DIGITAL FIELD TRIPS: No matter where you land on the climate change discussion, you may still find some value in this piece at eSchool News which includes 8 virtual field trips related to STEM and climate change.
STANDARDIZED TESTING IS GOOD: In the never-ending debate over standardized testing (disclosure: I love it and talk about the ACT in every class I teach, even 7th grade pre-algebra), I appreciated this NYT piece by David Leonhardt in defense of standardized testing.
...the data suggests that testing critics have drawn the wrong battle lines.
SCREEN TIME: As we discuss and debate the uses and abuses of screen time, I thought this piece on 4 ways to handle screen time with tweens and teens very useful, especially in its calm and measured tone — sorely lacking in too many apocalyptic discussions of the issue.
GOATS: One of my metrics for reading articles is "How much fun would it be to discuss this in a classroom?" Reader, I assure you that this article about goat rental will be shoehorned into some classroom discussion in the very near future for me. I just have to figure out how to make a connection to pre-algebra — if only because it instantly made me wish I was teaching economics, where it would be a very natural fit.
ART: Really interesting article about a trove of authentic (or maybe not!) Basquiat paintings, useful for discussion in art or econ or literature or philosophy.
Our obsession with artworks’ authenticity can in part be traced back to what’s known as the “law of contagion”: Pieces are thought to acquire a special essence when touched by the artist’s hand. Yet the intense distaste for forgeries reveals a dirty secret about our relationship with art, which is that we tend to fixate on genius and authorship more than the aesthetic qualities of the work we claim to value so highly.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: I found this teacher's method of forcing students to explore their own capabilities before asking for help both simple and efficient.
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