Tag: education

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Mickey and math? Disney launches education apps

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Mickey and math? Disney launches education apps

DECEMBER 8, 2014    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY BARBARA ORTUTAY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
WIRE SERVICE

Mickey is getting into math — and science, art, reading and even teaching social skills.

The Walt Disney Co. is launching a new line of learning tools designed to help parents encourage kids 3 to 8 to learn outside of school. Disney Imagicademy begins with a series of mobile apps but will later expand into other products such as books and interactive toys. Over time, the target age will also grow to include older kids.

To start, Disney is launching an iPad app called “Mickey’s Magical Math World” on Thursday, focused on math-based activities such as counting, shapes, logic and sorting. Within the app, there are five add-on activities such as “Minnie’s Robot Count-Along” and “Goofy’s Silly Sorting.” The basic app is free to use, but the enhanced activities cost $4.99 each or $19.99 for all five. Future apps, on subjects ranging from life science using characters from Disney’s “Frozen” to creative arts, will be similarly priced. The apps are ad free, keeping with laws that prevent targeting online advertising at kids under 13.

A companion app for parents lets grown-ups follow along with what their kids are doing even if they are using a separate mobile device. It also suggests a bevy of offline activities, such as creating “rocket racers” using toilet paper tubes, duct tape and balloons, or making a colorful “quilt” out of tissue paper to learn shapes.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/disney-launches-education-apps-for-youngsters-1.1148361

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A question of homework: tenafly parents protest the load, joining nationwide trend

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A question of homework: tenafly parents protest the load, joining nationwide trend

DECEMBER 8, 2014    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY DEENA YELLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

TENAFLY — Pressured by parents, school district officials are considering lowering the stress of homework with such measures as homework-free nights and vacations, and giving students more information about the demands they will face in choosing courses.

The district also will organize workshops for parents on reducing children’s stress.

The measures are being taken after a group of high school parents confronted the school board, arguing that homework is wreaking havoc on their children’s lives.

Tenafly is just the latest of many districts nationwide trying new approaches amid the high-stakes competition for college that has fueled an intense schedule of testing and nightly homework in local districts.

The parents’ group, Rational Homework Review, says the heavy workload prevents their children from maintaining a healthy lifestyle and getting adequate sleep. They also argue that some assignments lack educational value.

Other school districts statewide, including Ridgewood and Glen Rock, have reexamined homework policies or changed them in recent years to help balance students’ lives. Nationally, an anti-homework backlash has been spurred in part by studies on sleep deprivation among teens, a plethora of books about the homework craze and a documentary called “Race to Nowhere” about students in a pressured educational environment.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/parents-push-back-on-homework-1.1148358

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Governor Chris Christie Promises New PARCC Approach

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Governor Chris Christie Promises New PARCC Approach
Jul. 01 Chris Christie, Common Core, Education no comments
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Both sides of the aisle have big problems with Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing, Save Jerseyans, so during an under-reported exchange at last week’s town hall meeting in Haddon Heights, Governor Chris Christie told a teacher participant that he’d pitch a fresh proposal to address those concerns in 7-10 days.

The stakes are growing as the landscape darkens. New Jersey is facing extreme fiscal pressure as another budget fails to meet basic obligations without borrowing, and the Republican 2016 prospect is hoping to roll out a new pension and benefits reform package soon, too, all while presidential speculation and Bridgegate rumors keep Trenton on edge and his Administration off-balance.

What would a new approach to PARCC/Common Core even look like? Here’s what he had to say…

– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/07/christie-parcc-testing-common-core/#sthash.9qIdHTgz.dpuf

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Assembly Puts Brakes On Common Core

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Assembly Puts Brakes On Common Core
Jun. 18 
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

If I told you that the Democrat-dominated New Jersey Assembly voted 72-4 this week to slow down the pace of Common Core State Standards implementation, Save Jerseyans, you’d probably feel the urge to get your eyes checked. But that’s exactly what happened on Monday. Go figure….

The legislative effort spearheaded by Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex) won a dozen primary sponsors and overwhelming bipartisan support; if it becomes law, the bill would establish a task force to review (not scrap) state participation in the controversial new Common Core standards and the equally controversial the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing.

It’s a step in the right direction, however tiny… and not necessarily for the right reasons…

Key to understanding this story is whom the initiatives manage to offend.

Answer: almost everyone!

– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/06/assembly-new-jersey-common-core/#sthash.c05MFwy0.dpuf

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Key to student success lies in the home

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Key to student success lies in the home

JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER DE VINCK
THE RECORD

Christopher de Vinck is the language arts supervisor at Clifton High School in New Jersey. His 13th book is “Moments of Grace” (Paulist Press).

LET’S CREATE a national program called “No Child Left behind,” and flood the schools with standardized tests. Let’s change the name and call it “Race to the Top.” Let’s put kids in uniforms. Let’s increase the school day. Let’s pay teachers less money. Let’s pay teachers more money. Let’s create charter schools. Let’s create schools just for boys. Let’s create schools just for girls. Let’s have kids pray in school. Let’s create common core standards. Let’s blame the college teacher-education programs. Let’s blame the teachers. Let’s blame the parents. Let’s give the governors and the business community the keys to the schools. Let’s flood the schools with technology. Let’s call schools boring. Let’s blame the curriculum.

Don’t you see how foolish we have been? Don’t you see that all of these initiatives are focused on the politics of education and not education? Don’t you realize that none of these attempts has made any difference in the education of children for the past 40 years?

Based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the nation’s report card), the average reading scores for 17-year-olds today is not significantly different from the scores in 1971.

For the past 43 years our nation has been dodging the real reasons why our system of education has been stagnant.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-key-to-student-success-lies-in-the-home-1.1032741#sthash.mqxaCdMj.dpuf

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Analyst says politicians who oppose Common Core are being rewarded at the ballot box

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Analyst says politicians who oppose Common Core are being rewarded at the ballot box

May 13, 2014

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Opposition to Common Core is proving politically beneficial, at least in the states of Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina.

PJMedia.com’s Tom Blumer writes in his latest blog, “At least a half-dozen victorious candidates in GOP state legislative contests in those three states … discovered that the key to motivating voters on their behalf was expressing genuine and vocal opposition to the federal government’s stealth imposition of the Common Core and testing regime in their schools.”

Blumer cites “a reliable longtime” activist who says Common Core opposition helped four Ohio Republicans win their primary races for the state House of Representatives last Tuesday.

“In the Buckeye State, Common Core polled as the number one issue of concern in the GOP primaries, even ahead of Gov. John Kasich’s authoritarian expansion of Medicaid,” Blumer notes.

The most stunning example of Common Core leading to political success was Tom Brinkman’s seven-point victory over incumbent Peter Stautberg.

“Brinkman’s trump card over the wishy-washy incumbent was his vocal opposition to Common Core,” Blumer writes. “Stautberg claims to have not taken a position (on the nationalized learning standards). My source calls BS on that; but in any event, convenient neutrality doesn’t cut it. It instead allows force-fed ‘Fed ed’ to become a permanent fixture of the educational landscape.”

https://eagnews.org/analyst-says-politicians-who-oppose-common-core-are-being-rewarded-at-the-ballot-box/