"In Defense of Algebra"
Jessica Lahey, New York Times - Motherlode, July 31, 2012

"I know precisely where I lost my battle with math, the moment I was informed clearly and unequivocally that I simply wasn’t “a math person.” My seventh-grade math teacher, an otherwise lovely man, called each of his students up to his desk one by one in order to write a “1” (for the honors track) or “2” (for the standard track) on the school’s official math placement forms. As I watched from over his hunched and courduroyed shoulder, he wrote a beautiful, decisive and neat “1” on my form.

"There it was, in permanent ink. I was good at math.

"“Jess, could you come back up here for a minute?” he asked as I floated back to my seat.

"He reclaimed my form, and carefully overlaid that beautiful “1” with a dark, clumsy “2,” pressing hard with his black pen in order to make sure the ink obliterated any evidence of his indecision.

"And from then on, I wasn’t good at math anymore.

"From the moment I was relegated to standard math, I knew I was never going to be an engineer. I went through the motions of my math education, but never put any heart into the subject. My teachers didn’t push back very hard because the evidence was in: I just wasn’t a math person. I’d make it through to the day I could opt out of math forever, and I would never look back.

"Except, I did. For years, I have eyed my colleague Alison Gorman’s math classroom with wary suspicion. I peek in on her class when I hear laughter, wondering what could possibly inspire mirth in algebra class. I have watched with wonder during recess when her MathCounts students show up with their lunches, willing to spend valuable leisure time challenging each other to think through math problems."

Fantasy, fairy tales, happy endings:
Teachers find success in NEH program led by Harvard scholar
Edward Mason, Harvard Gazette, July 23, 2012

"Nicole Guillen, a high school teacher at the Alliance Marc and Eva Stern Math and Science School in Los Angeles, said the fantasy of Lewis Carroll or “Peter Pan” read by older generations may not be as relevant to today’s students as the violence depicted in modern literature.

"“They’re growing up where gangs are part of everyday life,” Guillen said. “In some communities, what kids see is very real and it’s a horrifying type of reality, and that’s why they like seeing it in a book: I don’t have a Wonderland or a Neverland, but I do have this reality.”

"Elizabeth Gray, who teaches at an alternative East Brooklyn, N.Y., high school, countered that escapism is an important part of fantasy literature.

"“I teach a lot of gangs; I’m not sure they always want to read about gangs,” she said. “They might prefer to read about Neverland. I wonder if [“Hunger Games”] is too close to home?”

"Lauren Bielefeld, a ninth-grade reading teacher from Fountain Valley High School in Orange County, Calif., said fantasy literature tests moral compasses.

"“Kids like to imagine what kind of kid they would become,” Bielefeld said. “I can hear my kids do that with ‘Lord of the Flies’ and with ‘Hunger Games.’”"

Program trains girls to build phone apps, embrace science
Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside, May 2, 2012

"For the last few months, about 50 girls from Berkeley and Albany have been going up to the Berkeley Lab on Tuesday afternoons. The girls were split into teams and paired with female scientists from the lab who served as mentors. During their workshops, the students not only got a glimpse of what it was like to work in a scientific environment, they learned specific skills, such as how to use Google’s App Inventor and how to write a business plan. Technovation Challenge has seven programs in high schools around the Bay Area, and one each in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, serving a total of 520 girls.
"“I didn’t know much about computer programming and I thought it would be fun to expand my background and try something new,” said Siyao Ma, a sophomore at Albany High."

Middle-School Friends Are Critical For Future Success
RICK NAUERT PHD, Psych Central, January 13, 2011

"Hanging out with the right group of friends is especially important as children transition from elementary to middle school.

"University of Oregon psychologists say the new friendships may directly influence a teenager’s potential academic success or future challenges in high school and beyond.

"A new study, appearing in the February issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence, found that boys and girls whose friends are socially active in ways where rules are respected do better in their classroom work.

"Having friends who engage in problem behavior, in contrast, is related to a decrease in their grades.

"Having pro-social friends and staying away from deviant peers proved more effective for academic payoffs than simply being friends with high-achieving peers."