Thomas J. West Music

Welcome! It is my pleasure to serve as host for this week's edition of the Carnival of Education. My thanks to Ed Wonk for allowing me to host.

Here's the very latest roundup of entries from around the EduSphere. Unless clearly labeled otherwise, all entries this week were submitted by the writers themselves. If you missed last week's edition, visit The Core Knowledge Blog to get caught up. Let the carnival begin!

Language Arts

If you ever wanted to have an expert critique you on how to write essays, dissertations, and research papers, look no further. Busy blogger Ian presents a concise and detailed description of creating an essay outline in Essay Outline: The Basics of Writing. His outline can be used by anyone from elementary students right on up to PhD candidates. He also submitted a great description geared towards high school students describing the format of a research paper in Research Paper Format for Content and Style as well as Controversial Research Paper Topics: the Riskier Approach to Researching. His final offering discusses selecting dissertation topics for students of economics and marketing in Marketing Dissertation Topics.

Self-Help

Leeman gives us a very interesting insight into a personal philosophy in a brand new blog entitled Be Happy. 3 Great Life Philosophies to Remove Sadness and Anxiety is an interesting read and something to ponder.

Praveen Puri gives us a few thoughts on thinking outside the box in Stretch Out of Your Comfort Zone.

Education Reform

Jim Pudlewski ponders the wisdom of a new program in Chicago Public Schools that pays students for earning good grades. Pay for Grades - Will It Create Successful Students? is definitely an article to read and express an opinion on.

Travis A. Wittwer reminds us that the natural way for children to learn is to play, and how play is being written out of the curriculum in many schools, in his article entitled It's Playtime!

Special Education

Matthew Needleman brings up a point I never considered, but makes perfect sense: What do you do if you have special needs 5th graders who are reading at a 1st grade level? Do you give them 1st grade literature? He answers this question in Open Court in the Special Education Classroom.

Pat, a seasoned teacher now serving as a adjunct professor at Furman, gives us Tips for a Painless IEP Meeting, outlining some common-sense, yet easily overlooked touches that will help aleve parent anxieties when meeting with an IEP team for the first time.

Education Theory

Nancy Flanagan writes a great opinion article, only to have the educator whose work she expressed an opinion on chime in with an entry in her comments section! I am a firm believer in Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, but I can see from the rebuttal in this post how the definition of certain terms has led to a mis-application of Gardner's work. Read this fascinating article: The Audio-Visual Club.

Parent's Corner

Debbie the Debt Destroyer asks: "I'm not sure if all schools in the United States are similar, but my son has attended two different schools and each time, the fundraiser stuff is sent home almost before they are assigned a desk to sit at!... It really makes me question where the school tax money goes. If parents are asked to supply the classroom with just about all the supplies they need for the year (can they really need that many crayons every year from every student?) where is the money going that homeowners are paying in the form of school taxes?" Read her opinion in Kids back to school? How to Deal with Fundraisers.

Higher Education

If you've ever considered getting a college degree outside the United States, you know that not all degrees are created equal. There is an effort in Europe to standardize college degrees. Learn more about this process and how it may affect U.S. Higher Education in College Degree Programs: The Bologna Process.

From the Trenches

Here are some real-live teachers with thoughts and stories straight out of today's dynamic classrooms:

Carol Richtsmeier of "Bellringers" gives us a snarky, sarcastic, and downright funny portrayal of the special needs accommodations she would make for herself in ARDs, CFCs & the Very Big Fat Purple Notebook Accommodations. If you've been a teacher for more than five minutes, you'll get a kick out of this one.

Imagine you are a secondary math teacher. Done. Now, imagine you have two students who have english as their second language. Ok? Now, imagine that these students are not only learning to speak English, but they're learning the Roman alphabet for the first time. How in the world do you keep these students from falling behind? Read about Darren's great idea in I Did Something Good Today.

An Elementary History teacher shares her excellent study guide that helps parents become actively involved in their child's learning in Tools of the Trade: Study Guide.

Ever have a class rebel on your substitute while you're out at a professional development event? Ms. Clix tells her tale in Why I Haven't Posted.

Music Education

And finally, one of my own: Music Education has some time-tested traditional ways of teaching to read rhythmic notation that work, but in this article I explore some alternate approaches to the perception of rhythm in Rhythmic Development - A Mathematic and Kinesthetic Rather than Traditional Labeling Approach.

Thank you to all who took the time to write great content and send it to me. When you host a carnival, you have to read everyone's stuff, and I learned a few things in the process. I will definitely offer to host again. Next week's carnival will be over at Steve Spangler's Blog. See you next time.