Opening up to outside review of one’s work, including college essays, can create a wincing-eyes-jaw-clenching-fidgeting reaction to the surely unfounded criticism anticipated to be unleashed. While the ultimate reward of such perspective can be a sharper argument and greater understanding, the human tendency to prevent humiliation can get the best of us. (Incidentally, as humans…
Tag: Academics
Make Money from Doing Your Homework
“Hands on learning”–somehow these eduspeak words have invaded Seniors’ vocabulary to describe the classroom environment they desire in college. (Incidentally, their next sentence usually includes something to the effect, “You know, the opposite of high school.”) Well, how about taking “hands on learning” to another level and actually making money with the knowledge one gains…
Grades Don’t Only Measure Learning
Grades are a complex mix of a student’s performance meeting the teacher’s grading standards, managing assignments so they’re completed & returned to the teacher on time, AS WELL AS actually learning the concepts in class. Too often, the last part–the learning & understanding–is the only part that consumes students’, teachers’ and parents’ efforts, when a…
21st Century Learning in a Globally Connected “Classroom”
Computer technology and the internet is just the latest tool for education and learning. The printing press and cheap, mass produced paper spread learning to the masses. The accessibility of the Bible spurred the need to be literate to read, which in turn began disbursing the Church’s power and let more people begin thinking critically…
Rising Seniors: Talk is Cheap
Why invest many dollars, actual or borrowed, into a college that will expect students to learn, yet holds itself to another standard when it comes to expanding horizons? Rising seniors and their parents who seek a valuable degree, consistently ask us questions about the value of a degree from X college or university over another.…
Teachers Are People, Too
Students can be surprised to see teachers out in the community doing everyday, ordinary tasks–grocery shopping, flying on airplanes, having coffee at the local Peet’s. I know I felt like this as a kid, even when I became a teacher working on staff with former teachers, I had a hard time using their first names…
The Soul Connection
Too often its easy to think, “I can’t…I’m not an expert.” Collaboration, however, relies on all-comers. The energy created when everyone is sharing their talents, exposing their weaknesses and openly working together is ripe with potential, of which the consequences are unknown and possibly lasting beyond the group’s time together. “One short week, we put…
Just Because You Can, Does That Mean You Should?
Are we “solving” issues too quickly with medication, or just “kicking the can down the road” only now with more complications for a generation of today’s youth? According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reports 14% of Americans 12 years and older have been on medications…
When Life Hands You Lemons…
A lemonade stand can become a math, economics, marketing, English/Language Arts, financial literacy, health & nutrition, community building and team work lesson–all while enjoying a delicious treat in the heated shade of summer. Any aged kids can be involved, as the tasks to set up the stand vary. A patient parent or patient team…
Evolution of Learning
We expect teachers and schools to be objective. Yet, we demand subjectivity when a kid struggles to understand concepts. We assume knowledge is knowledge–some static, unchanging entity. So, if a kid doesn’t understand or even simply takes longer than the class is allotted to learn the concept, there’s something inherently wrong with the kid or…
Risk & Reward
Fear of mistakes can become a liability. Henry Kissinger once warned that our search for certainty can leave us simply reacting to the next emergency. Yet, transformed, this same desire for perfection can create an exacting attention to detail and ability to forecast probabilities. Is your view that life is inherently full of risk or…
The “Muddy” Side of Learning
Do-it-yourself does not just refer to hours at Home Depot, then trucking all that stuff home to saw, sweat, swear and drive back to Home Depot for stuff you forgot, while your family watches from a distance–afraid of the snarls. As an educational tool, DIY refers to the blow-stuff-up, come-home-dirty-enough-so-your-mom-makes-you-change-in-the-garage, direct-your-own-project learning. You know,…
Maybe a Summer-Slide Is Just What the Doctor Ordered?
Annually, this is the time of year parents and teachers share concerns that students forget academic concepts, since they’re not in school several months. It’s often called, “Summer-Slide.” Yet, how much does consistency affect students’ comprehension and academic progress?
Standardized Testing: The Good, The Bad and A Hmmmm…Moment
Bob Schaeffer of FairTest, an organization committed to a fair use of standardized testing in K-12 schools and college admissions, recently spoke with Creative Marbles about assessments. Our conversation reminded me of questions I’ve been asking since I was a beginning teacher, “How do we know (i.e. grasp clearly in the mind) what another has…
“I Don’t Get It”: How Teens Ask for Help
Getting help isn’t as simple as asking the teacher, although usually the first suggestion parents make when a teenager doesn’t understand the assignment. Teenagers may not have been taught to identify the problem, to know what exactly the student is asking. Then, there’s the humbling of oneself to admit there’s a lack of knowledge (not…