Developing self directed learners

“I haven’t met many self-directed teenagers,” said a frustrated high school teacher during a recent presentation.

As we contemplate the vast problem of teenage disengagement and the apparent low level of self-direction, we have to ask, “Is it our kids or our schools?”

We’ve seen enough high engagement schools where most teens were self-directed to suggest that it may be the design of American secondary schools that’s the problem—not the kids.

For a century, the primary design meme of American schools has been compliant consumption. Students read, practice and regurgitate in small chunks in siloed classes in regimented environments. Low levels of self-direction shouldn’t be surprising—it is inherent in the traditional secondary school design.

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Learn How STEM Is Shaping the Future for Our Children

Laptops, tablets, and apps are just some of the latest tech tools that teachers are using to spark students’ interest in STEM disciplines, which include science, technology, engineering, and math. Other trends include moving away from traditional face-to-face instruction and toward more hybrid learning opportunities, including online instruction and hands-on projects. Instructional videos and coaching courses have become instrumental elements within education and the overall development of today’s youth. All of these new technologies and approaches will produce stronger fundamentals and increase interests within STEM education.

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Online Public School volunteers bring cookies to firefighters

Roseburg area students who are members of the online public charter school Oregon Connections Academy baked cookies Thursday morning and then delivered them to Roseburg Fire Department firefighters.

Several teachers and students worked together in the Westside Christian Church in Roseburg to bake more than four dozen sugar cookies.

Kris VanHouten believes this is not only a great curricular opportunity for students of the academy, but also a way to show appreciation for what firefighters do for the community.

“The firefighters are away from their families more than most would want to and they do that to protect us and keep us safe. I wanted them to know that we appreciate that,” VanHouten said.

VanHouten said she wants to show kids that firefighters are people who should be respected and not feared.

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Virtual school student project provides blankets to foster children

NICOLLET — A blanket holds special meaning to 16-year-old Hailey Sherwood of Nicollet.

Her foster parents, now her adoptive parents, bought her a Winnie the Pooh blanket when she was first brought to their home at six months old. She's kept it ever since, holding it dear and sleeping with it every night.

"I use it as a security blanket," she told the Mankato Free Press. "It's something that makes me feel safe and comforted."

Entering a new foster home can be a scary experience for children. Knowing this, Sherwood came up with a project to help them feel the same comfort she felt growing up.

Read more about this great project here.

Is a virtual education the future for K-12 students?

Virtual education expert details six ways these schools are better than traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms.

Modern technology connects us and allows communities to share resources in unprecedented ways. Virtual education leverages these connections to provide everyone, regardless of geographic location, access to experts and high quality learning experiences. As technology has improved, virtual education has evolved to become a tool that helps close gaps in high schools and colleges.

Quality online learning programs provide rigorous curriculum, meaningful teaching resources, and access to specialized programs, such as industry training for students, schools and teachers.

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School choice and saving American education

Is school choice the only way to save the U.S. education system?

David S. D’Amato, a policy advisor at the Heartland Institute, thinks so.

In a piece that manages to invoke both John Dewey and Murray Rothbard, D’Amato makes the case that the “dynamism and innovation America’s schools so desperately need cannot come from a failed socialism that promotes more centralization, technocracy and bureaucracy.”

Read the whole thing here.

Mackowiak: School choice returns power to parents

Conservatives support school choice. However, rural elected officials, many of whom are also conservative, generally do not.

There’s an inherent conflict in this that partly explains why the broad issue of education reform has made some progress in Texas in recent years but the narrower issue of school choice has not.

School choice offers a fundamental question: Should there be competition in public education? The only serious answer to that question is “yes.”

Asked another way, who would oppose competition? The answer is the opponents of school choice, who are generally made up of liberals, school districts, teachers’ unions and some rural Republicans who do not believe school choice options currently exist in rural areas.

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Recalibrating Accountability: Education Savings Accounts as Vehicles of Choice and Innovation

In order to foster a variety of innovative and high-quality education options for all students, universal access to education savings accounts (ESAs) should be the goal of policymakers in every state. 

ESAs are flexible spending accounts that parents can use to purchase a wide variety of educational goods and services, including private school tuition, tutors, textbooks, homeschool curricula, online courses, educational therapy, and more. Parents can also save unused funds for later educational expenses, such as college tuition. 

This Special Report explores how ESAs expand educational opportunity and hold education providers directly accountable to parents; it also explains several common types of regulations that can undermine the effectiveness of the program and how they can be avoided.

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Wisconsin's Janice Mertes highlights state's digital content gains

Wisconsin, like most states, is searching for the best ways to manage the widening spectrum of licensed and openly available content for the state's teachers, many of whom are now contributing their own, according to Janice Mertes, assistant director for instructional media and technology at Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction.

Mertes spoke with EdScoop during the recent State Education Technology Directors Association annual leadership summit about the growing role of open educational resources and a variety of technology and instructional media initiatives currently underway in Wisconsin.

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BEYOND THE SCORE South Carolina Connections Academy is 'hole in one' for Pawleys Island golfer

Jackson Cole is at the top of his game on the golf course and in the classroom.

The 16-year-old all-region, all-state and former regional player of the year attributes his success to making a tough decision four years ago when the Pawleys Island student decided to forgo a traditional brick-and-mortar education and enroll in South Carolina Connections Academy, a tuition-free virtual public school.

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