Links for Teaching and Learning August 2017
Volume 1, Issue 1 August 2017

Empathy and the Eclipse
For Webb Faculty: Celebrate the freedom and opportunity that comes with the ability to design and carry out a robust, rich, “independent” curriculum.
Apps for Teaching
- FlipgridFlipgrid is a video discussion community for your classroom that supercharges your students’ voices. You add the topics, your students respond with short videos, and everyone engages!
- GALE resources for the eclipseUntil September 15th, to help provide rich and newly updated information about the 2017 Solar Eclipse, Gale is offering free, open access to Science in Context.
Edu Buzzwords
- Empathy2: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this
- Grit4: firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger
- OnboardingThe action or process of integrating a new employee into an organization or familiarizing a new customer or client with one's products or services.
Knowledge Quest Article
- Readers and Non-ReadersThe Decline in Readers Over the past few years, I have been deeply concerned about declining reading scores. And despite my best efforts, there is an overall decrease in readers in my library.
Links from Faculty meetings
- Benjamin ZanderBenjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it
- Upper School Read - "All The Light We Cannot See"Curriculum Connections
Best Practices
- Brain scans differentiate two types of empathyBrain scans differentiate two types of empathy
Published Thursday 8 June 2017
Using brain scans, researchers have discovered that empathic care and empathic distress have distinct patterns of brain activity that remain remarkably consistent across individuals. - THE EDUCATOR’S GUIDE TO COPYRIGHT, FAIR USE, AND CREATIVE COMMONSFor FAQ on Education copyright best practices including Curriculum and Textbooks
- How to maintain the balance between boundaries and freedom in secondary school parentingThere are four people central to secondary school students’ learning and achievement: the student, the parent (or carer), the teacher, and the peers. Without question, the most influential of these is the student themselves
- Personalized Learning Will Live or Die on Ability to Manage ChangeEven the best thinking on redesigning schools to personalize learning will be for naught if school and district design teams can’t lead and manage the change process that a move to PL entails. In schools, that process means getting all teachers on board, engaging all students in the new approach, and making sure parents understand and support it. Not attending to these fundamentals can create a fast track to failure.
- Visualizing 21st-Century Classroom Design
Problem-based learning, makerspaces, flipped learning, student blogging -- these are becoming perceived staples of 21st-century learning. With such ambitious practices taking the spotlight for how people regard modern classrooms, it's not surprising that a murmur of impracticality or skepticism is still a frequent response when they're first introduced.
Issues and Concerns
- Tweet by Eric Patnoudes - Nothing Changed"Nothing could be more absurd than an experiment in which #edtech is placed in a classroom where nothing else is changed." -Papert
- 10 Books I Wish My White Teachers Had ReadTeachers ranging from incredibly inspiring to incredibly damaging
- When Texting Goes Wrong: Helping Kids Repair And Resolve IssuesEducators and parents tend to focus on the prevention side of digital citizenship. But what happens when something goes wrong?
Articles by Discipline
Arts
- Art of the eclipse: as the next solar eclipse approaches, Jay M. Pasachoff and Roberta J. M. Olson ponder how artists from the early Renaissance onwards have interpreted the phenomenonPasachoff, Jay M., and Roberta J.M. Olson. "Art of the eclipse: as the next solar eclipse approaches, Jay M. Pasachoff and Roberta J. M. Olson ponder how artists from the early Renaissance onwards have interpreted the phenomenon." Nature, vol. 508, no. 7496, 2014, p. 314+
English
- The Sun-Eating DragonThe Sun-Eating Dragon
Eclipse Stories, Myths, and Legends
By Noel Wanner
History
- Eclipse HistoryThe earliest writings we have showing that people paid attention to eclipses in any official way are around 5,000 years old.
Mathematics
- Math ChallengesThe mathematics level span all grades and abilities from elementary proportions and algebra all the way up to trigonometry and, yes, the calculus!
Science
- A comparison of long-term knowledge retention between two teaching approachesLysne, Steven J., and Brant G. Miller. "A comparison of long-term knowledge retention between two teaching approaches." Journal of College Science Teaching, July-Aug. 2017
- Total eclipse: the solar eclipse this August is an ideal opportunity to practice three-dimensional science learningSchatz, Dennis, and Andrew Fraknoi. "Total eclipse: the solar eclipse this August is an ideal opportunity to practice three-dimensional science learning." The Science Teacher, 1 Mar. 2017, p. 33
Language
- How Foreign Languages Foster Greater Empathy in ChildrenA new study suggests that children who speak multiple languages are better at understanding other people.