MatthiasHeil.de

British education may be down in the dumps over government spending prospects, but in the US the picture is rather different. This week President Barack Obama announced a big cash boost for schools and for university students. In his state of the union address, President Obama announced a $4bn (£2.5bn) increase in federal spending on elementary and secondary schools. That is an increase of over 6%, one of the biggest rises for many years. He also announced an even bigger cash increase in student aid to provide more federal grants for poor students and to ease the impact of student debt repayment. In future, graduates in the USA will be "forgiven" their outstanding federal loan debt after 20 years or, if they enter public service, after 10 years. In the US, central government accounts for only a relatively small proportion of the total amount spent on schools and colleges. For American schools, the main budget provider is the state, and many US states are now.. – (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Here is the original: US lessons on education spending

The Web as a writing space is still primarily an unknown, scary place to put students. But as research is showing, students are flocking to online networks in droves, and they are doing a great deal of writing there already, some of it creative and thoughtful and inspiring, but much of it outside the traditional expectations of “good writing” that classrooms require. The ePals Global Community is just one “learning space” example that has connections spanning 200 countries and territories. With ePals Learning Space, which is a virtual workspace to create, share and manage educational content, students, who are interacting with peers, and educators can take part in project-based learning in a collaborative and controlled environment. How we begin to teach students to flourish in these more complex, online social spaces is a fundamental question many schools are beginning to tackle, not necessarily because they want to but because they realize… – (Source: DistrictAdministration.com)

Here is the original post: The New Writing Pedagogy: Using Social Networking Tools

Extremist groups in Malaysia may be exploiting the controversy over a Catholic newspaper’s use of the word “Allah” for God in order to foment “sectarian hatred,” a leading Catholic priest in the region has said. Though groups have vandalized several places of worship, the situation is reportedly “under control.” Several individuals or groups of provocateurs in the country are attacking and profaning places of worship closest to the heart of believers of several religions to provoke a reaction, the Rome-based Fides news agency reports. The process is similar to past conflicts in Indonesia, Nigeria, India, and other countries. “There is concern now that extremist individuals or groups are seeking to foment sectarian hatred in Malaysia by using the case of the controversial use of the name Allah for non-Muslims,” said Fr. Augustine Julian, Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Vandals have targeted 11 churches… – (Source: catholicnewsagency.com)

Original post: Malaysian ‘Allah dispute’ under control despite vandalism

[When grading, I do not only] take the time to make notes of the grade, I also write goals to achieve for the next assignment. Moreover, I provide checklists and rubrics with my expectations. If the students meet these expectations, then they receive the grade. I learned to do this from some of my favorite college instructors. They always provided the students with clear guidelines and commented on why points were taken off. [...] Why do only a few instructors provide constructive feedback? – I believe this is due to two main reasons. First, many instructors probably do not realize what constructive feedback looks like. I believe constructive feedback is: specific: the student knows exactly what you thought was positive and what needed improvement. – private: make sure the other students do not know who made the worst grades. – immediate: provide the feedback as soon as possible when the assignment is still in the student’s mind… – (Source: teacherrebootcamp.edublogs.org)

The rest is here: 12 Resources for Giving Constructive Feedback