Most educators will tell you, teens have mobile phones, but they cannot make mobile apps. They access Web sites often, but few know how to use HTML code to design their own. In Baltimore, we can address this dearth of media literacy easily, to ensure the city will have its share of well-qualified workers for […]
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Suspending judgment in favor of possibility
Monday, June 13, 2011When I first met Ruth, she told me, “I was 16 and did a wrong thing and my parents put me out.” I never learned the wrong thing she did, but Ruth was now 27 and had been living in her car with her two children for almost six months. And she expected to be […]
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Investing our resources in summer
Monday, June 06, 2011Editor’s note: Brenda McLaughlin will be at OSI-Baltimore for the first forum in our Learning about Learning series, Expanding Learning Beyond the School Year, on Tuesday, June 7th. Friday, June 17 is the last day of school for students in Baltimore City. Here in the suburbs of Philadelphia, my sons share the same last day. […]
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Audacious Thinking: Summer 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011This issue of Audacious Thinking shows how a good idea can grow. The work of the Baltimore Urban Debate League, a longtime OSI-Baltimore grantee, is featured…
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Hire an Innovation Community Manager for Baltimore
Monday, May 30, 2011Baltimore is experiencing a renaissance of ideas and entrepreneurship driven from the bottom-up; with a little support from the top-down, this renaissance has the potential to transform our economy. I challenge Baltimore’s economic development organizations to invest in this promising trend by sponsoring a new “Innovation Community Manager” staff position charged with supporting the community […]
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Using what works in education
Monday, May 23, 2011Baltimore City Schools have struggled for years to raise student achievement. There have been multiple strategies, any number of new textbooks and instructional approaches, and lots and lots of money invested in attempts to move students toward proficiency, particularly in math and reading. Though recently students have been achieving at higher levels, city students are […]
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Get it TOGETHER
Monday, May 16, 2011At any given moment, countless Baltimore youth are facing harsh realities accompanied by fading dreams. Since coming to this city, I have had many conversations. They have included everyone from the young man being raised by a single mom, now a dad himself to the young lady seeking approval from a “too busy mom” to […]
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Bringing poetry to life to make confident readers
Monday, May 09, 2011Last April, the 7th grade writing workshop I teach at Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School studied an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem. Today, the group struts around the school, reciting lines from the poem: “We were very tired, we were very merry–, We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.” Writers in Baltimore […]
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Supporting foster care youth
Monday, May 02, 2011May is Foster Care month. It is our hope that during this month, as a community we will be thinking of innovative ways to give our foster youth the tools they need to become contributing and successful members of society. The difficult issues that youth transitioning from the foster care system face is something we […]
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Grading elected officials
Monday, April 18, 2011Baltimore lives among the ugly ashes of slavery, Jim Crow, and a so called “nonviolent” civil rights struggle. To meet the demands of the future, Baltimore, in its entirety, must be brought together as a whole, healed, and thrust forward. Murder and mayhem nor the fear of either can continue to rule the day. Baltimore […]
