Inspiring New Futures

Education as tool for change - Daily News | News | IOL.co.za : Zweli Mkhize. Picture: Jacques Naude The key to improving South Africa’s education system lay in learning from the past, Premier Zweli Mkhize said. Speaking at the South African Basic Education Conference in Durban on Tuesday, Mkhize said that in the light of the centenary celebrations of the ANC, the history of its leaders who used education as an instrument of change needed to be remembered. “We must look at how we can continue to use education as a tool for social change,” Mkhize said.

Fort Greene middle schoolers are making movies about local seniors  - NY Daily News : Jason Critchlow, 14, l. and Raiden McLean, 14, film documentary at the Willoughby Senior Center in Fort Greene. Fort Greene resident C-Allah Coombs leaned back in his chair and stared deep into the camera as he talked about his worst day on the Fort Hamilton High School basketball team. "It wasn't good. Dean Meminger scored 50 points on me,” said  Coombs . “And he wasn't even a good shooter - just a good defender." Coombs, 63, recounted his front row seat to the Rice High School prodigy and former New York Knicks’s scoring barrage as part of a filmmaking program for 12 students from the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters are profiling a group of Fort Greene seniors and turning their stories into two-minute documentaries.

Tsunami Warning Issued After Major Earthquake Hits Indonesia: Follow on Social Media : An earthquake of magnitude 8.7 has been detected off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the U.S. Geological Survey says. The epicenter of the quake was some 430 kilometers (267 miles) from Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia’s Aceh province, at a depth of 33 kilometers (20.5 miles). The news has spread fast on social media channels such as  Twitter  and  Facebook  — check out below for some of the latest comments. If you’ve been affected by the earthquake, let us know in the comments.

Smart learning initiative to revamp public schools - Zawya : Dubai: Learning in public schools will soon be more interactive and fun as His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, yesterday launched a Dh1 billion e-learning initiative. The Mohammad Bin Rashid Smart Learning Initiative will bring together pupils, teachers, parents and administrators on an interactive e-platform. It will be implemented in four phases over five years. A pilot of the project will be introduced in 18 schools covering Grade 6 to 9 from September. Classrooms will have e-boards and 4G networks while every student will have a tablet.

Telling Isn't Teaching: The Fine Art of Coaching | Edutopia : Dr. Richard Curwin is the director of the Master's program in Behavior Disorder at David Yellin College in Jerusalem and the author of 20 books related to motivation and behavior, including  Discipline with Dignity . I have the greatest respect for coaches; not every coach of course, but those who care more about their players than about winning. I include those who coach drama, choir, band and all those who spend so much of their time and energy on helping children far beyond the confines of the classroom. Good coaches make great teachers. Coaches understand that telling a player (or singer, actor, etc.) what to do is not enough. No drama director or soccer coach asks students to sit in the room and explain what to do. They go to the playing environment, demonstrate correct technique and then put the students through multiple repetitions; practice, practice, practice. Repetition ensures that correct technique wi...

Celebrating National Poetry Month with Technology | Edutopia : Mary Beth Hertz ( @mbteach  on Twitter) is an elementary computer teacher in Philadelphia, PA and a  regular blogger on Edutopia . You can read more of her work on her own blog at  Philly-teacher . Poetry is one of my favorite forms of writing. As I wrote in a  recent blog post , there was a time when poetry was "my grounding force, my way of grappling with the world, questions, uncertainty, joy, sorrow, conundrums, beauty, ugliness and all forms of life that living could throw in my direction." In 1996, April was named  National Poetry Month  by the  Academy of American Poets  to celebrate poetry across the country. If you are planning on incorporating National Poetry Month into your classroom or your school, here are a few of the many great ways to celebrate through the use of technology.

How to Bring Screenwriting into the Classroom | Edutopia : A frequent presenter on reading and writing at local, state, and national conferences, Jennifer Ansbach, NBCT, teaches English at Manchester Township High School. Follow her on Twitter  @JenAnsbach . The students work, huddled in pairs, jotting down ideas in notebooks. The classroom buzzes with collaboration, punctuated by giggles and laughter. Students are excited to be writing as we start our annual celebration of  Script Frenzy ! For the past five years, my 11th grade English students have written novels for  National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) . Both NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy are the work of the  Office of Letters and Light , whose mission is to provide programs that allow participants to "turn off their inner editor" and "write with abandon" as a way to bring everyone's innate creativity to fruition. Three years ago I introduced them to Script Frenzy to help students reconsider their i...