PEN & NCLB

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At this site you will find action briefs for the major themes covered by NCLB developed by the Public Education Network and the National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education. The action alerts can be used in multiple ways -- as a training tool, for professional development, or an easy reference to the law's intricacies -- with a variety of audiences.

Filed under Parents Schools and tagged with PEN NCLB on October 17, 2008 #

Talk to the Hand: An Innovative Use of an Age-Old Toy

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For Georgianne Walsh, of New Jersey, a beloved raccoon puppet known as Chester acts as the official greeter for her kindergarten students every morning. Amy Wallace, who teaches in New York City, created a puppet named Maya about whom her first graders became so concerned that Wallace purchased a tent for her to sleep in at night. In Las Cruces, N.M. Toni Gross's preschoolers are endlessly intrigued by a mouth-shaped puppet named Besos she uses to demonstrate oral movement when teaching speech and language. These puppets, simple hinged paper devices, were all inspired by an innovative website called Puppetools.com. Brainchild of a boundary-busting educator named Jeffrey Peyton, Puppetools provides a wide array of resources designed to introduce teachers and students to a stimulating world of educational play centered on puppetry. "When play enters the classroom, it transforms everything," says Peyton. "And when the play involves puppets, the power opens up and moves into the hands of the students." This is a man who is serious about play. Peyton feels that the whole concept has been marginalized in public education, mostly because so many teachers are intimidated by it, writes Burr Snider in Edutopia magazine. "The idea of communicating playfully using a device like a puppet is just too far out for most adults, and I think that speaks volumes about the classroom environment," Peyton says. "Lots of teachers strive for standardized behavior, and I think children sense this deeply and suffer from it, from prekindergarten on into high school."

Filed under Parents and tagged with PEN on October 17, 2008 #

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