Coming Tuesday is election day in the US, I don’t think anyone failed to notice that.  Both Obama and McCain are mainly focussing on the financial crisis and the war in Iraq. These are also what most voters claim to be the most important issues facing the US at the moment. With the campaigns hardening, it is quite possible to miss out on what the election candidates stand for when it comes to (K-12) education.

I found it hard to find out exactly what the main differences are between the two. But when it comes to K-12 education policies like school choice and funding, there are fundamental differences. McCain is much more supportive of school choice and local control than Obama, and Obama supports a much larger increase in federal education spending.  Obama supports an 18 billion dollar increase in federal education spending, with 10 billion of that increase devoted to an expanded federal effort in early education and preschool.

what do you find more important? More money for early education or freedom of school choice? Or both?

It’s that time of year, autumn is here again: The leaves come falling down and Halloween is also around the corner! This is just a short reminder that our autumn and Halloween pages are filled with fun stuff to do during this time of year. 

So if you want lesson suggestions or just some general activities on the autumn and halloween themes, check out these pages:

The halloween crafts page is loaded with creative ideas to make your own cauldrons, bats, witches and more.

The halloween worksheets page is filled with flashcards, halloween memory games and more worksheets on the halloween theme.

The autumn crafts page features ideas to make leaves, mushrooms, spiders and umbrellas.

The autumn worksheets page is loaded with flashcards, games with leaves, templates and more.

Have fun!

Can playing computer games improve childrens’ math skills? Researchers in Scotland (link) found out that playing Nintendo DS’s Brain Trainer significantly improved the students’ test scores.

Students aged nine and ten completed math tests before the nine week project, and then again afterwards.  All the childrens’ scores were higher, but those using the trainer improved by 50 per cent more than those who did not.

They also noticed when the pupils started the day with a twenty minute problem solving session of the game, that they had and increased attention span during the day.

According to LTS’s (Learning and Teaching Scotland ) national advisor for emerging technologies and learning,  “It shows teachers needn’t be afraid to use technology in the classroom”.

Well I’m not afraid  to use technology in the classroom, but I wouldn’t just let the students play games in school.  As one person commented in an earlier post on this site: “I believe children need to explore and develop fine motor skills and get exercise running around outside. I think a lot of other skills may suffer (Like social skills)”. I completely agree!