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Showing posts from May, 2013

Longer School Days - Is That REALLY the Solution?

I just read yet another article about the push to lengthen the school day in order to improve student achievement entitled Learning Takes Time: Growing Movement Seeks to Expand the Length of the School Day by Celia Baker. The last paragraph of the article I think highlights the advantage of this idea: "More time and money won't help if they are not well-spent, Gabrieli cautioned. The National Center on Time & Learning report suggests that additional time be used for more engaged interaction in academic classes; broader curricula; enrichment activities that boost school engagement; and more time for teacher collaboration and professional development".  As with anything in education (think technology), if it's done right and planned out and designed to address specific needs, it will have an impact.  If it's done for the sake of being done with no real plan or purpose, it is NOT going to be effective. Adding hours to the school day so that students can ...

Personal Change - A New Beginning

Four months since my last posting, which again, points to the turmoil and conflict in my life of late. In my last post I talked about change and three things to consider, since I was in the midst of some major changes in my own life.  To recap: Change is emotional. Resistance/reluctance to change is multidimensional Some changes may not be for everyone I am here to say that I have just about finished my first week of 'unemployment' because I decided to take change by the balls and do something drastic - quit my job. I gave it the old college try - 9 months of trying to adjust to the emotional and cultural changes of going from a small, education, technology driven company who's culture and approach to education I truly believed in and felt empowered by, to a large, educational corporate company, where I did not have this same sense of belief in the mission and felt at best, marginalized and insignificant.  What I learned is I am NOT a corporate girl. I want to be in...