I searched through NYTimes’ archive of medical / law / finance / congressional / military reform articles looking for pieces that fail to quote a doctor / lawyer / banker / policy-maker / enlisted soldier, and I found zero. Yet, here is an article — printed above the fold on the front page of the Sunday Times — about teachers, teacher evaluation, and education reform that quotes not a single teacher. 

While this has been par for the course in policy circles and lesser publications, the perpetuation of this trend in a publication of the Times’ gravitas has become routinely disappointing.  

One of the first rules of managing change is to enlist, engage, and involve vested parties, especially those for whom the change impacts the most. A shared vision and buy-in are key to implementation that lasts. However, before either of those can be realized, we must ensure that teachers are actually a part of the visioning and, at a minimum, a part of the conversation. 

The Times can be a part of this solution by simply doing what they typically do well: quality journalism. When you write about K-12 education, quote a K-12 educator, just as you do when it comes to other professions. 

Best Group blog: Ecology of Education — Insightful posts on a range of edu-topics by big thinkers. 

Individual Tweeter: @EdReformPR — Sarcastic, humorous, clever, and occasionally ridiculous. 

Administrator Blog: A Space for Learning by @PamMoran — Intelligent, progressive, steeped in the space between pedagogical theory and practical application. 

Best Open PD: Global Education Conference — The global reach connects educators and thinkers from around the world, empowering them through collaboration and networking. 

Lifetime Achievement: @DianeRavitch — Having dedicated enough time to education to see the fruits of her efforts and then to have the courage to stand against the very reforms she championed has made her a model for reflective learning. Her work continues to influence on a broad scale. 

Free Web Tool: Learner Sketch Tool — Empowering learners of all ages to better understand and leverage their own learner profiles to meet their goals. Increases metacognition and gives teachers and students a starting point for dialoguing about authentic personalized learning. 

Below are the 12 Brain Rules developed by John Medina. You can find the original list in his book “Brain Rules” and on his Brain Rules website. 

 EXERCISE | Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power.
 SURVIVAL | Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too.
 WIRING | Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently.
 ATTENTION | Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things.
 SHORT-TERM MEMORY | Rule #5: Repeat to remember.
 LONG-TERM MEMORY | Rule #6: Remember to repeat.
 SLEEP | Rule #7: Sleep well, think well.
 STRESS | Rule #8: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.
 SENSORY INTEGRATION | Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses.
 VISION | Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.
 GENDER | Rule #11: Male and female brains are different.
 EXPLORATION | Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.

A short list of metacognitive resources for educators. 

Metacognitive Strategies for Reading Comprehension - The Educator’s PLN

How the Internet is Shaping Our “Global Brain” - Tiffany Shlain - Harvard Business Review

Metacognition - BrainFacts.org

BRAIN POWER: From Neurons to Networks - YouTube

Teaching Metacognition: The Value of Thinking About Thinking

Teaching Metacognition

‎net.educause.edu/upload/presentations/ELI081/FS03/Metacognition-ELI.pdf

‎aaalab.stanford.edu/papers/Teacher_metacognition.pdf

CAL: Digests:The Role of Metacognition in Second Language Teaching and Learning

Let’s just be clear for a second: Millions of children living below the poverty line have NO access to quality early childcare to nurture their minds. They enter school already well behind their more affluent peers. 

That deficit is minimized (not solved, just lessened) by the quality of PBS programming, Sesame Street as the flagship. You can’t talk equal access to education (and by proxy equity and equality — read as social justice) without addressing this key Experience Gap. 

Cutting PBS is paramount to cutting the lifeline to some meager amount of early childhood education for millions of impoverished children across this nation of ours. At a scant 0.012% of the federal budget, it is well worth the cost. We should be outraged at the hypocrisy of anyone talking about education without acknowledging the vital importance of the earliest years. 

PBS is working to fill that gap. What are we doing?

Below are some links for those interested in research related to the difference between parent and teacher influence on student achievement. 

1. From “Education News” on a UK study released this year

2. Paper from Phi Delta Kappa’s Summit on Public Education

3. Review of literature from Association for Middle Level Education

4. Literature Review from the London Centre for Leadership in Learning