Tired of being forced to eat what she felt were nutritionally sub-par meals at school, a 9-year-old student took to her blog in an effort to draw attention to the issue. It didn’t take long for that attention to go viral as Martha Payne's blog, Never Seconds, was eyed by several media outlets in her native Scotland. The attention grew to the point of a nationally-televised interview with the BBC. She explained how she would take pictures of the meals presented to her with a digital camera and write up a summary of the food including a Food-o-meter rating of how much she likes it, a mouthful count, a health rating and a number for how many pieces of hair were in the food.
She started in April and by May 15, school and town officials were seen leading journalists on tours of the school’s dining area. It was then that Payne blogged that there was a new system for ordering food, and that "cherry tomatoes, radishes, carrot and cucumber shreddings," began appearing in the meals.
Depending on the school district and state, teachers are often evaluated for their performance in the classroom. These evaluations might include a formal observation by the principal or assistant principal and another observation, possibly a “pop in” later in the school year. During this evaluation process, a teacher is judged by whether they meet certain expectations or criteria in various areas of teaching. For example, a teacher might be scored on how well he or she manages the students...
The Renaissance is one of the units in my Modern European class that most excites me. There are three distinct reasons for this. One, the Renaissance allows for a truly multimedia approach to teaching and offers so many positive uses of technology. Two, using a case study of Florence encourages classes to get to know a specific location historically while also learning about themes in a broader unit. Three, this close study also permits me to focus on important skills such as critical...

"If we want our children to grow up learning how to learn and how to think, we should be working in the other direction: make the classroom look more like the art studio.” – Christopher Wisniewski
Forty-one years ago, Agnes Gund read an article about the arts being virtually eliminated from the budget of the NYC Board...

“A community of professionals who are open minded and keen to try new methods in their profession can improve the results of their work.” – Àgueda Gras-Velázquez
How can Educators keep up and collaborate with the newest trends in STEM education making use of the best tech and tools available to them in...
Distracted students. Technology addiction. Social media onslaught.
Fast-paced living. Increased anxiety. Sounds like a recipe for a breakdown. Welcome to the new classroom.
Societal changes have certainly brought new challenges for teachers. And with new challenges, comes the need to re-examine current approaches to education. What are some of these new challenges? To start, children are spending more and more time on electronic devices. A 2017 report released by Common Sense...
Last year in a faculty meeting, I listened as a senior administrator denied the importance of content as part of a high school education in today’s world. It was August of 2017, only days after the events of Charlottesville, Virginia and the subsequent debates about the meaning of the Confederacy and its leaders in the contemporary era.
This administrator explained how he needed no content base to understand the white nationalist rally or the counter-protestors or the emerging...