MasterMind Prep Blog

Latest Headlines
0

From a School of Many To a School of One

– April 28, 2012

One of the most cutting-edge blended learning schools in the world is School of One in New York City. Named by Time magazine as one of the Top 50 Innovations of 2009, School of One has replaced the entire math program in three middle schools, and more are planned. It really pushes the envelope in personalizing learning for each student.

As co-founder Joel Rose says, School of One reorganizes an entire school around the needs of each student. Students learn in multiple modalities, including large- and small-group instruction, self-paced online learning, online tutoring, independent practice and 1:1 tutoring…all in the same instructional space. A data system tracks each student’s progress and assigns lessons and modalities each day…all monitored by teachers.

Watch this video to get a glimpse of School of One and hear from teachers and students about how they like it.

0

Teaching Without Words Using Adaptive Software

– April 27, 2012

Adaptive software is making significant advances in how students learn complex subjects, especially in math. Adaptive software uses algorithms to pinpoint students’ exact skill level and personalize instruction by adapting up or down interactively as they progress, ensuring students are engaged where they are proficient and advance only as they master each step.

Emerging leaders in adaptive math programs are Aleks, Dreambox Learning, RevolutionK12, Carnegie Learning, Knewton, Reasoning Mind and ST Math.

The founder of ST Math recently demonstrated the power of adaptive learning technology in a TED Talk, which I found quite interesting.

Smart schools are already investing in adaptive learning programs for their students…or they will be soon. Your school or district should too.

0

How Schools Can Do More With Less

– April 20, 2012

As school budgets around the country are cut, some schools and districts are confronting legislatures…asking for more money. But they have the opportunity to make fundamental structural changes to improve quality and reduce cost.

Thomas B. Fordham Institute just released an insightful new report, How School Districts Can Stretch The School Dollar, which discusses ways to improve productivity including:

  1. Aim for a leaner, more productive, better paid workforce
  2. Pay for productivity
  3. Integrate technology thoughtfully with options like online learning, blended learning.

    4. Learn more about it in this video.

0

What Is Blended Learning?

– April 18, 2012

Blended learning is the new revolution in education–a fundamental shift in the way learning is delivered in schools. It is driven by the evolution of adaptive learning software enabling greater personalization of instruction and by school budget cuts requiring more efficient ways to learn. Blended learning combines face-to-face learning by a teacher or tutor with self-paced, online digital content. The teacher, tutor or learning coach monitors data from students’ online learning and uses it to inform instruction in smaller groups and tracks progress.

Blended learning can be delivered in several different ways. This video does the best job I’ve seen of explaining exactly what blended learning is, how it works and the advantages for both students and teachers.

0

Evaluating Teacher Performance Is A Good Thing

– March 22, 2012

“Accountability” has been a trend in public education for years. Some people like testing, and some don’t. But the fact is, as professor E.D. Hirsch stated in The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them, testing is really the only objective way to measure what students know.

One of the new trends is formal teacher evaluations. Research shows that the most important factor in education quality is teacher effectiveness. In the private sector, most employees are evaluated based on performance, and their pay often is tied to that performance. If you perform to expectations, you keep your job and get raises (as the success of the business allows). If you don’t, you don’t have a job.

The new federal Race to the Top initiative provides incentives to states to implement teacher evaluation systems and pay-for-performance. An article in today’s USA Today correctly points out that this can be abused (such as New York’s recent decision to publish rankings of teacher performance based on test scores), but that teacher evaluation based on value-added assessment of their student’s academic growth as well as other factors is important. Here are some highlights from the story:

“The question isn’t whether test scores should be used, but how. The right way involves measuring the “value added” by a teacher as a student progresses through a year of school, then adding other assessments:

  • Trained observations. For years, evaluations have relied on harried administrators rating teachers based on pre-arranged classroom observations. What’s needed are objective, trained evaluators, whether principals or master teachers from other schools, who observe teachers on surprise visits several times a year. Like test scores, this should be a significant part of evaluations. Surveys of students and parents are a more controversial option.
  • Effective management. As in the private sector, recruiting and retaining talented personnel is a prime responsibility of management. Some school administrators have risen above evaluation pitfalls. At Elmont Memorial Junior-Senior High in Elmont, N.Y., teachers are observed seven times each year before they get tenure. Lessons are videotaped and reviewed by teachers and administrators. About 90% of Elmont students are African-American or Latino, and their graduation rate is nearly twice the New York statewide average for similar students.
  • High-stakes consequences. Better evaluations are meaningless unless they are used effectively. Until recently, 2% or fewer teachers were ever fired because of poor performance. To make a difference, evaluations have to be tied to merit pay, tenure decisions and dismissals. That, too, is starting to happen.”

The time for evaluating teachers, with a special emphasis on their ability to improve student achievement in their classroom, has arrived. It just needs to be implemented fairly and the results used not to punish teachers but to help them get better through training, coaching or–as a last result–termination. The learning of children has to be the priority.

0

Khan Academy Is the Future of Education

– March 14, 2012

If you haven’t heard, Khan Academy is one of the best examples of how the online learning is changing education. Imagine if you had started recording math tutoring lessons on YouTube to help your niece, as Sal Khan did, and then millions of people all over the world started learning from them.

This recent 60 Minutes story does a great job of explaining what Khan Academy is and how it works.

While Khan Academy not the same as a personal tutor or live online tutor, it is a valuable resource for students to get help. Now schools are using it to “flip the classroom” so that students can watch the lecture at home and go to school the next day to work out what they’ve learned while the teacher helps them. Flipping the classroom is the future of education, and you can be sure Khan Academy will be used by millions more students in the years ahead.

0

Does Multitasking Help or Hurt Learning?

– February 27, 2012

Ever tried to write a report while watching TV, eating a sandwich, and texting a friend? I’ve heard kids (including my own) and adults say they actually do better work with multiple things going on at the same time.

The latest studies show teenagers spend more than 7 hours on media each day. That’s a huge chunk of time, and a lot of it is spent on media while they’re supposed to be studying.

Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia, says data now shows that multitasking actually slows down our brain and makes it harder to accomplish things well. Instead of boring you with a bunch of statistics, watch his short video.

I must admit that I like streaming music while I’m working, but this is certainly something to think about. Perhaps finding a quiet place and focusing on the task at hand still works…even in our media-rich world. At least limit the distractions.

0

Adding tutoring to your child’s extracurricular mix

– June 18, 2011

In today’s increasingly competitive academic world, there’s a tangible pressure on students. It’s no longer good enough to just get good grades. If students want to get into a top-tier college, they have to be well rounded.

So with that in mind, parents often invest in sports, music and art lessons for their children, hoping that these activities help them get an edge. These activities and groups do, after all, teach children life skills such as leadership, teamwork and responsibility. But unfortunately with all of these extracurricular activities to choose from, parents often dismiss or completely overlook the need for academic tutoring.

You might reason that your child can learn all he or she needs to know within the 7-8 hours spent in school daily. But the truth is, to ensure that your child performs to his or her academic potential, supplemental tutoring is often necessary. With the help of a tutor, children learn important learning-related skills that they can use to stay on top of their academic goals. A child’s natural intelligence can only go so far; tutoring and academic coaching can help push a child to either catch up, keep up or get ahead for a particular subject.

Many times, tutoring is seen as a tool that is only beneficial to struggling students. While it is true that tutoring can help students who are behind or struggling, it is also a great way to increase the productivity, efficiency and academic health of good students.

Our online tutoring programs can help to contribute to your student’s academic success. Equip your child with the skills that will help them excel both in and outside of the classroom.

0

What is Direct Instruction?

– May 2, 2011

Direct Instruction is based on the principle that any child (or adult) can learn if they are taught with methods that allow them to succeed. As a technique, it challenges many present day mantras and shows that even the most disadvantaged children can excel. The world’s most effective teaching method, it is based on more than 40 years of scientific evidence. Originally developed in the late 1960s by Siegfried Engelmann, Direct Instruction is a highly scripted, fast-paced method for teaching that is based on constant interaction between students and the teacher.

The success rate speaks for itself. The federal government invested $1 billion in a two-decade long study that compared nine instructional models. The study, called Project Follow Through, was the longest-running, most expensive education research study ever conducted. They found, as have numerous studies since, that Direct Instruction is the most consistently effective method for teaching basic and advanced skills in reading, writing, spelling, mathematics and language development.

MasterMind Prep is proud to use curricula based on the Direct Instruction approach. We use curriculum by well-known Direct Instruction authors such as Michael Maloney and Bob Dixon.

Features of Direct Instruction include:

●     Homogeneous skill grouping. Students are placed individually or in small groups with others at a skill or ability level where they can succeed and advance as quickly as possible.

●     Scripted or highly structured lesson plans. Teachers follow lessons that have been extensively field-tested to ensure the best language and sequence to present information clearly so that students understand it in the shortest period of time

●     Intense, repetitive student interaction. Fast-paced lessons maximize time-on-task with a fun, interactive style in which teachers model concepts and ask students to repeat orally (up to 10 interactions per minute) or in writing so the teacher can immediately determine which students mastery the content and which do no.

●     Immediate error correction. Teachers correct errors immediately in a positive way by re-teaching skills and concepts so that students are not confused.

●     Teaching to mastery. Students or groups do not move ahead until each student achieves 90 percent mastery of the material. Students may be retaught or regrouped to focus on their needs.

0

How do you know if your child needs help in school

– April 25, 2011

You might be unsure of if your child needs help in school. Maybe you hope that next fall when your child has a new teacher, the past problems will go away with a new year and a new person. Why not wait until report cards are issued to decide if there’s a problem?

Waiting isn’t a good idea. Many learning difficulties are complex, and monitoring your child’s behavior throughout the school year can help you identify their struggles early on so that you can give them the help they need.

Here is a list of signs that your child could benefit from some extra help such as tutoring:

●     He/she complains that school is too hard

●     Homework is a real struggle, may take too long, not get finished at all, or may be wrong

●     He/she struggles to read, complete math problems, or writing assignments

●     He/she understands reading or math but is just slow at it

●     He/she is disorganized, manages time poorly, or has poor study skills

●     His or her teacher says your child is behind or needs extra help

●     He/she seems stressed out, begs to stay home from school, or makes excuses of why he/she cannot go to school or complete assignments

●     He/she seems to suffer from low self-esteem or says he/she is “dumb” or “stupid”

●     He/she is capable of getting better grades but performs at a lower level

●     He/she discourages you from talking with his/her teacher

●     He/she knows the content but “doesn’t test well” and tests create anxiety

●     He/she needs to raise SAT/ACT scores for college

●     He/she is bored in school and needs extra challenge

●     He/she has a learning disability

●     He/she acts up in class or misbehaves in school

If any of these are true of your child, you should consider looking into getting extra help for them. We can help you design a learning plan that fits their individual needs.