Check out a description of what’s new here:
http://www.globalvillageschool.org/k8-curriculum.html
Take a look at our curriculum samples by grade here:
Tags: k-8 curriculum, k8 curriculum
There are great resources on this site, check it out!
Tags: educational resources
Check out this neat story about GVS student Avalon Theisen learning about frogs:
This video ties in nicely with the GVS emphasis on mastery learning, service learning and self-direction:
RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
Tags: education, mastery learning, motivation, rifkin, rsa, service learning
Part of being green or environmentally conscious is finding ways to use less space. Check out the way one man is doing it:
Check out Project Kaisei!
“Project Kaisei is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco and Hong Kong, established to increase the understanding of the scale of marine debris, its impact on our ocean environment, and how we can introduce solutions for both prevention and clean-up. “
We haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but it looks interesting and it’s free! The book is called Teaching as an Act of Love: Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher, Principal and Kid, written by Richard Lakin. Here’s a brief description:
“The 55 thought-provoking, humorous and heartwarming pieces in this collection are geared to teachers, principals, parents, and all those concerned with making schools more loving and effective. It presents a close look at a school staff working together to create a caring and challenging learning environment where children come first, as well as at a real partnership between school and home.”
Tags: free book, richard lakin, school, teaching
At an age when most students are finishing college and considering graduate school, Alex Pyron will receive his Ph.D. in Biology. In addition, the 22-year-old Georgia native, whose field is evolutionary biology, has already been working as an NSF Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at SUNY–Stony Brook (he qualified for his Ph.D. last fall when he was 21) and recently accepted a faculty position at George Washington University.
How did this happen so fast?
Tags: homeschooled, Homeschooling, Pyron
It wouldn’t be so bad if the current education debate just involved different ways to achieve the same goals for children. But the reality is much more dangerous.
We are talking about two completely different paradigms: One, the traditional one that is failing, assumes that children are naturally lazy and need to be forced to learn. If you believe that then you need competition for grades, passing and failing, tons of homework, long school days, long school years, No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.
But modern brain research doesn’t confirm that assumption. Rather, it confirms a second paradigm, that children are natural learners, that the brain is naturally inquisitive. If you operate on that paradigm, as many progressive educators and homeschoolers do, almost none of the approaches mentioned above should be used. The teacher’s role is to actively help the student find resources to explore and learn about everything they are interested in.
Tags: homeschoolers, Homeschooling, jerry mintz, natual learners, progressive educators
Parents, make sure you’re working some time outside into your curricular plans!
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California
We kind of already know this – if not intuitively then through past studies – but a new study has shown that when you spend more time out in nature, you feel more alive. Published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology, the study shows that getting out and communing with nature is better for feeling rejuvenated than reaching for the ever-so-urban cup of coffee. “Nature is fuel for the soul, ” says Richard Ryan, lead author and a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. Both physically and mentally, we’re zippier when we step into the wild.
Science Daily writes, “The findings, adds Ryan, are important for both mental and physical health. ‘Research has shown that people with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses. One of the pathways to health may be to spend more time in natural settings,’ says Ryan.”
Tags: feel more alive, go outside, nature, science daily
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