Archive for October, 2008

Are you an Accelerated Reader School?

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

If your school or district uses Accelerated Reader, take a look at the What Works Clearinghouse evaluation of the effectiveness of AR.  You might be surprised to read:

 Accelerated Reader was found to have no discernible effects on reading fluency, mixed effects on comprehension, and potentially positive effects on general reading achievement. 

 

Is AR giving your students the skills they need?�

Farewell, Samantha …

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

samanthadollbook.jpg

School Library Journal is reporting that American Girl is phasing out Samantha, one of its earliest doll/book characters.  Ah, farewell, Samantha. We knew thee well in our days teaching in an all-girls’ school …

Image: slj.com

Election Resource - Match-O-Matic

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

matchomatic.jpg

 

My new student teacher Pam introduced me to the ABC News interactive site Match-O-Matic (shown above), where you choose between two different positions on a political issue.  At the conclusion, the site tells you which candidate better aligns with your beliefs.  Quite a cool election resource!

Screen shot from ABC News