Parent Cortical Mass

Week's Top Articles on Learning & Education, for Parents

Should parents help kids with their homework? Get the pros and cons from experts with differing opinions and be informed. 1 High school seniors are now in the thick of applying to colleges. How many applications are enough? This article has some interesting stats. 2 Is it worth it for students to take A.P. classes? Get the scoop from Jessica Lahey. 4 Now there’s an app for the word gap. Since 90% of U.S. adults have a cell phone, what if this worked? 3 Can America increase the number of highly effective teachers? And can we distribute these teachers more fairly? This week we cover current issues in teaching. 5 6 7 8 It’s late fall and the birds are flying south. Why? How do they know where to go? Get your background knowledge up to speed. 9 Did you know there’s a hall of fame for toys? Who got in this year? (Spoiler alert! The slip-and-slide missed the cut.) 10

Parenting

1 Should Parents Help Kids with Homework? - Room for Debate, New York Times

Finally! Common Sense (and Science-Based) Advice on Toddler Screen Time - Lisa Guernsey, Slate

Why Is My Child Behaving This Way? (A Checklist) - Janet Lansbury, Elevating Child Care

Teens with Earlier School Times Have Higher Motor Vehicle Crash Rates - ScienceDaily

2 Applications by the Dozen, as High School Seniors Hedge College Bets - Ariel Kaminer, NYT

Bittersweet Sixteen - Randye Hoder, Motherlode, NYT

Learning

Regulating the Teenage Mind: Practical Activities & Resources - Bari Walsh, Harvard

Taking Notes May Actually Make You Much More Forgetful - Patrick Allan, Lifehacker

How Love Protects Your Baby's Brain - Gwen Dewar, PhD, BabyCenter

Focus on Executive Functions in Kindergarten Leads to Lasting Academic Improvement - EurekAlert

3 To Help Children's Language Skills, Text Their Parents with Tips: A Study - Motoko Rich, NYT

Education

4 To A.P. or Not to A.P., That Is the Question - Jessica Lahey, Motherlode, NYT

Common Core Reading: 'The New Colossus' - Emily Hanford, NPR

How to Challenge Voracious Young Readers - Peter Sipe, Flypaper

5 US to Focus on Equity in Assigning of Teachers - Motoko Rich, New York Times

6 Is Teach for America 'Complicit' in Attacks on Public Education? - Ari Paul, In These Times

7 Improving Teacher Prep Requires Less Tinkering, More Transformation - K. Connally, EdCentral

8 What It Really Means to Be a Public School Educator Today - Nancy Chewning, Washington Post

Resources

9 What to Explain to Your Kids Why Birds Fly South for the Winter - Fatherly

What Is Cryptography? - Khan Academy

Spot It! Games - Blue Orange Games

Best Gift Books of 2014 - Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup

10 Yes, There's a Toy Hall of Fame. Who Made This Year's Cut? - Fatherly

Step-by-Step Guide: Making Your Facebook Account As Private as You Want - C. Bankoff, NY Magazine

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Thank you!

Week's Best Articles on Learning & Education, for Parents

Remember the Marshmallow Test? The professor who developed it has published his first non-academic book. He's 84. He's got good news for concerned parents. 2 3 Maybe you’ve already heard about lithium in the water. If not, here's your chance. 1 The global achievement gap gets two articles this week. There's an argument for why you should not admire China's top ranked school system. 5 And, if you're curious, peek at the graph to find out how U.S. elementary students time-in-school compares to other nations. 6 Researchers from Harvard and MIT published an article this week that, if you read, will make you smarter. Learn about "crystalized intelligence" and "fluid cognitive skills." Find out how these intelligence factors might explain what makes some schools effective. You'll also learn more about working memory, background knowledge, charter schools and possible impacts of using standardized tests for accountability. 4 Ann McCormick, founder of The Learning Company and developer of Reader Rabbit, has a new reading app. Check it out! 7

Parenting

1 Should We All Take A bit of Lithium? - Anna Fels, New York Times

2 Dispelling the Myth of Deferred Gratification - Alfie Kohn, Education Week

Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent - Nick Bilton, New York Times

Why Everyone Should Read Harry Potter - Bret Stetka, Scientific American

Early Signs of a Reading Difficulty - Susan Hall, Great Schools

Former 'Redshirted' Students May Get AP Edge, Study Finds - Sarah D. Sparks, Education Week

Learning

3 Learning How to Exert Self-Control: The "Marshmallow" Man's Book - Pamela Druckerman, NYTimes

How Levels of Physical Activity Linked to Better Academic Performance in Boys - U of Finland, PsyPost

This is Your Brain. This Is Your Brain on Music - Cory Turner, NPR Ed

Can Students ‘Go Deep’ With Digital Reading? - Holly Korbey, Mind/Shift

Motivated to Learn: Conversation with Daniel Pink - Amy Azzam, ASCD

Fiction Teaches Students Empathy, Research Shows - Kristie Chua, Education Week

Education

4 What Effective Schools Do - M. West, C. Gabrieli, A. Finn, M. Kraft, John Gabrieli, Education Next

Ranking High Schools Tells Which Schools Are Rich or Selective - Libby Nelson, Vox

With Tech Taking Over in Schools, Student Data Privacy Worries Rise - Natasha Singer, NYTimes

5 Why Admiring Chinese Test Scores Might Hurt U.S. Schools - Jay Mathews, Washington Post

6 Hours US Kids Spend in Elementary School vs 33 Other Countries - Mona Chalabi, FiveThirtyEight

It Takes a Mentor - Thomas Friedman, New York Times

The Conservative Case for Common Core - William Bennett, Wall Street Journal

William Bennett Piece Exemplifies Core Problems - Neal McCluskey, Cato Institute

Fact or Fiction?: Video Games Are the Future of Education - Elena Malykhina, Scientific American

Surprising Benefit of Common Core: Really Cool Video Games - B. Winterhalter, The Atlantic

Teacher Tenure Has Little to do with Student Achievement, Say Economists - M. Ehrenfreund, WP

Rise in Alternative Certification for U.S. Teachers - Anya Kamenentz, NRP Ed

Resources

7 Reader Bee - Teaching Children to Read Faster - The Creativity Post

Innovative Thinking Game for Kids: Disruptus - Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup

Spotlight on New Comic Books - Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup

10 YouTube Stars Your Kids Love - Caroline Knorr, Common Sense Media

Tips for How Parents Can Help Their Children Search Safely and Effectively Online - Alan Mackenzie, pfg

The Economic Guide To Picking A College Major - Ben Casselman, FiveThirtyEight

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Thank you!

Week's Best Articles on Learning & Education, for Parents

The public conversation about math continues for a third week. New brain research shows rote memorization of math facts contributes to later math achievement. This research doesn’t align well with the approach common core math standards are taking. 1 Have you heard of the Flynn effect? It’s worth knowing. It shows how the IQ of the worlds’ population is increasing over time. 2 Alfie Kohn explains what recent research says about the 10,000 Hour Rule. It’s essential reading. 3 In education there's two items to point out. First, Michelle Rhee has stepped down as head of her political action organization. Was she too controversial to be effective? 5 6 The second item concerns accountability requirements of NCLB. Many superintendents this year will inform parents that their schools are failing. Even when they aren’t. Why? It’s the law. Congress has failed to fix the problems with NCLB. So, parents will have to make sense of whether schools are, or are not, failing. 4 Many times in the course of life, you find yourself staring into the star-filled night. A four-minute video could enhance your background knowledge as you gaze! 7

Parenting

10 Things Teachers Wish Parent Knew Before School Starts - Lisa Flam, Today Parents

Global Parenting Habits That Haven't Caught On In The U.S. - Emily Lodish, NPR

Encouragement for the Digital Parent - Dr. Elizabeth Milvidov, A Platform for Good

6 Things that Happy Families Have in Common - Eric Barker, Barking up the Wrong Tree

We Don't Need No Education - Ben Hewitt, Outside Online

Harry Potter Casts a Spell for Tolerance - Annie Murphy Paul, Motherlode, NTYT

Learning

1 How Kids' Brains Reorganize When Learning Math Skills - Lauran Neergaard, ABC News

2 How Every Child Can Be a "Math Person" - Miles Kimball, Quartz

3 Perfect, It Turns Out, Is What Practice Doesn't Make - Alfie Kohn, Huffington Post

Why Students Prefer to Learn From a Machine - Annie Murphy Paul, Slate

Hit the Reset Button in Your Brain - Daniel J. Levitin, New York Times

Education

4 Superintendents Must Tell Parents Schools are Failing, Even Though They Aren’t - V Strauss, WP

Teaching Is Not a Business - David Kirp, New York Times

Building Better Teachers - Sara Mosle, The Atlantic

Common Core Tests: Tough Questions, Curious Choices - Robert Pondiscio, Education Next

5 StudentsFirst: Our Next Chapter - Michelle Rhee, Students First

6 Michelle Rhee drops out of school group - Stephanie Simon, Politico

High Schools Letting Students Sleep In to Improve Grades & Health - Kathryn Baron, Ed Week

Video Games and the Future of the Textbook - Jordan Shapiro, Mind/Shift

Resources

7 What Light Can Teach Us about the Universe - TedEd

Tom Hanks Just Released a Typewriter App for iPad - Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge

History Channel Launches Planet H, Edu Moblile Game for Kids 7-11 - Erik Sass, Media Post

Disney Tsum Tsum Mobile Game Hits 20 Million Downloads - Saquib Shab, What Mobile

Guide to Student Data Privacy: How and Why Data Is Collected - edSurge

Teach the Whole Family to Code: MIT's Family Creative Learning Guide - Justin Reich, EdWeek

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Thank you!