Parent Cortical Mass

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

After fifteen years, the era of No Child Left Behind is nearly over. Congress will likely pass a new law--the Every Student Succeeds Act. Many NCLB policies have been abandoned. Powers of the Secretary of Education have been specifically limited, likely due to Sec Arne Duncan's political tactics over his seven year tenure. The short summary of this policy defeat: State Gov’t 1; Federal Gov’t 0. 3 4 “In parenting, is ‘failure’ the new black?” asks Richard Rende. Current advice says parents should ‘helicopter’ less and let their kids learn from failure. But, exactly how much should parents back off? Worth the read. 1 Carol Dweck, the social psychologist whose research uncovered the growth mindset, says parents and educators are using her findings about praise incorrectly. There are three pitfalls, she says. Don’t miss this! 2 Looking for a good family game for the holidays? Melissa Taylor at Imagination Soup has found it! 5

Parenting

1 The Problem with This Whole "Failure" Thing - Richard Rende, Ph.D., Psychology Today

Why Affluent Parents Put So Much Pressure on Their Kids - Rebecca J. Rosen, The Atlantic

Kids Addicted to Phones: Why Parents Shouldn't Worry - Jackie Ogburn-Duke, Futurity

Is Tech Hampering Kids' Reading? Authors Say It's Not - Greg Toppo, USA Today

Google Proves That TV Teaches Girls to Not Like Computer Science - Emily DeRuy, National Journal

Silicon Valley Is Growing Up, Giving Parents a Break - Claire Cain Miller, New York Times

Learning

2 Praising Effort Alone is Mistaken, Says Carol Dweck - Jill Barshay, Hechinger Report

Scientists Have Found a Way to Score Your Attention IQ - Monica Rosenberg, Quartz

Why Some Math Anxiety Might Actually Be a Good Thing - Jonathan Wai, Psychology Today

‘Not a Math Person’: How to Remove Obstacles to Learning Math - Katrina Schwartz, Mind/Shift

Education

3 No Child Left Behind to End: Congress to Launch New Era of Ed Policy - R. Berman, The Atlantic

4 Accountability Under ‘Every Student Succeeds,’ the New NCLB - Emma Brown, Washington Post

Does It Pay To Pay Teachers $100,000? - Ryan Schuette, nprEd

Bill Gates to Put Millions Into New Education Focus: Teacher Preparation - Valerie Strauss, Wash Post

Google Deceptively Tracks Students’ Internet Browsing - Electronic Frontier Foundation

US Falls Behind Other Nations in the Global Knowledge Economy - Jill Barshay, Hechinger Report

Massachusetts’s Rejects Common Core Test, Signaling Shift in U.S. - Kate Zernike, New York Times

Sorry, Parents, Common Core Math Makes More Sense Than You Think - James Goodman, Salon

Resources

5 Our New Favorite Family Game — Bounce-Off - Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup

Women in STEM Field Dolls and Action Figures - Maia Weinstock, Scientific American

4 Inventive Games That Show Us the Future of Learning - Tanner Higgin, Mind/Shift

30 Christmas Gift Ideas for Tech-Savvy Children - Stuart Dredge, The Guardian

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. Follow us on Twitter at @ParentCorticalM. Thank you!

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

"Grit” is the featured topic this week. Can we help kids get more of it? Can it be taught in classrooms? Is it reliably measured? And...should the government collect the grit scores of students? 2 5 6 8 The screen-time debate continues this week. The focus? How does parents' screen-time impact their kids? 1 Congress is finally taking on the re-write of No Child Left Behind and its troublesome accountability system. Should parents be allowed to opt out their kids from mandated tests without risking federal sanctions against their schools? Get familiar with the issues. 3 4 Did you get caught up in the buzz about Pluto? When does the question, “What makes a planet a planet?” get such air time?! Read up, and then argue with your kids: Should Pluto be reinstated as a planet? It’s a generational thing! 7

Parenting

1 How to Cut Children’s Screen Time? Say No to Yourself First. - Jane E. Brody, New York Times

Why “Work Life Balance” Is Too Simplistic for Modern Dads - Angela Arsenault, Parent Co

The Captivity of Motherhood - Wednesday Martin, The Atlantic

A Parent's View of Homework: Wavering Between Tolerance and Hatred -Toni Hargis, The Guardian

The Great Gift of Reading Aloud - Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal

Learning

The Cognitive Benefits of Doodling - Steven Heller, The Atlantic

Children Recognize Complex Emotions at Young Age - Rick Nauert, PhD, PsychCentral

Can Neuroscience Solve the Mystery of How Students Learn? - Ben Martynoga, The Guardian

Helping Toddlers Expand Their Language Skills - Rachel Cortese, PBS Parents

2 The Writing Assignment That Changes Lives - Anya Kamenetz, nprEd

Education

3 Congress Might Finally Kill No Child Left Behind - Libby Nelson, Vox

4 Senate Rejects Plan to Allow Parents to Opt Out of Standardized Tests - Emma Brown, Wash Post

Why Aren’t NAEP Scores for High School Students Going Up? - Chad Aldeman, Education Next

States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study Finds - Joy Resmovits, HuffPost

5 Resilience: The Capacity to Rebuild and Grow from Adversity - M. Price-Mitchell, PhD, Psych Today

6 U.S. Gov't to Collect Data on Students' ‘Grit’ Levels - Valerie Strauss, Washington Post

How Textbooks Can Teach Different Versions Of History - Laura Isensee, nprEd

Resources

7 NASA Mission Brings Pluto Into Sharp Focus — But It’s Still Not a Planet - David Rothery, Time

8 100+ Ways to Help Kids Learn Grit and Resilience - A. Zimmerman, Common Sense Media

Money Magazine’s New College Rankings - Jeffrey Selingo, Washington Post

Common Sense Things to Know About Parental Controls - Common Sense Media, GeekDad

Make a Whirlybird from Paper - Science Buddies, Scientific American

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 and Education, for Parents

The most controversial articles this week explore screen addiction and the impacts of helicopter parenting on college students. 1 2 The most brilliant article is by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the premier writer on race in America. "Letter to my Son" is unequalled. 3 Top 10 Education Policies examined this week include charter schools' performance, accountability iteration, and common core's textbook problems. 4 5 6 Do commencement speeches inspire you? NPR created a beautiful site to explore the best of the best. Memorize a sentence here and there from your favorites, wait faithfully for the right moment, and blow your kids away with a quote! 7

Parenting

Benefits of Sports to a Child's Mind and Heart - Patti Neighmond, npr

Preparing Our Kids for Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet - Zach Klein, Medium

1 Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children - Jane E Brody, New York Times

2 When Kids of Helicopter Parents Go to College - Julie Lythcott-Haims, Slate

3 Letter to My Son - Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

Learning

Emotion Knowledge Fosters Attentiveness - von Salish, Haenel, & Denham, EurekAlert

The Science of ‘Inside Out’ - Keltner & Ekman, New York Times

REM Sleep, Memory Formation, and Young Brains - Rick Nauert, PsychCentral

How Facebook Can Help Informal Learning - Meg Bernhard, The Chronicle

Face It, Your Brain Is a Computer - Gary Marcus, New York Times

How the Brain Forms New Memories - Jessica Firger, Newsweek

Education

4 The Verdict on Charter Schools? - Bruce Fuller, The Atlantic

5 What Should the Next Version of Accountability Look Like? - Alyson Klein, Education Week

6 The Great Common Core Textbook Swindle - Matt Collette, The Daily Beast

Blended learning: Great New Thing or Great New Hype? - Phil McRae, Washington Post

The Critical Voice of Parents - Tiffany Taber, Ed.gov

The Beautiful World of Math - Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic

Resources

7 The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever - npr

Everything You Need to Know About Parental Controls - Caroline Knorr, Common Sense Media

23 Tools for Students to Publish What They Learn - TeachThought

Make Learning Spanish Fun With These Educational Games - Dan Albright, MakeUseOf

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!