Alfred Thompson

With the recent rash of school shootings one lawmaker is suggesting that teachers and school administrators be allowed to carry firearms to protect themselves and their students. Even with these shootings which get a lot of attention school is the safest place for students. Still there is a lot of…

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has put together a new commision on higher education. To the joy of some and the concern of others she included a number of people from industry to open it up to more perspectives. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education "But some…

Texas decided the require four years of both math and science. This seems like a good thing and in general I think it is. At the same time it makes it harder for students to find time in their schedules for anything that is does not satisfy requirements for graduation. This leaves computer science…

The joke, really not very funny and generally not true either, is that "Those who can't do - teach. Those who can't teach - teach teachers." But a new report (news article here) claims that American school of education are a mess. Over 60% of teachers claim that their education in…

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week created a bit of a fuss in the educational blogosphere. The article reported on some backlash against laptops in schools, specifically programs that put one laptop in the hands of each student. Students are, and you'll find this hard to believe,…

Now I have to admit that I have a serious bias against teacher strikes in general. They hurt no one more than they hurt the kids. I was the victom of several teacher strikes when I was a student and I will never forget those lost days.But at the same time we see situations all over the country where…

Back in my father's day (the 1950s) the line was that a woman went to college to "get her MRS." In other words she went to college to find an educated husband. That probably wasn't fair to a lot of women. Today not only is it not far it is not reasonable. According to an article in US…

Scott McLeod over at the Dangerously Irrelevant blog asks the question of who at the technology leaders in education? By that he means that in most school systems the principals and superintendents are not the ones pushing for more and better use of technology in their schools.One of the things I…

Tom Peters had some interesting comments about student testing on his blog. In his comments he debunks the idea that high test scores among Asian students really indicates higher academic performance. In fact he quotes a Thai teacher who claims that many of their students barely know how to read but…

I found this great story on Intel's web site. It is the story of a second grade teacher who uses graphing software to give her students a much better understanding of graphs at an early age. All too often we think of technology as a subject of its own when really it is better used as a tool to teach…