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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,639
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Not about gifted education, but not letting preschoolers nap is a bad educational practice: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sn-naps-preschoolers-20130924,0,3965670.story Naps help preschoolers with memory, study says By Mary MacVean September 24, 2013 Los Angeles Times Preschool naps should be preserved, even in the face of pressures to add more to the curriculum, say researchers who concluded that sleep enhances kids’ memories.
Children who took midday naps of an average of a little longer than an hour performed better on a task that day and the next day than did the kids who didn’t nap, scientists reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They also found that the non-nappers couldn’t make up the deficit with nighttime sleep.
This is important, the researchers said, in part because there had not been previous research on why napping is important, and as a result, that time was targeted in efforts to find more opportunities for learning because even young children are under pressure for academic achievement.
“With increased curriculum demands and taxpayer pressure, classroom nap opportunities are becoming devalued,” the researchers wrote. These children are in the process of growing from babies who slept off and on all day to children who sleep primarily at night.
“We offer scientific evidence that the midday naps for preschoolers support the academic goals of early education,” lead researcher Rebecca Spencer, a research psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a statement.
"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell
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Joined: Feb 2011
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Anyone who has ever spent much time around 2-5yo children KNOWS that depriving them of sleep is never a good idea. LOL. So I'm thinking that midday rest periods also promote teacher sanity.  Val, our "Advanced Mathematical Concepts" textbook isn't Brown, either-- in fact, it's a Glencoe product which apparently generated so much pride in ownership that, er-- well, I haven't yet figured out WHO the author(s) is/are. LOL. Not listed on the cover. So it may well be that the problem set only goes to 37, as you note. I can't tell because the online textbook can't be opened. By either me or DD, using any one of four different internet browsers and/or three different reader applications. I can look at the cover, but that's as far as navigation works. LOL. ETA: FINALLY! Yes, in looking at the pages where the exercises are located, Val gets the prize-- the set ends with number 37! I'm not sure what she wins, but anyway... as part of the bonus round, #37 is a SAT practice question! (yikes) Multiple choice! 37. Which of the following is NOT larger than 5 X 6^12?
Last edited by HowlerKarma; 09/24/13 03:20 PM. Reason: to add appalling example of "most challenging" problem
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,856
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The words "curriculum," "demands," and "pressure" appearing in a non-ironic sentence about pre-school are a canary in our societal coalmine, and it's an ex-canary. There are only cosmetic differences between this and when we used to send children into actual coalmines.
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513
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Underestimating the value of parents as children's primary teachers.
I was recently asked by an I-device parent when I will send DS23mo to preschool to "learn something." Funny, that assumption that preschool has exclusive licence for enabling learning.
Parents are merely big sacs of money and food, just glorified ATM-feed trough hybrids, really. Why, what marginal benefit might I provide over, say, a steel drum, a pile of potatoes, and a $20 bill? Or so the thinking goes.
My answer? "Isn't that your son licking the Lego display?"
What is to give light must endure burning.
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513
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Joined: Nov 2012
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The words "curriculum," "demands," and "pressure" appearing in a non-ironic sentence about pre-school are a canary in our societal coalmine, and it's an ex-canary. There are only cosmetic differences between this and when we used to send children into actual coalmines. Apt.
What is to give light must endure burning.
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,856
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 2,856 |
Underestimating the value of parents as children's primary teachers.
I was recently asked by an I-device parent when I will send DS23mo to preschool to "learn something." Funny, that assumption that preschool has exclusive licence for enabling learning.
Parents are merely big sacs of money and food, just glorified ATM-feed trough hybrids, really. Why, what marginal benefit might I provide over, say, a steel drum, a pile of potatoes, and a $20 bill? Or so the thinking goes.
My answer? "Isn't that your son licking the Lego display?" LOL... love the response. Also, I'm going to steal your slang "I-device parent," shorten it to I-parent, and use it shamelessly.
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,513 |
Underestimating the value of parents as children's primary teachers.
I was recently asked by an I-device parent when I will send DS23mo to preschool to "learn something." Funny, that assumption that preschool has exclusive licence for enabling learning.
Parents are merely big sacs of money and food, just glorified ATM-feed trough hybrids, really. Why, what marginal benefit might I provide over, say, a steel drum, a pile of potatoes, and a $20 bill? Or so the thinking goes.
My answer? "Isn't that your son licking the Lego display?" LOL... love the response. Also, I'm going to steal your slang "I-device parent," shorten it to I-parent, and use it shamelessly. Please do! Sometimes I'm tempted to bring a scrambler to our park so parents will actually have to *gasp!* interact with their children. ETA: PM'd you with an iParent funny so as not to derail the thread. Sorry folks, mea culpa!
What is to give light must endure burning.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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Another Rogue practice-- expecting that "rehashing" badly constructed or laughably inadequate curriculum will make things CLEARER to students. So I had this surreal conversation with my child's German teacher about the fact that the CURRICULUM doesn't seem to actually, um... support the content that is evaluated by assessments? Interesting things that I learned during this conversation: a) well, "fluency" isn't really the goal of second year German b) there are interactive quizzes/games in each of the 3-4 lessons on large topics (like negations in sentences, for example-- covering no/not/none, or do not/don't-- which are case-dependent declensions complicated by three genders, a plural, and FOUR separate cases, all of which change the form and placement of the proper term) The little interactive games often feature a single noun and two or three of the four cases, none of which are EXPLAINED anywhere-- so perhaps 20 examples total, after which students are expected to be able to apply this themselves to ANY case, ANY noun/sentence structurec) 15 minutes of instruction per week is, apparently "not ideal" but still should be workable, in light of b d) No, the teacher is NOT aware of any supporting materials which might offer a motivated student some additional practice with grammar skills-- just do the flashcard/games again.  (Okay-- neglecting for a moment here the fact that my DD pretty much CANNOT do this and hope to "learn" anything that she, being PG, already got from them the first time around... this is simply awful-- as a teacher, isn't it your JOB to be able to help students to select appropriate supplemental material when they ask??) This class is a nightmare. DD also cannot drop it without having another option which is better-- and we've looked. The only options that she DOES have are all about like this. I hate Pearson with an unfettered, overwhelming, throbbing PASSION right now. The notion that a few flashcards and embedded multimedia clips can "teach" all students what they need to know in a foreign language course, in order to speak, read, and WRITE fluently... ... is just so unbelievably stupid. The best, and most fundamentally jaw-dropping thing of all? The teacher admitted that she has "not yet" covered any of the unit 2 material in her limited "class time" with the students. "heehee-- well, I guess that will be corrected as of Friday, anyway." Seriously?? My kid's grade just tanked in this class because she was expected to complete a major assessment on this material BEFORE you "covered" it. She was scrambling to LEARN the material. Stupid of us, I realize... clearly, she should just be memorizing or cheating.
Doesn't that seem just a wee bit unfair and bizarre to this teacher?? Apparently not. If I seem somewhat bitter over this, it's probably because students in this course are ALSO punished for using concepts beyond those 'taught' (I obviously use the term euphemistically). Thus my question about appropriate supplemental materials. I certainly don't want to teach my child any UNAUTHORIZED German and have her docked points for THAT, either... So-- damned if you do, damned if you don't, basically? Alrighty then-- I guess we understand one another, at least. {sighhhh}
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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Thanks. I'm going to bookmark both of those, unauthorized or not. The second is FAR more extensive instruction than Pearson's idea of "language instruction" I'll just add.  The teacher basically just kept saying "Hmmm... sounds like {DD} would do much better in an immersion environment." Uhhh-- yeah, well maybe (but I seriously doubt it-- she's just trying to UNDERSTAND the rules, which are never explicitly explained), and I realize that isn't what we have here, but-- could you TRY just a little to help us out when we call? Maybe not telling my daughter that she should view calling the teacher for assistance as a last resort?? (Yes, the teacher apparently really did indicate that. That she was ONLY to call if she "is still struggling after doing the games over and over in the lessons.")
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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