The advent of digital learning

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After President Barack Obama announced an initiative that will bring high-speed Internet in most schools by 2018, some technology experts believe that superfast connections can be introduced even sooner. This certainly bodes well for many schools, especially in rural areas that have yet to benefit from cutting-edge technology. As President Obama pointed out during a speech at a middle school in Mooresville, North Carolina, “In a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn’t we have it in our schools?”

Citing an administration fact sheet as its source, CNN reports that the average American school has slower Internet connections than most homes, and fewer than 20 percent of educators say their school’s Web access meets their teaching needs. That is why the proposal to outfit schools with fast Internet connection is very much welcome. Fast Internet connection after all is crucial to competitiveness.

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However, there are those who cannot help but ask if students will be at risk with a proposed initiative to put laptops, tablets, and other devices into the hands of all students by 2020. Especially today with just how one click, a picture, a message, or a video can be viewed by almost anyone, with even some Internet activities leading to risky behaviors that can result to lawsuits and other legal entanglements.

Despite the criticism, the advent of digital learning will surely benefit students in the long run. And it is the kind of progress that the educational system truly deserves.

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North Central Texas Academy at Happy Hill Farm supports initiatives that will further develop the skills of its students. Visit this website for additional information about its academic program.

The lasting influence of teen friendships

Friendships formed during middle school actually have a lasting influence on an individual’s future, according to a study published in the journal Child Development.

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The study followed 184 youth from a public school in the southeast, which included teens from both urban and suburban neighborhoods. The researchers from the University of Virginia interviewed the teens’ parents and other adolescents that they identified as their closest friends annually for three years, starting when the participants were around 13. The authors followed up again when they were ages 20 to 23.

What the researchers found is that “the path is straightforward,” or as researcher Joseph Allen, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia explained to TIME Magazine, “It is more like a tightrope walk between trying to connect well with peers on one side and avoiding getting swept up into peer influences toward deviant behavior.”

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The study showed that teens who best resisted peer pressure during junior high were less likely to engage in criminal behavior and face lawsuits. Unfortunately, this ability to resist peer pressure can also be isolating; the same group also had fewer and weaker friendships as adults.

Meanwhile, those who have the strongest interactions as adults were teens who walked a middle ground, remaining open to peer influence, but not allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by the pressure to conform.

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Friendships formed early in life are part of growing up, contrary to what others believe that children shouldn’t have best friends. What parents and educators should take note of is the kind of friendship made during adolescent years.

Students of North Central Texas Academy in Happy Hill Farm are encouraged to form healthy relationships with their peers. Learn more about student life in the academy here.

Creative intelligence: Why IQ and EQ are not enough

Intelligent quotient (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) have had their fair share of the spotlight these past few years. These days, creative intelligence (CQ) is quickly becoming the catchphrase both in the academe and in the business sector. In fact, educationalist Ken Robinson’s discussion on creative intelligence has become be the most viewed video in the TED Talks video site.

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The discussion on creative intelligence will not be complete without talking about creativity and intelligence. In fact, when psychologists attempt to define creative intelligence, they do so using the triarchic theory of intelligence, which touches on the analytical, creative, and practical aspects of intelligence. The theory, which was developed by psychologist Robert Sternberg, notes that creative intelligence involves reacting successfully to new situations and being able to successfully produce new ideas.

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But still even without a solid definition of creative intelligence, it is a skill that anyone can cultivate. Bruce Nussbaum, a professor and author of the book Creative Intelligence even pointed out that in the business world, creative intelligence is what “separates the winners and losers.” Creativity also makes a person happier. In fact, for people facing extremely stressful situations, such as high-profile lawsuits and incarceration, art is their therapy of choice.

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Psychologists agree that people are born with deep natural capacities for creativity. The challenge now is to cultivate these capacities, and as Robinson noted, “to rethink the dominant approaches to education to make sure that we do.”

Located in Happy Hill Farm, North Central Texas Academy ensures that its students’ creativity is developed through its various academic and extracurricular programs. Learn more about the academy here.

The great class divide: Causes of the education gap between the rich and the poor

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It is a veritable fact that students from disadvantaged homes would most likely perform less well in school than their classmates who come from well-off households. And, unfortunately, the government has done little to narrow down the gap between the rich and the poor.

Sabrina Tavernise, in an article on The New York Times, suggests that this gap has created a chasm that not only separates the affluent from the underprivileged, but also contributes to the decline of the entire American education system.


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Parenting, income inequality, and culture are among the reasons for this growing gap in achievement. Well-off parents spend more time and money on their children, sending them off to ballet classes and music lessons. Poorer families, which are most likely headed by a single parent, are “increasingly stretched for time and resources.” Charles Murray, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argued that the divide between the better educated and the less educated has resulted to another type of divide – a cultural divide rooted on natural social forces, such as the tendency of wealthy people marrying other wealthy people.

So how can America narrow down this gap? Because the problem is so complex, there is no easy solution. Douglas J. Besharov, fellow at the Atlantic Council, says that blaming the rich for the problem ignores an important factor --- “two-earner household wealth, which has lifted the upper lifted class ever further from less educated Americans, who tend to be single parents.” Even experts do not have the faintest idea on how to go about this issue. As Besharov puts it, “the cupboard is bare.”


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North Central Texas Academy in Happy Hill Farm helps underprivileged students obtain quality education. Its website offers more information on life in its campus.

"Tag! You're it!"

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“Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.”

~William Shakespeare.

Every person on the planet has been, or is being, brought up to compete – be it against others or against themselves – and a belief of the “survival of the fittest” prevails. While some people compete to win, some compete to improve. While some people compete to prove their worth, some compete to learn from others and increase their value in the circles they move in. For whatever reason a person may have for competing, one thing remains constant: In competitions, something is always gained.


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Schools would oftentimes host friendly concours as a way to recognize the efforts made by their students. This is probably where scholastic rivalry roots from – which school can earn the most number of gold medals. But through it all, the main goal of any contest is to foster sportsmanship and camaraderie. Competitions are an important factor of one’s upbringing because it is where a person learns to do better than the other participant or his or her last performance. Entering into competitions provides an avenue in which one grows and strives to be better; it caters to man’s unending desire to perfect himself. Educational institutions, like Deerfield Academy and North Central Texas Academy at Happy Hill Farm, believe that education is not just about the lessons one learns within the four corners of the classroom, but also the lessons that can come from anything and everything that surrounds the learner.


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This website discusses more about encouraging intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth among students.

REPOST: How to teach... New Year's resolutions

Emily Drabble discusses in her article for The Guardian some resources that teachers can use to teach their students how to set new goals this New Year.

It might not be the beginning of a new academic year, but January offers everyone a new start and an opportunity to reflect and refocus.

The Guardian Teacher Network has resources to help guide young people to make the most of the season, set new targets for themselves and work on a positive 2013.

Primary school teachers can make a great start by decorating their classrooms with a colourful resolutions banner.

Now to work on what these resolutions might be. The teachers behind My Treaure Trove have created the perfect vehicle with this uplifting New Year PowerPoint to help younger children reflect on their achievements in the past year and look forward to the next. All the slides are very sweetly written in rhyming couplets.
What would children like to improve? What new skills would they like to learn? Where would they like to go? This simple presentation provides a great opportunity for children to focus and feel good about the year ahead.

For extra suggestions on whole-class resolutions, from no shouting out to avoiding bad moods, try pinning up some of these motivational posters to reinforce some essential classroom management. For the staff room, try Keep Calm and Teach On.

This useful wall planner from Think Global gives important dates in the world calendar, providing inspiration for the remainder of the academic year.

Healthy eating and keeping fit is top of most people's resolution list. Looking after Ourselves is a chance for key stage 1 and reception-aged children to think about and discuss the importance of healthy lifestyles and ways in which we take care of our bodies.

A good breakfast is the start of any healthy eating plan. What makes a good breakfast? from the charity Magic Breakfast explores why and how. Pupils can fill in this breakfast diary during the first week back at school. Health for Wealth is a brilliantly detailed plan written by two Scottish teachers that gives schools all the information they need to set up a healthy tuck shop as a social enterprise project. Learn about good and bad fats or make a great salad with Jamie Oliver. Primary school children can investigate healthy eating in healthy and happy, an excellent resource from Wayland.

This new year passport is a nice induction for the new year, or something to save for the new academic school year.

Older pupils can look back on the past year and reflect on what they have taken from it and what has stayed with them in this powerful and imaginative Poetry Class Free Writing resource by poet Dorothea Smartt. The lesson plan and worksheets were commissioned by the Poetry Society to encourage writing from experience with fluency and confidence, followed by editing.

More cooperation sounds like a wonderful New Year's resolution for us all. There are some great ideas on how to improve student engagement and achievement in this resource on cooperative learning, which gives tips on how to best group students and manage cooperative learning sessions for maximum success.

If your students or children have been angered by the year's injustices, then they should enter their articles or photographs in the Amnesty Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year Award. Find an introductory lesson and a human rights article planning sheet.

Located in Happy Hill Farm, North Central Texas Academy provides its students with a balanced and strong academic program. Log onto this website for more information about the academy.