To give or not give homework?

Homework is always something I have struggled to think about and design. This post was interesting and inspired me to re-read Chapter 3 of "The Art and Science of Teaching" Homework post

Ideas for groupwork

While I may not fully agree with this article or school wholeheartedly, it does offer some interesting and valuable ideas for thinking about structuring groupwork.
http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-sacramento-group-dynamics

Turning Failure into Opportunity

This e-mail from a literacy specialist listserve was helpful for me when I thought about how to bounce back from a rough day:

It's not enough to fail. You have to come to feel your failure, to live it through, to turn it over in your hand, like a stone with strange markings.

James Fenton

How do you get beyond failures in your teaching, and yet still make sure you take the time to learn from them? This is one of the greatest challenges we face. A disastrous study group or difficult teaching year can make you want to retreat to the comfort of what has worked in the past. But doing the same thing over and over again is going to lead to failure in the future, too - just of a different variety.

Most educators have a built-in pause button for reflecting on failure - the summer months. Even if you are on a full-year contract or working a second job during off months to make ends meet, the change in the season brings a new perspective. It's easier to think about that gap between what you expected and what happened, without wallowing in it, when you have some distance of time and space.

What's gone wrong this year? What relationships will you have to work to rebuild next fall, or try yet again to establish in the first place? What's the silver lining of learning, so that you can move forward next fall stronger than ever? It's a funny thing - making a conscious decision to set aside some time this summer to think through troublesome moments from the year can actually free you up from spending lots of unconscious mental energy sorting it all out now.

Study Examines Cooperative-Learning Results by Race

This article discusses some interesting findings of how students' performance differed by race when students worked with different versions of cooperative learning. I encourage you to check it out:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/05/05/31group.h28.html?tkn=VMVCi%2B6WT2kMPPGM56xKUq%2FSke6SCaTSdL7k