...Dearborn Academy high school director to teach “Perspectives on Student-Centered Education” in the College of Professional Studies’ “Issues in Education” course... WINCHESTER, MA – January 12, 2015 -- The National Institute for Student-Centered Education (NISCE) announced that Northeastern University will offer a course focusing on student-centered education in its College of Professional Studies.The class, called Issues in Education, is part of the university’s winter term curriculum … [Read more...]
Ted Wilson on MIX 104.1 Champions Student-Centered Education and INSPIRE 2014
This past September, Ted Wilson, executive director of the National Institute for Student-Centered Education (NISCE) appeared live in the MIX 104.1 studios in Boston to discuss NISCE's mission and its then upcoming INSPIRE 2014 conference. Host and MIX program director, Mike Mullaney, engaged Ted in a high-energy and broad-ranged interview on the current state of education in Massachusetts; the need for a truly student-centered approach to education; and the broad range of topics planned at … [Read more...]
Social and Emotional Development for Girls
Many teachers face their students every day knowing that some of the girls are struggling with feelings of self-doubt, self-consciousness and fear. Reaching out to those girls’ specific needs, while maintaining focus on whole classroom, can be complicated.At INSPIRE 2014, Rachel J. Kramer, Ph.D., a pediatric psychologist in Concord, Massachusetts, led a session on “Supporting Girls’ Social and Emotional Development in the Classroom” that helped attendees explore strategies for teaching girls … [Read more...]
School Practices that Downshift Students
A well-known term in the brain-based world is "downshifting." According to Renate and Geoffrey Caine who first coined the term, downshifting is "the psychophysiological response to threat, accompanied by a sense of helplessness or fatigue. The downshifted person experiences a sense of fear or anxiety, not the excitement of a challenge. Downshifting is accompanied by a feeling that you cannot access your own ability to deal with the situation. Downshifting can result from very drastic conditions … [Read more...]
Testing the Standardized Test
By Theodore Willson Executive Director, National Institute for Student-Centered EducationAt long last, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is taking a much needed step back to examine whether the state’s appetite for standardized testing is proving detrimental to teachers and students.Matthew Malone, the state’s education commissioner, thinks it’s time to review how testing is being handled in school districts around the state. He was quoted as saying in a recent Boston Globe article, … [Read more...]
White House Commissioner on Educational Excellence to Speak at INSPIRE
....Monica Martinez, commissioner of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, attends two-day event hosted by National Institute for Student-Centered Education.... WINCHESTER, MA – October 20, 2014 -- The National Institute for Student-Centered Education (NISCE) today announced that Monica Martinez, Ph.D., commissioner of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, will speak this week at INSPIRE 2014, the organization’s flagship event.The … [Read more...]
Introducing Zentangles
The following article is contributed by Penny Cunninggim, co-founder of NEARI. Peggy will also be speaking at our INSPIRE 2014 conference.A teacher recently told me about this wonderful multipurpose activity for creating structured patterns that she used as part of student journaling: it is called zentangles. The website she found is: What Do We Do All Day. This activity blew me away. Thank you, Liz!I think this is the perfect, light, enjoyable, and easy yet creative technique to … [Read more...]
Education Philosophy Becomes Practice
This post was originally published at the Partially Examined Life: A Philosophy Podcast and Blog and is contributed by Gary Chapin, Senior Associate for Quality Performance Assessment at the Center for Collaborative Education . ________________________________________________________________Over the past hundred years Constructivists and Traditionalists have enjoyed an uneasy truce in the world of education practitioners. Constructivism “says that people construct their own … [Read more...]
Why Educators Need to Develop Leadership Skills
The following post is contributed by Bill Bryan, co-founder and vice president for Leadership and Organization Development, Center for Secondary School Redesign. Bill will be presenting at INSPIRE 2014.Five Reasons Educators Need to Focus on Developing Leadership Skills 1. To Lead Successful Major Change Efforts: A recent headline reads, "Early Results Indicate $4.6 Billion in School Turnarounds a Waste." Most efforts at significant change in education practices fail, but not for a … [Read more...]
About NISCE
The National Institute for Student-Centered Education (NISCE) aims to catalyze support for a vision of education where students—not politics, not tests, not expediency—are at the center of learning, and where all students have the opportunities and resources they need to succeed. … [Read more...]