Wednesday Roundup

Charter schools are making headlines everywhere and not just in Milwaukee.  An interesting article that focuses on the growth and sustainability of the charter model can be found at EdWize.  The article does not sugarcoat the high burnout rate nor the difficulty in retaining quality people. 

A posting by an Israeli teacher proves the adage correct about the worse situations always existing elsewhere.  American educators (or possibly just me) have been complaining about the amount of time we must spend preparing students to take test.  Imagine having to deal with this system of testing.  It makes you wonder? 

Could this be why our students are having a heck of a time in math class?  Laura would love this article.

How would you build a better teacher?  This post highlights an article in Edutopia (one of my fave free mags) on teacher prep programs.  The article lists ten of the best.  Guess whose alma mater is featured?  Ding!! DIng! Ding!  The A-Word has a starring role in this national publication. 

A some point I am going to get tired of research proving me correct.  Does this make me an oracle?  Karen and I have always firmly believed that if all children where exposed to the same core knowledge at a young age then the achievement gap would be a non issue.  This article confirms our most logical conclusion.  Why are the solutions to problems so simple but so hard to make happen?


Gadget of the day:  The Mobile Notetaker 

Cool link of the day:  Increase your online productivity or if you are like me, spend even more time online playing with cool apps

If you ever doubt that the universe is bigger than all of us the follow this link and gaze upon the colors that only nature can create.