Oates Associates
BOYNTON BEACH, FL
Some links to publications by Rita and other team members are provided here.
Students collaborating on weather, climate change and more
What is it like to go to school in the dark, see the sun come up after 10 a.m., watch it go down before 2 p.m., and then go home in the dark? Do elementary students go outside for recess in Arctic areas? If so, what do they wear, and what activities do they do? How does that compare with what your students do outside during the school day?
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears blog
October 2009
-Rita Oates
In fall 2005, Kansas began a three-year study to determine the skills and assets children bring with them to kindergarten and what they learn while they're there. The first students in that study entered 3rd grade in 2008, and preliminary results from follow-up studies suggest that early learning practices in the home and in schools have long-term effects.
Phi Delta Kappan, November 2010, p. 35-38
(c) 2010 Phi Delta Kappa
How to Learn in the 21st Century
(click link above to read the entire article.)
Educational Leadership (ASCD publication)
Thanks to the Internet, students today can acquire and share knowledge in ways teachers could not have dreamed of 50 years ago.
"Class, it's time for your test on our study of Africa. Number a paper from 1 to 50. I am projecting a map of Africa on the screen. For number 1, write the name of the country and its capital. Do the same thing for each of the other numbers. You have 30 minutes to fill in all the country names and capitals."
That was how my social studies teacher in Lawrence, Kansas, tested my knowledge of Africa in the mid-1960s. Being good at memorizing information, I was able to score a top grade on that test. You might recall that Africa at that time had many British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese colonies. Since I took that test, many of the names have changed and new boundaries have been drawn.
I don't remember learning a lot about the people in these places and how South Africa might differ from Egypt, being at opposite ends of the continent. We learned some basic things—that oil came from Nigeria and diamonds from South Africa and that pyramids were in Egypt. But we had no sense of the diverse peoples, history, terrain, or religious issues on this large continent.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/How-to-Learn-in-the-21st-Century.aspx
- Rita Oates
Copyright 2020 Rita Oates. All rights reserved.
Oates Associates
BOYNTON BEACH, FL