Too much of Framingham politics over the past year has been about personalities rather than policies. We need to stop focusing on individuals and more on what we specifically want out of our city government. The fact is that Framingham has the potential to transform in 2020 from a city that reacts to situations around us to one that takes the lead. Here are ten areas that our city can take the lead on in the next 12 months and…
Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter! Please feel free to share it with friends via e-mail and encourage them to subscribe here: Subscribe Now It was such a busy past few months for the City Council and there is much to look forward to in the new year. Congratulations to the incoming members of the City Council – it is hard to believe that I will be a relative veteran with two years under my belt, but I am confident that…
In our current political climate with its intolerance, fear mongering, and misinformation, educational technology that is worth its salt must be steeped in social justice. #edtech is not valuable if it doesn’t level the playing field, promote compassion and understanding, or expand students’ horizons beyond the immediate and the local. In fact, the best uses of technology do all of these things in collaborative environments that unite students and teachers with a common mission and expand students’ viewpoints. Specifically, I…
Time Magazine’s recent articles, “‘I Work 3 Jobs And Donate Blood Plasma to Pay the Bills.’ This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America.“ and “13 Stories of Life on a Teacher’s Salary” highlight what has been all too clear for those of us teachers working in a public school system and raising a family in the 21st century – teacher salaries in many school districts are simply not high enough to make ends meet. (1) The…
by Adam Steiner As human society meanders toward a blurring of human and digital, intelligence and artificial intelligence, and virtual and authentic, our schools need to resist the urge to “go robot” and instead focus on timeless human qualities: creativity, compassion, and critical thinking. Technology, in particular, should not be directed toward skill practice or assessment even if it is a particularly efficient tool for these tasks. Technology should be used in collaboration with other frameworks including science, engineering, arts,…
Guest post by Carla Shanahan, 6th Grade Science Teacher at Robert Adams Middle School in Holliston, MA Follow Carla on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ShanahanCarla Teaching Climate Change is critical to preparing the generation that is inheriting the world after we’ve hit the tipping point of the problem. As a school, we have embraced the U.N.Sustainable Development goals, and students have been incorporating them into our learning throughout the year. In addition,I have incorporated the impact of climate change into the Geologic Time…
City Council Newsletter February, 2018 Welcome to my first monthly City Council newsletter! Please feel free to share with anyone else who might be interested in subscribing. Go here for a link to a video of our last City Council meeting with time stamps of agenda items: https://www.facebook.com/adamsteinercc/posts/557608797940793 Thoughts on our previous meeting (in order of the agenda): A McAuliffe Charter School student presented to us on the naming of Indian Head Road and Indian Head Heights and she made a passionate…
Over the past several years, virtual reality (VR) technology has gone mainstream with the use of lower cost headsets that fill the visual field with an immersive environment. Devices such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear use a smartphone to power the VR experience while other more expensive choices rely on a connection to a personal computer. Among these are the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Whichever device you bring into your classroom, ultimately it is all about the content….
Over the past several years, social media has become a disruptive force in the American political process. Yes, it promotes discussion, facilitates productive communication, and enables small groups of like-minded people to broadly share their message. However, it has also been force of destruction. By filtering sources that align with our belief systems, we less frequently challenge ourselves with ideas that are different than our own. More destructive than filtering the news we receive is that we filter our friendships….
50 years of US government action against poverty, which began with Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, has resulted in modest reductions in overall poverty levels. However, childhood poverty remains pernicious. According to the National Center on Childhood Poverty, more than 20% of US kids live in households below the poverty line. It is key to understand that the solution to the problem of childhood poverty lies along the intersection of educational and socio-economic policy making, not in one domain or…