Youthlearn News Archive

"The Consumer Bankers Association Foundation and banks across the United States have partnered with Ashoka's Youth Venture to launch the Banking on Youth competition, which is designed to provide young people between the age of 13 and 20 with an opportunity to showcase their ideas for an innovative venture that directly benefits society.

"Stories aren't merely essential to how we understand the world – they are how we understand the world.

"A twelve-year teaching veteran and a California regional Teacher of the Year, Heather Wolpert-Gawron's musings on educational policy, curriculum design, and daily school life can also be read at www.tweenteacher.com.

"There is plenty of evidence that students learn better when they are actively engaged in their learning. JFF's series on student-centered learning covers key topics, including math for minorities and how school districts can encourage effective student-centered learning approaches."

"It turns out that validating content is not rocket science. Even a first-grade student can begin to understand the organization of information on the web. It seemed obvious at the time that understanding the grammar, punctuation, and syntax of the internet was so basic to being literate in our web-based society that schools immediately would begin to teach all children web literacy. Yet, that hasn’t been the case in most schools.

"Many schools are ill-equipped to put extended learning time (ELT) to the most effective use for improving student and school outcomes, a new report finds. Off the Clock: What More Time Can (and Can’t) Do for School Turnarounds says, “But the hard truth is that there is far more research showing the ill effects of unequal time than research showing that ELT policies can make up the difference.

"Youth Service America and Get Ur Good On, an online network for youth working to improve their communities, are inviting children and young adults (5 to 25 years of age) worldwide to apply for a $500 Get Ur Good On Grant in support of a youth-led community service project."  Applications are due May 27, 2012. 

From Chicago-based Tutor/Mentor Institute, Daniel Bassill writes: "For almost 20 years I've been creating visualizations to help communicate ideas and strategies. This essay shows some of these graphics and briefly describes their purpose."

"This weekend, dive into TED-Ed and flip some video! Watch great short video lessons from TED-Ed, meant to spark and inspire curiosity... and then "flip" them into custom lessons. Wondering how to flip a video?"

- How small are atoms? This zippy animation uses metaphors to give you a visceral idea.

"Social media, video games, blogs and wikis are playing increasingly important roles in classrooms across the country. Some worry that incorporating more social media and other technologies into education is leading to too much computer time, as well as to a generation of students deficient in the face-to-face social skills needed to survive in the workplace. Proponents say schools need to find ways to use these technologies to improve teaching and learning, or else risk losing the attention of digital natives.