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Tips for teaching practical grammar
Douglas Magrath EducationGrammar learning is different from other academic subjects since grammar builds on prior knowledge. One should be aware of grammatical differences across languages. Languages with many speakers have large vocabularies, but languages with fewer speakers have smaller vocabularies and more complex grammar. As the world populations become more interconnected, the grammar becomes more simplified. But while words are relatively easy to learn, grammar takes time.
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An overview of education policies proposed by Trump, Biden
Patrick Gleeson EducationIn a recent article, I compared the views of President Trump and former Vice President Biden on K-12 charter schools. Let's compare their views on six of the remaining important education issues as we approach what promises to be an unusually combative election. For starters, how much money is in each candidate's education budget is almost certainly the most significant indicator of their positions on almost every other education issue. Without funding, no education initiative, no matter how well-designed, can be implemented effectively.
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Many educators want to reboot the US school system
Sheilamary Koch EducationToday's colossal interruption in class as usual has inspired teachers around the country to boldly speak out about changes they want to see in education. They're urging drastic measures to solve problems magnified during this time of COVID-19-related closures — before things get swept under the rug again. "COVID-19 has torn down the barriers that long hindered schools from trying new things and threw open the window allowing them to observe the effects of changes in real-time," says Casey M. Bethel, who serves as the K-12 science, STEM and computer science coordinator for 35 schools in Douglasville, Georgia.
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Nurses: The professional progeny of Florence Nightingale
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareFlorence Nightingale, the founder and progenitor of the modern nursing profession, lit a spark several centuries ago that burns within millions of nurses to this day. The lamp that she literally — or metaphorically — lit during the Crimean War continues to illuminate nurses’ paths forward, and her legacy is one that strengthens with age as her offspring continue to advance the profession. And in difficult times such as the current coronavirus pandemic, nurses fight the good fight around the clock.
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Critical concepts in distance learning for multilingual learners
Erick Herrmann EducationThe current state of affairs has caused a shifting tide from face-to-face instruction to online learning and out-of-the-classroom learning through online platforms; apps; paper packets being sent home; letters and communications; and other creative means to keep students learning. Educators have done a phenomenal job all over the world in transitioning to remote learning and are working diligently to meet the needs of each student in their classes. But for emergent bilingual and multilingual students, many issues have arisen in terms of meeting their instructional needs.
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US payrolls plunge by 20.5 million jobs; unemployment climbs to 14.7%
Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementAttempts to contain COVID-19 led the U.S. economy to shed 20.5 million nonfarm jobs in April versus March's employment loss of 701,000. April's unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% from 4.4% in March. In April, job losses hit all sectors, notably hospitality and leisure payrolls. "Today's report is more than ten-fold worse than the previous all-time high of 1.95 million job losses in September 1945,” Andrew Stettner, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, said in a statement.
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Where Trump, Biden stand on charter school policy
Patrick Gleeson EducationThis article compares the two major-party presidential candidates' policies on a single issue: charter schools. Wherever possible, I've limited my sources to the candidates' firsthand policy statements or to nonpartisan sources. Where it's useful to provide a partisan point of view over a particular issue, I've carefully identified it. Both candidates’ statements are rich in aspirational goals and less forthcoming about where the funding will come from. Here's what the two candidates have said about this important education issue.
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COVID-19 and the cybersecurity risks of online K-12 learning
Bambi Majumdar EducationThe COVID-19 pandemic meant that schools in the U.S. and all around the world had to suddenly switch to digital learning. As schools, teachers, and students rapidly acclimatized themselves to this new version of school, a new threat emerged: cybersecurity breaches. Two school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland and Berkeley, suffered recent cybersecurity breaches, and student privacy was severely compromised. Reports of such breaches of student privacy and digital security are surfacing across the country.
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Parenting, teaching, and working from home? Here are a few things that…
John Baker EducationWorking from home (WFH) can be challenging in and of itself. WFH with kids calls for Herculean levels of mental — and, at times, physical — fortitude. We totally get it. Family comes first. This, however, doesn’t erase the fact that we still need to get stuff done. The way we go about balancing all of it becomes a decidedly intricate task. Fortunately, we have the world at our fingertips and the well of resources to draw from is vast.
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How can educators promote self-direction, independence during remote learning?
Brian Stack EducationRemote learning is not a new concept in education. For many years, it went by the terms "distance" or "correspondence" learning. With the increase of online technology options at the turn of the millennium, the terms "virtual" and "online" learning became more prevalent. Over the years, some students have thrived in these environments while others have not. My own 14-year-old son Brady is a great example. This past summer, he opted to take an online class at VLACS, an online school in New Hampshire.
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