Joann's blog

A couple of years ago, some music educators held a Twitter chat to discuss which topics they felt were important to teach students in the music classroom. Many of the teachers mentioned that music composition was given short shrift, and that it should be taught much more widely, and given much more prominence, in the music curriculum.

Dystopian literature is hot.

In the school media center where I volunteer one morning each week, books like The Hunger Games trilogy fly off the shelves. The waiting list for each of the books in the series numbers into the double digits, and students are constantly checking in to see if a copy has been returned early. Ditto for the City of Ember series, The Giver, Unwind, and The Maze Runner trilogy. While classics such as Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and Lord of the Flies are less popular, we’ve still seen a noticeable uptick in the number of copies circulating this year. What’s the big deal with dystopian novels?

Mobile tablets are one of the most innovative and versatile tech tools to come on the market in recent years, and their application to teaching and learning has made quick inroads in schools. It’s been just over two years since the first generation of iPads became available to consumers, and an entire industry has developed around the technology – much of it focused on education. While still prohibitively expensive for many public schools, other schools have been quick to adopt iPads and integrate them into the curriculum. Aside from being light, portable, and snazzy, just what types of benefits do tablets offer over laptops, desktops, and e-books?

Each May, the nation celebrates National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Across the country, physical education teachers, fitness instructors, coaches, nutritionists, and others concerned with human health and wellness promote the advantages of physical exercise. The benefits of proper exercise and nutrition are well known for both older people as well as for children, and the month-long awareness campaign prompts many people to make healthy lifestyle changes. An offshoot of the campaign is National Physical Education and Sport Week on May 1-7, which focuses on physical education and activity for K-12 students.

Last spring, I volunteered in a third grade class that was learning about the digestive system. The teacher took advantage of a warm, sunny afternoon and took her restless students outside to make chalk outlines of their partners, and draw in as many different types of body systems as they could. Most students nailed the digestive and respiratory systems, while the circulatory systems on most outlines were wildly imaginative affairs, with great swirls and loops throughout the bodies.

Students have long been taught that, as adults, they must contribute to society in a meaningful way and for the common good. It’s an important sentiment, and one that many students take to heart. It can be difficult, though, for students to truly understand and appreciate such lessons in civic responsibility when they don’t have the opportunity to actually experience these lessons firsthand. As a result, increasing numbers of schools and extracurricular programs have instituted service-learning projects as part of the curriculum.

Social relationships can be difficult for any child. Cliques, "frenemies," and the "one-day-you’re-in-the-next-day-you're-out" revolving door of friendships is a common occurrence on the playground and in school halls. Yet while many students learn to navigate the tricky social waters at school relatively painlessly, others have a much harder time of it. For some kids, social skills are not intuitive, and their lack of social dexterity can result in misunderstandings, lost opportunities, and isolation. Students on the autism spectrum, for example, often lag behind their peers in social skills development, which can make their learning environment even more fraught with challenges.

April 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the fabled ocean liner that held such great promise in the early 20th century. Constructed over the course of three years, and at a cost of $7.5 million (over $170 million in today’s dollars), the ship was heralded as an emblem of the modern age – fast, outsized, and unsinkable.

"I’m not good at math."

"I hate math."

"When in life will I ever use this stuff?"

Sound familiar? Teachers in other subjects sometimes hear the same litany from students, but none so frequently as the much-maligned math teacher. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics once mused that "One of the curious aspects of our society is that it is socially acceptable to take pride in not being good in mathematics." While I don’t think that most students take pride in being less than proficient in math, the NCTM statement still rings true for many adults that I know. Could it be time for a cultural shift in attitude?

Curiosity is natural to the soul of man, and interesting objects have a powerful influence on our affections.
– Daniel Boone

Ever since the beginning of time, humans have been trying to make sense of the world around us. Curiosity prompts us to question why things are the way they are, and how things work. It’s the eternal quest of human beings to want to really know, to understand how to unlock the secrets of the universe. As the above quote by Daniel Boone illustrates, objects and ideas that fire our imaginations can become potent interests, or even passions.