Parents ‘n Schools

(GLO — June 2009 — Billion-dollar-anythings, quite simply, seldom partner well with anybody. No surprise that a billion-dollar-school-board would struggle with such things. There should be limits on school board size. In Alberta, there are 64 school boards. 62 are about the right size. The other two are off-the-charts big. There is no particular rationale […]

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Bill Gates Sr. (THE Bill Gates’ father) in his new book “Showing Up for Life” makes a strong case for the difference that competition in schooling can make to the quality of schooling. He describes the very competitive environment of post-secondary schooling in North America (competition for grants, competition for support, competition for students, competition […]

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Today is my kids’ last day of school for another year, and I am reminded to write a thank-you to the loyal (and no doubt deeply disturbed) readers of good ol’ PnS.
Web stats indicate that current daily readership is QUADRUPLE what it was this time last year. Let’s not be so petty as to discuss […]

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Obama should look to Portugal on how to fix schools
Posted using ShareThis
(GLO — an excellent essay by the author of “Grown Up Digital” on the impact on the classroom and on the learning experience in Portugal upon the determined application of technology.)

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(GLO — June 2009 — You know home schoolers are doing this sort of thing all the time. Partnering well with local zoos, museums, rec centres, libraries… tapping available resources and collaborating on curriculum.
Google “Cretaceous Crime Scene” and you will find an online learning module that was built by the Royal Tyrrell Museum using Essentialtalk […]

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Go to Lulu.com
Search “school”.
Sample the hundreds of school and class and student yearbooks that have been published there. For download and printing, one order at a time. In flexible formats. As you like it.
Imagine never having to pre-order again.
Imagine the ready archiving.
Imagine the flexibility (a yearbook for Grade 12’s… for Grade 11’s… for athletes… for […]

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You sign on and a reminder pops up that you have not completed a math lesson in 48 hours. You registered online last week, after Labour Day. You have until December to complete the material, when you are scheduled to write a proctored exam at the local rec complex. The system tracks your progress against […]

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I’ve mentioned the book “Grown Up Digital” here at PnS before. The other day on the book’s website (www.grownupdigital.com) the editor posted the following regarding a newly published book. He invited comments. I include mine below. I welcome yours (here or at www.grownupdigital.com).
+++++++++
Liberating Learning is a sure-to-be controversial book that argues that technology will be […]

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Bill 44, enshrining (among other things) parental rights to first be informed in advance of any planned government school teaching in the areas of religion, sexuality and sexual orientation, and rights secondly to instruct if desired that their children be excluded from such planned teaching, has now been passed into law in Alberta.
And parents in […]

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(GLO — June 2009 — The end of the school year approaches, and the prospect of summer jobs and time to reflect on the year past and what may come in the fall. One of the things schooling tries occasionally to do is to bring the world of work and career into the world of […]

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