A great online tutorial for triple beam balance users

The Ohaus Company offers a great online tutorial to help kids learn to use a triple beam balance. The tutorial can be found here. Click on the triple beam balance link to get to the tutorial. I begin my lessons with the tutorial and then have students mass a variety of objects found in the classroom. You'd be surprised at just how heavy some of the shoes the kids wear are!

How the Business Roundtable views Education

From Susan Ohanian comes this cartoon showing what a Business Roundtable card shop would look like. You can see the cartoon here.

The Houston Astros offer an outstanding program for kids with Perfect Attendance. Information about this program can be found here. There is also an Honor Roll program for academic achievers. I'm told by teachers whose schools have participated in the program it is an outstanding motivational tool. Click here to download the enrollment form for you school in PDF format. According to their website:

The Perfect Attendance program is designed as a motivational tool to applaud your students and provide enjoyment with the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park! Also, each school's Perfect Attendance coordinator will receive coupons good for tickets to their choice of pre-selected Astros Perfect Attendance game dates during the 2005 season as our way of expressing our gratitude for their leadership and teamwork.

The Cramtastic 2000

My daughter was watching a new Nickelodeon show called
Danny Phantom. In the show the teacher informs the class that since the state exams are coming up, and his bonus is based on their performance, he will be using the latest in subliminal education technology.

It's only a matter of time.

Direct Instruction not all its touted to be

Recent articles discussed at Joanne Jacobs touted the wonders of a phonics based reading program called Direct Instruction. Direct Instruction, or DI, is a phonics based program similar to Open Court. Teachers visiting its website will recognize many similar characteristics, mainly that it strives to remove creativity from the classroom (I wonder if some school districts have Direct Instruction police?). The company website is filled with stories about wonderful successes while not actually providing any hard data to examine. I have found a longitudinal study demonstrating DI is no better than and possible less better than traditional teaching methods. The full article can be found here.

Welcome to Education in Texas

As a Texas teacher I try to keep up with education stories, research and commentary. I will post this as I find important ones.