Thinking about what to get for your toddler, preschooler or kindergarten child for Christmas or an upcoming birthday? How about blocks? Yes, those solid, wooden, indestructible blocks that we all loved to stack up and noisily knock down when we were young. According to an article in today's New York Times, found here, blocks are having a resurgence in [...]
Here's an inspirational story from The Washington Post to savor along with your Thanksgiving leftovers: Coach Natalie Randolph, an African American believed to be the only woman currently coaching a high school football team in the country, led her Coolidge High School Colts earlier this week to the Turkey Bowl, Washington D.C.'s public school football championship. This was the [...]
GCP recently attended a seminar on "Texting, Sexting, Facebook and Cyberbullying" conducted by New Jersey Police Detective Sergeant Thomas Rich. Sgt. Rich has worked on the issues of Internet safety for over ten years, and through his company, "Always Connected", advises law enforcement, educators, parents and children of all ages how to utilize technology in a positive way. Here [...]
The New York Times, always a good source of articles about education, today includes an article which is particularly noteworthy to GCP readers. "Learning To Play the Game to Get into College", found here, chronicles Boston high school senior Nathaly Lopera's impressive efforts to get extra help with school and the college prep process. Among the resources she finds [...]
While better teachers can certainly help a student achieve, better parenting can make a huge difference in a student's academic achievement as well. GCP has been shouting this from cyberspace rooftops since the day we launched, and a column in today's New York Times confirms that we need to turn up the volume. In "How About Better Parents?", found [...]
Now here's some good and inspirational news for everyone: three African American teenaged boys are among the youngest players to ever be named chess masters, each obtaining this advanced rank before their thirteenth birthday. The article in today's New York Times, found here, notes that these three young men, Justus Williams, Joshua Colas and James Black, Jr., while rivals, [...]
GCP is always on the lookout for ways to help our sons (and daughters) learn and excel. Here is a great one: The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History offers Saturday Academies of American History, which provide free elective courses for high school and middle school students on Saturday mornings. Gilder Lehrman Saturday Academies are held in eighteen schools [...]
A recent study conducted by UCLA and NYU researchers concluded that minority (which included African American, Chinese, Dominican and Russian) students as young as second grade recognize stigmas against their ethnic groups and experience increased anxiety because of these stigmas. However, these elementary school students are more motivated about school than their European American classmates. Read about it here, [...]
Today's first education issue in the news comes from The New York Times, courtesy of Avram Barlowe. Avram is a co-founder of The Urban Academy, a New York City public high school nationally recognized for its commitment to pedagogical innovation, academic rigor and its diverse, engaged student body. He has taught history and social studies courses for more than thirty [...]
A professor at a Pennsylvania university recently set out to determine how college student's grades are impacted by their Facebook usage. Today's New York Times reveals his study's surprising conclusions, in an article found here. The study found that while spending an inordinate amount of time on Facebook is related to negative outcomes, just checking Facebook for a few [...]