Why Empathy Matters in Learning

Why is creating a sense of empathy for students important? How does it influence their creativity, decision-making, and engagement with others? In the Mindshift article “Why Empathy Holds the Key to 21st Century Learning,” writer Thom Markham illustrates several reasons why empathy should be an integral piece of education and why it matters so much right now. 

Underused Post Offices as Food Hubs

Wish I’d thought of this. Read this Foodbeast.com article about college students’ prize-winning plan to have underused post offices serve as food hubs in areas where fresh food is scarce.

Is Coding Today’s Manufacturing?

Check out “The Next Big Blue-Collar Job is Coding” from Wired.com. Where can kids learn it? Who can teach it? Does it provide job security?

Marrying Math and Language Arts

The race against the standards clock is always on for teachers of Mathematics and Language Arts, which can make consideration of pairing the two areas a challenge. However, author Ryan McCarty argues that teachers should consider The Power of Writing in Math and work together to help their students get collectively stronger.

McCarty takes some example standards of ELA and Math and breaks down how the use of writing in Math not only makes that subject strong, but the descriptive nature of the writing allows for the ELA side to grow as well.

The author concludes by sharing a powerful insight on how the power of writing in math provides direct insights into the minds of your students.  Powerful stuff if these two curricular areas can find the time (fingers-crossed) to collaborate!

Read the article on the Teaching Channel.

Assign Blogs or Essays?

Focusing on the central question, “Does the average person, once they leave school, spend a lot of time composing academic essays?” English teacher Shelley Wright posits a mindshift is needed for allowing students to better show what they are learning.  

While she teaches traditional writing styles of voice, theme, thesis, and proper formatting, she noticed that her students had trouble transferring those skills after they graduated.  After pondering the issue for years, she began showing her students the power of blogging. Blogging, she believes is the new persuasive essay and students are able to better grasp the relevance of persuading their audience and most importantly finding a writing voice that will take them further in the future.  

Read the entire KQED Mindshift article.