Brooke's Blog

How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement

2010-03-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

While I tend to teach online I find this strategy very interesting. The professor referred to her experiment as a "mess" but what a fascinating way to promote student engagement. Although the online forum doesn't necessarily lend itself to outside tweets I am interested in adapting this strategy to our classroom "wall". This may help promote student participation - especially for those who are intimidated to speak up during real-time, online streaming.

Check it out! http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID

Budget Cuts and Textbook Adoptions

2009-08-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

Mandatory CA textbook adoptions have been postponed until 2016. The ramifications of this decision are multifaceted. As noted in the article, students and teachers will be working with out-of-date materials. However, what the article fails to mention is that the “prescribed” instruction of their programs will be based on old pedagogical techniques. Additionally, there is the grave possibility that districts will be less inclined to purchase on-going and continuous professional development as teachers become “comfortable” but not necessarily “efficient” at implementing their core programs.

http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-textbooks8-2009aug08,0,4675088.story?page=1&track=rss

Firing Teachers

2009-05-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

WOW! I have visited schools nation-wide and have seen too many teachers who had been provided support and still lacked the heart, motivation, and/or ability to effectively teach. My heart breaks for those students who are taught by those teachers and my heart breaks for those teachers who were promoted to the classroom. In my opinion, these teachers should never have been accepted to a teacher preparation program, let alone, allowed to graduate, receive a teaching certificate and/or be hired by a school district. It is about time that the teacher accountability system becomes reasonable to work with in order to have these teachers removed.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers3-2009may03,0,679507.story?track=rss
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-teachers4-2009may04,0,781983.story?track=rss

I AGREE!

2009-04-30T13:19:00.001-07:00

At Sea Without a Compass: Chart a New Course for Education Reform posted by Karen Symms Gallagher at Karen Symms Gallagher - 1 week ago

The federal government needs to call a public advisory committee, comprised of representatives from every stakeholder group that cares about what is happening in public schools.

2009-04-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Get ready because here it comes!
Soon my dissertation will be made available at http://digarc.usc.edu after the next publishing cycle for the Digital Archive.

When my dissertation is published it will be available at this URL:
http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/usctheses-m2079.html

I would love to receive any feedback you would like to share with me!

USC News Alert

2009-04-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

U.S. News and World Report Ranks USC Rossier School of Education among Top 25 in 2010 ‘America's Best Graduate Schools in Education,’ among Top 10 in Private Universities
Link

Teacher Shortage and MAT@USC

2009-04-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting article that sites the new MAT@USC program for addressing the shortage of teachers qualified and trained in urban education. link

The best way to teach teachers?

2009-04-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting article on the different views on teaching teachers.

"In the long run, if we don't pay the cost to create good teachers, it's penny-wise and pound-foolish," says Linda Darling-Hammond, an education professor at Stanford University in California. "Anytime you let someone go into the classroom before they're ready to be successful, there are all these other costs: of attrition and student failure, summer school, [students being held back a grade], the cost of dropping out."

Click here for the story: Teaching Teachers: What's the best way?