Worth Reading

1. Why the Kids Who Most Need Arts Education Are Not Getting It (Strauss)- what are we losing at as the intensity over standardized testing increases.  How can the arts serve as a important vehicle for students to access complex materials as well as leverage as tool for communicating knowledge.  Excerpts from Michael Sokolove's new book Drama High.  

The anecdotal evidence of how arts education benefits children is every bit as powerful as the stories of how participation in scholastic sports “saves” certain kids. When I was researching a book on an elite high school theater program in the blue-collar town of Levittown, Pa., I met a student who was taking special education courses – remedial math and English, life skills – because high doses of chemotherapy she received to treat childhood leukemia were thought to have damaged her ability to retain and sort large batches of information. But she was able to memorize long scripts – and win statewide awards for her acting — because the narrative through line of plays came clear to her. Theater animated her as nothing else ever had.

2. Paper versus Laptop (Quidwai)- the article points towards a larger outcome of building the capacity with students to independently select the proper tool for the task at hand

The authors correctly point out that the more deeply information is processed, the greater the encoding benefits.  In today's world where we are making a commitment to prepare students for the future where they will have to act as problem solvers, collaborators, critical thinkers, communicators and innovators, it becomes even more essential for them to be competent enough to process and encode information so that they can not only store it in their short term memory also be able to utilize strategies to create connections in their brain that advance information to their long term memory.  

3. A Walk Through the Funky Stretch of the High Line (WNYC)- other than the High Line being one of my favorite places to walk in the city, the piece captures all that has to be considered during the design process.  I would share this with students to discuss the concept of human-centered design.

“It has really been designed with a sense of constant connection with the city,” he said. “It’s a new model for a park. It’s a park about engagement, not separation; removal from the urban environment, but connection to it.”

4. Think Challenge Aims to Solve Big Problems- Students were asked to use the design thinking process to come up with ways to tackle issues during a 24 Think Big challenge in Boise, Idaho.

“We think we have creative ideas to share,” Simonds said. “High school students tend to be a little more open minded and idea filled.”

4. Teachers: A Day In The Life- Teachers around the world begin their day being parents, partners, energetically charged, ignoring how the coming day will be... The stories intersect in this narrative are equal and differ, with criticism, with reflection, with optimism. Looking for an ideal each day, renewing that commitment each morning. And the collective dream brings us a world in which education is a right and everyone has equal opportunities to participate in quality education.

5. Kids Take Charge (Sethi)- Kiran Bir Sethi shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life's most valuable lesson: "I can." Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.