA member annual subscription price of $74.95. This is a tremendous savings over the non-member price of $199 per year. Included with the subscription are instructional emails that provide time-saving tips for using the product. Members may cancel their subscription at any time during the trial period with no obligation. For more information go to http://www.neamb.com and click on “Member Discounts.” Space-Flown Basil Seeds Still Available for Lunar Plant Growth Chamber Design Challenge The NASA Engineering Design Challenge: Lunar Plant Growth Chamber has positively impacted educators and students nationally. Currently over 1,000,000 students are involved! Plenty of space-flown seeds are still available. To register for the Challenge and receive seeds, visit at http://www.nasa.gov/education/plantchallenge. Visit the Web site frequently to find new feature stories about schools participating in the Challenge.
World Wise Schools Supports Geography, Global Issues
Brain Research—MRI’s Some of the behavioral data validate trends seen in other studies; for example, they show that family income has an impact on a child's IQ and social behaviors. But the lack of evidence for dramatic cognitive growth during adolescence was a surprise. Children from low income families performed somewhat more poorly on IQ and achievement tests and displayed more behavioral problems compared to children from middle and higher income families. They did not differ, however, on many other measures of basic cognitive functions, like memory and verbal fluency, or on most measures of social adjustment. A relatively larger percentage of low income children were excluded by the study's rigorous selection criteria, but the healthy low income children who did participate performed above published norms for their demographic. This suggests that in previous studies, general health disparities might have inflated the cognitive gap between low and high income children, Dr. Waber said. There were hints of much-cited differences in verbal and spatial ability between boys and girls, but these differences were not as sharp as those described in previous reports. In fact, there were no sex differences in verbal fluency. There were also no differences in calculation ability, suggesting that boys and girls have an equal aptitude for math. Regardless of income or sex, children appeared to improve rapidly on many tasks between ages 6 and 10, with much less dramatic cognitive growth in adolescence. This result fits with previous research suggesting that in adolescence, there is a shift toward integrating what one knows rather than learning new basic skills. Dr. Waber cautions, however, that these data provide "snapshots" of development in different children at different time points, rather than following each child over a series of time points.
Lesson Plans Teach How to Reduce Carbon
Emissions During the school day, ask the teacher if your child can be responsible for handing out supplies for lessons or delivering messages to the office. Some fidgeting, when done discreetly, can sharpen attention and enhance performance. Have your child try wiggling his toes inside his shoes when he's reading in class -- or let him listen to music, when he does homework after school. -- from the creative fidget strategies from ADDitude's new Back to School issue
Standards without Standardization
Make Reading a Yearlong
Celebration K-12 Teaching & Learning Center
Own Your Own Future
H-E-B Chair: 'Public Schools Have an Incredible
Challenge' Q: What do you think about the accountability movement and standardized testing? A: There are some areas in which there are analogies between business and education and there are many areas when there are not analogies. In this case, I do think that there is an analogy. Years ago, decades ago in business, accounting was something that was just a record of the past and it really wasn't a guide to the future. And then new techniques developed -- new metrics, new approaches to measuring progress and so forth of every kind in every aspect of business activity. Many companies used that brilliantly and some companies that didn't use it fell aside. But some companies overused it and they got tangled up in their socks because they got so tied up in measurement and accounting that they forgot to serve the customer, and they took up so much of their people's time in filling out reports and measuring how Team X did against Team Y or Jim did against John, that they didn't do a good job for anybody. We need to back up, rethink it, and get a system that is right for the parents, right for the students, right for the school, right for the government entities involved, right for the public -- that everybody can understand and that helps the student, that's not in business to penalize the student or to make the schools look bad, which some people like to use it for. So, yes I am for accountability and testing, but I think we've gone overboard and need to rethink the whole thing. Read the whole San Antonio Express-News interview at http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA050507.excprohebutt.en.782c2cf8.html.
Response to Intervention: What It Is, How It Works
Nominate Someone
for the Texas Women's Hall of Fame
Bullying
Prevention
NEA Academy NEA Gives Educators Tools to Handle
Autism
Copies can be purchased from NEA’s Professional Library:
http://store.nea.org/NEABookstore/control/productdetails? College for Texans Website How to Renew Your State Certification Free Professional Development Opportunities
Get more tips on the Ideas, Contests, Freebies page!
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