Experimental school

Read this The New York Times lengthy article by Clifford J. Levy, who is a deputy metro editor of the Times. He won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his coverage of Russia in 2011.

For four years three American siblings attended an experimental school in Moscow where instruction is only in Russian and classes are videotaped to improve teaching.

You can watch a video showing some of the highlights of the experience embedded in the newspaper article or by clicking here.

The commercial campus

Corporations are hiring students to promote their brand on campus. At the University of North Carolina, American Eagle helps first-year students move-in, while Target hosts the inaugural party.

Watch this The New York Times video to find out more about this business practice which might be a bit unusual for us and judge for yourself.



You can also read the related newspaper article here.

The New York Times also presents a slideshow with the most general ideas of the scheme.

PISA -Measuring student success around the world

A test the whole world can take...

It's a breathtaking concept -- but for the OECD, it's a very real way of finding out how well-prepared today's students are to participate in society. If you're not quite sure what PISA is or does, and you've got about 12 minutes to spare, grab a comfortable chair. This video will help you to understand why the OECD's number-crunchers trigger such intense debate about the state of education around the world every time they release the results of the latest PISA survey.

I couldn't get hold of a transcript, so for comprehension purposes you will have to rely on YouTube's (inaccurate) CC, the powerful effect of the images and, best of all, your own skills.

The surprising science of motivation

In this TED talk, career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories... and maybe, a way forward.

Remember you can always activate the English subtitles if you want to fully understand Dan Pink.

The Internet cheating game

Read this lengthy The Independent article about the dangers of using the Internet for everything connected to knowledge and finding out.

Awesome Blog

Bestselling author and blogger, Neil Pasricha, shares three things that helped him turn his blog into a bestselling book and helped him "grow himself." He calls them the three A's -- Attitude, Awareness and Authenticity.

This TED talk is worth a watch, if you can spare 17 and a half minutes. Pasricha, author of the wildly popular Awesome Blog, gets us thinking about these three A's and how we might apply them back to anything in life.

What does an A mean?

This article form The New York Times on the marks or grades students are awarded at school has a number of gaps.

Fill in the gaps with a word of your choice or take your pick from the options given.

Growing up digital

Superb work by The New York Times, where we have a look at the dependence of today's youth on everything digital.

First of all, read this online article to gain some background information about the topic.

Now, listen to a group of youths expressing their views on how important everything digital is for them.

Finally, listen to the teachers' views:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/21/technology/20101121-brain-teachers.html

Class blogs

Class blogs seem to be getting fashionable in the teaching world, as this blog itself shows. But to what extent are they beneficial? This article from The Guardian sheds some light on the issue.

Britain's worst teacher

From The Independent comes this article about Britain's worst teacher, who has been banned from the teaching job.

Education: Some questions

Watch this video brought to my attention by Life Feast, which raises some questions on the topic of education. It is a dense talk by Ken Robinson, made visually simple by the medium of animation.

Traffic picks up in world education race