Gadfly Bites 11/29/21—Revenge of the nerds

We’re back from the Thanksgiving holiday break, laden with leftovers.

1. Hot on the heels of last Wednesday’s shock revelation that there’s at least one elementary school principal who is fully supportive of the state’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee, here’s a story about kindergartners in another district who are knocking it out of the park using a “newly adopted program” to teach them to read. This new program was needed, said the district supe, because they “weren’t getting the literacy results they wanted” from the old way over the past several years. I’m sure you’ve already guessed by now that this “brand new thing” is traditional phonics, but please read the piece so you can see the breathless descriptions of phonics included within, as if it has never existed before in the history of the world. Hilarious. (News Journal, 11/23/21) This new approach to teaching the distributive property of multiplication, however, seems like a lot of sauce. But then again, lots of adults kids do have trouble with math. (Cleveland.com, 11/24/21)
    
2. You all know that I’ve been pretty blunt about my amusement at the roots of the HOPE Toledo college scholarship program over the years. But the truth is that it was chronically needed support for young people and the organization’s reach seems to have grown and bloomed way above its initial seed capital. Lots of other organizations are donating their cabbage to the cause as well these days. (In this piece, an extension of one we covered last week, we learn that it was the completely straight Kresge Foundation which provided the newest grant to help support Scott High School students into and through college.) HOPE Toledo seems to have become a legit and (dare I say it?) beyond-dope organization. (Toledo Blade, 11/25/21)
   
   

3. Finally today, here’s a look at the continued burgeoning of Esports in high schools in Ashland, Holmes, and Wayne counties. Works for me! (The Daily Record, 11/24/21)

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