-
Is facial recognition needed for school security?
Bambi Majumdar EducationThe unfortunate increase in school shootings across the country has thrust the school security debate into the spotlight. Parents, teachers, administrators, and the government are concerned about security and safety of all present at school premises. A Seattle-based company, RealNetworks, recently made headlines in this regard. It has introduced facial recognition technology to increase security at one Seattle school as a part of a preliminary service experiment. The experiment has fueled a fierce debate about privacy concerns.
-
Morphology and syntax: Key to successful reading
Sheilamary Koch EducationSimple sentences are great for social media — but when elementary school children use them exclusively, it could indicate difficulties with morphosyntax, which may be undermining their reading. Continuing with our expressive language series, we turn again to Judith O. Roman, M.A., CCC-SLP, clinical faculty member at Northwestern University’s Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning to answer questions on morphology and syntax. Morphology and syntax correspond to the function component of the "form-function-use" framework for expressive speech that Roman introduced in the first article on semantics, the form component.
-
Part 2 of 2: Language development is essential to educational success,…
Shirley Veldhuis EducationMany classroom teachers may not be aware of the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. The teacher preparation program at their universities may have only emphasized phonics instruction, so these teachers may not provide direct instruction of phonemic awareness skills. However, without phonemic awareness, phonics makes little sense. Phonemic awareness is a leading predictor of reading success in young children. Phonemic awareness skills have a direct impact on reading comprehension so these skills need to be explicitly taught.
-
The learning power of breakfast
Brian Stack EducationMany mornings as a school principal, I feel like I am fighting a losing battle with my students with regards to breakfast. They say it is the "most important meal of the day," yet it is obvious to me that many of my students don’t see it that way. Last spring, I surveyed the 700 students in my New Hampshire high school and found that 25 percent of my students report rarely or never eating breakfast before school. Another 30 percent report that they skip breakfast 2-3 days per week. Sadly, only 33 percent of my students report eating breakfast every day. This statistic is at the higher end of the national trend.
-
Refresh, refocus, and assess your students with processing breaks
Savanna Flakes EducationDoes anyone have a class in which every student is the same? Silly question, right? Of course not. Every student is significantly different, and each student brings a variety of talents, interests and preferred modalities. Students still got the squiggles after lunch? Students distracted by the snow? Students lethargic in the morning or after lunch? Try a processing break! Processing allows teachers the opportunity to reach every learner while assessing understanding and maximizing our precious instructional time.
-
Dental licensure may get a little easier
Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental HealthcareYou’ve upgraded your technology over the years, yes? Surely you’re not still using a flip phone. Or a VCR to record your favorite shows. How about dial-up internet? So, it makes sense that industries would upgrade policies and procedures as technology makes strides in making everyone’s lives simpler and more streamlined. Dentistry included. Calling for the modernization "upgrade" of the dental licensure process, three dental associations have teamed up to become the founding members of a group called the Coalition for Modernizing Dental Licensure.
-
Varied assessments to give to your music classes
Aileen Miracle EducationMy district has been focusing on formative assessment strategies for years, and for that, I am very grateful. We as teachers have been provided with lots of professional development about the topic of assessment, with strategies to gauge understanding and adapt instruction. One "a-ha" moment I had on my own is the idea of variety. In today’s article, I’m offering a wide variety of ways to assess your students during any given marking period, as a means to not only collect a wide variety of data, but also for your students to show you how well they understand the many aspects of musicianship.
-
Insights from a speech-language pathologist: Semantics
Sheilamary Koch EducationImagine a boy in a classroom who regularly raises his hand to respond to questions, yet when called on hems and haws not knowing what to say. While he claims to have the answer, no one has time to wait for him to come up with it. Meanwhile, other students shout it out and the teacher wonders why he raised his hand in the first place. One viable explanation for the boy’s actions comes from Judith O. Roman, M.A., CCC-SLP, who is a clinical faculty member at Northwestern University’s Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning. In this series, we turn to Roman, an expert in the field of pediatric speech and language pathology, who shares her experience in the area of expressive language.
-
What difference does it make? — Mentoring
Debra Josephson Abrams EducationIn an effort to do the right thing, organizational administrators often hastily create "mentoring" programs that are anything but. Mentoring is a commonly used term, especially in education, but too often it is incorrectly used because its origins and meanings are unknown or misunderstood. Without a solid understanding of the history and evolution of mentoring, programs that cast themselves as mentoring ones, but are not, create more problems than they intend to avert or solve.
-
Part 1 of 2: Language development is essential to educational success,…
Shirley Veldhuis EducationLet’s imagine a struggling school district where the new superintendent just received results from the state assessment, which revealed a large percentage of the elementary students were not proficient in reading. She is not alone. Reading proficiency is declining across the state. She thinks about an important book she had read by Dr. Sally Shaywitz, entitled "Overcoming Dyslexia." In one chapter, Dr. Shaywitz discussed the role of Dr. Paul Broca, who established that the root of reading is language and speech. The superintendent repeats this statement — the root of reading is language and speech.
All Education Articles