Financial Literacy - Finally Some Notice from Arne Duncan and Government

Well, I am feeling slightly vindicated now that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is agreeing with my opinion that we need to be teaching financial literacy in our schools. Could the government actually be making a connection to the current world-wide financial crisis and what is being taught (or not taught I should say) in schools? Here is a posting by Kennith Corbin entitled "Education Secretary Appeals for Financial Literacy, Planning Instruction in Schools" that sums up the comments of Mr. Duncan.

And, in case you want to 'revisit' some of my previous postings on the topic, here are some quick links to them: 1) Math Curriculum - What Should We Be Teaching 2) Financial Literacy - Bring It Back to School! and 3) Financial Literacy - Real-World Math, Really!

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Implementation Dip - It's Not Just Test Scores, It's Any Change

I read this article yesterday by Andrew Ujifusa entitled New Tests Put States on Hot Seat as Scores Plunge . Basically, states that have implemented new standardized tests to address revised academic standards, such as the Common Core State Standards, have seen a drop in student scores, so panic has ensued. What I want to know is: has no one ever heard about the implementation dip? Whenever you try to implement something new, there is going to be a period of adjustment, scores will go down if we are talking tests, classroom behaviors will change and achievement will go down if new teaching strategies are being implemented - in short, any time you try something new, it is NOT going to go exactly as planned! Mistakes will happen, things will be bad before they get better - it's part of the whole change process. Which is why we need to be implementing changes slowly, early, and over time so that things that go wrong can be adjusted. Image from images.google.com What is th

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In yesterday's weekly #edchat Twitter collaboration the discussion focused on the flipped classroom, where, naturally, there was quite a bit of debate around the idea of video lectures. What became apparent was the many different interpretations of the term 'lecture'. This came to the forefront for me when I offered up the idea of TED Talks as one option for learning rather than a teacher's video lecture, and someone said "TED talks are just lectures, so how is that better?" This stumped me as I have never thought of a TED talk as a lecture, which is funny, because now, forced to think about it, I guess they could be construed as lectures, depending on your definition. Which of course has led me to this post! Obviously, my perception of a lecture is not the same as others. What is MY definition of a lecture? Perhaps it's my many years of being both a student and a teacher, but for me a 'lecture' has rather negative connotations, as I envisio

Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

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