Edutopia: The New Utopia?

I recently found this amazing site called Edutopia: What Works in Public Education. It's funded by the George Lucas Educational Fund and it is absolutely bursting with great information and videos to help teachers improve their students' educations by figuring out "what works in education." On the home page alone there are articles on whether or not teaching to the test will decline during Obama's presidency, taking students outside for environmental education, and even the use of youtube in the classroom!

Below is a video I found on Edutopia which shows a program called Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA). It is a student-achievement program that uses music, dance, and visual arts to teach skills used in reading, writing, math, science, and other subjects. The curriculum is based on brain-development research and designed to engage specific skills targeted to each grade level. So far, research has shown that OMA dramatically improves test scores and teacher effectiveness. The program was only launched in 2000, and is already used in more than 40 Tucson, Arizona, public elementary schools.

What do you think about the OMA program? Would you be happy to have it used in your school? Or would you feel awkward singing opera for your students? Do you wish you had been a student in this program? Also, how do you feel about the Edutopia site? Do you think you could use it in the future? Might you think about signing up for the newsletter? Try to look and find me one interesting article (other than the one I have mentioned) that you find useful, eye-opening, invigorating, angering - whatever - just something that catches your attention.