Pathways Seen For Acquiring Languages (week of Oct. 27)

According to Marty Abbott, the director of education for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Alexandria, Va., states, "We have this national psyche that we're not good at languages". She also states, learning a language is still perceived as something only smart people can do, and it's just plain not true, we can learn a second language as well!
It was said that in the past, the ability to learn a new language shrank after the age of 7 and closes almost entirely after puberty. However, an interdisciplinary research conducted over the past 5 years at the University of Washington, Pennsylvania State University, and others suggest that the time frame may be more flexible than first thought.
A study was conducted on infants where 1 year olds were exposed to Mandarin Chinese through audio, television, and language tutors. The results showed that American infants that were exposed to a language tutor recognized 65% of sounds compared to just 55% of recognition through television and audio only.

City's Black Males Stay in School (week of Nov.3)

One of the highest groups of students of drop-out rates are Black males across the country. In this article, the focus is on the city of Baltimore; where the graduation rate increased from 51% in 2006-07 to 57.3% in 2009-10. Much of the success for this rise is attributed by an increase of reaching out to students that have dropped out by use of social media websites and increase in just the personal accountability factor. The "Great Kids Come Back" campaigns send volunteers to the houses of drop out students to come back to school, and by their efforts, there has been some progress to get those students slowly back on track. One last thing the article mentioned was the power of friendship and caring individuals. D'Antre Larry, a junior at Baltimore's Friendship Academy of Science & Technology said that if his principal and staff had not reached out and supported him, he'd be on the streets trying to make a quick dollar. I think that these positive interactions shed light on this kid to turn to different route to success! Great job staff!

Schools Integrate Dance Into Lessons (week of Nov.17)

Just like the title implies, arts education advocates are pushing for more activities into the mainstream curriculum. In a 2nd grade class at Fort Garrison Elementary School, students were grouped together to create dance movements based on their lesson on photosynthesis. This cross-curricular strategy is a neat idea in my opinion especially for a group of younger grade school kids because of their near endless amount of energy they must burn. In the process of this physical activity, they are also primed to learn one of the most basic life processes in biology and having fun doing so. In a time where budgets seem dismal, educators are using their creative minds to fuse different subject areas with each other to create more effective learning opportunities to learn!