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Educational Musings

Educational Musings

Students & Educators

Lucy KosturkoDecember 6, 2018 0

Computer Science Education Support Surging: But Who's Going to Teach It?

“In the coming years, we should build on that progress…offering every student the hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one.” —President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, January 2016 Due in large part to Code.org’s advocacy campaign and their remarkable Hour of Code

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Students & Educators

Jen SabourinDecember 5, 2018 0

Booming Enrollments and Gender Diversity in Computer Science

Computer Science is currently experiencing booming enrollments at the university level and increased interest throughout the pipeline. Several academic institutions have noted that CS enrollment has tripled or quadrupled in recent years. This type of computer-science boom has happened twice before--each time followed by a drop in enrollment.

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Students & Educators

Ada LopezJuly 17, 2018 0

Student-led Conferences in Four Easy Steps

Open communication between school and home is essential to student learning. Traditionally, a parent-teacher conference is scheduled between report cards to provide parents with updates on their child’s progress. But the focus and the work is on the parents and the teacher. How do we shift the focus to the

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Students & Educators

Jessica PeacockNovember 29, 2017 0

3 Things Your Cooperating Teacher Forgot to Share

As a student teacher, I adored my cooperating teacher. Anyone could tell that she loved teaching and spent a lot of time perfecting her craft. However, when it came time for me to construct my own classroom, I found myself very, very overwhelmed. What anchor charts do I need? Who

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Students & Educators

Lee Ellen Harmer

Lee Ellen HarmerOctober 20, 2017 0

Guest Teacher Post: How I Increased Student Engagement

Editor's Note: Susan Lyons teaches social studies at McKinley Middle School in Saint Albans, West Virginia. In this guest post, Susan describes how she uses Curriculum Pathways in her 1:1 iPad classroom. This is the third in a series of blog posts written by West Virginia educators sharing how they have integrated digital content in their

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Students & Educators

Sean RussellSeptember 5, 2017 0

The 6.5 Ingredients of a Mobile Creation Station

The buzz about "maker" spaces has reached epidemic proportions. Schools everywhere are repurposing extra classrooms, renovating computer labs, retooling media centers, and rehabbing teacher lounges to accommodate creative workstations, materials, and tools. That’s fantastic. But what if the school doesn’t have an extra room? Or has an anemic budget? What

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Students & Educators

Ralph MooreOctober 21, 2016 0

Muggs the Dog: A Retrospective

The SAS Curriculum Pathways team suffered a loss recently, as writer and editor Tim McBride’s American Staffordshire Terrier (Pit bull), Muggs passed away at the age of 10. Now, many of us have pets and we don’t usually spend much time chronicling them here. But Muggs was different. Over the

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Students & Educators

Jamie McQuigganOctober 19, 2016 0

Our favorite resources for teaching digital citizenship

It's Digital Citizenship Week (#DigCitWeek, #DigCit) and Connected Educators Month, so in today's post we're focusing on how connected educators can teach digital citizenship. (Phew, is that enough buzzwords for you?) One of the best resources for teachers is the internet. And with the increased prevalence of mobile devices in education, internet

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Students & Educators

Lucy KosturkoOctober 17, 2016 0

Using devices vs. Using devices to learn

A common fallacy in educational technology is the assumption that since kids know how to use phones better than their parents do, they also know how to use them to learn. Almost any educator can tell you this is not the case. Technology often wins in the battle for students' attention in the

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Students & Educators

Kerri WadsworthSeptember 21, 2016 0

Elementary Spotlight: 3 Ways to Use QR Codes with Curriculum Pathways

As an elementary school teacher, I strive to develop engaging lessons. I am also concerned about differentiation, matching curriculum to standards, assessments, and ... the list goes on. Creating Quick Response (QR) codes has made planning and implementing resources a breeze. A QR code connects users to a link such

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Students & Educators

Kerri WadsworthSeptember 6, 2016 0

The Top 5 Lessons I Learned from My Summer at SAS Curriculum Pathways

This was a summer like no other. I was selected for the SAS Curriculum Pathways Teacher Institute, helping to develop, design, and evaluate their lessons, tools, and apps. I'm always looking for better ways to engage my students and explore new resources, so I went in ready to learn more about

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Students & Educators

Ashley SniderAugust 31, 2016 0

Teacher to Tech Transition

I've made many transitions thus far in my teaching career: from an adult grad-student to a first-year teacher; from working with eager and anxious freshman, who are enjoyably transparent, to aloof and stressed juniors, who feel the load of more responsibilities and begin seeing their futures as tangible outcomes. There was the

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Students & Educators

Clare FitzGeraldJuly 12, 2016 0

To STEAM or not to STEAM? That Isn't the Question

Growing up, my parents were obdurately hands-off when it came to influencing my and my siblings’ career interests. This may explain why, at age 6, my sister announced she would be pursuing full-time work as a butterfly. (To her credit, she currently manages a garden shop, which for a

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Students & Educators

Terry HardisonMay 12, 2016 0

Paideia: A Remedy for Groupthink

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” Ralph Waldo Emerson has long been lauded as America’s great champion of individualism and nonconformity, but this mantle may now be passing to Adam Grant, Wharton School business professor and bestselling author. In his new book Originals:

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Students & Educators

Ada LopezMay 9, 2016 0

3 Learning Myths Busted by Brain Research

The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It can process emotion, memory, and learning while controlling body functions such as heart rate and breathing. How do our 100 billion neurons work together to accomplish the greatest human achievements in art, science, mathematics, engineering, government, and language?

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Students & Educators

Mimi StapletonApril 22, 2016 0

Successful Strategies of a Global Educator

Regardless of grade level, subject, or academic setting, you can become a global educator and teach global competence. Here are some ideas to get you started. Get Informed – Start by broadening your own global citizenship and developing a multicultural awareness. Evaluate your own culture; think about your traditions, values,

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Students & Educators

Ralph MooreApril 6, 2016 0

When Digital Natives Become Teachers: Tech Problems Solved?

As the digital generation enters the workforce, does their technology skillset help them meet specific job-related challenges? This question has important implications for the digital-age classroom. Writing on the future of work, David Mills notes, “the true ‘children of the internet,’ who won’t remember a life before broadband,… are headed en-masse

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Students & Educators

Molly FarrowMarch 29, 2016 0

Five Things the Redesigned SAT Got Right

While students who just took the SAT wait a few excruciating months for their scores, let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the College Board’s 2016 SAT changes. We believe some key logistical and pedagogical elements of the redesign are good for both students and teachers. Here’s why. First, let's

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Students & Educators

Clare FitzGeraldMarch 17, 2016 0

#Edtech Planning: Why Implementation Matters

My high school calculus teacher once asked the class, “When do you know that your new shoes have just become your normal shoes?” Answers varied: “when the majority of the shoe shows wear or dirt,” “when you buy a newer pair of shoes,” “when the season changes.” I mused, “When

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Students & Educators

Terry HardisonMarch 7, 2016 0

Four Tips for Helping Students Unpack an Argument

Perhaps it’s the frenzied primary campaign season that’s to blame. But for some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the state of our public discourse. More specifically, I’ve noticed that our political candidates are increasingly unwilling—or unable—to answer questions with logical, detailed answers. When asked to explain why

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Students & Educators

Ada LopezFebruary 9, 2016 0

Six Secrets Savvy Teachers Know

While successful teachers have different styles and personalities, they all have one thing in common: high-quality teacher-student relationships. Today, we have a wealth of information about teaching and learning. You can find entire books addressing specific classroom concerns. In the tips below, I’ll discuss the key elements that helped me

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Students & Educators

Terry HardisonJanuary 13, 2016 0

The Unlikely Marriage of Mathematics and Literature

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” –Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice It is almost certainly a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen’s opening line from her great novel is one of the most

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Students & Educators

Molly FarrowJanuary 13, 2016 0

“Not To Decide… Is To Decide!” Solving the Riddle for 21st-Century Learning

My social studies teacher, Mrs. Rupert, had a favorite response to sleepy, disengaged students: "Not to decide ... is to decide." Turns out it is a quote from Harvard Professor Harvey Cox, but she adopted it as her mantra. Back in the 1980s in western Pennsylvania, disco and Reaganomics were the

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Students & Educators

Mimi StapletonJanuary 8, 2016 0

Three Actions to Support Your Professional Learning

“The number of chats I follow on Twitter is out of control! The information on my dashboard is overwhelming!’ I know the feeling. My monitor often looks like something you’d expect to see in an air-traffic control tower or the cockpit of a fighter jet. To preserve my sanity

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Students & Educators

Molly FarrowJanuary 4, 2016 0

Hamilton: History and Hip Hop Join Forces

The groundbreaking popularity of Hamilton: An American Musical serves to remind educators of music's powerful role in learning. Songs often enhance learning with infectious, foot-tapping messages that merge with the beating of our hearts and pumping of our blood to engage a wider spectrum of the brain. But how does

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Students & Educators

Tim McBrideOctober 28, 2015 0

Eliminate the ONLY Obstacle to Clear Writing

Even for the most vigilant, experienced writers, clarity can be an elusive goal. Again and again, no matter how hard we try to eliminate any trace of ambiguity, an infuriating gap often separates what we think we are saying from what we actually say. Consider this simple exercise. Insert the

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Students & Educators

Lucy KosturkoAugust 10, 2015 0

5 Projects for Your Project-Based Learning Classroom This Year

5 Projects for Your Project-Based Learning Classroom This Year by Lucy Kosturko was originally published on Getting Smart. I run. By no means do I call myself a “runner,” but I enter races now and then. That means I train—a couple of miles on weekdays, long runs on the weekend.

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Students & Educators

Clare FitzGeraldMarch 31, 2015 0

Women's History Month: Recognizing Pioneers

Why is the history of women singled out and celebrated with Women's History Month? Dr. Myra Pollack Sadker, a pioneer researcher who documented gender bias in American schools, summed it up well when she noted that “each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history, she learns

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Students & Educators

Jen SabourinMarch 6, 2015 0

The Future of Mobile Learning

This week we’ve mentioned a variety of things that make mobile learning a special and unique endeavor. But mobile learning is still in its infancy. The technologies and the world are changing at a rapid pace, and it’s hard to predict what the future will hold. So what do we

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Students & Educators

Ralph MooreJanuary 27, 2015 0

Curriculum Focus: Career Technical Education

I learned to weld in high school. Not that well to be certain, but I understand the basics. To this day, I recognize the skill needed to lay down a smooth bead. Back then, Amador County High School, had a mandatory full-year technical education course that split students each

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