Elliot Y. Merenbloom and Barbara A. Kalina | 05/08/2013

A middle school schedule represents the comprehensive organization of the instructional program of the school. Many variables, factors, and decisions enter into the equation. The schedule is a means to an end and not the end in itself. It serves to deliver the intended curriculum and becomes the order of the day for teachers and students. Within the daily schedule, time needs to be allotted for teachers to meet in professional collaboration about dimensions of instruction. Today’s emphasis on Common Core State Standards should be reflected in the school’s mission/vision statement to provide a guide for establishing the most effective schedule... Read More...

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Charles Sosnik | 03/30/2013

When you only publish three times per year, it’s important that each issue delivers. That’s why we place so many valuable resources into each issue. In this issue, we bring you an edition so chock-full of choice reading, so stuffed with solutions, so packed with practical, useful information that you’ll still be using it long after the Back to School edition arrives. Our cover story is a conversation with Temple Grandin. For those of you in special education, Temple is a rock star. In talking with her, I found her common sense approach to be extremely refreshing. She is brilliant and warm and honest and likeable – and funny. My conversation ... Read More...

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Connie Reed | 04/16/2013

You’re zipping through the dimly lit cavern at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, dangling from a cable, the cavern floor 70 feet below you. Surprisingly, the anxiety you felt a moment ago, just before you lifted your feet off the platform and began your zip, gives way to a sense of exhilarating freedom as you breeze through the cool dampness of the world below the surface of the earth. Whether you’re a novice or an experienced zip liner, the MEGA Zips Zip Line Adventure in the Louisville MEGA Cavern is a one-of-a-kind experience that will leave you awestruck. If zip lining isn’t for you, but you’d like to tour the MEGA Cavern or plan a stud... Read More...

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Barbara Blackburn | 03/30/2013

The foundation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a focus on rigor. Developed in the midst of perceptions about lowered expectations for our students, the Standards provided a well defined set of expectations for each grade level in the areas of English/Language Arts, Literacy and Math. The standards set rigorous benchmarks, but the impact on student learning will depend on the implementation of the standards. Authentic rigor includes high expectations for students, increased support for students, and increased demonstration of learning by students. As defined — Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word: Read More...

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With Larry Biddle | 03/30/2013

As our nation explores and implements Common Core and continues to seek ways to close The Achievement Gap, it would also serve us to focus our attention as well on the Trivium — the essential foundation for authentic Teaching and Learning. Author Jon Rappoport, in his work entitled “The Matrix Revealed,” proposes that logic, the foundation curriculum, is dead. He argues that once upon a time, in medieval universities, new students enrolled in the Trivium. It was the foundation curriculum. It was required. Its parts were: grammar, logic and rhetoric. Grammar: the interior construction of language; the parts of speech; the proper agreement of ... Read More...

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Dr. Ruth Herman Wells | 03/30/2013

Five years ago, when I was first asked to write this column for SEEN Magazine, I used to write a lot about what teachers and principals could do to prevent students from creating serious tragedies like school shootings. Five years later, I am stunned to be writing about what teachers and principals can do to help students cope with school massacres committed by adult outsiders. It is a grave new world that your training never imagined, and most certainly never prepared you for. As someone who routinely helps provide help and professional development to schools after a tragedy has occurred, I want to fill in that gap in your professional trai... Read More...

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With CHARLES SOSNIK | 03/30/2013

SEEN: It’s a pleasure to speak with you Dr. Grandin. Our districts are seeing more autistic students than ever before. This is creating some tremendous challenges for our educators as we attempt to meet the needs of this growing population. Tell me what we should know about our autistic learners. Temple Grandin: “People on the autism spectrum have very different strengths and weaknesses. Some are wonderful at math and terrible at reading. I’m really good at art, decent in writing, but terrible in math. Read More...

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TAMMY L. JONES | 03/30/2013

There are some districts that have begun the journey to successfully implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and some that have jumped in feet first without much thought or planning. And then there are some districts that are still waiting for the CCSSM to be laid out for them where someone tells their teachers what to do, when and how to do it. It would be foolish to put a boat in the water and let the currents carry it wherever they may. There is a risk of harm to the boat as well as all those on board. It would be just as foolish to stand on the shore and never get in the boat and expect to get anywhere in the jo... Read More...

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JANET PITTOCK | 03/30/2013

For over a decade, research studies of mathematics education in high-performing countries have pointed to the conclusion that the mathematics curriculum in the United States must become substantially more focused and coherent in order to improve mathematics achievement in this country. To deliver on the promise of common standards, the standards must address the problem of a curriculum that is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a substantial answer to that challenge. Read More...

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Concepcion Molina | 03/30/2013

Reform in mathematics education in the United States has focused primarily on instruction, on remedying teachers’ tendencies to teach how they were taught. However, what our system has neglected is the idea that teachers will also tend to teach what they were taught. If the bulk of teacher content knowledge in mathematics consists of procedures and rules, then that is the type of shallow mathematics that will be passed on to students. The best and most innovative teaching practices will have little impact if the mathematics being taught consists of content that many have referred to as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” There are a multitude of... Read More...

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DEBRA KEMP FREEMON | 03/30/2013

Authors of the Common Core State Standards, along with educators across the United States have a dream — a dream to prepare our youth for the future. As with other dreams in our recent history, Martin Luther King’s and John F. Kennedy’s, we the people can make those dreams come true. Highly trained teachers equipped with a new set of strategies and skills are those people. They have the power to unfold the dream of the Common Core State Standards. Read More...

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GARY CHADWELL | 03/30/2013

Schools around the country are now grappling with the challenges of the Common Core State Standards. While the first assessments of the standards are not due until the 2014-2015 school year, educators are already addressing the standards and preparing students for the new assessments. Read More...

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