We’re raising our girls to be perfect, and we’re raising our boys to be brave, says Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code. Saujani has taken up the charge to socialize young girls to take risks and learn to program — two skills they need to move society forward. To truly innovate, we cannot leave behind half of our population, she says. “I need each of you to tell every young woman you know to be comfortable with imperfection.”

·  An HP report found that men will apply for a job if they meet only 60 percent of the qualifications, but women, women will apply only if they meet 100 percent of the qualifications. 100 percent. 

·  When the guys are struggling with an assignment, they’ll come in and they’ll say, “Professor, there’s something wrong with my code.” The girls will come in and say, “Professor, there’s something wrong with me.” 

·  We have to socialize our girls to be comfortable with imperfection, and we’ve got to do it now. We cannot wait for them to learn how to be brave like I did when I was 33 years old. We have to teach them to be brave in schools and early in their careers, when it has the most potential to impact their lives and the lives of others, and we have to show them that they will be loved and accepted not for being perfect but for being courageous.

English is fast becoming the world’s universal language, and instant translation technology is improving every year. So why bother learning a foreign language? Linguist and Columbia professor John McWhorter shares four alluring benefits of learning an unfamiliar tongue.

First, To go into a culture and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain is to never truely get the culture. And so to the extent that hundreds of languages will be left, one reason to learn them is that they are tickets to being able to participate in the culture of the people who speak them, just by virtue of the fact that it is their code.

Second reason: it’s been shown that if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely to set in, and that you are probably a better multitasker. And these are factors that set in early, and so that ought to give you some sense of when to give junior or juniorette lessons in another language. Bilingualism is healthy. 

Third — languages are just an awful lot of fun. Much more fun than we’re often told. 

And more to the point, we live in an era when it’s never been easier to teach yourself another language. It used to be that you had to go to a classroom, and there would be some diligent teacher — some genius teacher in there — but that person was only in there at certain times and you had to go then, and then was not most times. You had to go to class. If you didn’t have that, you had something called a record. I cut my teeth on those. There was only so much data on a record, or a cassette, or even that antique object known as a CD. Other than that you had books that didn’t work, that’s just the way it was. 

As I dig into the assignment of my new semester, I learned the TQE Method. Let’s take a look of what is TQE

1. STUDENTS COMPLETE ASSIGNED READING AT HOME

2. SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS (15 MINUTES)

When they arrive in class, students get into small groups, where they have 15 minutes to share thoughts, lingering questions, and epiphanies (TQEs) they have about the reading. Early in the year, Thompson provides stems to help students generate these (see below), encouraging them to move from the more simplistic ideas on the left to the more complex ones on the right.

3. TQES ON THE BOARD

4. CLASS DISCUSSION OF TQES

Reference: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/tqe-method/

As we are having Moon Festival long weekend, I am aware of the importance of deep sleep although I still a lot on my plate….

There’s nothing quite like a good night’s sleep. What if technology could help us get more out of it? Dan Gartenberg is working on tech that stimulates deep sleep, the most regenerative stage which (among other wonderful things) might help us consolidate our memories and form our personalities. Find out more about how playing sounds that mirror brain waves during this stage might lead to deeper sleep — and its potential benefits on our health, memory and ability to learn.

As teachers, we have a huge amount of influence on our tiny charges. But six hours is only one-fourth of a day. Parents, the other 18 hours belong to you… and your parenting choices have an enormous impact, either positive or negative, on your little scholar and by extension, their teacher.

Parenting choices that DON’T help

1. No consistent bedtime

2. Early use of social media without parental supervision

3. Lack of manners

4. Not teaching kids to be independent

5. Not expecting kids to be accountable

Kids make mistakes. Every day. Mistakes have both predictable and unpredictable consequences. This is a normal, human, necessary part of growing up. When parents fail to allow children to own their mistakes, to be accountable for them, and to make amends, they are stunting their child’s emotional development. It is part of a teacher’s job to teach children how to be good people. Parents who blame the teacher or other kids for their own child’s actions make this so much more difficult.

Parenting choices that DO help

1. Modeling and teaching respect and gratitude

2. Supporting with homework

3. Appreciation for diversity

4. Resilience through adversity

School is tough. Let’s face it, LIFE is tough. Parents who allow their children to fail, and encourage the grit it takes to persevere and try again, are demonstrating that hard work matters. When times get tough, and they will, it’s children with resilience who will come out on top. Students who tackle hard problems with enthusiasm, and attempt new solutions when the initial ones failed, are a teacher’s dream. News flash – these often aren’t the high achievers either. They are the stubborn ones, the creative ones, the out-of-the-box thinkers. A family that values these traits over high grades is one that sets their children up for true success.

5. Being organized

Reference:https://www.boredteachers.com/post/parenting-choices-that-impact-teachers